Two centuries of Chinese culture in Hawaii

Honolulu's Chinatown has ushered in the Year of the Tiger, but any time in this downtown corner is good for exploring two centuries of Chinese culture in Hawai'i.

While a few intrepid Chinese arrived in Hawai'i on trading ships during the days of King Kamehameha I, the biggest waves of immigration, primarily from Cantonese-speaking Southern China, came from contract laborers on sugar plantations in the second half of the 19th century. Soon Chinese entrepreneurs had also carved out a place for themselves in urban Honolulu, centered on Hotel Street between Nu'uanu Avenue and River Street, and extending mauka to Vineyard Boulevard and makai to the Nimitz Highway.

As in San Francisco, Hawai'i's capital has since seen increased prosperity among the original Chinese community and an influx of new immigrants from Asia. Today, Chinatown stands apart from Honolulu's skyscrapers and well-groomed resort areas as a unique, if often gritty, destination, where the small-town feel of quaint buildings and mom-and-pop shops contrasts with seedy massage parlors and newly hip nightclubs.

The area's growing number of art galleries (clustered around Nu'uanu Avenue), as well as boutiques and clubs, offer late hours, discounts and special events on the first Friday night of the month. On other evenings, the beautifully restored Hawai'i Theatre (opened in 1922) may tempt visitors with concerts, plays or other performances. But in general, it's best to tour the district by day — and leave time for lunch at one of the innumerable Asian-influenced eateries. (For Chinese food recommendations in Honolulu, see the Feb. 17 Hawaii Insider.)

The Hawai'i Heritage Center offers Chinatown walking tours for $5, with reservations. You can also devise your own itinerary with help from the online maps of the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce and city government. Among the highlights for daytime sightseeing:

The Buddhist Kuan Yin Temple has honored its namesake, the Chinese goddess of compassion and mercy, since the 1880s. A statue of Kuan Yin stands on the center altar of the elaborately decorated structure at the entrance to Foster Garden (River Avenue and Vineyard Boulevard).

A temple to Tin Huan ("Heavenly Empress"), born Lum No Miang in the 10th century and eventually recognized as a goddess, can be found in the ornate Lum Sai Ho Tong Building (1315 River St.); it's open to the public for worship. Lum descendants (whose surname is also spelled Lim, Lam or Lin, from the word for "forest") began working in the islands' sugarcane fields in the 1850s, and later opened this clubhouse for family members.

The name of the landmark Wo Fat Building (115 N. Hotel St.) means "peace and prosperity," the latter of which must have appealed to the proprietor of Honolulu's first Chinese restaurant, which opened on the site in 1882. Alas, the building's early years were not that peaceful: It burned down in the Chinatown-wide fires of 1886 and 1900. The current temple-roofed edifice with an octagonal corner tower dates to 1938.

Food stalls — selling baked goods such as manapua, fresh and dried seafood, char siu (barbecued pork), tea, exotic produce and almost any Chinese culinary delicacy you can think of — have certainly brought prosperity to venerable institutions such as Maunakea Marketplace (1120 Maunakea St., at N. Hotel), renowned for its interior food court and mahjong players, and O'ahu Marketplace (King and Kekaulike streets), founded in 1904. Other shops in the area sell Chinese-themed trinkets and souvenirs and traditional natural remedies from dried herbs and animal parts.