sanfranciscohistoricalphotographcollection

The signage over the entrance of the eating establishment to which this deliveryman appears to be returning prompts some insights about the emerging politico-culinary culture of Chinatown -- 15 years after, and as a direct response to, the enactment of the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Heather P. Lee of NYU writes for scholars.org writes about the restaurant industry and its centrality among the strategies used by Chinese America to avoid the immigration ban as follows:

“The vast majority of Chinese originally came to the United States from a small cluster of counties in Southern China, whose economic fortunes became tied to opportunities in North America after the 1849 Gold Rush in California. Young men went to the United States to work, sent money back to relatives in China, and periodically made temporary trips home. But this cycle of work and visits became much harder to execute after the United States passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. This draconian law barred the entry of Chinese laborers, yet also ended up stimulating the formation of Chinese businesses through a system of visa preferences. Owners of particular businesses could obtain “merchant status,” which enabled them to enter the United States and sponsor relatives. After a 1915 court case granted these special immigration privileges to Chinese restaurant owners, entrepreneurial people in the United States and China opened restaurants as a way to bypass restrictions in U.S. immigration law. Flows of newcomers from China were diverted into the restaurant industry.

“The number of Chinese restaurants in the United States exploded during the early twentieth-century. . . Chinese laundries had once been the largest employers of Chinese workers, but by 1930 restaurants became more likely employers of Chinese workers – and retained that distinction thereafter. . .

“For the workers, Chinese restaurants were complex sites of chain migration and familial obligation. The average Chinese restaurant in New York City employed five waiters and four cooks, who were related by kinship or friendship to the primary investors. Family bonds complicated relationships between employers and employees, rendering conflicts between them qualitatively different from the sorts of conflicts found in non-family-run restaurants. For the sake of family, Chinese restaurant employees were expected to work for low wages and perform physically demanding labor without complaint. Consequently, the average employee in such restaurants earned 1/3 less wages than the national average for food service employees. This was true even though Chinese restaurant workers had to support kinfolk in China who depended on them to afford basic necessities such as clothing, food, and educational costs. . . .”
(see: scholars.org/brief/untold-story-chinese-restaurants-america)

The signage itself (aside from the partially obscured English language menu board seen in the lower-right portion of the photo), suggests the adaptation that probably began with the beginnings of the community in the 1850’s of Chinese culinary practices to North American tastes and foodstuffs. The ideograms on the faded sign are written in traditional style -- from right to left. As rewritten here in modern style from left to right, “seasonal western style cuisine” under the likely tradename of “Wah Ying.” Literally: 時款 [canto: see foon] = seasonal or current; 華英 [canto: wah ying] shorthand for Chinese/English (or Chinese American); 番菜 [canto: faan choy] literally “foreign (barbarian) dishes.

The characters seen on the partially obscured sign to the left of the worker read 隆麵 [canto: loong mein] reads as “prosperous noodles” which could denote, absent additional context, a particular brand name (describing grand, prosperous, thriving, eminent, or even intense) of noodles made on premises or elsewhere.

After comparing a photo by Oscar Maurer of the same block (in the OMCA collection), the "Wah Ying" eatery can be located at no. 120 Waverly Place in pre-1906 Chinatown. My explanation can be viewed here: demospectator.tumblr.com/post/693870314745217024/untitled...

View northeast. Mechanic's Pavilion at far left, Larkin St. and City Hall Ave. (now removed) at bottom. Cable car on Larkin St. at lower left. Hall of Records to the right of City Hall. Nob Hill in distance.

Well, it's been up for almost 7 years without ID, so I'll take a crack at it. Grant Ave (then Dupont), looking south, north of Sacramento. That's the Grace Church bell tower at upper left.