I had noticed that Chinatown was disappearing, the signs not so much.
But apparently there are only 101 signs left.
Perhaps one of the reasons the city has decided to let them go is the language issue.
The signs are written in Cantonese, which made sense when they were first introduced in 1969, because most of the immigrants at that time came from Canton (now Guangzhou).
But new arrivals from China are coming from a variety of regions, as witnessed by the different cuisines now available in NYC – Mandarin, Szechuan, Hunan, etc. So the signs are no longer as helpful as they once were.
Regardless, they will be missed.
The NY Times was thoughtful enough to send a few erstwhile employees out to track down the locations of existing and missing signs and provide a map! It took them 12 hours over two days.
Of course I took the bait and set out with my map to see what I could find. As I hoped it drew me out of the central area that I visit frequently into areas I have never been before.
I still have more to go, so I am holding onto the map for now.
But if you are interested in joining the treasure hunt here’s a link… https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/12/insider/bilingual-signs-chinatown.html?searchResultPosition=1
Previous Chinatown blogs…
https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2021/03/chinatown-3.html
Enjoy!
PJ
© 2022 PJ Lehrer
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