The future of Honolulu's revived Chinatown could be key to O'ahu's future and a bid to boost the city's profile as an international metropolis — not just as a haven for tourists.

The new Chinatown has sprouted performance spaces, galleries, artsy shops and chic bars that attract droves of hip young locals and only a smattering of tourists venturing away from the hotels and national chain restaurants of Waikiki.

"It's like the only place where local artists can converge and enjoy being around each other ... I feel at home when I come here — as an artist," said Torry Tukuafu, a filmmaker and founder of a popular monthly film competition, Showdown in Chinatown.

Rich Richardson, creative director of the ARTS at Marks Garage sees arts development in the neighborhood as a chance to stem the "brain drain" of creative young locals to the mainland and to end the perception of Honolulu as a vacuous place with no nightlife.

"Those clubs ... are attracting the people that new industries need. And new industries won't locate here unless there's a place where those people are comfortable," he said.

Waikiki offers resorts; Ala Moana offers top-notch shopping, and now Chinatown will be a center of entertainment and history for Honolulu, said Anthony Chang, a member of the board of directors of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Hawai'i.

Together the neighborhoods stretching from Diamond Head to the city piers make Hawai'i's capital a global capital, he said.

"I think the grand vision is that Honolulu is one of the great cities of the world," he said.

The neighborhood arose in the early 1800s as an enclave for newly arrived Chinese. As waves of new groups came to the islands — Japanese, Filipino and Vietnamese — the ethnic mix changed accordingly.

The diverse racial makeup of the islands gives Honolulu's Chinatown a more central place in the culture of the city than Chinatowns on the Mainland. About 48 percent of Honolulu's population claims Asian decent, and no racial group is in the majority.

Along with the mercantile efforts of local Asian groups, the district has a history of risque entertainment. A faded neon sign advertising the "Live Nude Shows" at World War II era Club Hubba Hubba still hangs over a boarded-up stretch of Hotel Street.

The neighborhood's decline seemed set when locals sought out life in the suburbs, which now stretch far out from the city's core.

"I think that there was a gradual suburbanization of Honolulu by the 1950s and people didn't want to live in those kind of cramped, substandard kind of places anymore either," said Bill Chapman, director of the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation and professor at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa.

A few decades later, however, preservationists saved Chinatown and its historic storefronts. A hall of Asian food stalls, parking garages and a police station were built — all helping to sustain Asian-oriented commerce.

And then in 1996, after a four-year renovation, the generously gilt, circa 1922 Hawai'i Theatre reopened.

"Because of the theater revival, it just brought in a whole idea that this might be a place for the arts," said Alenka Remec, small business advocate for Mayor Mufi Hannemann's office.

Restaurants followed galleries into the neighborhood.

"Any future in Chinatown has to be based upon its culture and heritage. Even for those looking economically to gain from it, if they do not utilize in terms of the culture and heritage ... they'll be like ... a fifth leg of a dog," said Rod Tam, a former state senator and current city councilman for the district.

Chang, who also leads food tours of Chinatown, says the older generation bemoans the loss of traditions and the young generations just want to attract more people.

But with the success of non-Chinese businesses in the eastern blocks of Chinatown has come the return of Chinese businesses, including two restaurants and a cafe.

"When economic forces indicate it's time, the Chinese come back," Chang said.