1 definition by Beefy McRib
1. conglomeration of predominantly chinese businesses and culture.
(Other ethnicities have other "districts," for example, Little Tokyo would be comprised of mostly japanese businesses.)
2. A drama thriller made in 1974 directed by Roman Polanski and staring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway about drought-ridden '30s L.A., corruption, weird family relations, and a divorce specializing private detective; spawned the phrase "it's Chinatown" - the phrase is used to refer to a situation that is impossible to deal with due to the fact that it is the result of issues imbedded in a tangled web of too many people's personal problems and/or ambitions, greed, or deviance, and that there is nothing one person on the outside of that web can do to set everything right because the whole situation is too fucked up.
(Other ethnicities have other "districts," for example, Little Tokyo would be comprised of mostly japanese businesses.)
2. A drama thriller made in 1974 directed by Roman Polanski and staring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway about drought-ridden '30s L.A., corruption, weird family relations, and a divorce specializing private detective; spawned the phrase "it's Chinatown" - the phrase is used to refer to a situation that is impossible to deal with due to the fact that it is the result of issues imbedded in a tangled web of too many people's personal problems and/or ambitions, greed, or deviance, and that there is nothing one person on the outside of that web can do to set everything right because the whole situation is too fucked up.
by Beefy McRib May 12, 2007