The Oldtimers

In his third collection of poetry, acclaimed writer Wing Tek Lum examines Honolulu's Chinatown at the turn of the twentieth century through historically grounded verse. The Oldtimers gives voice to a generation of Chinese bachelors who journeyed across the Pacific for work. As field laborers, cooks, merchants, laundrymen, and more, they helped shape Hawaiʻi's future, though their stories remained largely unrecorded. Far from home, they endured isolation, racial exclusion, and hardship, even...