The memorial will mainly consist of a grove of 18 tree-like sculptures where the massacre started on Los Angeles Street. The sculptures represent those killed.
(Design by Sze Tsung Nicolás Leong and Judy Chui-Hua Chung
May 8, 2023
An artistic duo from Los Angeles has won the competition to design the city’s memorial to victims of one of the deadliest attacks on Chinese people in U.S. history.
To come up with their design, artist Sze Tsung Nicolás Leong and writer Judy Chui-Hua Chung spent months meticulously researching and photographing the various sites where the Chinese Massacre of 1871 unfolded across downtown L.A.
On Oct. 24, 1871, a mob killed at least 18 people (about 10% of the city’s Chinese population), most by lynching. The mass killing remains little-known even among Angelenos. Currently, the only marker of the massacre is a sidewalk plaque.
Leong and Chung said they both only learned about the attack several years ago and described feeling shock and sorrow that it took so long.
