Despite years of hardwork and dedication, local shop owners in Honolulu’s Chinatown are facing a new threat, the media. Bad news spreads through viewers television screens and written articles causing backlash to small business owners. Chinatown has been present on Oahu since the 19th century bringing homes to many Chinese Americans and the Chinese culture to Honolulu.
Local grocery shop owner Mr. Wong greeted me with a smile and an acknowledgement that he does not speak much English. After venturing almost 6,000 miles from Hongkong to Oahu he now owns his own grocery shop that has been up and running for 30 years. He took on an untapped market “Not much know how to sell so I sell food make money”. Being one of the only grocery stores on the block to sell to restaurants in the area, his business should be thriving however lack of tourism causes a decline in the amount he is selling.
I went on a hunt for an explanation for the lack of tourism in the rural area of Chinatown and found it with Angie Sedeno. Her family has owned their vegetable shop for over thirty years providing for the family and the community.
Throughout recent years the vegetable shop has seen various ups and downs,“ I don’t mind people saying stuff about chinatown but when it comes to like the heartbreaking like what’s going on with chinatown like it needs to be cleaned up… and big title words HOMELESS with a picture underneath it of chinatown…We are a mom and pop everyone here is mom and pop and It kinda ruins our business when you put like homeless and… it kills us, me and my mom we always see it and we are like k da*n its about Chinatown and next thing we are slow for a whole month”. Locals need business to survive and provide and the media is destroying that.
After doing a google search on the News of Chinatown Honolulu, a reader can see the current issue. There are articles after articles with the headings, “Hope for the Honolulu Chinatown revival via building restoration”(Hawaii News Now), “Man, 50 reports daylight knifepoint robbery in Chinatown”, “Disturbing images of Chinatown posted online are aimed at sparking change” (Hawaii News Now), all of these headlines hurt the businesses of the area.
Words including, “Hope for, disturbing images, and robbery” all turn tourists and shoppers away deciding Chinatown is an unsafe, dirty area. The media needs to comprehend its actions and begin to look at the lives of these people, Chinatown is not dirty, homeless or something that needs to be fixed, it is a place of culture and comradery that is reaching for positive attention.
Offbeat Travel 