 This is Think Tech Hawaii, Community Matters here. We're navigating the journey. Navigating the journey is dedicated to exploring the options and choices in life. Today, we will journey, explore, and discover an area that I think is one of O'ahu's most exciting and mysterious neighborhoods, first established in 1840 through 1850, somewhere like that, by the native Hawaiians, and as Honolulu grew, so did this area. Chinatown is the oldest and most authentic Chinatown in the United States. The Chinatown Special Historic District is adjacent to downtown's Honolulu Business District, which is rich in history and culture and all kind of wonderful things. And if I sound like a travel agent, I'm not. Since 1973, it has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The city and county of Honolulu created a special design district in 1991 with express desire to keep the character and sense of place. The jumbled streets come alive every morning and bustling and bustling with residents and visitors from all over the world. It's a concophony of sound, high-pitched vendors in markets and lyrical dialects and old men talking story over games of mahjong and brilliant reds and blues and greens from all the buildings. And of course, I'm the only person in Chinatown that speaks English that early in the morning. It's like all the mamasans are out buying vegetables, and the streets are just full and dawn. All of the best chefs in Honolulu are buying fish right off the boat. It is just wonderful. But most people, their memories of Chinatown are drawn from the war years. It was about rockles and bars. It was a crossroads of Honolulu. King Street, which we're on, is the longest street and main thoroughfare in Honolulu. And people came from all districts, all over the island, to Chinatown to buy, to shop, to own it. And right across the river is what was known as J-Town, which was Japantown. So this side of the river was Chinatown. On that side was J-Town, and it lost its identity. No one but you and me knows that there was such a thing as J-Town. Hotel Street ran from the river all the way through to the gardens of Yolani Palace. And there were fish markets and dry good stores and barbershops and tattoo parlors and pinball. On every street corner, there was a photographer with a box camera and a cardboard palm tree and a girl pretending to be only a girl. And these were the years of the sailors when they combed the streets of Honolulu. This is really during the war for little towns in Iowa. This was all so new. It was so wonderful to them before they went into battle. So I guess we call this the crossroads. And anyway, that's enough about me in Chinatown. I want to introduce you to my dear friend, Stanford Ewen, who showed me so much of Chinatown, so much of what I've learned and come to love about Chinatown. Stanford is a leader in Chinatown. I'm going to read this to get it right. The Chinese Community and Cultural and Arts District, a downtown neighborhood board. He was the past president of Mon Lung School, one of the nation's largest and oldest Chinese language school. He is also on the Board of Regents for the University of Hawaii, as you can see with his serve. So good morning, Stanford. Good morning. So how are you? Talk to me. Marsha is so good to see you again and to talk about our favorite subject Chinatown. You know, there's a lot going on and it's people like you who continue to keep it in the limelight such that, you know, the people in the state know what's going on. So thank you. Well, upset about those ugly, ugly, what do you call those bulb outs? Bulb outs, yeah. Oh, the bulb out for anybody that doesn't know or I didn't know until I started. An awful name, isn't it? The bulb out extends the sidewalk and the idea is for pedestrians however, in streets that go back to 1800s, the narrow streets of Chinatown. Oh, there's the bulb out. Yeah. Yeah. Those streets are so narrow that emergency vehicles can't make the turn. The garbage trucks can't get delivery trucks. So now we have merchants who are going out of business. Now, this was done by the city, by the Department of Transportation and the city has, they're the ones that created the special design district. So they have violated their own rule. Now what do we do? I totally agree with you and, but let me say this, the city, whether they knowingly or not knowingly are strangling the businesses, the small business in Chinatown, they're fighting for their lives, their livelihoods. And I think what the city has done was to create more barriers and restrictions on how they do go about doing their operation. Now, I sat on the neighborhood board for 16 years and the bulb out, wasn't too much of a problem as the way it was presented to the board. It showed the expansion of the sidewalk, but it showed also trucks and delivery vans being able to park there to offload and do their thing. When the city installed or