Chan Is Missing - Chan Is Here
Chan is never found, leaving one to suspect that Chan per se did not exist. Was he a representation of Chinatown’s Asian community? If so, Chan is captured everywhere in this selection of photographs of 1970s Chinatown residents taken by photojournalist Bob Eckert. These images and many more are on Bob’s website.
Could that be Chan waiting for a haircut inside Benny's Barber Shop at 718 Pacific Avenue?
Or perhaps he is here, reading the daily news displayed at the Chinese Times Publishing Company, 117-119 Waverly Place.
Then again, he may be found relaxing at Portsmouth Square ...
... or even feeding the pigeons there.
Certainly Chan would spend time shopping in Chinatown ...
… especially at eye-catching places like this.
... or (on the left) outside 1151 Stockton Street where the Man Ah Trading Co. announces a new location. Then again (on the right) he may be spotted at the Hong Kong Co Grocers at 851 Clay Street. Reflected in its window are signs for Tommy Tong's Golden Star TV Appliance store and Radio KBRG across the street at 846 Clay. Radio KBRG was the first Chinese language radio station in North America.
… and Now, a weather-beaten extant KBRG Radio sign is still there at the corner of Clay Street and the Spofford Street alley.
These two always-busy blocks on Stockton Street would be a likely place to bump into him.
Could this well-dressed shopper on a rainy day be him?
After shopping he most likely waited here for the 30 or 45 Muni bus to take him home. (The Gourmet Kitchen is still in business at 1051 Stockton today).
Who knows, Frenchy’s Adult Book Store at 1265 Stockton Street may have caught Chan's eye. (Or the Macao tavern at upper right across Broadway at 1313 Stockton).
He would of course have trudged through the noisy Stockton Tunnel linking Chinatown with Downtown.
Finally, he could be pausing for a solemn moment here as a decorated photograph of the deceased leads a funeral procession east down Jackson Street towards Kearny Street. (He might also have frequented the Great Star Theatre down the block at 636 Jackson).