Written by Annie Luong
In 1933, Christine Sterling proposed China City, a tourist-oriented commercial project that would include lines of booths and stalls along narrow winding streets similar to the Olvera Street’s Mexican market. China City was located two blocks north of the Old Plaza, and was bound by Spring Street on the west, Main Street on the east, Macy Street on the south, and Ord Street on the north. It featured shops, restaurants, lotus pools and gardens, temples, and shrines. Rickshaws were available to wheel around visitors throughout the “city” and allow them to view rituals and traditional theatrical performances. Marian Leng recalls, “You could ride on a rickshaw for 25 cents all around the whole establishment, the old China City and the new China City.” 1
The area was nicknamed “Chinese Movie Land” as it was complete with rickshaws and set decorations from the film, The Good Earth. Many of the Chinese Americans living in the area found employment as extras in Hollywood films. About one of every fourteen Chinese men and women worked in the movie studios. Esther Lee Johnson recalls that “they would have a bus pick all of us up, loaded [us] in the bus, and then we worked in the studio. I don’t remember if it was 7.50 or 6 dollars that we got a day.” China City was quite successful as a tourist attraction but in 1939, it was destroyed by fire. The project was soon rebuilt, but in 1949, another disastrous fire destroyed the main section of China City, and it was never reopened.
1 Esther Lee Johnson interview with William Gow, Chinatown Remembered, CHSSC, March 9 2008.
William Gow, “Building a Chinese Village in Los Angeles: Christine Sterling and the Residents of China City,” Gum Saan Journal, Vol 32, No 1. (2010), 39-53.
Ruby Ling Louie in China City
Ruby Ling Louie interview with William Gow
Chinatown Remembered Project
March 28th, 2008 [Excerpt]
William Gow: So, when you were a young, young, young child, you were traveling all over with your parents.
RLL: Exactly, exactly. And now in 1936, late into the ‘7, Cleveland closed, and Mother had already the experience of seeing the wonderful weather and atmosphere in San…in Los…California, and so Father said, “Well, we were going to move to, say, Los Angeles and see what would happen.” How… that… how he chose that is another interesting…it’s a major city, of course. And so then we came to Los Angeles, and he looked about where he could open a store because he had enough supply that he could open up a store. And where the connection is of finding China City is still unknown to me. But he did go there, and he met warm reception. As I said, Jake Su and Dorothy Su at the Flower Hut, they already established there, so this has got to be ’38 because China City opened in ’38. Her store was already set up, and my dad being very clever because he had not enough money with four children to provide, he suggested to the Su’s, “Could we just sort of have a trial? Could I set up a table and put up some of my goods?” Anyway, Dorothy Su had no daughters, and so she was enamored to have another little girl there. And we sold successfully enough, and then he negotiated with the company that was running, and at that time it was an Anglo company, to open up a store up on the Spring Street side of China City, Chekiang Importers I believe. That was the first store that we had opened. Then right next to the Golden Lantern, which was the Luck David and I can’t remember her… Lillian Luck’s store, and it was in the Lotus Pool area. We were successful enough and apparently in the short time, my dad was able to then rent because rents were reasonable there. That’s what allowed these new people to come. And I can’t tell you how much.
William Gow: Would you say that the…that you think there was a, in terms of rental prices, you might not have noticed since you were so young, but do you think there was a difference between the prices that were charged, let’s say, renting in China City, and say, trying to pay a mortgage let’s say, or buying into Chinatown?
RLL: Yes. I think by that time, Chinatown had been set by the established families over there who had moved from Old Chinatown or had enough means and that with…no, that was not beyond… that was beyond their means. That’s what was so interesting about China City. See, it was made up as a temporary effort because suddenly The Good Earth had been a successful film. And again, the result was these two Westerners, you see. Christine Sterling, who had been so successful in doing China… Olvera Street. She really had a vision of doing…she was an entrepreneur, and she had a vision of making it into an Italian community because she had Dario’s, and she had Little Joe’s, and she… and then she could have, of course, she had her Olvera Street was already established. And because of the French influence, she was going to have all this… she was going to have her international…like a theme park. It was really a theme park issue, and one by one she was successful with the help from her influential friends, Harry Chandler with the newspaper. Imagine getting access to the media. I mean, no Chinatown community ever had the amount and consistent publicity that China City had in those days.
William Gow: As a young girl, do you ever remember seeing Ms. Sterling? Was she ever around?
RLL: Oh yes, she would walk occasionally around. But we would be going to Olvera Street and she’d be more over there because…of course, she eventually lived there and died over there.
Ruby Ling Louie in China City
In 1936, we came to Los Angeles, and [my father] looked where he could open a store. Where the connection is of finding China City is still unknown to me, but he [went] there. Jake Su and Dorothy Su at the Flower Hut were already established there, and my dad, being clever because he had not enough money with four children to provide, suggested, “Could I set up a table and put up some of my goods?” We sold successfully enough, and he negotiated to open up a store up on Spring Street, Chekiang Importers.
My older sisters had to watch the stores, but I, the youngest one, was the freest, so I was able to visit the other children. We really had a community of children because most of the families were larger and all related. I could help with the store when they absolutely needed it, but I was out with Choi Lan in her father’s basketry store. We were playing dolls and eating minced ham sandwiches. We were having a fun time.
Multicultural is a term I want to use for the Chinatown that I grew up in as a youngster. They think only the Chinese were here. We actually replaced the Italian group. They hadn’t all left yet. They’re all gone now, but my mother-in-law bought her house from an Italian because we couldn’t buy the houses then.
China City did have, uniquely, a variety of other than Chinese people participating because the renter of China City, Christine Sterling, and her managerial staff wanted some variety. It was a very wonderful community, perhaps because also the staff was so inspiring. They liked the idea that they were helping the children of all immigrants.
China City was made up as a temporary effort because The Good Earth had been a successful film. Christine Sterling was going to have her international theme park. She was successful with the help from her influential friend, Harry Chandler with the newspaper. Imagine getting access to the media. No Chinatown community ever had the amount and consistent publicity that China City had in those days.
Tom Gubbins and Christine Sterling truly were the two Westerners who actually established it. One established it, the other promoted it. They believed that Chinese culture needed to be exposed to the mainstream world, and that’s the way they envisioned this presentation. That’s how they drew these people in.
Christine Sterling insisted that we wear costumes that showed our culture. Of course, sometimes you would feel it’s denigrating. I am American, why [do I have] to put that on? [But] it was a real attraction between doing that and the kung fu that Wong Loy did. You came to see a show, you came to eat things, you saw craft people making things. You could also have Mexican food here, then you have the wonderful China Burger.
The Chinatown people liked the nuances that we offered in China City because we were very compact. The whole composition of China City represented different regions of China, where Chinatown was all the Toishan. They were all united and all knew what they wanted to do. They had been fighting the adversities of ethnicity. We were just all loose people that just doing the best we can.
Summarized by Rionna Tsai (2021)