Saturday, April 18, 2026
4-6 pm
(doors open at 3:45 pm)
FREE
Explore a fascinating chapter of the Chinese American experience in California through Echoes of Eureka, a multimedia exploration of history, immigration, and reparations. Eric Tuan’s opera Echoes of Eureka tells the true story of the 1885 expulsion of the Chinese community in Humboldt and their subsequent fight for justice and dignity. The performers are 40 youth voices from the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir, who have presented the piece to critical acclaim in the Bay Area, in Humboldt County in collaboration with AAPI community partners, and on tour in Europe.
The opera will be paired with a screening of Chisato Hughes’ powerful film Many Moons, in which Chinese community members search for survivors of the Humboldt 1885 expulsion and 60 years of enforced exclusion. The only known survivor is Charlie Moon, whose descendants are Native tribal members. Moon’s story is one of those told in Echoes of Eureka.
The screening will be followed by a panel discussion featuring Tuan and Hughes. They will discuss the genesis of the opera and film and explore this little known facet of California’s history.
This program is co-presented by the Oakland Asian Cultural Center and the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir, in partnership with the Humboldt Asians and Pacific Islanders in Solidarity (HAPI), Vox Aurea, the Eureka Chinatown Project and the National Endowment for the Arts. The event is free to attend, but registration is requested at the link below.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
The Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir
The internationally acclaimed Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir (PEBCC) offers children throughout San Francisco’s East Bay an outstanding program of music training and choral performance. Started in 1982 by founding Executive Director Susan Rahl with Artistic Director Emeritus Robert Geary, the Choir has performed with renowned artists including John Denver, Joyce DiDonato, and regional symphony orchestras. In addition to vigorous programming of innovative new music, the Choir is a leading force in international choral activities, with far-reaching collaborations, high marks in competitions world-wide, and the establishment of the Golden Gate International Children’s and Youth Choral Festival in 1991.
Eric Tuan
Recognized for his adventurous programming and passion for musical excellence, Artistic Director and Composer Eric Tuan brings a wealth of experience in the choral arts to the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir. He currently serves as the director of the Stanford Early Music Singers, and served for twelve years as founding Artistic Director of the chamber chorus Convivium and Director of Music at Christ Episcopal Church, Los Altos. Widely commissioned as a composer, Tuan’s choral music frequently draws on his background as the descendant of Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino immigrants to highlight aspects of the AAPI experience.
Chisa Hughes
Chisato (Chisa) Hughes uses film to explore new forms of relating and worldbuilding. Their first film, Many Moons, asks questions about ghosts and placemaking today—looking at the history of Chinese expulsions in Humboldt County, where they grew up, and the webs of relation between Chinese people and Native people that formed out of / despite the violence of settlement. Many Moons premiered at CAAMFest and has since acquired distribution with Third World Newsreel. Chisa will be directing their first fiction screenplay, Behind the Horizon Line, this fall with timetides cooperative—inspired by the work of poet Etel Adnan about borders and their afterlives.