Becoming Chiantown: Talks and Performances on Possible Futures
Students, artists, architects, designers, urbanists, community organizers, and the public are invited to rethink and reimagine the future of Chinatowns in the contemporary built environment.
Organized in collaboration with Colorado Asian Pacific United and History Colorado, a series of performances, workshops, and roundtable discussions are hosted at the University of Colorado Denver that interrogates ideals and realities of Chinatowns in the United States.
Formats of design outcomes and conversations will be displayed in the 2nd Floor Gallery at CU Denver as the Talks and Performances continue.
Part One: (Re)organizing Chinatown
February 27, 2025, 3pm-6pm, CU Denver Building, 2nd Floor Gallery at CU Denver (1250 14th St, Denver, CO 80202)
This panel brings together four community organizers and activists to discuss the challenges and opportunities involved in organizing events and programs that address socio-political injustices while enhancing the cultural identities of Chinatowns across the United States. Focusing on various placemaking efforts, such as interactive kiosks, historical markers, block parties, and community-led exhibitions, this discussion will explore the strategies used by community organizations to engage diverse constituents in advocating for a vibrant future.
Panelists:
Sophie Chien (University of Colorado Boulder, Dark Matter U)
Bz Zhang (Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust)
Joie Ha (Colorado Asian Pacific United)
Yin Kong (Think!Chinatown)
Moderator:
Samantha Martin (History Colorado)
Part Two: (Un)settling Chinatown
March 13, 2025, 3pm-6pm, CU Denver Building, 2nd Floor Gallery (1250 14th St, Denver, CO 80202)
This panel brings together three art and architectural historians to recast Chinatown and its physical realities into a larger conceptual framework. From a Chinese folk art museum in Chicago in the face of multiple forms of displacement threats, to the material and knowledge circulations mediated by both Chinese labor and iron roads, this panel contributes to the talk and performance series by putting Chinatown into historical perspective, while probing perceived binaries including those of high and low, subject and object. It invites reflection on the possibilities for reimagining Chinatowns as dynamic spaces of cultural resilience and future potential.
Panelists:
Tairan An (Princeton University School of Architecture)
Zhiyan Yang (University of Chicago Department of Art History)
Chenchen Yan (Princeton University School of Architecture)
Moderator:
Sarah Hearne (University of Colorado Denver)
Artifact Table sponsored by History Colorado
Part Three: (Re)imagining Chinatown
April 10, 2025, 3pm-6pm, CU Denver 2nd Floor Gallery (1250 14th St, Denver, CO 80202)
This panel brings together three designer-educators to reimagine Chinatowns through design and storytelling endeavors. It aims to foreground design tools as active agencies contributing to the reimagination of social and spatial contexts of Chinatowns. It asks: how can we reconstruct a spatial narrative that encapsulates the silenced stories of the displaced communities? How can we cultivate a shared repository of design knowledge and expertise to repair cultural identity and reshape the collective milieu for these communities?
Panelists:
Lily Wong (University of Miami School of Architecture)
Xiaoxi Chen (Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation)
Linda Zhang (University of Waterloo School of Architecture)
Moderator:
Leyuan Li (University of Colorado Denver)