Chinatown in Honolulu Cheung Chiu Shan

The character of Honolulu Chinatown has changed over the years......

In almost every large city in the United States there is a Chinatown. Without exception Hawaii also has its own Chinatown, located in Honolulu about a hundred miles from where I live.            While other people drive to Chinatown by car, the only way I could get there is by plane. When I ran out of Chinese groceries a few months ago, I made flight reservation for Honolulu, packed a carry-on duffel bag, and got ready for my trip to the big city.            At the bus stop in front of the Honolulu Interisland Terminal I boarded City Bus no. 20 bound for Chinatown and Waikiki. I got off the bus around 9:30 a.m., a good time to visit Chinatown as the streets were bustling with people shopping for fresh fish, vegetables and tropical fruits.

Situated near downtown Honolulu, Chinatown is small compared to other Chinatowns on the mainland. My first stop was at a fish stall where people selected fresh fish by making sure the fish had clear eyes and bright red gills. Each person handling the fish had a disposable glove provided by the fishmonger. I followed suit, putting on the glove to pick a medium-sized moi, a fish raised in Hawaii's ocean waters by aquaculture farms. The fishmonger asked if I would like to have the fish scaled and gutted.  I said, "Yes, please do so."

After buying the fish, I went to a grocery store with no name. Mr. Wong, owner of the grocery store, is a friend I have known for over thirty years. Once I asked Mr. Wong why his store was nameless.   He said his business thrived despite the lack of a store name.  People kept shopping at his store due to the very adequate selection of groceries, so he didn't think a store name was important after all.             Every time I went to Mr. Wong's store, I enjoyed sitting in his seat, which he used occasionally to take a break from work. The seat, placed at the rear of the store, has the advantage of being in a commanding position. Once sitting there, I could see every part of the store, where all grocery items were neatly placed below eye level. What a great way to prevent theft! Thieves could not steal anything as their every move was under scrutiny.

A person with a photographic memory, Mr. Wong could remember the price of every grocery item. Besides the groceries, Mr. Wong also knows the efficacy of the hundreds of Chinese herbs in his store by heart. I was amazed at his extensive knowledge of the herbs and the ready answer he gave his customer about a specific herb. When I asked Mr. Wong how he came to know so much about Chinese herbs, he said he learned out of necessity. I sensed that Mr. Wong was not an ordinary grocer and I was right. A former high school teacher in Hong Kong, Mr. Wong only became a grocer after moving to Hawaii.

The character of Honolulu Chinatown has changed over the years. An influx of immigrants from Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and the Philippines has turned the predominantly Chinese community into one composed of various ethnic groups. In grocery stores and open stalls vendors sold imported goods from China and Southeast Asian countries. A long line of people waiting patiently outside a Vietnamese restaurant for pho, an aromatic noodle soup, showed how Vietnamese food had taken hold in the Chinatown community.             By 3 p.m. stores started to close.  At 4 p.m. Chinatown felt like a deserted place as most stores were closed. At night I would not wander in Chinatown, where the streets and seedy bars are frequented by drug addicts, prostitutes, and homeless people sometimes accost the few people passing by.            The best way for tourists to visit Honolulu's Chinatown is during daytime and in well-frequented areas, where they could taste delicacies in ethnic restaurants and watch women stringing beautiful leis in flower shops that permeate the air with sweet scents.

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