A4
THE ASTORIAN • SATuRdAy, NOvEmbER 13, 2021
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
DERRICK DePLEDGE
Editor
Founded in 1873
SHANNON ARLINT
Circulation manager
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WRITER’S NOTEBOOK
Tending to the garden
O
n a blustery day, I walked up the
leaf-covered steps to the Garden of
Surging Waves. It was bliss.
The garden has grown up. The trees lin-
ing one of its borders make it feel tucked
away. A refuge from the city.
The water from recent rains had puddled
next to beachy grass surrounding the mid-
dle of the park. A homeless
man sat on the far end with
his back resting against the
stones.
While the plants around
the garden have matured,
its message honoring Asto-
ria’s Chinese immigrants
JONATHAN
remains regal. The gar-
WILLIAMS
den is a journey. History is
embedded there. Rail ties
pay homage to the Chinese who built rail-
roads. Long pavers remember the wood
planks Chinese worked on at canneries.
As the text near the gate of the park
states, “Immigrants, rich in their home cul-
tures, values and sensibilities, ventured into
a foreign land. In 1811, Astoria and Canton,
China, met. Stories were shared and passed
on to generations.”
It is these stories that have so moved
the garden’s designer, Suenn Ho. And she
wants people to keep telling them.
“We gave Astoria a town square that
was never there before,” she said. “We are
able to see many, many of the events, cele-
brations, quiet moments, taking place at this
very, very special little urban square. And it
is the living room that people can laugh, cry
and ponder.”
Ho, an urban designer and principle
at RESOLVE Architecture + Planning, is
deeply attuned to the nuances of stories,
memories and history. She sees the col-
lective power of it and grows that sense of
energy in the garden.
In October, Ho was among two others
on the virtual panel discussion, “Hidden
Histories: Deconstructing the Chinese Asto-
rian Experience,” organized by the Portland
Chinatown Museum.
It was a powerful discussion.
The talk, which is available online, pro-
vided a window into the history of Asto-
ria’s Chinatown, how the Chinese were the
essential backbone of the wildly successful
cannery businesses, and the unfair obstacles
the Chinese faced in exclusionary laws and
racial prejudice. It also made clear how this
Colin Murphey/The Astorian
Suenn Ho gives a tour of the Garden of Surging Waves in Astoria.
history isn’t widely known and has been
minimized.
A slideshow presentation from Liisa
Penner, the archivist at the Clatsop County
Historical Society, was instructive in its
scope and breadth of Astoria’s Chinese
history.
Penner presented powerful visuals in the
form of photographs, newspaper clippings
and maps. Chinese laboring in canneries.
Living in bunkhouses. Operating businesses
like clothing and grocery stores. Playing in
a band.
Astoria had 13 Chinese residents in
1870. A decade later, there were more than
1,000 in the city and over 2,000 across Clat-
sop County. This went down significantly
in later years because of the Chinese Exclu-
sion Act of 1882.
About this same time, DeWitt Clinton
Ireland, the publisher of the Tri-Weekly
Astorian, claimed the Chinese were taking
the jobs of white people. Sound familiar?
“He argued the money the Chinese
earned was draining out of this country
and going to China,” Penner explained.
“He wrote, ‘It is foolish to spend time and
money in the work of educating a horde of
inferior people.’ His beliefs were shared by
many others.”
Other newspapers wrote about form-
ing anti-Chinese organizations, encouraging
people to patronize businesses hiring only
white people and cutting the Chinese’s pig-
tails off if they were arrested.
“We need to learn from history,” Ho
said. We need to learn from history in a way
that history comes in the form of written
words. Who wrote them? Who gives you
the view and who is able to tell you how
things happened? ... And sometimes I think
we forgot the voices of the people who
were there were not heard and so the his-
tory becomes obscured.”
As Ho later mentioned, when they
began planning the Garden of Surging
Waves, many of the local Chinese that were
interviewed were reluctant to talk about
unpleasant times. What really got them
talking? Stories of their families.
Many had much to be proud of. Art
Chan was the official photographer for the
Miss Oregon pageant. Duncan Law had a
seafood lab named after him. Dave Lum’s
family owned the Lum Quing Grocery. He
went on to be one of the first few Chinese
teachers in Oregon and owner of Lum’s
Auto Center.
These are names many will know. Some
of them are dear friends to my parents and
grandparents. They represent the best of
Astoria. But, as Ho and this panel make
clear, there are others whose stories aren’t
as well known. They should be.
A wall of collected quotes at the garden
gives space to consider Chinese Astorian’s
histories in their own words. It gives the
affect, as Ho described, of being on a bus
and hearing many people talking.
“many admired her ability to raise her
son during a time when of Asian descent
was a social obstacle.”
“He repaired clocks with great skills
& built cuckoo clocks with everyday
materials.”
“my grandfather brought home salmon
cheeks a delicacy to the Chinese but a
waste to the cannery owners.”
“my mother graduated with a college
degree but Chinese women seldom had job
opportunities so she settled for a house-
keeping offer.”
Ho believes we can develop a higher
level of empathy. I do, too.
What can people do now to support the
garden and keep these stories alive?
While much of Astoria’s Chinatown
was destroyed, parts of it were located near
Bond Street. You can see the recent Chinese
mural made by high school students next to
Children’s Park near the post office.
