Blogging Social Difference in LA: Week 7

IT'S CHINATOWN BABY!! So I decided not to hold off any longer and finally take the bus somewhere while I had the time, and the 7th week slump was just perfect for that. I have always been very fortunate to have a convenient mode of transport in my life and never realized how much I take having a car for granted, even as a student here at UCLA it really isn't a common thing at all. My job requires it so I always excused it with the fact that I needed it, but even before then I had my car on campus for whenever I wanted it and that really is quite unfortunate and a complete waste because there are so many deserving people that actually need it to make a living and put food on the table. People all over Los Angeles that have no choice but to ride the bus wherever they need to go. I had visited Chinatown once before when I was very young, but it was a distant memory and I was curious to see how it compared to NY and SF. So I jumped on the 2/302 Metro Local Line at Gayley and Strathmore... I thought it would be more complicated given how far it was but it takes you straight to Union Station and Chinatown was a very short walk from there.

I wasn't exactly sure what the etiquette was for taking pictures of strangers on the bus so I kept it to a bare minimum because I'm sure it would be frowned upon by the passengers. As soon as I turned onto Broadway I realized why I had not been back to Chinatown since I was a child... there really is nothing to do or see there, well relative to Chinatown in both NY and SF, which feel rich and vibrant with activity. This area of Los Angeles was pretty bleak and misleading. I guess the people that organized this little enclave felt that a street full of cheap shops and swapmeet style vending all under the dilapidated structures built to resemble Chinese architecture would fool the locals into coming.... well it worked because it obviously got me to go and since it has existed for decades, its been tricking people into thinking this was really a Chinatown comparable to those of other metropolitan areas. Needless to say, I was disappointed. The street signs had Chinese characters and the crosswalks and the sides of buildings were decorated dragons and Oriental scenes to try and give the area a sense of authenticity... but it should try first with good food. I'm not sure if I am being too hard on the area, but it was difficult to win me over when over half its shops were closed, but maybe it was too early.

The street wasn't very full of people but the people I did meet were either Chinese shop owners or high school kids of Hispanic descent messing around going in and out of shops with their backpacks on, possibly ditching class or on lunch, I honestly didn't know. All of the shop owners seem bored and discontent with the business, but I'm assuming it was a slow day and this accounted for this attitude. I walked around for quite sometime looking for someone who was willing to sell me fireworks, but naturally they were weary and kept turning me in different directions until at long last I found what I was looking for, but decided not to purchase any in the end. I just wanted to see if it could be found and my assumptions were right although it proved to be more difficult than expected. This was the task I gave myself. None of the food seemed very appetizing and the ratings for each establishment kept turning me off to the idea of eating anything. Aside from my disappointments, this little excursion gave me an interesting look at a popular site in LA that attracts a lot of people and is pretty central in the downtown area. For me it was an attraction, but for many of the kids running around the street and the local owners this was their home and what they are most familiar with. I'm not exactly sure how I would feel if someone saw my culture as a novelty or even transformed it into a physical landscape to give the unknowing American a glimpse of what China might be like. That is probably the look of disgust on the owner's faces that I had mistaken for boredom. The locals know this is nothing like China and it is foolish to even try to represent an ancient culture with a rich history and an iconic landscape and concentrate it over a few blocks. Just by slapping the label "Chinatown" on it and marketing it like a product would be pretty offensive... but then again I can't say for sure. Maybe these local shopkeepers are content with that idea and find solace in selling their culture piece by piece.. It is a great example of adopting capitalist ideals.