Event celebrates LA’s Chinese culture, history


Chinatown Summer Nights has mastered the blend of L.A.’s trendiest music and marketplaces with the historic cultural neighborhood in the program’s fourth season. Alight with modern beats and full of surprising histories, Chinatown’s plazas invite Angelenos to eat, drink and dance in honor of the neighborhood’s 75th anniversary on Saturday.

Summer Lovin’ · Attendees will be treated to live performances by bands such as Nightmare & the Cat and The Furys, in addition to acrobats, jugglers and dancers at Chinatown Summer Nights on Saturday. - Photo Courtesy of Linh Ho

Summer Lovin’ · Attendees will be treated to live performances by bands such as Nightmare & the Cat and The Furys, in addition to acrobats, jugglers and dancers at Chinatown Summer Nights on Saturday. – Photo Courtesy of Linh Ho

The June 15 event kicks off the summer series, enlivening a neighborhood that often goes silent after dinner. Food service begins at 5 p.m. in a beer garden curated by Eagle Rock Brewery and features more than 10 food trucks, including DTLA favorites like Crepe’n Around and Tornado Potato.

Guests can watch Chinatown chefs and mixologists demonstrate their crafts. The schedule even includes an eating competition in the West Plaza. And Chinatown’s historic family-owned restaurants will, of course, be serving all night.

But most of the action begins after dinner hours end. Jugglers, acrobats and dancers open the Central Plaza’s main stage, sponsored by Santa Monica public radio station KCRW. Station DJs Anthony Valadez, KG Superstar and Liza Richardson will start spinning at 8 p.m.

The live music stage opens with dream pop outfit Cobalt Cranes at 6 p.m., followed by breathy bossa nova grooves from Sister Rogers. Driving dance numbers from Jutty Ranx and grittier punk-pop lines from Echo Park’s Rainbow Jackson follow.

The penultimate group, The Furys, played the opening show at what became a famous Chinatown punk hangout, Madame Wong’s, in 1978. Esther Wong opened the restaurant on Sun Mun Way eight years earlier and featured only Polynesian bands, but as crowds shrunk, she began opening her stage to L.A.’s emergent punk scene. The restaurant closed in 1985, but Madame Wong remains a legend for competing with rival Chinatown venues and maintaining incredible camaraderie with rockers in her heyday.

SXSW veterans Nightmare & the Cat headline at 11 p.m. The five-piece group’s synth-backed, upbeat pop-rock provides an accessible and, more importantly, entirely danceable closer on the stage sponsored by LA Weekly and curated by Kevin Bronson of Buzz Bands LA.

LA Craft Experience, a consortium for L.A. artisans, will bring several dozen handicraft vendors to the Central Plaza. The LACE Market, food trucks and beer garden all begin at 5 p.m. and close at midnight.

The evening’s schedule at every stage clears at 7:45 p.m. for the dedication of a statue of Bruce Lee in the Central Plaza, in celebration of the 75th anniversary of historic Chinatown’s founding. Chinese immigrants arrived in L.A. decades earlier, of course, as early as 1850, and many settled east of El Pueblo Plaza near Olvera Street. At its largest, that settlement boasted about 3,000 people, according to the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California.

But Los Angeles sought ownership of that neighborhood — Old Chinatown — to build Union Station in 1913. After a 20-year conflict, the California Supreme Court upheld L.A.’s proposal, leaving the core of the city’s Chinese community without their 50-year cultural home. For four years, a committee of 28 Chinese founding members worked with L.A.’s cultural philanthropists to find a site for New Chinatown. Ultimately, they settled on the plazas that will host Chinatown Summer Nights. The team found investors and began construction. Amid dancing, live music and hanging lanterns, at least 25,000 people helped dedicate the plaza on June 25, 1938.

Bruce Lee and his family were among those founding members, and Lee remains a cultural icon in China and in L.A., his hometown.

And while the bulk of Saturday’s action takes place in the Central Plaza, visitors should note that the West Plaza includes the culinary stage’s cooking demos and eating competition. The Chinese American Museum will present a family workshop for parents with young children. And before buying crafts at the Central Plaza’s LACE Market, visitors can watch demonstrations of calligraphy, face painting and candy, clay and dough sculpture at the artisan stage.

Chinatown Summer Nights continue on July 20 and August 17. Admission is free.

1 reply
  1. Tom
    Tom says:

    This sounds like a great festival. Using the Central Plaza is a great idea to get families involved with fun activites related to the Chinese community!

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