completed the bulb out, it's a lot different than what was presented. A good example is the barrier, those vertical barriers that you've seen. That's a disgrace. It's defacing Chinatown. Marcia, you brought up the point about Chinatown being a historical district. To me, it looks more like a restricted area with those barriers. Again, that's stopping the trucks and people from doing their work, delivering items to the stores. Now, when they presented that to the neighborhood board and the community, there were no barriers included. When they installed it, the barrier showed up and this is where the public all cried as you witnessed. And then that's when the city came back and they said, well, it's only temporary for 90 days. Hello, they did it to present that to us in the beginning. And we approved it. The board approved it, but it was false advertising. So I would have the city to remove it quickly because there's petitions going on, almost 3,000 names to remove it for the sake of the merchants, the small business in the community. Well, I've talked to two laystand people who've been there for years, 20 years or more. And they're saying they can hardly make the rent because, first of all, the delivery trucks can't pull up. And the people that used to pull to the sidewalk, run in and get the lay run out three minutes and they're gone. Now they can't pull up next to the laystands. There's just people, well, with Think Tech, we spent last Friday in Chinatown videotaping all of this. And we talked to people whose businesses are hurting, restaurants who say they're canceled large parties because of this. There's nowhere to park, nowhere to drive up. Delivery trucks can't. Yeah. And I totally agree with you. But I think the city needs to do a better job in being more compassionate, being more sensitive to the needs of the small business people. They're fighting for their lives right now. And yet the city is viewed as someone who's not being sensitive enough. They're not putting themselves in that position. They're sitting in a nice, comfortable office saying, well, let's do this and let's do that. Without knowing the unintended consequences, I think they need to go out there and see what's going on. And I don't think we're having that. Well, yeah. And none of them have ever made a payroll. They get paid every two weeks whether they work or not. That's right. And they have retirement. They've never made a payroll and these small businesses are hurting. If I had to label this, what's going on? I would call it the strangulation of Chinatown by the city. I like that. The strangulation of Chinatown by the city. Yeah. That's incredible. But that's what's going on. That's true. And again, I asked the city leaders to come down, take a look, talk to the business people instead of just talking to people who are unaware of the historic preservation laws and other things going on. They're not aware of the situation and decisions are being made. Do you think they care? Well, if you go by experience, no. No. Now, I remember Frank Fawcett and Jeremy Harris loved, well, Fawcett came grudgingly, of course, but Jeremy loved creating Chinatown, loved what it could be. He had this grand vision of what it could be. And even Mufi, they totally supported Chinatown and their efforts. And under Mufi, if you'll remember, we had the mayor's clean team. They were normal maintenance people, but they were called the mayor's clean team. So there was a pride in keeping Chinatown clean, and because that's who they were. And then somebody comes along, new mayors, and the budget, and that's the first thing they cut is Chinatown. Yeah. It's a fallback. It's an excuse. The city has, again, I said on the neighborhood board for 16 years. So it's always the budget. It's always different reasons like safety for the pedestrians and all of that. But they apply this kind of statements to Chinatown, but not to other areas in Honolulu. And a good example is Waikiki. So I think if you ask me, Marcia, Honolulu has been the dumping ground or a test area for the city. I go to a lot of cities. I travel a lot. Many, in fact, all of the large cities, they use Chinatown as a secondary economic engine. You know, we talk about Waikiki being an economic engine. That's fine. But Chinatown is really another economic engine, too. But we're using it for the city, using that as a testing ground for whatever comes to their mind. Well, yes. They don't see, I guess they don't, don't, well, you're right. They don't come down. They don't walk. When you go through the markets and you see all those vendors and Pekaliki Mall, for instance, in that market, there was so many wonderful fruits and vegetables and fish from all of Asia and the Pacific, things that you never see anywhere else. It was incredible to see these different fruits and vegetables and the different languages. It's a microcosm in itself and it is an economic