Pictures
Sketches
History of K-town
In 1980s, a Korean bookstore known as Koryo Books and a restaurant called Kom Tang were founded in Garment District and had a great success, which attracted more Korean-owned business. Korean restaurants, markets, cosmetic stores started to gather in this place with no formal plans, especially the segment between 5th and 6th Avenue. These stores provided lots of opportunities for non-English speaking workers. Thus, more Korean immigrants settled in this place and more tourist were drawn to this place.
Before 1979, Korean Government only has a limit of 1000$ for the immigrants going to US, so Korean immigrant were not able to establish their own business due to the lack of starting money. Korean government increased the limit up to 3000$ in 1979, that clearly explains why there was a boom in Korean-owned business. The Korean town did not become popular among visitors until 1990s. And the popularity of Korean town was among among Asian-Americans who were interesting in Korean cultures. Korean town haven’t been noticed by non-Asians until 2010s due to the increase in demand of their food.
Reference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koreatown,_Manhattan
https://macaulay.cuny.edu/eportfolios/berger2010/a-taste-of-the-world/the-history-of-koreatown/
https://www.amny.com/secrets-of-new-york/secrets-of-koreatown-1.12035249
https://www.amny.com/secrets-of-new-york/secrets-of-koreatown-1.12035249
https://nyulocal.com/midtowns-5-best-unknown-bookstores-b459cbdc3c62
http://www.ntdtv.com/xtr/gb/2009/10/08/a359077.html.-%E3%80%90%E7%A4%BE%E5%8C%BA%E5%95%86%E8%AE%AF-%E3%80%91%E5%90%83%E9%9F%A9%E5%9B%BD%E6%96%99%E7%90%86–%E6%9C%80%E4%BD%B3%E5%9C%A8KOM-TANG.html
Map
The red quadrilateral shows where Korean town locate in. And the green line shows the route we visited.
Rhythm
Just like the other commercial streets, Korean town attracts lots of people, but the streets are not crowded because most people would not like to stay on streets, instead, they gathered in stores. As we get into the stores, especially restaurants and snack stores, the crowd made me feel that I cannot breathe and we cannot even find a seat. From my observation, the crowd are consist of international students from Asia, Asian-Americans, local Americans who are interested in Asian food, and tourists. People there are not walking hurriedly unlike what I usually see at 12th and 13th street. There is a subway station in Korean town so as the passengers get out of the subway, a large number of people will be added into the huge crowd, and then went to different directions.
Smell
I was responsible for taking notes of the smells. As we get out of the subway station, I smelt the scent of Halal Guy’s. As Korean Town is known for its food, the smell of food is very diverse and representative. Fried chicken, Korean style garlic sauce, barbecue, charcoal fire, these smell made up the wonderful parts of Korean town. There are also some unpleasant smells such at trash and smoke. When people walk by me, I can smell their perfume of different fragrance.
Sounds and Voices
Most staffs at the restaurant are Korean immigrants. They speak English with very typical Korean accent. The guards, cleaners, and construction walker at Korean Town speak Spanish. I heard Chinese, English, Korean and some other European languages from the visitors.
There is not a lot of traffic on the street but we can still hear the sound from cars. The restaurants and snack stores plays K-pop music which helps to create a great atmosphere.
