Even Without a Chinatown, This Man's Mission Is to Keep Denver's AAPI Community Connected

When Adam You immigrated to Colorado in 1991, his Taiwanese roots had him searching for a connection to his cultural heritage. But with no Chinatown in Denver, he needed to find creative solutions. This mission inspired him to become an online blogger, restaurant connoisseur, amateur historian, community organizer, civil advocate and, most important, a central connection for the AAPI community in Denver.

You moved to the Mile High when he was sixteen and got a degree in accounting from the University of Denver. In 2001, he began working for the Internal Revenue Service, but he spends his free time on a variety of endeavors, including managing and writing for his online blog, the Denver Chinese Source, which provides information on Chinese restaurants and happenings in the metro area.

"Denver is not a place like New York or San Francisco, where it is easy to adjust as an immigrant or speak a foreign language. Most of the community organizations are for people who have already lived in this area for a while, but it is difficult for new immigrants to get involved," You explains. "I try to gather and share information with people, especially for new immigrants that have questions and want to build a sense of community."

As a result, You designed the Denver Chinese Source to be an extensive hub of information. It includes tabs for classified ads, community resources, featured local artists, recent events and a restaurant guide in both Chinese and English. For those looking for a quick bite to eat, the website even has an entire section dedicated to Asian restaurant takeout menus.
One of You's main reasons for starting the project was because he noticed that most of the existing Denver Chinese newspapers focused on events transpiring in China, New York or California. "Why was it so rare for me to see these newspapers covering information about Denver?" he recalls asking himself. "This gave me the urge to start my own blog."

Apart from discussing the latest news, You also dedicates his time to uncovering the history of the Chinese community across Colorado. "I want people to know that we are not the first Chinese people here," he says. "Our experiences here are like a repetition of the generations before, and if we don't tell those stories, they will be lost."

He started by exploring the Denver city directory, where he found that the oldest Chinese restaurant listed was Wah Chun, in 1900. However, the major renaming of city streets at the start of the twentieth century became You's biggest obstacle in establishing its exact location. He ended up consulting the historical Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps to aid him in pinpointing its modern address, which he identifies as 2027 Market Street. Eventually, You expanded his search to locate the first Chinese restaurants in Aurora, Colorado Springs, Boulder and Loveland using the same methodology.

To compile all of the information, You created a Google map of all the Denver Chinese businesses in both 1882 and 1913. While the descriptions of each location are in Chinese, it still allows people to garner a sense of where the Chinese community resided in the city over a century ago.
He created a similar map on the Denver Chinese Source called the Asian Restaurant Guide, although it is focused on Asian restaurants that are currently operating. It also includes filters for different cuisines and categories, like bakeries, karaoke, buffets and more. Each of the restaurant names are also listed in English.

Looking at the map, it's clear that putting it together was a time-consuming project, but You regards it as more of a formatting challenge. "For a long time, I used to list out the Asian restaurants for the Chinese community on the Denver Chinese Source. I realized that other people in the community might also find this information useful, so I created a new page where I removed older Chinese characters and put different categories with phone numbers and address."

Many of the restaurant listings also have links to the original articles that You wrote about them, though those are written in Chinese. "I don't have the time to translate," he jokes. "Google has advanced artificial intelligence for language translation. People can just change the language setting and read the article in English."

Additionally, You shares his knowledge about Asian restaurants as an active member of the Crazy Hungry Asians of Colorado Facebook Group. With over 13,000 members, it has been able to reach an audience beyond the Chinese community. In the group, You posts about his adventures locating historical Chinese restaurants, new restaurant openings and his personal recommendations for where to find the best eats.

Aside from his work covering Asian restaurants, You also organized interviews with the candidates for the 2023 Denver mayoral election, which were all posted on the Denver Chinese Source YouTube channel. In the series of videos titled "Conversation With the Asian Community," candidates answered a list of questions regarding their knowledge of the Asian population in Denver and their plans for increasing inclusivity in the city. You's main goal, however, was to have the candidates make a commitment to posting Lunar New Year greetings on their official Facebook pages every year.

"Asians make up about 4 percent of the population in Denver. We want to start talking about why the other 96 percent cares about the 4 percent," he says.

You's involvement across Denver has made him a primary contact for Asian restaurant owners or community members looking for places to advertise or seek information. Even with the extra workload, You doesn't view his activities as a chore or burden. In fact, he still has more plans in mind. "I'd also like to do an Asian Restaurant Week on a greater scale. I just need to sort out the logistics, and it'd be great if we could even involve the upcoming Denver mayor," he says.

While he works a great deal promoting restaurants and activities in the Asian community, You finds satisfaction in the job itself: "I've talked to some of my friends, and they ask me, 'Adam, you already have a busy time doing your main job. Why do you spend so much time doing volunteer work?' I always say that this work is much more important. I want to make sure that we record the footsteps of older Chinese and Asian generations in Denver."