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THERE are no ornate gateways like the ones in San Francisco or Vancouver and the street names are all unquestionably French, but leave it to Mr Felix Wu, and Europe's biggest Chinatown could get a makeover.
A young restaurant manager born in France to Chinese immigrants, Mr Wu is running for mayor of Paris' 13th district, home to Chinatown.
He is the first ethnic Chinese to seek a mayor's seat, mounting an independent campaign for the March 9-16 elections after lamenting that the district did not have a single councillor of Asian descent.
'France really needs to change its view of immigrants,' said the bright-eyed 37-year-old who speaks perfect French and Mandarin.
His campaign office is bedecked with posters of him and his running mates, who include a Malian, a north African and several 'native' French.
Pointing to President Nicolas Sarkozy's move to name three women of Arab and African descent to his government, Mr Wu asked: 'Where are the Asians?'
France's Chinese, Vietnamese, Cambodian and other Asian communities have adopted a form of 'discreet' coexistence with other Parisians, he said, melting into French society as smiling restaurateurs, congenial shopowners and 'hardworking students who excel at school'.
But there are no Asian faces on TV or film screens and none in national politics.
About 20 per cent of residents in the 13th arrondissement are of Asian origin, representing some 30,000 people. Nationwide, there are an estimated half-million people of Asian descent.
'It's really time that we stopped being invisible,' said Mr Wu.
If he is elected, he would like more to be done to spruce up the image of Chinatown, which hosts bland 1970s-style apartment blocks, restaurants, curio shops and an Asian supermarket considered a local landmark.
'We don't have to have pagodas and dragons everywhere,' he said.
'But a visitor should know that he is in Chinatown.'
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
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