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Friday, October 3, 2008

Portland Hung Far Where?

Posted by Sarah Mirk on Fri, Oct 3, 2008 at 7:30 PM

Yesterday, the Mercury received a frantic email from Jerry of downtown marketing firm Leopold & Ketel. He attached an alarming photo:

Somebody took down the Hung Far Low sign down and boy am I pissed. That sign kept Portland weird. Now Portland is just a little more normal. This has got to stop. Please find out what happened to the sign. I'm sure I can get donations to help restore it. In fact I will make it the mission of my firm to do so. Thank you.

hung_far_sideways.jpg

I took up the case and called the Hung Far Low restaurant, which moved out to 82nd Ave three years ago to be closer to where Portland's Chinese people actually live. The owner told me I should call the landlord, but the only cryptic information he provided was "she runs an antique store near the Chinese Garden." A half dozen phone calls later, I tracked down the landlord's son, Dan Hong, working the counter at Great Era antiques.

Hong quickly dampened my vanished-sign hysteria: the sign was removed for repairs both to its rusting frame and the roof itself. The historic 1928 sign was also a potential death trap, a rusty 2,000 pound humorous steel-and-neon anvil tourists love to pose under and the owners wanted to get it in the shop before the rains came. BUT, Hong says, "Everything is still up in the air." The sign took $3,000 to take down with the aid of a crane. Hong's not exactly sure where the money's coming from to repair the sign and then putting it up again... that could be thousands more. He hopes maybe the PDC will kick in some cash. (confidential to Dan Hong: Jerry's firm's phone number is 503-295-1918)

PLUS, he points out, the sign is totally out of compliance with current codes. Will the city let the iconic penis joke return?!

Clyde Nelson says yes. He's the guy who hauled the Hung Far Low sign to where it currently sits in a storage yard out in Scappoose. Nelson says that after he replaces the rusty sheet metal and refinishes the sign, the city sign inspector (awesome job) has approved it to be put back up exactly the way it was (which kind of annoys Nelson because he thinks it'd be smarter and better looking to replace the cumbersome frame with a modern one). One of the problems he can't fix due to something about sign construction I don't understand: tragic pagoda deteriorating. It's coming. Slowly.

Andy Ricker, the owner of Asian place Pok Pok and the restaurant Ping planned for the Hung Far Low building, makes a bold promise on the future of the sign: "It will be put back up one way or another," he promises, "We love the sign, the PDC loves the sign."

Side controversy: Translations of "Hung Far Low" vary amongst the "experts". Ricker says he's heard it means "some kind of flower blossom" but a Cantonese-speaking politician who asked to remain anonymous because he doubts his Mandarin skills says that's totally wrong and believes it means "golden tower of prosperity."

 

Comments (9) RSS

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1
I want to know what happened to the original sign. It looked WAY better than the new plastic one. Why can't it still say CHOP SUEY on it? And COCKTAILS?
"EST 1928" and "BUILDING" in place of the words "CHOP SUEY" and "COCKTAILS"?? Give me a break.
Give me a COCKTAIL!
The font is hellish on the new sign. As long as they are restoring it, they should at least use the old font, old colors, and old words!

http://www.pbase.com/mikecaine/image/45689…
Posted by v.renwick on October 3, 2008 at 8:29 PM · Report
2
Excellent work. This is the sort of journalism we've come to expect from the Portland Mercury.

Posted by J_Renaud on October 3, 2008 at 10:17 PM · Report
3
Sadly, the frequency of recent praise for Sarah seems to indicate that this is not so much what we expect from the Merc, but what we had all but given up hope of getting. Keep up the excellent work, Sarah. Someone needs to pick up the slack left by certain colleagues of yours.
Posted by A cat on October 5, 2008 at 5:19 PM · Report
4
Sarah, thank you for finding out the scoop. Rumor has it that the PDC did indeed kick in some money to rehang the sign. I'll should know soon.

I stand by my first inclination to save the sign and will help if need be. The plan will be to start a campaign to "Re-Erect the Hung Far Low Sign". As president of the Portland Advertising Federation, I know I can get my brethren to help out.

What's more, I agree with Mike Caine above. If we are going to do this, the sign should retain more of its original graphic integrity.

Again, Sarah, thanks for digging in and finding out the scoop. This is what responsible community journalism is all about.

Regards,

Jerry Ketel
Posted by Jerry Ketel on October 6, 2008 at 5:24 PM · Report
5
so has this campaign been started?
Posted by fotomel on October 22, 2008 at 4:05 PM · Report
6
As one who in the early forties scampered as a child on Hung Far Low tables, I was always told it meant well endowed. Sonny Camp
Posted by Sonny on January 3, 2009 at 11:39 AM · Report
7
Jerry - I have been working since October to get the sign back up and we just got the formal grant from PDC last week. I'm short many thousands of dollars to get the work on the sign finished but at least things are moving. Could you call me? 510-229-8755 Kurt
Posted by HFL on April 6, 2009 at 2:18 PM · Report
8
There is a Re-Erect Hung Far Low campaign at http://www.ReErectHungFarLow.com
Posted by Byrd on July 8, 2009 at 2:54 PM · Report
9
Benefit show to "Re-Erect the Hung Far Low" sign at SATYRICON Friday 9/11/09 !!! 8 PM & it's gonna be a good one. mx
Posted by ErikaK on September 6, 2009 at 12:27 PM · Report

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