A semi-staged song cycle for bass-baritone, viola, and piano on the 1871 Los Angeles Chinese Massacre. Daixuan Ai’s Ghost of Chinatown is vocal chamber music conceived as a one-man opera, weaving history, theater, projected imagery, and virtuosic writing into a single unbroken act.
In his darkroom, a photographer develops his last pictures of a neighborhood marked for demolition, and the dead of that ground begin to speak through him...
Through 2029, The Ghosts of Chinatown is performed exclusively by Dashon Burton, David Samuel, and Sun-A Park. Presenting the work means engaging this trio, with the composer available to join for talks and residency activity.
On the night of October 24, 1871, a mob of about five hundred Angelenos descended on Calle de los Negros and killed eighteen Chinese immigrants. It is one of the largest mass lynchings in American history, and one of the least remembered.
The cycle follows three of the dead: Dr. Gene Tong, an herbalist who treated Chinese, white, and Hispanic patients alike; Ah Wing, a worker at the Pico House hotel and the first to be lynched; and an unnamed tong fighter who believes he deserves to be forgotten. The photographer allows each spirit to possess him, so a single singer carries every voice.
The refrain gives the finale its title: to forgive is to begin to remember. The closing funeral procession quotes the Chinese dirge Āiyuè, offering the victims the farewell they were denied.
Read aloud in the Third Interlude, each answered by a single viola pitch: Ah Wing · Gene Tong · Chang Wan · Leong Quai · Ah Long · Wan Foo · Tong Wan · Ah Loo · Day Kee · Ah Waa · Ho Hing · Lo Hey · Ah Won · Wing Chee · Wong Chin · Johnny Burrow · Ah Cut · Wa Sin Quai
For 150 years, one bronze plaque marked the massacre. Now the city is building its first full memorial, a bestselling novelist has brought the story to a national readership, and LA28 will put Los Angeles history in front of a global audience. The 2027–28 and 2028–29 seasons sit right in that window.
In one night the mob killed 18 of about 200 Chinese residents of Los Angeles. The mob itself, about 500 people, was close to a tenth of the whole town.
The planned memorial places 18 granite banyan trunks on the former Calle de los Negros, one per victim, with satellite sites from El Pueblo to Union Station. The 1871 Memorial Project is raising $12 million to finish it before the Games.
Lisa See · Scribner · June 9, 2026
The New York Times bestselling author's new novel builds to the night of October 24, 1871. Dr. Chee Long Tong, the herbalist at the center of Let Me Go!, appears in both works. See also serves on the board of the 1871 Memorial Project.
Sources: 1871 Memorial Project · LA28 · Publishers Weekly · Los Angeles Times
Three-time Grammy winner, including the 2021 Best Classical Solo Vocal Album for Ethel Smyth's The Prison, and a founding member of Roomful of Teeth. Appears with major orchestras across the U.S. and Europe. Assistant Professor of Voice at Vanderbilt's Blair School of Music.
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Founding violist of the Afiara Quartet and later violist of the Alexander String Quartet; former associate principal viola of the Auckland Philharmonia. Juilliard-trained, with recordings on Naxos, CPO, and Dacapo. Assistant Professor of Viola at Blair.
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Korean American pianist and first-prize winner of the Olga and Serge Koussevitzky Young Artists Awards. Has appeared with the Houston and New Jersey symphonies and at the Kennedy Center and Weill Recital Hall. Assistant Professor of Piano at Blair.
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Chinese-American composer whose work addresses identity, violence, and erased histories. Recipient of the 2025 BMI Foundation Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Award for Silent Theater. Performed by the Chicago Symphony Civic Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, and Albany Symphony. Doctoral candidate at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
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Director and playwright, originally from Taiwan, whose work explores diaspora, power, and immersive storytelling. Affiliated with the Museum of Chinese in America, he conceived the libretto for The Ghosts of Chinatown—the photographer whose images catch the wandering ghosts of the massacre. MA in Performance Studies, New York University.
WebsiteFrom the Vanderbilt premiere: student research displays, community conversations, and the audience response.
The staging is spare by design: two playing zones, a work table for the photographer's darkroom, and an isolated chair downstage where each possession takes place. A full stage plan and tech rider are available on request.
Dates are open for the 2027–28 and 2028–29 seasons. Email your preferred dates, venue, and I'll reach out to discuss more details.
daix@daixcompose.comMore about the composer at daixcompose.com