engine and they don't see it. That's true. And we tried bringing that up many years ago, ten, you know, five years ago, like having it being tied into maybe the tourist business, you know, have maybe better advertising or things like that. But no, it just fell on deaf ears. But, you know, Chinatown, like what you said, it offers diversity in culture and this is what the tourists want. That's why you're traveling. You want to see diversity, but we don't recognize that. Yeah. And then they took out all the restrooms, all of the benches. So even if the tourists come down there, there's no place to sit. There's, you know, the wonderful restaurants, but there's, you know, no bathrooms. Yeah. So listen, we have to take a break. We'll be back in a minute. And then I want you to tell us about the childhood in Chinatown. Okay, Marcia. Thank you. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. You're watching Think Tech Hawaii, which streams live on ThinkTechHawaii.com, uploads to YouTube, and broadcasts on cable OC16 and O'Lello 54. Great content for Hawaii from Think Tech. Some say scuba divers are the poor man's astronaut. At DiveHeart, we believe that to be true. We say forget the moon. DiveHeart can help children, adults, and veterans of all abilities escape gravity right here on Earth. Search DiveHeart.org and imagine the possibilities in your life. We're back. And I'm talking to Stanford Ewan, Mr. Chinatown. Stanford has been a part of Chinatown all of his life. So tell us about Chinatown as a child. What was it like growing up in Chinatown? That's true, Marcia. My dad, well, both of my parents were immigrants from Chinatown. And Chinatown, as you know, is a gathering place for immigrants, especially those of Chinese ancestry. My dad had several stores over the years. One of them was a restaurant just before World War II, and it was on Kukui Street. I was born just after that, then he became where he began to, he started the noodle business. In other words, he made a noodle factory. He made noodles that we sold to the restaurants and one-ton peas. You know, one-ton peas is where the raptors for the pork, the meat, and you wrap it around the meat. Those are the one-ton peas. So we did that. And we were the largest noodle factory in the state or in the territory at that time. So as a child, I delivered noodles to all of these restaurants. So they remembered me in many of these old timers. And that's where I learned to speak the language. Chinese language is the first language in my home, my house, because my parents couldn't speak English. So I grew up speaking Chinese first. And then as I grew up in Chinatown, more so, you know, it kind of made me very able to communicate with the merchants. But let's backtrack a little. My father had, at that time, he was a cook for Wolf Fat during the 1920s and 30s. And my mother was her father, her family business was in Oahu Market as it is today, the same thing. So my father used to go down there to check her out and to impress her. My mother used to tell me he was trying to show off his watch. You know, he had those chain watches. And he was swinging around and trying to impress her. But they got married during the 1930s. And I was born. And then they had several restaurants, and then eventually to the noodle factory. The longest, we had about four different locations. But the longest location of the noodle factory was behind Wolf Fat. If you look at the alleys there, that's where the shop was. I think we have a picture. Do we have a picture of Wolf Fat? I think we do. But anyhow, the alleyways, so I grew up in those at that time during my childhood days in the fifth grade or first grade. So if you look closely, but today it's gated. My signature was etched in the concrete. I did all the things that little boys did, etching my name in the concrete. They're still there. The other fond memories I had was we had a lot of burlesque shows there, you know. Oh, I remember, but yes. Yeah, Baratana Follies and other shows at the Crystal Hotel. As a child, I remember about eight years old, the dancing girls used to ask me to run errands for them. So I had access to the dancing girl's dressing room. And so at that time it was I could buy cigarettes. And so I used to, I was the errand boy for cigarettes, gums and other things. So I knew many of the dancing girls. So it was an enjoyable time, but no samples. Yeah, I was just a boy. And you know, we had no interest in other things except to fulfill my mission and getting them their cigarettes and gum or whatever. And then we moved to several locations within Chinatown. This is the noodle factory. And then eventually we ended up next to Trang Heng-sut on the Pawahi Street. So that was my father's last stop. And that was about 1966, when he sold the business. And then we all grew up and did our thing. So now, as when you were a child, Chinatown was much larger. Yeah. Yes. So in the