Chinese Commercial Activities in the
Toronto CMA: New Development
Patterns and Impacts.
Introduction and the Conceptual Framework (1)
• Why ethnic commercial activity occur?
Demand for ethnic commercial activities results from the
propensity of ethnic group members to purchase familiar brands
and cultural products
•Several labour market theories explain the engagement of ethnic
minorities in business activities, such as
blocked mobility
cultural division of labour.
Introduction and the Conceptual Framework (2)
Blocked Mobility Thesis: due to existence of
racial discrimination in the mainstream
society and language barriers, ethnic
minorities often have limited employment
opportunities; the absence of competition
from the dominant group in ethnic retailing
and consumer services channels them into
such entrepreneurship as a means of
economic survival.
(Bonacich and Modell 1980; Waldinger 1986; Li 1992).
Introduction and the Conceptual Framework (3)
cultural division of labour: some cultures value
business enterprises highly, and the transplanted
cultural endowments may include ready-to-use
skills that give them comparative advantages for
engaging in commercial activities (Light 1984; Razin
1988; Barrett et al. 1996; Razin and Langolis 1996).
• cultural resources (motivation, value,
institutional completeness)
• ethnic resources (kinship networks; co-ethnic
workers and consumers;),
Introduction and the Conceptual Framework (4)
Institutional completeness:
• while an ethnic community achieves higher levels of
institutional completeness, the need of its members for
integration is reduced
• the forces of attraction of the mainstream society
weakens.
• As a result, the initial one-way absorption will gradually
become a two-way acculturation, meaning that the
mainstream society will at least have to learn to adapt to,
if not adopt, the unconventional business practices of
ethnic minorities.
One-way absorption (assimilation)
Ethnic group
Mainstream
Society
two-way acculturation
Ethnic group
Mainstream
Society
Introduction and the Conceptual Framework (5
Difficulties of studying ethnic commercial
activity:
– No standard definition
– Lack of data
• Patterns prior to mid 1980s
•Patterns after mid 1980s
– structural changes
– geographical changes
– changes in physical form
– changes in development strategies
– changes in occupancy system
• Impacts of the New Developments
Old Chinatown
East Chinatwon
Central Chinatown
First settlement
Chinese Population
1 Dot = 50
0
5
10
20
Kilometers
Data Source: Statistics Canada, 2001
Figure 4-3: The Distribution of Chinese Population in The Toronto CMA
Structural Changes
•
Restaurants and food stores declined
•
Commercial services increased
•
Now concentrate in seven categories:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
other retailing
restaurant
household furniture/service
medical service
business service
personal service
food store
Table 1 Structural Changes of Chinese Commercial Activity in
Toronto CMA, 1971-1994 (numbers in brackets are percentages)
1971*
1981*
1994**
Change in percentage
1981-1994
Type of business
Auto dealer/service
0 (0.0)
0
(0.0)
172
(4.7)
4.7
Business service
1 (1.4)
4
(1.5)
382 (10.3)
8.8
Clothing/shoes
1 (1.4)
2 (0.8)
Financial service
0 (0.0)
20 (7.5)
21 (30.4)
45 (17.0)
General merchandise
4 (5.8)
31 (11.7)
Hotel/motel
0 (0.0)
0
Household
furniture/service
0 (0.0)
Medical service
1 (1.4)
Food store
Miscellaneous
(0.0)
92
(2.5)
1.7
66 (1.8)
-5.7
343
(9.3)
-7.7
1 (<0.1)
-11.7
(0.2)
0.2
18 (6.8)
434 (11.7)
4.9
7
425 (11.5)
8.9
(2.6)
14 (20.3)
11 (4.2)
Other retailing
5 (7.2)
42 (15.8)
Personal service
2 (2.9)
7
Real estate
Recreation/ entertainment
7
(2.5)
-1.7
620 (16.7)
0.9
(2.6)
362 (9.8)
7.2
2 (2.9)
6 (2.2)
153 (4.1)
1.9
0 (0.0)
2
(0.8)
94
35
(0.9)
Restaurant
18 (26.0)
70 (26.4)
512 (13.8)
Total
69 (100.0)
265 (100.0)
3698 (100.0)
SOURCES: * Wong 1987;
** Chinese Consumer Directory of Toronto-1994
0.1
-12.6
Table 2 Geographical Distribution of Chinese Businesses in the Toronto CMA, 1994
CMA division
Municipality
Count
Percentage
1264
34.2
1264
34.2
1651
44.6
East York
38
1.0
Etobicoke
107
2.9
North York
396
10.7
Scarborough
1076
29.1
34
0.9
783
21.1
Markham
275
7.4
Mississauga
221
6.0
Richmond Hill
141
3.8
Vaughan
72
1.9
Others
74
2.0
3698
100.0
Central city
Toronto
Inner suburb
York
Outer suburb
CMA total
Geographical Changes
• The former City of Toronto still has the most, but there are now
more in the inner suburbs as a whole, and a significant
proportion have been established in the outer suburbs.
