Phoebe Jou and her family said Staten Island, for them, is the suburbs.

“At least you could smell the fresh air here,” Jou said.

She came to the U.S. from China in 2014 to study and ended up staying. She moved from Brooklyn to Staten Island five years ago.

“It has so many parks here and it’s less crowded here. We moved here, we bought a house, and we started to do investments here so we just like to live on the Island,” Jou said.

She’s not alone. The Asian community on Staten Island has grown significantly this century.

The U.S. Census shows an influx of nearly 34,000 people of Asian descent to the borough from the year 2000 to 2020 — a 137% increase in the Asian population.

It indicates the Asian population growth throughout the five boroughs, increasing by 76% during the same decades.

This can be seen in the new Asian businesses popping up, from medical offices to retail and restaurants along Hylan Boulevard and on New Dorp Lane, a bustling shopping district.

“It’s the new Chinatown,” Angie Cheung, a Staten Island resident, said. 

She opened a Chinese dessert shop in the neighborhood last year.

The Staten Island Economic Development corporation said there’s been a rise in Asian-owned and operated businesses on the New Dorp Lane corridor in the past several years. 

A spokesperson for the Economic Development corporation estimates New Dorp Lane is home to more than two dozen Asian-owned and operated establishments. 

“If you’re talking about good places for Chinese food, I come here,” Cheung said. “First, [they] go do their dim sums. After dim sum, then they come for dessert. Then I got Sue’s Kitchen. Everyone loves hot pot. And once they go hot pot, they come here.”

The city’s chief demographer said this is partly because Asians in the borough have room to grow. In 2020, the group made up 16% of the city’s population but just 12% of Staten Island.

Still, Census data from 2010 to 2020 estimates show the Asian population in the borough increased by 69% — the highest percentage increase of Asians in any borough’s population.

“I live now near New Dorp, which is Cedar Grove, right near the beach. They were all non-Asians there. Once I moved in, I met a lot of Italians, and then after that a lot of them were selling the houses. And now I have. I see more than nine [Asian] families in 20 houses,” Cheung said.

And like Jou, the city’s demographer said many have come from Brooklyn, where there’s already a vast Asian diaspora.

Jou said it’s convenient to embrace parts of her culture without having to cross the bridge.