Most people think that chinese or more generally asian people have succeeded globally in many continents because they are great workers etc... maybe and probably true but I won't say that arabs people are not also great workers when you see many arab shops opened at night. So I think it comes from elsewhere, from something that is really unique to this community: it is their "tontine" system in fact it's the french term I don't know the translation in english. What is the tontine system ? The tontine system bypasses the official banking system which is too strict and charges heavy interests whereas the tontine system collects money from people who want to and give it to a person that has a development project there is no interest at all or very low and everything is done for this guy to succeed because when he succeeds it is the success for the community which benefits from subsequent businesses created by the first. Small businesses are targeted mostly and you know what: these small business in Paris Chinatown generates each week as much finance as the shops on Champs Elysees + the whole big stores of Paris ! The Chinatown is also known to have the lowest criminality in Paris. Where there is economic prosperity there is social peace also. Unhappily the community is now being invaded by hong kong drugs trafficants and this can break the system in the future (whereas before it was composed from cambodian and laotian chinese people). They pretend to be cambodians or laotians for example but don't speak a word of cambodian or laotian in fact. The true cambodians and laotians are very angry of that. These hong kong guys have also introduced slavery workers traffic.
Harry, I'm sorry but you are absolutely wrong. Basically on all counts. Tontine has nothing to do with financing a project or business venture. Main Entry: ton·tine Pronunciation: 'tän-"tEn, tän-' Function: noun Etymology: French, from Lorenzo Tonti died 1695 Italian banker Date: 1765 : a joint financial arrangement whereby the participants usually contribute equally to a prize that is awarded entirely to the participant who survives all the others Basically this was a very old and accepted form of investment whereby a group of parents would invest an equal sum in the name of their children with a banker or lawyer. These funds would then be invested and reinvested. The lawyer/banker would then award the whole sum to the sole survivor in that group, many, many years later. There is actually, a very funny movie with the same title and story line. Got it? Good. Now run along and make some funny looking charts.
I think its (not tontine, but the basic success rate) more to do with getting a loan from some sort of Chinese consortium and then working the whole (usually large)family as a labor pool for that business, thereby avoiding a huge amount of payroll outlays and Social Security payments, etc.
It's because they work hard... They smuggle themselves to the US or any country and they come in as an illegal alien... They have nothing to lose but to work their ass off, buy the Green Card or Citizenship, and save that money... They have nothing to lose but to go forward... that's how low their life starts out... Try being an illegal alien in Japan or China with a $50,000 loan to get smuggled in the US. It's just like the movie "Scarface"... they do anything to move forward in their life... considering they also don't speak the language... harry... harry... harry....
Sorry for you also because tontine you talk about is the french legal tontine used in fiscal policies (used by french for legally escaping the inheritance fees), I don't talk of course of this tontine but on the chinese tontine which has nothing to do with the official one tontine ! Next time be careful: one term may designate many things even in official dictionary you can have different definitions for many single terms because it depends on the context and I thought the context was obvious enough not to precise but it seems that it is not clear for everybody like you. The chinese culture is different from occidental culture their tontine is different of course. And I have lived in Chinatown for 15 years and my mother has assisted to these tontines and even participated into them so don't say that I don't know what I'm talking about: I rarely talk about something I don't have some experience about ...
Oh yeah of course are you accusing the whole community of working illegally ? Of course there is illegal work as in many communities and what the other communities didn't succeed as well.
Hey you believer of the Cosmic Pyramid of Giza you surely know better than me on that subject since it is said that the pyramid designates the Orion Galaxy as the origin of these supposed cosmic visitors huhu ! Don't try to fight your Astrology belief against my Science belief you should lose...
And when I said that my mother has assisted to events in the community I don't mean the little events she know personnaly for example the wife of Tangs Brothers the most powerful family of Chinatown and know some secrets about how they achieved their success but I won't tell you everything hee hee ! Just realise that at the beginning they just had a little shop and now are the biggest business power in Europe for asian products.
LOL... harry... I didn't know that my previous post was related to Astrology... You seem to know more about Cosmic mumbo-jumbo than I do... I thought pyramids are graves for Egyptian kings... Anyways... you're ability to read between lines are beyond my understanding...