Grant Avenue Scene

This is a street scene of the instersection Grant Avenue and Broadway Street, the main drag of San Francisco's Chinatown. This was originally to be the first illustration in the book. It's sort of a self portrait of my family and I. The kids crossing the street are my kids. The two elderly persons also crossing the street are my parents. The woman talking to the artist on the left is my wife. She is telling me to quit playing around and go out and get a "real" job. I guess being a wife of a struggling artist is rough. Of course having a real job means security or "iron rice bowl" (tie fan wan), an expression used describe a civil servant in China. That means a employment for life...a steady paycheck, health insurance, paid vacations, a big pension check after I retire, etc. An unbreakable rice bowl.
Do you think I will make a good postal worker or Muni bus driver? Don't know till I try it. What is more important? Work at a job I hate for the benefits? Or doing something I enjoy and pay for the "benefits" out of my pocket? OK..off to 44 Gough I go again...I still got to put my kids through college you know.
Do you know what a "sei gauh ngaht" is? Well...in China, when a person dies without relatives or friends to bury, that person is essentially left out in the open for the dogs to feed on the carcass. Dead dog chew.

Oh...that's me on the left happily sketching...oh and that's me also on the right photographing. I am also a photographer when I'm not being a graphic artist.

This is the intersection of Grant Avenue and Broadway Street in SF Chinatown. Did you know that about 60 years ago, just simply crossing this intersection to the other side as a Chinese American meant stepping out of the boundaries of Chinatown and into the North Beach district? At the time, the area was populated mostly by Italian Americans. My father was knocked on the head from behind when he crossed Broadway Street as a young man. Nowadays the North Beach area is diverse. Chinatown has many non-Chinese American businesses as well. They mine as well paint those lamp posts with red, white and blue instead of the Italian flag colors. The instersection was also a popular meeting place for the 655 Boyz on New Year's Eve in the 60's and 70's where they had their "mung" convention.

Chinatown nowadays does not necessarily mean the area bound by Stockton Street, Bush Street, Broadway Street and Kearny Street. There are many "Chinatowns" in many neighborhoods in San Francisco. Chinatown is where ever we call home.


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