Chinatown's 'grandchildren' celebrate
Ron Louie has successfully designed high-end homes from Santa Monica to San Marino for four decades.
But at least once a week, the architect leaves his Pasadena home and heads to downtown Chinatown to run his family’s aging trinket store, K.G. Louie. His brother Bill, a retired teacher, comes in three days out of the week to work the register.
Brothers Hoover, an accountant, and Raymond, another retired teacher, man the shop once a week selling the usual figurines, bamboo umbrellas and silk slippers to wandering tourists. Making a profit isn’t the point.
They’re lucky to ring $100 in a day. Carrying on the store is an act of respect for the siblings’ father, Gar Fong Louie, and mother, Lee Shee Louie, who were one of the original tenants of Central Plaza, the colorful center of Chinatown.
As “New Chinatown” celebrates its 70th anniversary today, among those celebrating with be the so-called “grandchildren.” The second- and third- generation Chinese-Americans professionals like Louie who no longer live in Chinatown but keep a finger there nonetheless.
“We all have our professions, but we want to keep the tradition alive,” said Louie, 69. “If it wasn’t for our parents’ sacrifice, we wouldn’t be where we are today.”
Organizers will show historic photographs, a swing band will perform and one of Central Plaza’s more recent tenants will unveil newly installed neon lights outlining the roof lines of his three buildings — an ornament that long distinguished Central Plaza until the lights fell into disrepair in the 1980s.
“We want to pay tribute to these original merchants,” said George Yu of the Chinatown Business Improvement District, which helped organize the event. “I think they’d be proud to see what their children have become.”
-- David Pierson
(Photo: Chinatown Business Improvement District)
