El Presidio de Santa Bárbara Historic State Park, Santa Barbara, CA
Remembering Santa Barbara’s Original Chinatown
Once upon a time there was a small Chinatown in Santa Barbara on Cañon Perdido Street between State and Anapamu. Whatever happened to it?
For Chinese Lunar New Year 2025, The Year of the Snake, we were given grant money to create an immersive installation highlighting SB Chinatown and the Chinese experience in America. Much of the imagery came from research at the Santa Barbara Historical Museum’s Gledhill LIbrary (special thanks to Chris Ervin and Dacia Harwood). Other imagery, particularly for the short stereographic movie, came from scouring the internet for usable photos of the 19th century Chinese experience living and working in America.
The show began with projected firecrackers blowing up across the front of the chapel (we’d filmed them on a green screen in Pahrump, Nevada). According to Chinese legend, firecrackers, along with the color red, chased away the fearsome, child-eating monster Nían. Then two lion dogs and their handler emerged from the chapel to enthrall the surrounding crowd with colorful, gymnastic antics. When they were done, and the cheers and claps had died down, we faded in the main historic movie of the people who once lived in Santa Barbara’s Chinatown.
More of Our Work at El Presidio de Santa Bárbara State Historic Park
1918: A Remembrance, a multi-projector installation about World War One. It was presented on the 100-year anniversary of the Armistice that ended the war.
Historic Wedding Experience: witness in a projected recreation of a Californio wedding from the early 1800s.