San Jose will gather at History Park on Saturday, September 19, for the Double Happiness Celebration, a free event marking two milestones at once: the fifth anniversary of the city's formal apology to Chinese immigrants and their descendants, and the 35th anniversary of the Chinese American Historical Museum housed inside the park's Ng Shing Gung building. The event runs from noon to 3:30 p.m. at 635 Phelan Avenue and will include lion dancing, Chinese cultural entertainment, and children's activities tied to the Year of the Horse.
According to NBC Bay Area, the opening stage program will include welcome remarks from San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and other government officials, with journalist Dion Lim serving as guest emcee. The Chinese American Historical Museum will be open throughout the celebration and will debut a new exhibit highlighting the city's historic apology, alongside the premiere of a new traveling exhibit from the Chinese Historical and Cultural Project, which is hosting the event. Light refreshments will be served, and parking will be available on Phelan Avenue.
Why the City Apologized
The anniversary being marked traces back to September 28, 2021, when the San Jose City Council unanimously passed a five-page resolution apologizing to Chinese immigrants and their descendants, according to KQED. At the time, it made San Jose the largest U.S. city to formally apologize for state-sanctioned anti-Chinese discrimination and violence. The resolution specifically acknowledged systemic racism and the city's role in the destruction of the community's early Chinatowns.
That history centers on May 4, 1887, when a suspicious arson fire destroyed San Jose's Second Market Street Chinatown, displacing roughly 1,400 Chinese residents just after the city council had unanimously declared the neighborhood a public nuisance to make way for a new City Hall, per the Chinese Historical and Cultural Project's account. The site of that burned Chinatown was near the present Fairmont Hotel, according to KQED. It was one of five distinct Chinatowns the city hosted between 1866 and 1931, including the First Market Street Chinatown, Vine Street Chinatown, the Second Market Street Chinatown, the Woolen Mills Chinatown, and finally Heinlenville, as detailed in a separate KQED report on the era.
An Ally's Land and a Temple That Endured
Heinlenville came into being because German-American rancher John Heinlen leased his own property at Sixth and Jackson Streets to displaced residents after the 1887 fire, braving local death threats to do so, according to History San Jose. It became the city's final and longest-lasting Chinatown, operating until 1931, when it fell into bankruptcy during the Great Depression.
The original Ng Shing Gung, or Temple of Five Gods, was built in Heinlenville in 1888 as a sanctuary, community hall, and Chinese language school. The structure was demolished by the city in 1949, but community members saved its hand-carved, gold-gilded 1888 altar, which features statues of five divinities including Kwan Yin and Kwan Gung and now sits in the History Park museum replica, History San Jose notes.
From Grassroots Preservation to a Museum's 35th Year
That preservation effort took organized form in 1987, when community leaders Gerrye Wong and the late Lillian Gong-Guy co-founded the Chinese Historical and Cultural Project. CHCP went on to raise the funds to construct the replica Ng Shing Gung building at History Park, donating it to the City of San Jose in 1991 — a milestone the Chinese Historical and Cultural Project says the museum's lower floor exhibits and upper-floor altar display still commemorate 35 years later.
San Jose's 2021 resolution followed Antioch's apology in May 2021. The apologies came amid attacks against Asian and Asian American communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Changing Santa Clara County
The commemoration also draws attention to Santa Clara County.
The expanded stage program at this year's celebration will also feature California State Assemblymember Patrick Ahrens, dragon dances, Taiko drum performances, and a screening of a documentary on San Jose's official apology, according to Visit San Jose's event listing. The festivities will take place around Lillian Gong-Guy Plaza inside History Park. More information on the celebration is available through the Chinese Historical and Cultural Project, and the Double Happiness Celebration remains free and open to the public.
