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A reopening ceremony was held Monday at Chinatown’s Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Park after it had been closed for renovations since November 2019.
The park’s original landscape has been cleaned and paved and the statue of its namesake moved from the corner farthest from the street to the center of the park.
“It’s still a work in progress,” said Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi. “Our commitment is not going to wane. Our commitment has just begun.”
The nearly half-acre park is on the makai side of the Hawaii Theatre Center. It was created in honor of Sun, who moved to Oahu at age 13 and attended Punahou and ‘Iolani schools before returning to China. He would go on to lead a revolution leading to the overthrow of the last emperor of China and the end to the Manchu/Qing Dynasty. Sun became the first provisional president of the Republic of China in 1912.
As a gift to the park in 2007, the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Hawaii Foundation dedicated the statue of 13-year-old Sun dressed in traditional Chinese garments and carrying two books.
The recent renovations took longer than originally planned after a large underground storage tank was discovered at the start of the process, said a city spokesperson. Planning the tank’s removal delayed the renovations until March 2022.
Periodic improvements to the park date back to December 2015, when the city established a partnership with the Hawaii Theatre Center to maintain it. Since then, improvements have included the installation of an ornamental wrought iron fence, electrical work, lighting upgrades and irrigation renovations.
Trees commonly found in Chinese gardens — including bamboo, Hong Kong orchid and pak lan — were also planted in the park. The base of the statue will also eventually be faced in granite, which is scheduled to arrive from China soon, Blangiardi said.
The area was a hotbed for homelessness and illegal drug activity prior to its closure, which is one of the issues the beautification aims to alleviate, Blangiardi said.
“This place needed to be refreshed, and you don’t have a lot of parks that are in the urban core,” Blangiardi said. “But this is a big improvement from what was here before, and our efforts to revitalize Chinatown are extensive, I can promise you that.”
The park will open to the public this week or early next week, although the exact date is uncertain, said a city spokesperson. The first event in the renovated park is scheduled to be held Dec. 2 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. with free entertainment that includes a lion dance and live music by Stacie Ku‘ulei and Crossing Rain.
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Linsey Dower covers ethnic and cultural affairs and is a corps member of Report for America, a national service organization that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities.
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