“Oh, I didn’t know San Jose has a Chinatown” was my reaction when I heard the teaser for the KQED “Bay Curious” podcast episode on the topic. Well, it doesn’t. At least not today.

As the episode and article detail, San Jose had five (yes, 5!) different Chinatown areas over the years. Sadly four of them burned down, likely victims of racist arson. Anti-immigrant sentiment pops up in waves in the United States and California is no exception. After the gold rush the state enacted laws to make life very difficult for immigrants and those from China in particular.

It is a well written article and podcast, so I will not attempt to cover all the details here. I’ll just end with another surprising fact that I learned: San Jose hosted the first statewide “Anti-Chinese Convention” in 1886. Hmm. So people felt the need to gather from the far reaches and discuss their dislike of Chinese people. How very disturbing and gross.