Columnist Frank Shyong first visited Focus Plaza as a seventh-grader with his family. He sees the mall’s renovation as a symbol of Southern California’s changing Chinese population.
San Gabriel’s Focus Plaza, known affectionately as Chinese Disneyland, has always lived up to its nickname.
“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.”Advertisement
“Irvine is beating us. [Focus Plaza] used to be that one plaza where you could do everything,” Hang said. “But it really hasn’t changed much since the ’90s.”
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