2019
150th Golden Spike Conference
Golden Spike 150 Conference convenes some of the nation’s leading experts on Chinese America to educate, celebrate and commemorate the rich history and numerous contributions the Chinese have made to America.
The Golden Spike Conference is centered around the tremendous contributions that Chinese Americans made to the United States amid the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad linking the resources of the West coast with the people and industries of the East coast. Tens of thousands of Chinese workers were recruited to work on the Central Pacific line originating in Sacramento California and ending at Promontory Point, Utah where it was joined the Union Pacific line by the driving of the Golden Spike.
Salt Lake Acting Company presented a two-night professional Utah premiere of David Henry Hwang’s 1981 play, THE DANCE AND THE RAILROAD
THE DANCE AND THE RAILROAD follows Chinese American migrant laborers during an 1867 strike, in which the migrants are fighting for fair wages and working conditions. Set against this tumultuous backdrop, two men—Lone and Ma—bond over a mutual love for opera. Lone, who has trained all his life in the classic tradition of Chinese opera, continues to practice daily in the mountainside near the railroad work camp. He begins to impart his knowledge to the just slightly younger Ma in an atmosphere where East and West meet–both literally and figuratively.