Courtesy photo
Sue Fawn Chung
Sunday, May 23, 2021 | 2 a.m.
When Sue Fawn Chung arrived in Las Vegas in the mid-1970s, there weren’t many other Asians in the valley.
Of the town’s roughly 125,000 residents, only 0.7% were of Asian descent, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. One of those was Chung, a Chinese American from Los Angeles who arrived to start her tenure as a professor at UNLV.
“Many times, I was the only Asian person in a large gathering,” she said. “In professional meetings, I was the only woman. All of that has changed. We are making some progress.”
Chung, who is widely considered the area’s authority on Chinese-American culture and history, is this year’s Scholar in Residence at the Neon Museum. She is leading the museum’s eighth-annual Scholar in Residence program, an education forum bringing discussions, presentations and lectures to residents.
Chung at 7 p.m. Wednesday will host “Sinology and Sin City: A Brief History of the Chinese in Las Vegas” via Zoom as part of the program. She will discuss the migration of Chinese labor to Las Vegas, which was then a railroad town; the growth of Chinese restaurants and entertainment on the Strip; and the Chinese-American population here.
The Las Vegas area now has more than 2 million residents, 6.86% of whom are Asian.
“My goal is try to make people aware of what Chinese Americans have done in the development of Las Vegas,” she said. “They are seldom recognized for their contributions.”
One of those notable families was Wing and Lilly Fong.
Wing Fong, a banker, businessman and civic leader, operated Fong’s Garden on East Charleston Boulevard for nearly a half-century. He arrived in Las Vegas in 1939 to live with his uncles and didn’t speak English. He went from dishwasher to running multiple businesses and becoming a community leader.
Wife Lilly Fong was an education pioneer, serving as the first Chinese-American schoolteacher and later becoming the first to serve on the State Board of Regents. And on Saturdays, she would give free lessons in Chinese. A grade school is named after her in northwest Las Vegas.
“They loved the Las Vegas community,” Chung said.
Chung’s presentation comes at a time when anti-Asian hate crimes have increased at an alarming rate, especially with the coronavirus originating in China and former President Donald Trump adding fuel to the fire by calling it the “China Virus.” Hate crimes in America’s largest cities increased by 149% against Asians in 2020, according to a study by California State University, San Bernardino.
While the threats have intensified against Asians, it’s nothing new, Chung said.
“It started way back when the Chinese first came to the U.S. because they were viewed as an economic threat,” she said.
Chung, professor emerita at UNLV, earned degrees from UCLA, Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley, before arriving in Las Vegas to help grow the university’s history department in a nearly 40-year tenure. Professors like Chung and close friend Felicia Campbell, who died in 2020, were considered trailblazers at UNLV. Campbell was the first faculty member to teach African-American and Asian literature.
“Everything was so new. That was one of the beauties of UNLV,” Chung said of the university that opened in 1957. “Everyone was wonderful at UNLV. Las Vegas just had so much to offer.”
Chung eventually became the history department's chairperson and also worked as the university’s director of international program. She made her mark in the community by being part of the Nevada Board of Museums and History, and the National Endowment for the Humanities grants committee, and serving as a consultant for the U.S. Forest Service, according to a news release.
Her discussion at the Neon Museum, which will be the first in its Scholar in Residence program since the outset of the pandemic, won’t be the first time she’s detailed the contributions of the Chinese. She’s also assisted in many museum and media presentations, including serving as executive producer of Vegas PBS documentary “Island Mountain Days.”
She’s an accomplished writer on the topic, including winning the Bancroft Award for books about diplomacy or the history of the Americas. She has also won the Schmiedel Award for Community Service, the Lion’s Club Outstanding Educator Award, and the Nevada Humanities Outstanding Nevadan Award, the release said.
Needless to say, she’ll be in her element talking about the topic. It’s something she’s been doing for decades “because so few Americans knew about the culture and civilization. And if they did, it was wrong information. In 1980, only 2% could find China on a world map. Now, more and more people are learning about China, and that’s exciting for me.”
Register for the virtual presentation here.
