Stefan H. Verstappen
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City of Ventura Downtown Streetscape  Project

 

The Chinese Treasure Box - Main St. Figueroa Plaza

Ventura based artist Stefan Verstappen's unique design  pays homage to Ventura’s history.

Listen to Stefan being interviewed on KCLU Radio Santa Barbara here: (5.55secs)

  You can watch Stefan creating this artwork from beginning to end in only 1min 45secs clip here:

Check out all five art designs here:

The City of Ventura created this lovely poster of the project!

 

Verstappen’s latest works focus on oriental themes combining archaic imagery, with the spiritual guidelines of Feng Shui, and modern techniques and applications.

As a writer and published author on Chinese history, Verstappen was naturally drawn to investigate Ventura’s history.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
History
The Chinese Treasure Box pays homage to Ventura’s rich multi-cultural history and the location sits just opposite Ventura’s China Alley. More history Here:
 
Symbolism
The Treasure Box is what a Chinese family would bring with them to the new world and would carry the hopes and dreams that all immigrants have.
 
Feng Shui
The location of such a fortuitous symbol (A Treasure Box represents wealth and prosperity) at the entrance to Ventura’s historic downtown is an ideal location whose energy will attract wealth and prosperity to the town.

 

Stefan Verstappen
1746 -F South Victoria Ave. #313
Ventura, CA
93003
USA
(805) 648-5655
http://www.chinastrategies.com

 

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All artwork and images by S.H.Verstappen, All Rights reserved 2003.

 
The First Chinese in Ventura, California
No picture of Ventura is complete without the Chinese pioneers who settled here at least as early as 1865.

China Alley is located in front of the mission, down Figueroa toward the sea, between Main and Santa Clara. Chinese farm laborers, chuck wagon cooks, construction workers and domestics toiling in all parts of Ventura County could return to their community to find a microcosm of Chinese society. Scholars such as Tom Lin Yan taught school and served law courts as interpreters. Artisans, vegetable gardeners and fishermen plied their trade. Merchants exported marine products and imported goods from China and provided labor to the growing city of Ventura. Sam Fong Yi not only had a store, restaurant and labor agency but also organized Ventura's unique and famed Chinese Fire Brigade. This unique company of Chinese fire fighters served China Alley and their surrounding commercial and residential neighbors in Ventura. While strict national immigration laws, local anti-Chinese sentiments, and lack of employment caused the ultimate demise and dispossession of this vibrant community, the descendents of our Chinese pioneers are still present and continue to enrich Ventura County.
 

If you have any pictures, letters, newspaper clipping, etc. of China Alley or of early Chinese settlers in Ventura, please contact us.

 
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