“Lost Underground” is an 8-episode podcast series exploring the stories of the brave youth of the 1960s-70s Chinese Cultural Revolution. These are true stories based on in-person interviews. The podcast is produced by Storyboards Northwest, a Washington state non-profit organization with a mission to “Preserve and promote oral histories through the arts”. I helped comb through hundreds of pages of background material to narrow the podcast to its current format.
To listen to Lost Underground, click the link below.
In addition to Lost Underground, I had the opportunity to visit Rock Springs, Wyoming, for the 140th Anniversary Commemoration of the Rock Springs Chinatown Massacre with Lost Underground Creator, Cheryll Leo-Gwin, and Director, Gavin Reub.
In 1885, a fight between Chinese and white coal miners in the Rock Springs coal mine resulted in the murder of 28+ Chinese miners. The white miners had decided that the Chinese needed to be driven out of town. Armed men entered Chinatown, shooting as the Chinese offered no resistance and fled. Chinese homes were looted and burned, while many survivors died after fleeing into the desert. Nobody was ever prosecuted for these murders. This massacre exposed the depths of anti-Chinese racism in the US, following the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. It is one of the deadliest outbreaks of anti-immigration violence in US history.
Leo-Gwin is a direct descendant of Leo Pack Jung, one of the few remaining descendants of these Chinese Miners. During the trip, we had the opportunity to learn even more about this tragic history, see the archeological excavation site of Chinatown, visit the mine where the massacre began, and see the unveiling of a new statue memorializing the tragedy.
