Members of the Santa Ana City Council are showered with lettuce from a lion dancer during the Chinatown Memorial unveiling ceremony in Santa Ana on Saturday, May 23, 2026. (Photo by Paul Rodriguez, Contributing Photographer)
Louis Lau, representing other members of the Lau family addresses those attending the Chinatown Memorial unveiling ceremony in Santa Ana on Saturday, May 23, 2026. The Lau family started Santa Ana Market in 1949 (Photo by Paul Rodriguez, Contributing Photographer)
The Santa Ana City Council joins with Alan Woo, fourth from right, chair of the Santa Ana Chinatown Apology and Memorial Committee, to unveil a memorial monument to preserve the history of Santa Ana’s Chinatown in Santa Ana on Saturday, May 23, 2026. Chinatown was burned down by orders of the city in 1906. (Photo by Paul Rodriguez, Contributing Photographer)
A lion dancer interacts with those attending the Chinatown Memorial unveiling ceremony in Santa Ana on Saturday, May 23, 2026. (Photo by Paul Rodriguez, Contributing Photographer)
Alan Woo, chair of the Santa Ana Chinatown Apology and Memorial Committee, addresses those attending the Chinatown Memorial unveiling ceremony in Santa Ana on Saturday, May 23, 2026. (Photo by Paul Rodriguez, Contributing Photographer)
Lion dancers perform at the Chinatown Memorial unveiling ceremony in Santa Ana on Saturday, May 23, 2026. (Photo by Paul Rodriguez, Contributing Photographer)
Members of the Lau family gather for a photo around the newly unveiled Chinatown Memorial at the corner of 3rd St. and Bush in Santa Ana on Saturday, May 23, 2026. The Lua family started Santa Ana Market in 1949. (Photo by Paul Rodriguez, Contributing Photographer)
The Chinatown Memorial commemorates the history of Santa Ana’s Chinatown which was ordered burned down by the City in 1906 in Santa Ana on Saturday, May 23, 2026. The memorial is located at the corner of 3rd St. and Bush in downtown Santa Ana. (Photo by Paul Rodriguez, Contributing Photographer)
Santa Ana Mayor Pro Tem David Penaloza delivers some opening remarks at the Chinatown Memorial unveiling ceremony in Santa Ana on Saturday, May 23, 2026. (Photo by Paul Rodriguez, Contributing Photographer)
A memorial was unveiled Saturday to forever mark a neighborhood that was lost some 120 years ago.
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In 1906, city leaders ordered that Santa Ana’s Chinatown be burned down, at the time saying it was a health emergency, but they were masking an urban renewal effort to build a new City Hall. It is an action that the city’s modern-day leaders have sought to “atone for the racist and xenophobic actions” of those decades ago.
In 2022, City Council members signed a resolution apologizing, and on Saturday, they dedicated the monument installed where the Chinatown neighborhood once bustled near 3rd and Bush streets.
Along with a map of what was once Chinatown and an engraved scene of part of the community, it shares the story of the more than 800 Chinese residents who made homes and built businesses in the area.
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“These residents were key to building our nation’s infrastructure and, despite considerable discrimination against them, were thriving by the late 1860s,” the memorial’s plaque says. “Santa Ana Chinatown once included homes, drugstores, curio shops, two washhouses, and a shared vegetable garden with a barn. Chinatown was a community.”
Members of the city’s Chinatown Apology and Memorial Committee and descendants of families who lived in the community participated in Saturday’s dedication.
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