Here’s how Red Bluff’s Historic Chinatown will celebrate America’s 250th birthday 

For the first time in 118 years, Red Bluff’s Historic Chinatown will be joining the Tehama County Independence Day Parade in a celebration of Chinese American history. 

The event is part of Lion Dance Across America, an initiative hosted by the Chinese Historical Society of America coordinating July 4 performances by dragon and lion dance teams across the nation to celebrate America’s 250th birthday. Lion dance is a traditional form of Asian dance where performers mimic a lion’s movements to bring good fortune and prosperity, most common in Chinese culture. 

Jessica Chew, president of the Helen and Joe Chew Foundation, said the event came about as part of a rediscovery of Red Bluff’s history. The Red Bluff-based nonprofit works to preserve the legacy of Chinese American history in Tehama County through cultural events and educational opportunities. 

“While researching our book, Images of America: Chinese in Tehama County, we uncovered newspaper accounts documenting that members of the Chinese community as far as Redding to Vina, helped Red Bluff’s Chinatown proudly march with the legendary Moo Lung Dragon in the town’s Fourth of July parade in 1908,” Chew wrote in an email. “As America celebrates its 250th birthday, we felt there was no better time to bring that story back to life.” 

Red Bluff, located in Tehama County not far from Redding, historically had a thriving presence of Chinese immigrants that settled in what became known as Red Bluff’s Chinatown during the Gold Rush. The Chinatown closed in 1973, and was later memorialized in 2022 as Historic Chinatown Alley. 

Chew said Red Bluff’s partaking in the Fourth of July parade in Red Bluff holds a particular significance due to Tehama County’s historical inclusion of the Chinese community. She noted that the county allowed Chinese community members to buy property and prosper economically, despite national anti-Chinese and broader anti-Asian sentiment through the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the California Alien Land Law of 1913. 

“For this and our history, we are so grateful to celebrate with the community who has given us generations of happy memories,” she wrote. 

The parade this Saturday will feature a Chinese dragon, and will reenact similar scenes as depicted in the same July 4 parade 118 years ago. 

“More than anything, we hope people leave with a deeper appreciation that American history is made up of many stories,” Chew said. 

The parade will begin at the Los Molinos Veteran Memorial Building at 10 a.m. on July 4. 

Moe Shimizu is a student at Yale University. She’s reporting for Shasta Scout as a 2026 summer intern, with support from the Nonprofit Newsroom Internship Program — created by The Scripps Howard Fund and the Institute for Nonprofit News.

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