sixties, when they started this urban renewal and the fight to keep Chinatown, so it has come down to the size today. Now, what, so the school that you were at Mon Mon School? Yeah. So that was in what is now just outside of the boundaries of Chinatown? Yeah. Technically, the boundaries of Chinatown is Baratanya Street. And Mon Mon School is right at the corner of Baratanya and Monarchy. That's where Honolulu Tower is. And Honolulu Park Place. Coincidentally, I live there now. So Honolulu Tower. So it's coming back to my roots. Mon Mon School was where I spent a lot of my childhood days and time there because those days, you know, there wasn't, there weren't that many activities like what they have today. So after school, I would go down and help my dad for a couple of hours and go to language school, Mon Mon School and played with the kids. And that was my routine. Mon Mon School has moved since then it moved across the street to Kukui and Monarchy Street. It's still there. In fact, it's the nation's largest and oldest Chinese language school. Now, when you say Chinese language, but there's lots of Chinese languages, so what are we talking? Good question. At that time, because most of our early generation immigrants were from Southern China, just Canton or Guangzhou. So we, it was mostly Cantonese. We learned Cantonese. I speak Cantonese today, but since then the wave of immigrants are from other parts of China. So that's Ni Hao. Yeah, Ni Hao with Cantonese. Yeah. And then so Mandarin became the predominant language. And in fact, it is a predominant language in China. So during the 1980s, the school made a decision to switch over to Mandarin to teach Mandarin. But we still have a program for Cantonese. So I would think it would be good to have them both. Yes, yes, we do. And we have, we have over 300 students during the weekdays, you know, per day. And during the weekend, we have adult classes too, maybe another 100 or so. So but it's on the website if anybody interested in that. So tell me about the medical, the, the herbists and the acupuncture and all of those Chinese health facilities that are in Chinatown. Yeah, the, I've always been a firm believer in the Chinese herbs and also their liniment and camphor and ointments, tiger bomb, I think we all heard about that. They are a field. And the good thing about Honolulu herb shop is that their immigrants, they've been trained in China. So as they come down, as they come to Hawaii, you know, they brought over their skills and their crabs. So, so, and it's a very popular stop for the tourists also to see the different types of herbs, especially the insects. You know, and the 800 year old legs. Yeah. Okay. Now one more thing. The different parts of China and different, I don't know if you call them ethnic, different, what's it called? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of Chinese. And so I understand that there is a large group from one family that's coming here for a reunion next year. Oh, yeah. Go ahead. I am concerned about the way, will they get those streets fixed before you have this influx of hundreds of people coming from this family for this family reunion? Yeah. Honolulu Chinatown is the, is a place where there's a lot of family reunion, not just families, but organizations, national organizations, example would be like the Chinese from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. That's a large organization worldwide. And a few years ago, they held their conference in Honolulu. So that's one example. And there's other examples too of different types of international organizations holding their conferences in Honolulu Chinatown. So it's very common to have that in addition to many of the distinguished visitors from China. And these are on the foreign, on the ministry level. In other words, the ministry level would be equivalent to our cabinet level, you know, the United States president and you got his cabinet. So we have a lot of ministers from China visiting Honolulu. And they would come down and visit Mon Lung School, for example. So we would take them around. And well, just last week, we had the mayor from Guangzhou, you know, he was visiting Chinatown, and we were hoping the mayor, Mayor Cardwell would remove those barriers, but it's not. That hasn't been done. Oh, did the mayor meet him? Did Cardwell meet him? No, he did not meet any of us. He's too busy with other issues. With the real? Yeah. Dear, dear, dear, we are just about out of time, but this has been a real pleasure stand for just being with you. This has been a real joy. And we have to do, you will come back again. Of course, Marshal. I mean, you know, you and I, we go way back. And you know, we talk, we've done many research photos and pictures of Chinatown and all of that. So, yeah, yeah, let's do it again. Let's do it again. Great. Thank you so much. And Aloha, we'll see you next week. Thank you. Bye.