The “East Meets West: Chinatown Nightclubs” webinar was our first co-hosted session between the Bay Area Chinese Genealogy Group (BACGG) and CHCP … and broke all previous attendee records. Attendees came from all parts of the nation (including Hawaii), plus folks from Canada, Japan, and England to laugh, listen, and learn from the daring dancing dolls, Coby Yee and Cynthia Yee, and Calvin Fong, son of a nightclub owner.

The Webinar consists of 3 parts:

1. Cocktail Lounge/Waiting Room (featuring music, dancing and a cavalcade of stars and entertainers):
   • Classic Photos of Nightclubs (02:30 – 07:18)
   • Video including Dancing by Toy and Wing (07:18 – 13:30)
2. Calvin Fong’s Keynote Presentation (23:40 – 1:00:55)
3. Panel Discussion (1:00:56 – 1:48:00)

Abstract

This webinar explores a little known, but exciting, topic in Chinese American history: Chinese American nightclubs. Many of the performers (singers, dancers, magicians, acrobats, comedians, etc.) were Chinese with headliner names; like the “Chinese Frank Sinatra” or the “Chinese Ginger Rogers.” Many performers were 2nd generation Asians coming out of the Great Depression and who loved entertaining but were shut out from performing live on American stage or in the movies. The Chinese nightclubs offered a venue for them to show their many talents and opened opportunities that they could not realize otherwise.

For information about the panelists: https://bacgg.org/index.php/webinar-east-meets-west-chinatown-night-clubs-july-15-2020/

Please Support Us

Please consider helping support our webinars to preserve Chinese American heritage, so it may live into the future.

To support CHCP: https://chcp.org/donate/

To support BACGG: https://bacgg.org/index.php/due/

Thank you for your consideration.

David Yick, CHCP President
Ron Chan, BACGG Executive Director