nwasianweekly.com
July 12, 2008

The new Chinese Reconciliation Park, near the location of the 1880s Chinese village called Little Canton.

Chinese Reconciliation Park: a place for healing past injustice

By James Tabafunda

Northwest Asian Weekly

Eight 10-foot-tall monoliths now stand at the Chinese Reconciliation Park, near the location of the 1880s Chinese village called Little Canton. These tan-colored, multi-sided stones are in the completed Path of Expulsion and symbolize obstacles faced by Tacoma’s first Chinese immigrants who helped build its railroad.

Red Japanese pine trees will someday provide thick shade over the stones. Panels will soon be installed on the stones, and they will hold the complete story of these victims of hate in 1885.

The four-acre park — located next to Jack Hyde Park overlooking Commencement Bay — was opened to the public during a sneak preview on July 3.

With $2.5 million from individual donors, organizations, foundations and the city, the park’s first stage is nearly complete and features the Grotto of the Tides, a white String of Pearls Bridge and the Path of the Sojourner. These completed areas will be officially opened in the next few months. The Chinese Reconciliation Project Foundation (CRPF) hopes to raise the remaining $6 million needed to complete the park in time for its 2010 grand opening.

In September, the park’s second stage begins with the construction of a parking lot near Schuster Parkway and the installation of a pagoda donated by Chinese sister city Fuzhou. Project manager Jim Brennan of J.A. Brennan Associates, designer George Lim of Tangram Design and architect Joe Wai designed the park to include such features as a garden that reflects southeast China — where the immigrants were from — an international pavilion, classrooms, a reflection pond, a picnic shelter and environmental art.

Taiwan native Theresa Pan Hosley is president of CRPF, a co-sponsor of the park with the city of Tacoma. For the last 16 years, she has worked with several volunteers to create a public space for community healing and multicultural unity.

A former principal at the Tacoma Chinese Language School who now runs two travel agencies in Tacoma and Seattle, she said the finished park will allow its visitors to see a “brighter future and how we can work together, move forward to reconcile what happened in the past.”

The first Chinese residents in Tacoma in the 1860s were considered sojourners. “Even the word ‘sojourner’ was not a good term,” explained Gail Yu, a CRPF board member for the last nine years. “It was often used as an excuse to say these people are not immigrants. They’re supposed to just come and go back home.”

The original idea for reconciliation came from Dr. and Mrs. David Murdoch after they moved to Tacoma in 1982. He believed all must “grieve that injustice in order to let go of it.” A lucky break occurred in 1989: The National Guard donated its waterfront land to the city. In 1992, Murdoch worked with then-City Councilman Robert Evans and former State Rep. Art Wang to convert the donated land into a memorial park.

One year later, the Tacoma City Council formally apologized for the expulsion calling it “a most reprehensible occurrence.” In 1997, then-Gov. Gary Locke, who is a Chinese American, gave a speech supporting reconciliation at CRPF’s first fundraising event.

In Jean Pfaelzer’s 2007 book, “Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans,” she wrote Tacoma Mayor Jacob Weisbach led his city’s anti-Chinese movement in 1885. On the rainy day of Nov. 3, 500 men carrying pistols and clubs ordered the Chinese residents to leave by 1:30 p.m.

“Suddenly, the mob went wild. Rioters began breaking into buildings and ordering people from their homes,” she wrote. At 2 p.m., they forced the city’s remaining Chinese immigrants to march to Lake View Junction, a railroad station, and board a train heading south to Portland, Ore.

For the next four decades, no Chinese were allowed to live in Tacoma. In 1887, Seattle’s Chinese immigrants were forced onto departing ships.

“One of the ways (to reconcile) is to educate people about what happened in the past to prevent it from happening again,” said Yu about the park’s purpose. “We also think it’s important to educate the young generation about the value of diversity and of having diverse cultures and the richness that they give our American life.”

For more information about and to send donations for the Chinese Reconciliation Park, go to www.crpftacoma.org.

James Tabafunda can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.