Home Subscriber Only Cover Story Providence’s forgotten Chinatown

Providence’s forgotten Chinatown

By Susan Shalhoub

FAMILY CONNECTION: Charles Chin, left, president of the Rhode Island chapter of the On Leong Chinese Merchants Association in Cranston, Peter Kwong, center, and Edward Moy look at an association flag. Moy’s grandfather was a past president of the association.
 / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
FAMILY CONNECTION: Charles Chin, left, president of the Rhode Island chapter of the On Leong Chinese Merchants Association in Cranston, Peter Kwong, center, and Edward Moy look at an association flag. Moy’s grandfather was a past president of the association.
 / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

What happened to Providence’s once-bustling Chinatown? It’s a forgotten story of prejudice – and perseverance. By the time Charles Chin arrived in Providence at the age of 4 in the mid-1950s, a new Chinatown was developing in the city. Gone were most of the Chinese laundries that in 1900 totaled 109, many located around today’s

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