Creating A Chinatown Without Chinese

"All was quiet in South Korea's non-bustling new Chinatown on a recent weekday. The lunch-time trickle was over, leaving the streets as deserted as they had been in the morning. The shiny new arches, the ubiquitous red lanterns, the towering "Welcome to Chinatown" sign, all magnified the neighborhood's inactivity.

Hoping to lure ever-increasing numbers of Chinese tourists and investors, the local government here in Incheon, just outside Seoul, transformed a dilapidated Chinese toehold here into the country's first Chinatown four years ago.

In no time, officials in half a dozen other cities across the country announced plans to build their own Chinatowns, despite a host of obstacles ranging from a lack of capital to, well, a shortage of Chinese residents.

China's rise, as well as the growing wealth of both Chinese and overseas Chinese, has given birth to new Chinatowns in places as varied as Las Vegas, Dubai, Belgrade and Dobroiesti, Romania. But for South Koreans, Chinatown plans are fraught with historical subtexts.

Sitting on the rim of the Middle Kingdom, Koreans warily kept the Chinese out of their peninsula for centuries. If Korean officials traveled to Beijing to pay tribute to China's emperor, they at least took pride in the fact that there was no Chinatown back home."