The Black and white Dragon Dance performed by Guiding Mountain Dragon and Lion Dance
Association on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. The performance involved the audience through sharing oranges, gifting plushies and providing photo opportunities in the History Colorado Center. (Ethel Yagudayeva/CU Independent)
On Wednesday, a Lunar New Year celebration took place at the History Colorado Center in Denver. The event was held by the University of Colorado Boulder Alumni Association and Center for Inclusion and Social Change to spotlight the ‘Where is Denver’s Chinatown?’ exhibit and share Colorado’s Asian history.
Among many Asian communities, Lunar New Year is celebrated to mark the beginning of a new year on the lunar calendar. 2025 brings the Year of the Snake, the sixth zodiac in the 12-year calendar cycle.
The day is meant to be spent with loved ones and practicing acts of good luck. Traditions include eating collectively, wearing lucky red and exchanging lì xì – lucky money in red envelopes. There are other superstitions such as not cleaning the house to preserve luck in the new year and eating round foods, like oranges, to promote prosperity.
Food and drinks were provided to guests at the History Colorado Center, including soup dumplings, potstickers and mini desserts on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (Ethel Yagudayeva/CU Independent)
Josie Chang-Order is the school program manager at History Colorado. She introduced the exhibit, emphasizing the importance of Asian American history at the museum.
“I’m always really interested in making sure that my students get to see themselves, and that they get to see the other communities that are here in Colorado,” Chang-Order said.
William Wei, the state historian and a CU Boulder history professor, led a keynote on the growth of Chinese immigrants in the Western U.S. over the past few centuries. Wei drew from his book, “Asians in Colorado: A History of Persecution and Perseverance in the Centennial State.” He argued that Chinese laborers were essential to mining and transcontinental railroad development in the nineteenth century, though they were often forgotten in the state’s history.
Denver’s Chinatown was one of the largest in the Western U.S. in the late nineteenth century, covering a portion of what is now Lower Downtown. The history provided in the exhibit was investigated and gathered mostly by Colorado Asian Pacific United and the descendants of Denver Chinatown residents.
Wei said that residents of the enclave faced poor conditions including densely packed housing, poor health and discrimination outside of their designated community.
William Wei, a CU Boulder professor and Colorado’s state historian, giving a presentation
on the emergence and evolution of Denver’s Chinatown in the History Colorado Center on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (Ethel Yagudayeva/CU Independent)
“There was no physical barrier around Chinatown, but (Chinese immigrants) knew they were not welcome [outside of it],” said Linda Lung, a descendant of the influential Lung family of Chinatown.
In 1880, there was an anti-Chinese riot in Chinatown that destroyed local businesses and lynched a Chinese man. This led to the fall of Chinatown, though some Chinese immigrants remained and rebuilt. Lung and her cousin, Heather Clifton, provided much of the exhibit’s content from the Lung Family Collection to preserve their family’s history. This included artifacts such as clothing, restaurant menus, original tea sets and pictures from their childhoods.
Lung and Clifton are continuing to work with Wei and Colorado Asian Pacific United to reclaim the narrative of Chinese representation in Colorado’s state history. Next, they are fighting for the historical designation of Denver Chinatown.
“We want to keep telling and collecting these stories so people don’t forget,” Lung said.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Sarah Taylor at Sarah.taylor@colorado.edu
