The new year approaches, so Ed Chu is at Sun Chong grocery in Chinatown to stock up. As he has for years, he'll make two big pots of jai—the traditional vegetarian dish filled with more than a dozen ingredients, each critical for good luck—to share with relatives for the holiday.

Shop owner Shirley Ing is filling Chu's bags: lily flower, dried bean curd, ginkgo, fungus, dried mushrooms, long rice, fried gluten, fresh water chestnuts ... She seems to know what he needs, how much he needs and the symbolic value of each item.

That's how it is at Sun Chong, where Ing and her sister, Ann Sung, serve up smiles, chatter and advice, along with imported foodstuffs from China, Japan, Thailand, Taiwan and San Francisco, and all manner of Chinese accessories.

Need a head for a small lion dancer? It's here, way up on a top shelf. A carved token for the Year of the Ox? Hanging above the counter along with those for all 11 other animals of the Chinese zodiac.

Chu said he's been coming to the store for more than 50 years, at first with his father. He can always get the basics, he said, plus treats, like rice cakes and crack seed.

Plus—“;they're very nice.”; At other stores, he said, he doesn't get such cheerful service.

Spend a few minutes observing, and it does seem that Ing and Sung operate at a high level of energy and optimism. The shop is open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, with both of them in attendance and always moving—adjusting the stock, carrying things from back to front, replacing, freshening, fetching.

“;You got to love your job,”; Sung said. “;You got to love your customers, and you got to be patient.”;

  SUN CHONG was named for their uncle, who founded the store 80 years ago on nearby Pauahi Street. It's not an easy, life, Ing admits. “;My uncle had five kids, and none of them wanted to take over.”;

The sisters came to Hawaii in 1979 to join their father, Hing Cheng Lam, who was a cook at King's Garden. Lam had been a policeman in Canton, and left China to escape communist oppression in 1963. Ing was just a baby and Sung was 6.

“;We were OK,”; Ing said. “;My mother worked hard, my father sent money every three or four months. We didn't have a lot to spend. ... We were happy, though.”;

Lam stayed in Hong Kong for 10 years, then entered Hawaii as a refugee. In 1979 he sent for his wife, See Mai Wong, the girls and their brother Kevin.

But their mother had a heart attack and died in Hong Kong while they were headed for Hawaii. Devastating, it would seem, for girls so young. The sisters don't dwell on sadness, though. Her mother was happy, Ing says, on her way to be reunited with her husband.

And Hawaii turned out to be ideal, even though they didn't learn English until they got here. “;Once you start your life here, you love it,”; Ing said. “;I never regret it.”;

She was 16 and entered McKinley High School; Sung was 21 and took night classes. They both worked, as cashiers or waitresses, and helped their uncle at Sun Chong during the busy holidays.

The sisters started running the store in 1983. “;My uncle said, 'You love to work, so you take over,' “; Ing said.

Sun Chong will be open tomorrow, new year's day. It's the kind of life that doesn't make concessions for holidays. Sung is cooking tonight for the entire family, which includes Ing's daughter, her own three kids, their husbands and their brother and his family. She'll still show up at the store, though.

“;Maybe I'll leave early.”;