What Is The Theme Of The Chinatown Idea

In “The Chinatown Idea,” Eric Liu recollects the time when he was a child embarking on a trip to New York City to explore what the city had to offer but, what is very distinctly vivid about his trip was the adventure of going to Chinatown at night. Once he dives into the deeps of Chinatown, he sees what this part of the city entails. This place leaves quite an uneasiness and unfamiliarity feeling that any twelve-year-old would feel when visiting such a foreign place. At the end of his day, he returns to his home wanting nothing more than simply to shower. Lui needed to take a shower because he wanted to cleanse himself from his trip. One reason is the dramatic cultural shock he experienced calling it an “undiluted Chineseness” (81). In contrast

He felt “inadequate” because everything that was being said by the Chinatown residents around him was unintelligible. Obviously, this interaction gave him more of a hard time connecting with his surroundings making him feel like an outsider or outcast that didn’t belong there. Furthermore, he saw more differences that he considered to be uncomforting, from a kiosk with the “Chinese edition of Playboy” to “the teenage ruffians on the corner” which displayed an aura of “menace with their smokes and leather jackets” (81). Particularly, these traits and traditions of Chinese culture made him feel distant from his roots since all he had ever known was living the American lifestyle. Another reason for Lui's choice to shower was he simply wanted to physically remove the essence of Chinatown from him. When he walked those sidewalks “streams of putrid water…trickled down from the alleyways and into the parapet of trash bags piled up on the curb.” (81) Chinatown felt like a place of filth compared to his home which was clean and clear of such