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The Street Lamps of Chinatown: Way Too Many Dragons

If you have been to Grant St. in Chinatown, you may have noticed the street lamps are adorned with twin dragons:

Lamppost in San Francisco Chinatown,
Grant and Washington

This was NOT designed by the Chinese. 

The lamps were designed by W. D'Arcy Ryan, for the 1925 "Diamond Jubilee Festival", to celebrate the 75th year of California Statehood, and 43 lamps were commissioned to be installed from Bush Street all the way to Broadway. The originals were made in China. (More on Walter D'Arcy Ryan, as he also did the 1915 San Francisco Panama-Pacific Exposition's lighting, being a lighting engineer for GE at the time.)

In 1996, 24 were remade using the original casts by a company in Kansas. Then recently another 23 were made by a company in China, also based on original casts. 

But what the Chinese will tell you about dragons is it is reserved for royalty or someone of supreme importance. It is NOT really used for decoration per se. 

Please watch Accented Cinema, where it is explained that there are way too many dragons so any Chinese will know this is a Hollywood film. That's a great channel if you want to learn a different perspective on films, not just Asian films. 

Stay tuned for more hidden history of Chinatown. 

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About the author

Kasey is a professional tour guide and amateur historian who specialized in Chinatown History and Tours. You will often find him guiding groups sampling delicious food and learning interesting historical tidbits about Chinatown most weekends.

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