Manhattan’s Chinatown has a succession planning problem
Manhattan’s Chinatown has a succession planning problem
Grand Tea & Imports is a tiny hallway of a shop in Manhattan’s Chinatown. But its shelves hold a lot. There are Buddhist statues, paper lanterns and, of course, tea, all imported from China.
“The aisles are a little cramped, and the shelves are a little bit chaotic,” said Karen Liu. “A lot of the architecting is from my dad, and he just has kind of perfected the art of Tetris.”
The way items are displayed is a point that Liu and her parents, Chinese immigrants who opened the store in 2007, disagree on. Liu’s parents are in their 60s, while Liu is 30 and her sister is 29. The sisters plan to eventually take over the business.
“Succession planning,” Liu said, taking a long pause. “We’re really figuring it out as we go.”
They’re not the only ones. The number of seniors in this New York neighborhood increased more than 20% between 2010 and 2020, according to the nonprofit Welcome to Chinatown. It means nearly a quarter of Chinatown’s population is now over 65.
“From now into the next five years, we’re going to see a wave of business owners retire,” said Vic Lee, Welcome to Chinatown’s CEO. “We did a series of focus groups and we found that many of the aging business owners don’t have a succession plan.”
Without plans in place, it’s possible that Chinatown will disappear, business by business, as the city’s real estate industry capitalizes on the neighborhood.
“To deny change is silly,” said Lee, who acknowledged that businesses have to think about how they can keep growing as Chinatown transforms. “You may have to perhaps start to think about how do we cater, how do we market, to a different demographic, but not wanting to lose your existing demographic.”
Businesses have been reluctant to use newer technology, for instance. Many operate in cash and some owners are hesitant to implement point-of-sales systems and platforms like DoorDash.
There are other cultural barriers at play. For one, death is often considered a taboo topic.
“You don’t really want to talk about it because it brings bad luck,” said Margaret Chin, a sociology professor at Hunter College who is also a child of working-class Chinese immigrants. “So you don’t talk about planning for death and succession.”
There’s also the ethos of the American dream: Start a business, support your kids and put them through college. Chin said sometimes, in pursuit of those goals, a bit of the culture is lost.
“Historically, being American meant to kinda assimilate into this nebulous thing of what being American is,” said Chin. “Most kids never learned about their history, never learned how important it was to keep their heritage alive.”
Liu, who works in finance, admitted that helping out at the family business wasn’t exactly part of her original plan after college. But lately, she’s been spending more time at Grand Tea & Imports, partly because she’s wants a deeper connection with her culture.
“It became an exploration into what it means to be Chinese and what are the traditions that are important to preserve,” Liu said. “So yeah, I wanted to be closer to this place and to be closer to my parents again.”
She said she still has a lot to learn and that transfer of knowledge happens slowly, sale by sale. That was illustrated when a woman who appeared to not be Chinese came in looking for a wedding gift. Liu walked her over to a display of red envelopes meant to hold money for marriage and engagement. Sensing some hesitation from the customer, she turned to her dad and, in Cantonese, asked what other trinkets symbolize unity or love. The woman eventually walked out without buying anything.
“My dad and my mom are a bridge to Chinese culture and traditions and heritage,” Liu said later. “And my sister and I are the bridge to translating that to the community and to people outside of it.”
Someday, Mr. and Mrs. Liu will have to hand everything over to their daughters. But for now, they all need each other to succeed.
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