• Within the former City of Toronto, the majority concentrate in
the three Chinatowns.
• In the inner suburbs, there are many more in Scarborough and
North York than in the other three municipalities;
• In the outer suburbs, they concentrate in four municipalities
that surround the former Metro Toronto: Markham,
Mississauga, Richmond Hill and Vaughan.
Changes in Physical Form, Development
Strategies, and Occupancy System
• planned shopping centers, instead of retail strips
• Catalytic; instead of consequent and simultaneous
• Shopping center district
• name the new shopping malls after well-known
commercial districts or buildings in Hong Kong
• Condominium ownership
Characteristics of Shopping Centers
(source: Urban Land Institute, 1983)
Center type
Anchor
tenant
Typical GLA
(ft2)
GLA range
(ft2)
Minimum
site area
(acres)
Population
support
required
Supermarket
50,000
30,000100,000
3-10
3,000-40,000
150,000
100,000300,000
10-30
40,000150,000
400,000
300,000900,000
10-60
150,000 or
more
800,000
500,000 - 1.5
million or
more
15-100 or
more
300,000 or
more
neighborhood
community
regional
super regional
Junior dept.
store/large
variety store
One or more
full-line dept.
store(s)
3 or more fullline dept.
stores
Table 4 Geographical Distribution of Existing Chinese Shopping Centres and Chinese People
in the Toronto CMA, 1996 (numbers in brackets are percentages)
No. of shopping
centres
No. of store
units
Square footage
Average size of
shopping centre
(in sq. ft.)
Chinese
people
Central city
2
145 (6.6)
157000 (5.4)
78500
52710 (18.4)
Toronto
2
145 (6.6)
157000 (5.4)
78500
52710 (18.4)
Inner suburb
30
859 (39.4)
1024000 (35.0)
34133
139535 (48.7)
North York
3
75 (3.4)
173000 (5.9)
57667
44470 (15.5)
Scarborough
27
784 (36.0)
851000 (29.1)
31518
80665 (28.2)
Others
0
-
-
-
14400 (5.0)
Outer suburb
20
174 (53.9)
1744000 (59.6)
87200
94215 (32.9)
Markham
4
377 (17.3)
596000 (20.4)
149000
37630 (13.1)
Mississauga
5
279 (12.8)
435000 (14.9)
87000
24095 (8.4)
Richmond Hill
11
518 (23.7)
713000 (24.4)
64818
17990 (6.2)
Others
0
-
-
-
14500 (5.1)
CMA total
52
2178 (100.0)
2925000 (100.0)
56250
286460 (100.0)
Municipality
Impacts of the New Developments
• Challenges to existing planning systems and
legislation
• Social impacts on mainstream society
• Unconventional business practices
transplanted from Hong Kong
The Concept of a 3-Level Hierarchy
Consultants’ Recommendations
(John Winter Associate Ltd. 1994; Hemson Consulting Ltd.1995).
•
provincial condominium legislation be reformed to include regulations on
retailing, and developers be required to provide financial guarantee for
investors;
•
site plan applications be accompanied by floor plans showing the number and
size of stores; additional advice from accredited retail/architectural consultants
be taken into account in the process of site plan review and approval;
•
retail units in condominium malls should not be too small, and GLA-GFA ratio
not too high;
•
inclusion of anchor stores [i.e., department stores] in large condominium malls
be made mandatory, and restaurant spaces not exceed 25 per cent of the total
GLA in condominium malls;
•
parking standards for commercial condominium development be raised, and
the ratio of underground parking in total parking spaces should be restricted.
Two conflicting questions:
 must ethnic minorities adapt to the
business conventions of the mainstream
society?
 should the mainstream society show
flexibility to accommodate innovative
business practices transplanted from other
cultures?
Warden Center
Silver Star Center
Milliken Crossing Plaza