MONTEREY PARK, Calif. (AP) — For decades, Monterey Park has been a haven for Asian immigrants seeking to maintain a strong cultural identity — and a culinary heaven worth visiting for anybody near Los Angeles craving authentic Asian cuisine.
Signs across the vibrant suburb are written in English and Chinese. Families raise bilingual children. And residents in their golden years enjoy karaoke, the Chinese tile game mah jong and — as the outside world learned last week after a horrific mass shooting — ballroom dancing.
“It’s a very quiet, humble place. And we mind our own,” says Denny Mu, a second-generation American who runs the popular Mandarin Noodle House started by his grandfather.
That sense of peace was shattered after a gunman killed 11 people in their 50s, 60s and 70s and wounded nine others last Saturday during a Lunar New Year celebration at the Star Dance Ballroom. But while residents of the tight-knit community work through the trauma — just as they did during the coronavirus pandemic, when anti-Asian sentiment rose nationwide — the tragedy has only sharpened their feelings about what makes Monterey Park so special, and worth protecting.
Kristina Hayes, who started staging tango events at Star Ballroom when the studio reopened after the pandemic, said dance is “hugely important” for Monterey Park’s seniors.
“It’s a pastime, hobby and even competitive — but in the best way possible.”
Mu, whose restaurant is known for its scallion pancakes and beef noodle soup, said he has no plans of leaving Monterey Park, and believes the slowdown in visitors over the past week will be fleeting.
“It’s the food mecca, especially if you like any sort of Asian food,” said Mu, who is Chinese.
Monterey Park’s transformation to a predominantly Asian city was the brainchild of Fred Hsieh, a Chinese immigrant who was also a savvy real estate developer. He is credited with first coining the city’s nickname of the “Chinese Beverly Hills.” In the ’70s and ’80s, he used that phrase in Asian newspapers abroad to lure people from Hong Kong and Taiwan to the land of opportunity. He cleverly highlighted the city’s area code, 818. In Chinese culture, the number eight is seen by some as a symbol of prosperity and good fortune.
When Hiseh died in 1999, Monterey Park had at the time become the only U.S. city with an Asian-majority population, with 65% Asian residents, according to an Associated Press obituary. Today, nearly 70% of the…