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On Saturday, February 8, 2003, the Japanese American Citizens League, Mile Hi chapter, and the Organization of Chinese Americans, Denver chapter, held their 14th Annual Chinese New Year dinner at Johnny Hsu’s Palace restaurant. Over 300 celebrants shared great food, visited with old friends and enjoyed an entertaining program.

The festivities began with the Shaolin Hung Mei Kung Fu Association’s popular Chinese lion dance troupe. Led by Shifu Howie Solow, two Lions pranced through the audience. Solow reports that his group has performed more than 50 times over Chinese New Year.

Following the Chinese lion dance, Japanese folk songs were performed by Mami Keister, singer and Taiko player, Jay Keister, Shamisen (string instrument) and, Sean Brady, Shakahachi (bamboo flute). Eric Sung and Tom Migaki acted as emcees.

The highlight of the evening’s program was a presentation by well-known Asian photographer, Corky Lee. His body of work -spanning over 30 years of Asian Pacific American history -has appeared in Time magazine, The New York Times, The Village Voice, Associated Press, The Villager, and Downtown Express, as well as exhibitions throughout the United States, including Boston, San Francisco, Honolulu, and Denver. Popular on college campuses, his photographs have been exhibited at Cornell, Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, and John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. Lee’s work has shown recently at the University of Denver and the University of Colorado. His work has been profiled in the Asian American press, notably A Magazine, Filipinas Magazine, and Koream Journal in addition to the following newspapers: AsianWeek, Asian New Yorker, NY Nichibei, Rafu Shimpo, International Examiner and Hawaii Herald.

Born and raised in Queens, N.Y., Lee is a second-generation Chinese American and the eldest child of a "paper son" laundryman and a seamstress. Mr. Lee is a graduate of Queens College and lives in Queens.

Lee donated a copy of his famous Promontory Point photograph, a recreation of the original photograph. In Lee’s version, the photo highlights Asian Americans who had been purposefully excluded from the original. Gil Asakawa acted as auctioneer for an energetic bidding exchange. Finally, the photo went for $1,000. Lynn Hoang, Andy Leung and Henry Tam purchased the photo. In their acceptance remarks, they said that they want to make the photo available to Colorado’s Asian Pacific American community groups for display.

Topping off the evening, Eric Sung, OCA Denver chapter president, presided over the raffle. Johnny Hsu donated the grand prize, a striking framed cloisonné art piece of horses.

Les Imada, JACL Mile Hi chapter president, and Eric Sung, OCA Denver president.

About the Author. John Chin is Chief Academic Officer at Front Range Community College. He is 2003 Chair of the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival. He is also vice president of the OCA Denver chapter. For more info on Dragon Boat Festival, go to http://www.coloradodragonboat.org. For more on OCA, go to http://www.ocadenver.org. Gil Asakawa is a well-known a writer, editor and online content consultant with over 20 years of experience in a variety of media. An accomplished public speaker, he conducts workshops and facilitates meetings with Empowerful Changes. His weekly on-line column Nikkeiview is at http://www.nikkeiview.com.