![]() Longtime visitors to the plaza such as Kristie Hang say it has long been in need of an update. And stricter limits on international investments have reduced the flow of Chinese capital in California to a trickle. Chinese tourism spending in Los Angeles County fell to $693 million in 2020, down from $3.9 billion in 2019. Ginseng and gift shops, hotels and jewelry stores can no longer rely on regular busloads of Chinese visitors. The renovation arrives at a time when Chinese tourism to Southern California is plummeting thanks to pandemic travel restrictions, concerns about racism and deteriorating relations between the U.S. The cultural and economic ties to homeland countries are still strong, but the staff at these new malls probably speak English, non-Chinese businesses and customers are common, and it’s not the only place in town for boba anymore. The new environs reflect the changing character of a Chinese community that’s another generation removed from Chinatown, said Zarsadiaz, native of Walnut. “It’s this shift from faux California Mediterranean to ultramodern design chic, which is probably more how modern Chinese immigrants and second-generation Asian Americans see themselves,” said James Zarsadiaz, a history professor at the University of San Francisco and author of a recent book about the San Gabriel Valley called “Resisting Change in Suburbia.” But now owner Tawa, which runs the Ranch 99 grocery chain, is planning a renovation that will transform Focus Plaza into a more modern, affluent commercial center resembling those in Irvine, Pasadena and Costa Mesa. The plaza’s opening in 1990 signaled that the center of the Chinese community in Southern California had shifted east from Chinatown in downtown Los Angeles. ![]() Its vast parking lot fits more than a thousand cars, which never seemed to make it any easier to find a spot. The gargantuan Chinese strip mall, anchored by a Chinese grocery store, offers two levels of restaurants, jewelry stores and ginseng stores, culminating in a multistory glass-fronted department store with a dim sum restaurant on the top floor. ![]() San Gabriel’s Focus Plaza, known affectionately as Chinese Disneyland, has always lived up to its nickname.
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