Photos: Year of the Snake Chinatown Festival

The fourth annual Eureka Chinatown Street Festival celebrated the Year of the Snake on Saturday, May 3, under breezy conditions from 6-8 p.m. in Eureka Old Town during Arts Alive. (See slideshow below for highlights.)

Hosted by Humboldt Asians & Pacific Islanders in Solidarity (HAPI), the event began with a welcome by Yolanda Latham, who is a descendant of Charlie Moon, and a condensed performance Echoes of Eureka, a new choral opera about the 1885 expulsion and resistance of the Chinese community in Eureka. The large crowd in attendance also enjoyed traditional and contemporary Asian dance and music performances, food and art vendors, and a children’s activity zone.

The three lion dancers (each with two humans inside) performed a lively and very skilled and athletic performance. Credit: Photo by Mark Larson

Conductor and composer of the opera Eric Tuan credited author Jean Pfaelzer’s book Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans with the inspiration, acknowledging her in the audience. He then directed the more than 30 members of the Piedmont East Bay Children’s choir in a shortened version of the opera in front of the Clarke Historical Museum (the weekend premier of this seven-movement choral opera included two more performances elsewhere on Friday and Sunday).

Traditional Japanese drumming group Humboldt Taiko performed next with a lively set, followed by the We Fly High Lion Dancers from San Francisco. Earlier, the lion dancers had performed a traditional Chinese ritual intended to bring good fortune and drive away evil spirits by blessing Old Town businesses from 4 to 6 p.m. The event ended with performances by the Humboldt Lao Dancers, the K-Pop/Hip Hop Dance club from Eureka High School, the children’s White Lotus Cultural Dancers and more dragon and lion dancing.

HAPI began the Chinatown Street Festival in May of 2021 to honor the historic Eureka Chinatown and celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. The Eureka Chinatown Project was started by HAPI to reclaim and honor the history and culture of the historic Chinese community in Humboldt, while raising awareness of the local Chinese expulsion events and the federal and state exclusionary acts that shaped society. For more information, visit hapihumboldt.org.