




{"id":2178,"date":"2008-04-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-21T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dominicana-online.org\/?p=2178"},"modified":"2008-05-06T03:11:32","modified_gmt":"2008-05-05T23:11:32","slug":"noti778","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/noti778\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinatown in Santo Domingo: An Example of Cultural and Racial Coexistence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><BR><br \/>\n<TABLE class=texto width=\"90%\" border=0><br \/>\n<TBODY><br \/>\n<TR><br \/>\n<TD vAlign=top width=70><IMG class=thinborderfloat1 border=0 alt=\"Air Dominicana\u2019s First Flight Takes Off May 2\" src=\"\/Portal\/noticias\/barrio_chino_65_new.jpg\" width=65><\/TD><br \/>\n<TD vAlign=top width=7><BR><\/TD><br \/>\n<TD class=texto vAlign=top><br \/>\n<P><STRONG>Chinatown in Santo Domingo: An Example of Cultural and Racial Coexistence<\/STRONG><\/P><br \/>\n<P><\/P><br \/>\n<P class=quote style=\"BORDER-TOP: #ffd9d9 1px solid; BORDER-RIGHT: #ffd9d9 1px solid; WIDTH: 20%; BORDER-BOTTOM: #ffd9d9 1px solid; FLOAT: right; PADDING-BOTTOM: 8px; PADDING-TOP: 8px; PADDING-LEFT: 8px; MARGIN: 20px; BORDER-LEFT: #ffd9d9 1px solid; PADDING-RIGHT: 8px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffe8dd\"><IMG border=0 alt=\"Air Dominicana\u2019s First Flight Takes Off May 2\" src=\"\/Portal\/noticias\/Rosa_Chino_150.jpg\" width=150><BR><SPAN class=textoSmall>Rosa Ng B\u00e1ez, director of Fundaci\u00f3n Flor para Todos<\/SPAN><\/P><SPAN style=\"FONT-SIZE: 35px; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia,; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; COLOR: chocolate; LETTER-SPACING: -6px; LINE-HEIGHT: 80%\">I<\/SPAN>t is a little piece of Asia in the Caribbean. It is a space where a 5,000-thousand-year-old culture mixes comfortably with the customs and practices of native Dominicans. Porticos, engravings, sculptures, fountains, gardens and Asian shops and businesses adorn an area that not long ago was known as a rough and decadent neighborhood. Today, last week in fact, the neighborhood is an example of development, tolerance and peaceful coexistence between different races and cultures. Situated in the area around Villa Francisca to the north of the Colonial Zone, Santo Domingo\u2019s Chinatown is the third largest in the Caribbean and the eighth largest in the world.<br \/>\n<P>Santo Domingo\u2019s Chinatown is an enormous project promoted by the Flower for Everyone Foundation. The ambitious plan was put into action thanks to the cooperation of various public and private institutions and organizations. An idea that was formed more than ten years ago began to take form in 2005. Now it has become a new tourism attraction and a focus for many investors, explains Rosa Ng B\u00e1ez, Executive Director for the Flower for Everyone Foundation and the motor behind the Chinatown initiative. Ms. Ng B\u00e1ez is a third generation member of the Chinese community in the Dominican Republican.<br \/>\n<P>Rosa NG talked about the huge effort it took to clean up the area that is now Chinatown. She said many of the abandoned houses were run down and being used as refuge for poor people then later were taken over by drug dealers, prostitutes and criminals. <\/P><br \/>\n<P class=quote style=\"BORDER-TOP: #ffd9d9 1px solid; BORDER-RIGHT: #ffd9d9 1px solid; WIDTH: 20%; BORDER-BOTTOM: #ffd9d9 1px solid; FLOAT: right; PADDING-BOTTOM: 8px; PADDING-TOP: 8px; PADDING-LEFT: 8px; MARGIN: 20px; BORDER-LEFT: #ffd9d9 1px solid; PADDING-RIGHT: 8px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffe8dd\">The Chinatown project includes several important plazas such as the Chinese Zodiac and Confucius Square which are surrounded by six traffic islands with plants and shrubbery characteristic of China&#8230; <\/P>At the moment there are nearly 50 businesses being run by Chinese people that include jewelry stores, supermarkets, travel agencies, meeting places and the Chinese Masonic Center. Following the inauguration of Chinatown, the number of businesses is sure to grow.<br \/>\n<P>The Chinatown project includes several important plazas such as the Chinese Zodiac and Confucius Square which are surrounded by six traffic islands with plants and shrubbery characteristic of China. In Confucius Square there stands a monument in honor of the Chinese philosopher. The monument includes a sculpture built atop a stone base ornamented with dragons and peacocks; information in Spanish and Chinese is etched onto the base of the sculpture. In Chinese Zodiac Plaza a three-meter-tall sculpture of the Goddess of Mercy has been erected along with 12 other Zodiac statues represented by human figures with animal heads.<br \/>\n<P>\u201cThe history of Chinese immigration is depicted on finely engraved sculptures in marble. They describe the colloquial situations that decorate the Southern Gate (Port\u00f3n del Sur) where the symbolic figure of the Chinese Immigrant steps onto Chinese Duarte Avenue with other bronze statues that represent ancient Chinese social classes, gods and theater personalities,\u201d explained the Flower for Everyone Foundation director.<br \/>\n<P>The development and creation of Chinatown brought together a collection of talented, Chinese and Dominican, architects, landscape artists, designers and sculptors. All of the sculpture was made in China with the most valuable carved from Carrara marble. Other statues and sculptures were made from a base of bronze and steel alloy.<br \/>\n<P><\/P><br \/>\n<P class=quote style=\"BORDER-TOP: #ffd9d9 1px solid; BORDER-RIGHT: #ffd9d9 1px solid; WIDTH: 20%; BORDER-BOTTOM: #ffd9d9 1px solid; FLOAT: right; PADDING-BOTTOM: 8px; PADDING-TOP: 8px; PADDING-LEFT: 8px; MARGIN: 20px; BORDER-LEFT: #ffd9d9 1px solid; PADDING-RIGHT: 8px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffe8dd\">\u201cThe history of Chinese immigration is depicted on finely engraved sculptures in marble. They describe the colloquial situations that decorate the Southern Gate (Port\u00f3n del Sur)&#8230;&#8221; <\/P>Now that Chinatown has been inaugurated, the Flower for Everyone Foundation hopes to build an Institute dedicated to Confucius to disseminate his philosophy and teachings. The foundation is also planning to build a Chinese clinic, Asian art museum and a theater.<br \/>\n<P>More information: <A href=\"www.barriochinosantodomingo.org\" target=_blank>www.barriochinosantodomingo.org<\/A><br \/>\n<P><\/P><\/TD><\/TR><br \/>\n<TR><br \/>\n<TD vAlign=top><\/TD><br \/>\n<TD vAlign=top><\/TD><br \/>\n<TD class=texto vAlign=top align=right>Date of Publication: April 22, 2008 <\/TD><\/TR><\/TBODY><\/TABLE><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chinatown in Santo Domingo: An Example of Cultural and Racial Coexistence Rosa Ng B\u00e1ez, director of Fundaci\u00f3n Flor para TodosIt is a little piece of Asia in the Caribbean. It is a space where a 5,000-thousand-year-old culture mixes comfortably with the customs and practices of native Dominicans. Porticos, engravings, sculptures, fountains, gardens and Asian shops &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/noti778\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Chinatown in Santo Domingo: An Example of Cultural and Racial Coexistence&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-noticias"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2178"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2178\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}