Names have power. To a community, it is the greatest connection to its people’s culture, heritage, and values.

Thanks to the advocacy of CAPU last year, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names approved the change of the racially offensive name “Chinaman Gulch” in Chafee County to “Yansing Gulch” (Cantonese for “resilience”).

We are pleased to share the latest update. As of January 2023, the Bureau of Land Management has replaced the old sign with the newly adopted name “Yansing Gulch.”

Here are some comments from some of CAPU board members who championed for the new name.

“As in resilience in the face of adversity.” – Dr. William Wei (who is also a member of the Colorado Geographic Naming Advisory Board).

“Renaming Chinaman Gulch “is only a small step towards ending the prejudice, bigotry, and bias towards the AAPI community that has been propagated through the years by racial slur, hate speech, and false narratives.” – Dr. Soon Beng Yeap.

“I think it’s so important to not just reach out the community and give lip service and check a box … but to choose the right language and choose an appropriate word and to choose a name that is inspirational and aspirational and covers all the bases, really, of injustices of past and current hopeful … feelings about race and culture in the country.” – Gil Asakawa.