Entries by Gil Asakawa

Suggestions for Great Chinese Food in Denver

Most Americans have had Chinese food all their lives. Chinese food arrived with the first immigrants in the 1840s, looking to strike it rich panning for treasure in “Gold Mountain” — what America was called in China. The cuisine was first cooked up by and for the immigrants themselves, but despite racism against the wave […]

The Legacy of Denver’s Forgotten Chinatown

On Saturday, April 16, 2022, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock gave an official apology — for something that happened in 1880. He apologized for the anti-Chinese race riot of October 31, 1880 known as The Chinatown Riot. The event destroyed much of what had been a thriving Chinatown district in what is today the thriving entertainment […]

Colorado Dragon Boat Festival: Connecting the community through culture and competition

Did you know there are more than 30 Asian ethnicities in the Denver area? There are not just Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Vietnamese and Indians (South Asians) here. There are many other identities that fall under the Asian American Pacific Islander label: Cambodians, Lao people, Mongolians, native Hawaiian, Burmese, Pakistani, Filipino and more. And the easiest […]