The Great Star Theatre

The Great Star Theatre on Jackson Street is the only remaining Cantonese Opera House in the United States. The theatre was built in 1925 and is currently being renovated. I watched Hong Kong films here years ago and I'd love to visit the place again someday. It's not much to look at on the inside, but it's still a pretty amazing cultural asset and I'm glad it hasn't met the fate of the other theaters of Chinatown. Here's a link to what's going on with the place (as of March, anyway). It was pretty quiet the last time I walked by.

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow (sort of)

Adjacent to the the construction site for the new, and somewhat controversial, Chinatown Campus of San Francisco City College on Washington Street near Kearny is this very well-preserved advertisement. It will probably remain well-preserved because it's about to be covered up for a very long time by a building of the new campus. It will be re-discovered someday when they rip down the building it's painted on or something collapses in the Big One. It's too bad that we can't find some way of preserving these survivors while acknowledging the need for growth in The City. Who knows, maybe City College will have a big glass wall on that side of the building that would allow students to fantasize about smoking a little Bull Durham while soaking in a bath that affords both Hot and Cold running water. Not likely.

Kitsch As Kitsch Can

Back in Chinatown once again. We're approaching Lunar New Year (The Year of the Tiger) on the 14th of February. I visit this place a couple of times a month and I always manage to find some new corner that fascinates. San Francisco's Chinatown is unique in the U.S. both in scale and architecture. Actually, there's nothing like it in China, let alone the rest of the world. A product of post 1906 Earthquake and Fire civic boosterism, the area abounds in some very stylized and "exotic" interpretations of "Chinese" architecture. This could be interpreted as inauthentic if it weren't so remarkably interesting in itself. Seeing as the area is still predominantly Chinese (unlike the "Italian" North Beach a few block away which is mostly populated by non-Italians ), one can perceive all of this as a legitimate expression of Chinese-American culture. Sure, the tourists gawk and saunter along Grant Avenue, but notice, the next time you're there, that many of those tourists are Asian. They're happily snapping photos of something rather extraordinary. 21st century Asia is developing so quickly that's it's wiping out huge portions of its 19th and early 20th century urban landscape. People from all over the world will increasingly seek out this human-scaled, early 20th century reminder of a vanishing world. Could the developers of 1907 Chinatown envision Chinese tourists of the year 2010 traveling thousands of miles to a place that's, ironically, more "Chinese" than the increasingly generic "global" cities they leave behind? I doubt it.

Here's one of my favorite corners. Commercial and Grant. From all angles it's got a great look. There's a photo in the window of the Eastern Bakery of President Clinton enjoying a bun. Lovely.

Phone Booth(s)

I came across this marvellously maintained phone booth the other day (top). Admittedly, it was far out of town (in the Sierra, actually). It's pretty rare to find a booth so well-tended WITH a door AND a phone book! This brought to mind a question I had for the City of San Francisco; what happened to the old phone booths in Chinatown (bottom)?
I've got to get on this with someone (poor person). There were at least three booths near Grant Avenue that featured a pseudo-Chinese motif (as most of Chinatown does). It would be a shame to lose another little piece of the fabric that makes this such a wonderful place. Before we know it, phone booths will have gone the way of spats (or some such thing).

Last Ride Through Chinatown

I had the good fortune of witnessing a traditional San Francisco Chinatown funeral the other day. Led by the Green Street Mortuary Band, the procession made its way down Grant Avenue. A large, flower bedecked portrait of the deceased was followed by the hearse containing the coffin which was trailed by a limousine bearing family members. Paper "spirit money" was thrown from the window of the limo as it rolled along. Another section of the band followed. The musical selection was a variety of Christian hymns and they were performed as a kind of "call and response" with the front section playing a hymn succeeded by another hymn performed by the band in the back. Similar funerals were once a regular part of the Chinatown scene, but like a lot of elaborate traditions, they are less common today. The origin of this style of funeral is believed to be in 19th Century Hong Kong.

Ghosts of Hollywood in Chinatown

Chinatown offers so much of interest for the amateur historian, it's easy to overlook the not-so-obvious history of many locations in this fascinating part of San Francisco. One such place is the Sun Sing Center on Grant Avenue near Jackson. Opened in the 1920s as the Mandarin Theatre, it originally featured performances of Chinese Opera. It later became a movie theatre, where I was lucky enough to be able to see several Hong Kong epics in my youth. After closing, along with several other Chinatown cinemas, it became a rather fascinating shopping mall. It's now a warren of DVD, CD and mobile phone retailers and a great resource if you're a Chinese movie fan. Speaking of films, cineastes may recognize this as the theatre that Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles duck into in the classic "Lady from Shanghai". The interior is still pretty much intact.

So much history if you look around.