Media Destroying Local Chinatown Businesses
(Left) Unusual thing that I seeked more information about: The entire street was filled with these fruit stands so I went in an talked to Mr. Wong about his. (Right)The brightly painted businesses is what encouraged me to get off of the bus and walk around Chinatown.
Despite admireable years of hard work 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. Historically Chinatown has been present on Oahu since the 19th century bringing culture and homes to many Chinese Americans, hopefully it will continue to carry on in the future.
Mr. Wong 2020
Local grocery shop owner Mr. Wong greeted me with a smile and an acknowledgement that he does not speak much english. He ventured almost 6,000 miles from Hongkong to Oahu to own his own grocery shop and has done so 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, business should be thriving however lack of tourism causes a decline in the amount he is selling.
Unique items that drew me to Chinatown: (on the left) this local jewelry shop showcased vibrant trinkets and sold beautiful hand made jewelry. (middle) A weathered restaurant sign showed character of a building that has been in the community for years. (on the right) local women sat in the back of their flower shop stringing together flowers to make leis which have an important meaning in Hawaiian culture to be given during an arrival or departure.
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.
“We always try to keep up the positive around here…Our focus here is to make everything local and try to give back to the community that is what we are about”
– Angie Sedeno
After doing a simple Google search on 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.
Unique Items that drew me to Chinatown: On the left is a market for Hawaiian beaded necklaces or Kukui. After speaking with the shop owner I learned that they are usually given at graduation or special events and are filled with your own spiritual energy that can be used for protection. On the right a shop sold beautiful Chinese knotting which according to the shop owner are supposed to ward off evil spirits and bring you good luck, they also increase the longevity of your life.
Reflection: This assignment was both a challenge and a blessing for me. I had never interviewed someone in my life so getting up the courage to ask a stranger about their shop or how they feel about Chinatown’s portal in the media was difficult at first. However like in “A Journalism Life” I was overwhelmed with curiosity about the culture that engulfed the people of Chinatown. After getting over my fear of talking to people it was easy to ask questions and listen to their stories of the area. I chose to do my assignment on Chinatown because of what I read in the book, “The Idea Stage”. This book talked about what a story needs to stand out and I think my idea fit right in those guidelines of impacting, timely, interesting, informative and concrete. When writing my short article I tiried to refer back to the rubric presented in “Why should I care” but because this is the first article I’ve written it was still a little difficult. My favorite part of this assignment was taking the pictures, photography is a passion of mine and according to the chapter, “Thinking Multi-platform” they are just as important to the article as the writing. Overall, I really liked this assignment, when looking for five unusual things to take pictures of I found it a little difficult to get information on them but usually just asked the shop keeper and asked what they were. I also wrote a brief article about the story I found as you can see above because I was passionate about the topic.
Offbeat Travel 