It may seem odd that the Chinese goods market in New York has expanded its storefront in light of China’s market crash this week, but that’s exactly what Pearl River is doing. Last night, the Asian products emporium celebrated its 10,000-square-foot store expansion.

At its relatively new location in SoHo, Pearl River gained an entire third level with 14-foot high ceilings and airy space to display colorful Chinese and Asian treasures. The second-floor expansion is for the store’s home department, particularly for fabrics and large statues. The new level opens to the public today during the auspicious Chinese New Year period.

The store is a bustling memorial to the lesson that trade often trumps politics. When Pearl River Mart was founded in 1971, though, there weren’t a lot of goods to offer. Chinese groceries, books, records, and underwear were the utilitarian items for sale. China itself was still run as a closed society by Mao Zedong, and those with capitalist leanings earned relocations to the countryside.

At the time the store opened, there had not been diplomatic relations between America and China for more than three decades. Nixon had not yet even been to China. “At that time, no one traded with China,” co-founder of Pearl River, Ming Yi Chen, said. “I believe we are the first one in the U.S.” A self-described youthful Maoist at the time, Mr. Chen, who was born in Taiwan, and a group of student activist friends founded the store to promote both Chinese goods and the People’s Republic of China.

“We wanted to bring good things from China, so other people in the world could have access,” president of Pearl River, Ching Yeh Chen, said. “People then used the phrase ‘Red China,'” Ms. Chen, who is married to Mr. Chen, said. “We did sell Mao’s book, speeches, and posters.”

Today in China, it’s hard to find a Little Red Book except in flea markets. Mao’s communist era eventually ended when Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping set off a new revolution with his pronouncement that “to get rich is glorious.”

Pearl River too has come a long way from its Maoist roots to today’s emporium of China chic. “When the first shipment of Chinese goods came from Hong Kong, at that time we took the risk of being seized by the Customs House,” Mr. Chen said. China and America developed more normal relations in 1979. Today, America runs a massive trade deficit with China. Pearl River is a good illustration of the slogan favored by Beijing residents, “capitalism with Chinese characteristics.”

A daily Chinese New Year market, Pearl River is a riot of color and choice complete with red and gold paper firecrackers. In 2003, the store moved a few blocks north from its noisy Chinatown corner on Canal and Broadway to Broadway between Broome and Grand streets in SoHo, where it is flanked by boutiques like Scoop NYC. Items for sale expanded from teapots, cheongsams, paper lanterns, and Chinese medicines to include other products from across Asia such as massive Thai Buddhas, silk lamps, and an extensive selection of Japanese ceramics.

Longtime customers will recall the somewhat grimy setting of Pearl River’s Chinatown location. To access it, customers had to push past hawkers flogging fake Prada handbags to a nearly invisible door on Canal Street. Upstairs, through dingy plastic curtains, were silk mandarin jackets, slippers, shades, and paper lanterns that were so affordable it made sense to purchase many of them.

Today, Pearl River continues to sell prepared shredded squid, MaPo Tofu sauce, sake sets, and purple rose tea. The new store also features a “bamboo village” and “running river” fountain extending the length of the second floor. “In Chinese tradition water is always good — it means money,” Mrs. Chen said.

The majority of Pearl River’s customers are Westerners, so the Chens see their role as cultural ambassadors. And indeed, delegates from the Chinese consul general’s office in New York attended the launch festivities for the expansion. “They appreciate the role we are playing,” Mrs. Chen said.

Viewed through the prism of today’s rush to invest in China, the Chens and their pioneering enterprise have indeed played a revolutionary role in America-China relations — though perhaps not the one Mr. Chen and his comrades set out to play.

The lesson may be that even committed communists who come to New York City don’t stay that way. “The founders had patriotism in their minds, but this is still a business,” Mrs. Chen said. And what about Mao? “China is China. That is a young person’s dream. That fades away as you run the business.”

Ms. Worden, who lives in New York, lived in Hong Kong for six years between 1992 and 1998.