Christmas Decorations

Cleaners

Chinese New Year Dinning Room

Moon Fest Kitchen

Herbal Shop

Sacramento Street Shoe Shine Shop

Single Room

“I'm astounded by people who want to 'know' the universe when it's hard enough to find your way around Chinatown.”—Woody Allen.

   Chinatown is definitely one of the most unique, complex, and lively communities in the world. Mr. Frank Wong captures these amazing qualities in his meticulously detailed miniatures.  Mr. Wong a very prominent Chinese-American role model. Born and raised in Chinatown, he attended Galileo High School and became a set designer for numerous movies and plays in Hollywood.  One of his most famous jobs was for Magnum PI. Through his career he spent much of his time working in Hawaii. Now retired and back in Chinatown, he lives on Commercial St., which is close to his childhood home on Grant Ave next to the Golden Gate Bakery.  The steel door that leads to his old home still exists, yet it is painted over with a peach- toned color in order to blend in for the bakery.  In the same building is also an old Chinese theater for traveling Cantonese opera singers. Mr. Wong now creates miniatures of familiar rooms and places from his childhood in order to capture those precious memories.

    As Mr. Wong described his seven different miniatures, I was in awe as I saw the one about Christmas. In the little living room was an extremely decorated Christmas tree with tiny little presents, See's candy on the ottoman, and a mahjong set laid out on the table as well as the distinctly Chinese rosewood furniture. He told us how he and his Grandmother had to walk past the tunnel to Woolworth's in order to buy a Christmas tree, which they had to drag all the way back to Chinatown, up the narrow stairs in his apartment building and into the living room by the large window. Not only did they drag it home, Mr. Wong would carefully decorate the whole tree. 

   He also reminisced about how See's candy was the most sought out among the grown-ups, but the children would receive the cheap candy and if they were lucky, a little piece of the precious See's. He playfully told the Teenzine members, “Give a lady See's candy and she'll love you forever.”  His memories immediately made me think of my childhood in the North Beach.  Even though there was no Woolworth's in my childhood, I remember dragging a huge Christmas tree into my apartment and decorating it with my mom and brother.  I also remember the endless boxes of See's candy wrapped in shiny gold foil, which my mother constantly told me to stay away from.  Mr. Wong's miniatures were so unique while at the same time familiar.  These memories are quite like those of many Chinese Americans today except with less tradition and a greater touch of technology and modernization.

     Mr. Wong is one of the nicest and most influential people ever, so willing to share with us his childhood as we laughed along. Through these miniatures, Chinatown and its long lost places can never be forgotten. The little bits of interesting history live on in these little worlds of color.