🌶️ NEW ORLEANS HAD A CHINATOWN?! LET’S TALK ABOUT IT, BAE 😮‍💨✨

Okay baes, grab your milk tea, sit down, and let me take y’all back—like waaay back. I’m talking 1800s, corsets, steamboats, and yes… Chinese immigrants making their way to New Orleans. That’s right—before we were slurping up crawfish pho in the East, New Orleans had its own Chinatown, and baby, she was a whole vibe. Let’s get into it. 👀

WHERE IT STARTED

Picture this: it's 1867. After the Civil War, Louisiana’s plantations are like, “Help. We need workers.” So guess what they did? They brought in Chinese laborers from California, Cuba, even China herself. But chile... these workers were not about that back-breaking, underpaid plantation life. So what did they do? They packed up and dipped to New Orleans. Period. 💅

They started settling down near Tulane Avenue and South Liberty Street, and slowly but surely, we had a full-blown Chinatown. I’m talking grocery shops, laundries, apothecaries, and even a Chinese mission school where you could learn English and sip some tea. 👏

🍚 CHINATOWN WAS POPPIN’

By the 1900s, this little slice of Asia in the Deep South was busyyy. Walk down Tulane Ave, and you’d smell sizzling stir-fry, hear Cantonese echoing through the alleys, and see families running shops out of their homes. One block alone had SEVEN Chinese businesses, okay?? New Orleans wasn’t just beads and beignets—it had bao buns and bone broth too, hunny.

Even better? Locals were LOVIN’ it. Black, white, rich, poor—everybody was sliding through Chinatown for noodles, curios, and (lowkey) opium. Yes, that part was messy, but it’s historyyyy.

🧧 THEN CAME THE TEA...

Let’s keep it real—racism and restrictive laws did their thing. The Chinese Exclusion Act made it hard for families to grow, and younger generations started moving out. Then in 1937, BAM 💥—the city bulldozed the OG Chinatown to make room for a parking lot. A PARKING LOT?! I’m cryingggg 😩

Some of the shops relocated to Bourbon Street, and we got a second, smaller Chinatown. Cute, but not the same. By the 1970s, even that was gone.

🍲 BUT HER SPIRIT LIVES ON

Today, you won’t find a big archway or lantern-lined streets like in San Fran or NYC. But the legacy lives on in our food, our people, and our culture. Think of Sheriff Harry Lee. Think of Cynthia Lee Sheng. Think of every Chinese-owned restaurant in NOLA keeping that flavor alive. 🙏

And if you ever pass by 530 Bourbon Street, look up. You might just see a faded sign that whispers, “We were here.”

🎤 FINAL THOUGHTS

Chinatown in New Orleans isn’t just a “fun fact”—it’s a reminder that we been here. That immigrants made the gumbo taste even better. And that even when the streets change, the story never dies.

So next time you’re biting into some char siu at 1am or sipping Thai tea with your bestie—raise your cup to the baes who came before us. ❤️

Stay hungry, stay curious,