A Historic Trip Through Chinatown

Chinatown - December 22, 2014

I finally had a chance to visit Chinatown today during a busy holiday season. This infatuation with Chinatown stemmed from a November visit of this year. On that day, Michelle and I were surprised at the amount of action going on that Sunday morning. It was just the farmer's market, but probably the best farmer's market on the island. We had dim sum at the end of our visit to top it all off. Before then, I thought the KCC Farmer's Market was the best on the island. The visit to Chinatown blew my mind and sparked an interest in the area. Flashback to last year, I taught a course in Modern History of Hawaii at Pearl City High School. Part of the content of the course was a section on the beginnings of Chinatown. With some knowledge of the subject, it only made sense to further my knowledge of Chinatown.

I tend to do one of these mini research project during my break. Big problem is that I'm back logged with some of my projects like Ancient Sites of Oahu, and the Oahu Botanical Gardens. However, I am, one of the fortunate people on this planet who get the long school breaks. I really can't complain, all I can do is have fun. 

I called famous Chinatown Historian James Ho, who is the expert Chinatown Oahu. James was the curator of the Chinatown Museum, but he decided to focus on writing books and turned over the operations of the museum to Lloydeen Peters. James gave me Lloydeen's number to set up a tour. I called Lloydeen to set up a tour. Joining the tour was going to be my mom, Jared, Marvin, Janice, and Eric. The tour was set at 1pm, but I wanted to come early and eat manapua. Since Marvin doesn't drive, we picked him up at his house in Manoa at 11pm, drove to Chinatown, and parked at one of the Municipal Parking Structures. My mom said she would pay for everything today, which was great. My mom does that now which is kinda of confusing since she tends to be very frugal with money. 

Janice was going to be late, but that didn't matter cause I was super hungry. We ate the famous hole in the wall Char Hung Sut. It is said that they have the best manapua on the island. If not the best, top 5 for sure. This informal data was gathered by bloggers and yelpers who validated that statement. I was frickin' hungry and we ordered everything on the menu. This place is the real deal hole in the wall, they make the food on a counter near the register. There are huge ass steamers stacked up as you enter the place. The place is busy. We ordered 3 of everything and the total came out to $20. It was a shame that I couldn't remember the names of all the food we bought. We couldn't find any place to sit nearby, so we walked over to River Street and sat there. The sidewalk was laden with piss from the homeless. I think it bothered my mom who has a good nose. But why not keep it real. As we ate, the action on the street was lively to say the least. The manapua from Char Hung Sut is fresh and the meat has no fat in it. My only critique of the manapua is that it needed to have some grease in it, I felt healthy eating it. The half moon and pork hash was awesome and top notch. We also ordered two other items and I don't know the names, but they were good too! For desert, we had layered rice cake and that was bomb too! 

hole in the wall

excellent dim sum

Janice and Eric arrived at 12:15pm, we met them at Maunakea Marketplace, but we were still early. I was full and needed to walk around. We decided to go to the Oahu Market and check it out. I wanted to take pictures of the meat and seafood. We did, but my pictures didn't turn out too good. That area is authentic, its awesome! After killing time, we went back to the Maunakea Marketplace to do our tour. Loydeen greeted us. She had a dozen kids with her. She told us that she was babysitting. I was like hoah shit, but the kids eventually left. I guess she babysits all the vendors kids. 

Let's face it, its called a museum, but it really is a piece of shit. There are pictures, but it doesn't represent too much. The place is run down. I think Lloydeen has to do everything. Aside from what's in front of you, the key is Lloydeen's mind. She is probably the best person to provide information on Chinatown present day, besides James Ho. Lloydeen is a great orator and understands way more about Chinatown than the rest of us could ever research. What also seperates Loydeen is she practically lives in Chinatown. That authenticity cannot be replicated. I purposely asked a specific question to pick her brain on the authenticity of Chinatown. The question I asked was, "Are there any plans to improve Chinatown?"  Her answer was quite interesting. She got somewhat defensive. She said "paraphrase" [Chinatown looks like crap, but the people here are hard workers and they are not poor, they take vacations you know. Living here is their way of life and it should be accepted for what it is]. Thought that statement was gold! After about 45 minutes of the tour, we talked story and left, graciously showing appreciation to Lloydeen and even buying one of James Ho's books.  

Loydeen Peters

Janice wanted a green tea doughnut from Regal, so we went there. She was preoccupied about visiting the old Queen Emma hospital which is a present day parking lot. But it was far away, so we didn't go there. On the way back, Marvin and I had a short discussion. From that discussion, my quest to find information on Chinatown became even more complicated. I asked Marvin, "what is my focus?" He told me to start off with an entry and expand from there. The topics that I could explore on Chinatown are endless and the task is becoming more complex. Do I focus on important landmarks? Do I focus on past/present? Do I do historical events? Do I investigate the dark side of Chinatown? I don't know...