11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
What to see and eat in Melbourne's Chinatown, cultural hub that grew from gold rush roots
Chinatowns are often portrayed as gritty underworlds riddled with prostitution, gambling and drug trafficking. Some of this is rooted in truth, but that unfair depiction is largely the result of rampant xenophobia and cultural ignorance, especially in the West.
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In
a series of articles , the Post explores the historical and social significance of major Chinatowns around the world and the communities that shape them.
In 1997, Hong Kong martial arts legend
Jackie Chan starred in the action comedy Mr Nice Guy as a celebrity chef who unwittingly gets embroiled in a war between criminal gangs.
Directed by Hong Kong's
Sammo Hung Kam-bo , the English-language film was set in Melbourne and is packed with scenes of Chan showing off his typically acrobatic fighting style across the Australian city.
Some scenes were shot near the laneways and distinctive arches of Melbourne's Chinatown that, after more than 160 years of boom and bust, is one of the oldest continuously occupied Chinese settlements in the Western world.
