Chinatown signs will speak to district's history
By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer
Bilingual street signs are coming to Chinatown that will have both practical and cultural significance.
Photo illustration courtesy Architects Hawaii
Alvin Au, deputy director of the city Department of Facilities Maintenance, told the Mayor's Downtown/Chinatown Task Force last week that a prototype will be installed soon, so Mayor Jeremy Harris and city Managing Director Ben Lee can give final approval before the signs are placed on all street corners in Chinatown, the oldest section of downtown Honolulu.
The new street signs proposed for Chinatown will add the street name in Chinese characters.
If approved, the project should be completed within a few months.
Stanford Yuen, 61, is working with some elders in the area to make sure the translation of the street names is correct.
Yuen, a member of the Downtown Neighborhood Board, said the project is being paid for by the city as part of its regular budget to replace worn street signs.
He was born and raised in Chinatown, the son of Chinese immigrants, and said Honolulu has lagged behind places such as New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles that have put up bilingual street signs and made other efforts to promote their Chinatown neighborhoods as visitor attractions.
The new signs could help boost tourism in the economically depressed area, he said.
"By introducing these kinds of measures, it stimulates business activity and makes it a place more people might want to come meet, shop, eat and visit," Yuen said. "It's good for Honolulu and for the state."
Existing signs in the 15-block district have Chinese characters for "Chinatown," but not the street name. Years ago, the city installed its "dragon" signs in Chinatown using the mythical creature to form the letter "C" in signs that point out municipal parking garages.
Yuen said his parents came to Hawai'i in the early 1900s and had trouble getting around because they couldn't read English.
"My dad couldn't pronounce some of the street names," Yuen said. "For example, the Chinese could not pronounce the "R" sound for River Street, so they came up with the translation Ho Bin Gai. This will be the first time in Chinatown we are going to have Chinese characters on the street signs — that is very significant."
Chinese immigrants came to Hawai'i as early as 1789, but the large-scale arrival of Chinese laborers began in 1852; at its peak, Chinese made up 23 percent of the state's population. The name Chinatown was first used around 1870.
Hawai'i's Chinese population has dwindled to 5 percent, partly because other groups arrived in greater numbers. Most of the roughly 500 Chinese immigrants a year come from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, and many run restaurants and shops that continue to give Chinatown its unique atmosphere.
"It will help those still unable to read English, and will help preserve the history of Chinatown," said Yuen, whose father owned and operated the Sai Wun Yuen Noodle Factory, once the largest noodle factory in the territory.
Yuen, executive assistant to Rear Adm. Barry McCullough, commander of the Navy Region Hawai'i, still lives in Chinatown. He would like to see the return of the bright neon lights above restaurants that were once common in the district.
Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.
