Editing Spring Valley, Nevada (section)

==Culture==
===Chinatown===
[[File:LVChinatownPaifang.jpg|right|upright=1.3|thumb|Las Vegas Chinatown Plaza [[paifang]]]]
The [[strip mall]]s along [[Spring Mountain Road]] and surrounding streets, from Valley View to Jones Boulevard in Spring Valley into [[Paradise, Nevada|Paradise]],<ref name=LVW-2005/> house many ethnic [[Han Chinese|Chinese]] and other pan-[[Asia]]n businesses, with the original called ''Chinatown Plaza''. The district is primarily a retail destination, rather than a residential enclave, catering to Asian Americans.

The Chinatown Plaza strip mall was conceived by [[Taiwanese American]] James Chih-Cheng Chen and opened in February 1995 at the corner of Spring Mountain and Wynn; it has {{cvt|85000|ft}} of space and was designed by Simon Lee in a style inspired by [[Tang dynasty]] buildings.<ref name=LVW-2005/><ref name=Hwangs/> Chen called it "America's first master-planned Chinatown".<ref name=LVW-2005>{{cite news |url=https://lasvegasweekly.com/news/archive/2005/may/12/a-city-for-everyonewhere-everyones-got-a-city/ |title=A city for everyone — where everyone's got a city |author=Hodge, Damon |date=May 12, 2005 |work=Las Vegas Weekly |access-date=29 October 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/4406348.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211029182108/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/4406348.pdf |archive-date=2021-10-29 |url-status=live |title=Repositioning Chinatown Las Vegas: Theming Authenticity and a Theory of Boring Architecture |author=Shen, James |date=September 2007 |degree=Master of Architecture |institution=Massachusetts Institute of Technology |access-date=29 October 2021}}</ref> The plaza was funded by JHK Investment Group, Inc., which Chen had formed with two high school classmates: Henry Chen-Jen Hwang and K.C. Chen (no relation). James Chen, an emigrant from Taiwan who arrived in Los Angeles in 1971 with $30, saw a demand for Asian food and restaurants: "I see so many Asian tourists here [in Las Vegas], but I see no Asian business people. They're happy with everything in Las Vegas except the food."<ref name=LAT-96/> Sharon Hwang, Henry's daughter, recalled her father was similarly inspired by stories he would hear from tourists returning from Las Vegas to Los Angeles: "... We figured all the Southern California Chinese, they love to come to Vegas, gambling; that was the thing. So they would come average, I would say, once or twice a year at least. But everybody's thing was, there's no Chinese food; there's no good Chinese food in Las Vegas, nothing authentic, just nothing really. It was kind of a joke almost in California."<ref name=Hwangs>{{cite interview |url=https://d.library.unlv.edu/digital/collection/ohi/id/269 |title=An Interview with Sharon and Henry Hwang: An Oral History Conducted by Stefani Evans and Claytee D. White |date=February 21, 2017 |subject1=Sharon Hwang |subject2=Henry Hwang |interviewer1=Stefani Evans |interviewer2=Claytee D. White |publisher=Oral History Research Center at UNLV}}</ref> By 1996, the plaza was visited by approximately 3,000 to 5,000 daily, and Chen was planning to open the Far East Trade Center later that year for manufacturers to exhibit their goods.<ref name=LAT-96>{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-06-24-fi-18165-story.html |title=Chinatown Plaza Antes Up in Game for Vegas Visitors |author=Dearmond, Michelle |date=June 24, 1996 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |url-access=limited |access-date=29 October 2021}}</ref>

[[Clark County, Nevada|Clark County]] designated Chinatown Plaza as the Asian Pacific American Cultural Center on May 7, 1996, the first official recognition of the new district.<ref name=Hwangs/><ref name=tsui/> [[Nevada]] Governor [[Kenny Guinn]] officially designated the {{cvt|3|mi|km|adj=mid|long}} district along Spring Mountain from [[Las Vegas Boulevard]] to Rainbow Boulevard as Chinatown in October 1999<ref>{{cite news |url=http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/epaper/2017-05/26/content_29510609.htm |title=Las Vegas Chinatown: from single building to thriving enclave |author=Hennelly, William |date=May 26, 2017 |work=China Daily |access-date=29 October 2021}}</ref> and it continues to grow as the Asian population in Las Vegas expands rapidly. The Chinatown area has gained much popularity, receiving national attention in a 2004 article by ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]''.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB108310621313395290 |title=For Asians in U.S., Mini-Chinatowns Sprout in Suburbia |author=Newman, Barry |date=April 28, 2004 |newspaper=The Wall Street Journal |access-date=29 October 2021 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> ''Huffington Post'' classifies the Chinatowns in Las Vegas, [[Chinatown, Atlanta|Atlanta-Chamblee]], [[DFW Chinatown, Richardson|Dallas-Richardson]], and [[Chinatown, North Miami Beach|North Miami Beach]] as "modern" styled Chinatown, in contrast with the historic core Chinatowns in [[Chinatown, Manhattan|New York]] and [[Chinatown, San Francisco|San Francisco]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/Menuism/best-chinese-restaurants_b_2194073.html|title=The Best Chinese Probably Isn't In Chinatown | work=Huffington Post | date=December 4, 2012}}</ref> The Las Vegas Chinatown is pan-Asian in nature instead of being completely Chinese according to the previous source. The official website for the Chinatown Plaza indicates that Spring Mountain Road is the general corridor for the neighborhood.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lvchinatown.com/|title=Las Vegas Chinatown}}</ref>

The history of Chinese population in the Las Vegas Valley shows that the Chinese population remained small throughout most of its history. As a result, a Chinatown could only be created with initiative from entrepreneurs that would in essence fabricate a scenario that came naturally in other large cities that have historically important Chinatowns.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ghtw0mFmBk8C&q=las+vegas+chinese+history&pg=PA129|title=Las Vegas: A Pictorial Celebration|isbn=9781402723858|last1=Green|first1=Michael S.|year=2006}}</ref> According to Bonnie Tsui, Las Vegas's Chinese population boomed starting from the 1960s and by the 1990s, the Chinese population grew to 15,000 with the majority working in the casino industry. Even as the population grew, the "Chinatown experiment" could not rely on the local Chinese population to create it, but relied on a label on the plaza itself before people knew it was "Chinatown".<ref name=tsui>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B5qkGWDO2c4C&q=albany+chinatown&pg=PT246|title=American Chinatown: A People's History of Five Neighborhoods|author=Bonnie Tsui|date=11 August 2009|isbn=9781416558361}}</ref> In addition, Senator [[Harry Reid]] "... ordered a sign to be put up for Chinatown [along [[Interstate 15]]]..." but was taken down by the order of the governor of Nevada [[Bob Miller (Nevada governor)|Bob Miller]].<ref name=tsui/>