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| SPATIAL CHANGES IN CHINESE SUPERMARKETS IN TORONTO CITY, CANADA |
| WANG Peng-fei, SHEN Yu-ming |
| Environment, Resource & Tourism School, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China |
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Abstract In this paper we tried to analyze Chinese supermarkets changes in Toronto City, Canada, and make clear their spatial-temporal structure. The Chinese people have a long history of migrating overseas. Different waves of immigration led to subgroups among overseas Chinese,such as the new and old immigrants in the world. In the 19th century, the age of colonialism was at its height and the great Chinese Diaspora began. Many colonies lacked a large pool of laborers. Many Chinese immigrate to west Canada during the gold rush from 1850's. After Immigration and Refugee Protection Act was redacted in 1967, new comers from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China had tremendously increased. Now more than a million Chinese live in Canada, which occupied 3.2% of the total population of Canada. In the broader Toronto Census Metropolitan Area, there are about 500 thousands Chinese resided in Ontario province, and about 80% were living in Toronto City. Such a huge amount of Chinese residents in Toronto City play a very important role in developing the Chinese supermarkets economy. Chinese Canadian provided the initial funds to start the first supermarket business in Chinatown, Toronto City in 1989. Through field works and analysis,it shows that Chinese supermarkets spread out from China town in downtown of Toronto City to North York and Scarborough which are outside of the inner circle of the city during 1995-2009.There are seven supermarkets in 1995, and extended to ten supermarkets in 2000. Chinese supermarkets in quantity reached a peak, there are thirty-six supermarkets in 2005, and reduced to twenty-four supermarkets in 2009. Spatial changes in Chinese supermarkets reflect the Chinese in Canada covered a wide range of life. At the same time, polices of taxation in Toronto City and Ontario province also brings a great advantage in developing Chinese supermarkets. Because of the Chinese traditional culture that each individual works hard and neglect the advantage of cooperation among team members, Chinese supermarkets are in a status that each worker do their own jobs without cooperation. In such a multicultural society as Toronto City, Chinese's action is not taken seriously by others, thus Chinese supermarkets is restricted for its take one step ahead.
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Received: 31 January 2011
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2011, Vol. 26 
