Everywhere we've ever been, or lived, or known of it's an iron clad guarantee that in Chinatown is where you'll be able to get a meal when everybody else has long gone to bed. The Chinese race have a global reputation for long hours, hard repetitious work, & strong business acumen. Wherever there's an opportunity of potential customers, no matter the time of night, there'll be a restaurant or at least a noodle stand open in Chinatown.
This is why we were shocked to find that here in Argentina, the Chinese do not maintain the same stereotypical business practice as their relatives in far flung locales. Here the asian owner/operator supermarkets actually CLOSE before the general closing time of the local shops!! Chinatown supermarkets & stores close at 8PM; most boutiques close at 9PM; local supermarkets close at 10PM.
The restaurants in Chinatown do stay open after the supermarkets have closed but not after 12 midnight. In a culture here, where the general evening meal happens between 10-11:30pm this seems at complete odds!
By natural conclusion, we figured that (again stereotypically) the Chinese must therefore be OPEN for business well before the locals. Not so.
After much curious discussion, we have found nobody yet who can tell us 'why is it so?' Our (ignorant) conclusion is that the migrant Chinese here must feel that they can finally relax a little & still have a decent life by working the hours they feel are sufficient, rather than what their forebears expected. And that they can afford to cater to their own life rhythm & not the local culture's life rhythm. Interesting :)
We're intrigued by this, so will keep investigating & will let you know.
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