You can visit the garden. It’s free. If you
can, donate online at astoriachineseheritage.
org (there are also videos about Astoria’s
Chinese history to watch). You can also
visit the Clatsop County Historical Soci-
ety’s new exhibit, “Blocked Out: Race and
Place in the Making of Modern Astoria,”
which curator Chelsea Vaughn, who was
also part of the panel, has helped organize.
You can stay engaged with the park by
telling Astoria city councilors what should
go in the pit and parking area next to it.
Maybe even suggest cultural events to have
at the park.
As Ho puts it best: “A square is only
a square if we don’t put in some heart
and soul into how to make it beyond just
a place. And if we look deeper, there are
many stories, many different materials,
many colors, many textures, and they’re
all different. All in the same place. Just
like any community. And if we are able to
say a community is only rich and wealthy
if we embrace everybody’s differences, I
think we’re going to have a great place to
celebrate.”
Jonathan Williams is the associate editor
of The Astorian.
AS SuENN HO PuTS IT bEST: ‘A SQuARE IS ONLy A SQuARE IF WE dON’T PuT IN SOmE
HEART ANd SOuL INTO HOW TO mAKE IT bEyONd JuST A PLACE. ANd IF WE LOOK dEEPER,
THERE ARE mANy STORIES, mANy dIFFERENT mATERIALS, mANy COLORS, mANy TEXTuRES,
ANd THEy’RE ALL dIFFERENT. ALL IN THE SAmE PLACE. JuST LIKE ANy COmmuNITy. ANd IF WE
ARE AbLE TO SAy A COmmuNITy IS ONLy RICH ANd WEALTHy IF WE EmbRACE EvERybOdy’S
dIFFERENCES, I THINK WE’RE GOING TO HAvE A GREAT PLACE TO CELEbRATE.’
WRITER’S NOTEBOOK
A light on our democracy
I
magine this page was blank except for
one question: “What if there were no
local reporters?” That was the front-
page question posed by our friends at Pam-
plin Media last week.
It’s a good question and regardless of
how you get local news — by watching
TV, listening to local radio or reading a
story in the newspaper or on a news orga-
nization’s website — it’s not hyperbole
to say communities suffer when there is
no local news coverage or
when independently owned
media companies are gob-
bled up by hedge funds
that gut newsrooms.
And it’s a timely ques-
tion because there is a
bipartisan provision in the
HEIDI
federal budget reconcilia-
WRIGHT
tion bill working its way
through Congress that will
give media companies a temporary pay-
roll tax credit to hire and retain journalists.
Oregon’s U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden chairs the
Senate Finance Committee that will have a
great deal of say on whether this provision
makes it through to the finish line.
Wyden is a co-sponsor of the bill writ-
ten by U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.
Being the son of a prominent journalist, he
is a longtime champion of a free press. In
a recent interview with the Seattle Times,
Wyden responded to a question about the
potential for some to dislike government
helping the press. He said, “This is not
the government putting its hand on certain
types of speech. This is about generally
empowering local journalism in a big way.
By the way, there are plenty of local jour-
nalism outlets that span across the political
spectrum, left, right, center, you name it.”
On the House side, the bill was co-au-
thored by U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse,
R-Wash., and U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpat-
rick, D-Ariz., and is strongly supported by
two key Oregon representatives — U.S.
Rep. Peter DeFazio and U.S. Rep. Earl
Blumenauer.
For anyone who follows the chal-
lenges of media companies and the reality
of growing news deserts around the coun-
try, this temporary tax credit known as the
Local Journalism Sustainability Act is a
welcome relief that will directly aid news
gathering organizations, including an esti-
mated 113 newsrooms in Oregon. It’s the
only piece — some would say the most
important piece — left of an original three-
part proposal intended to stabilize and
reform an industry upended by the deadly
trio of Google, Facebook and the coronavi-
rus pandemic.
The tax credit sunsets in five years, giv-
ing media companies a reasonable time
frame to build a sustainable business
model that supports local journalism in
the internet age. It also sends a message to
young people that journalism is a career
worth pursuing where there will be jobs
available with those companies that make
the successful transition.
Numerous studies show what happens
in communities where there’s no profes-
sionally trained journalists asking ques-
tions and accurately reporting on what is
happening at a local level: government
waste and potential for corruption by pub-
lic officials increases, voter turnout drops
and communities find it harder to solve
their own problems. News deserts cre-
ate democracy deserts, especially in rural
communities.
If you are reading this and want to help,
Hailey Hoffman/The Astorian
Communities suffer when there is no local news coverage.
email our Oregon congressional delegation
and let them know you support keeping the
Local Journalism Sustainability Act tem-
porary tax credit in the budget reconcilia-
tion package.
U.S. Senate
• U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden ron_wyden@
wyden.senate.gov
• U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley senator@
merkley.senate.gov
U.S. House of Representatives
• U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (Dis-
trict 1) congresswomanbonamici@mail.
house.gov
• U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz (District 2) cliff.
bentz@mail.house.gov
• U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (District
3) earl.blumenauer@mail.house.gov
• U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (District 4)
peter.defazio@mail.house.gov
• U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader (District 5)
kurt.schrader@mail.house.gov
Heidi Wright is chief operating officer
for EO media Group and the publisher of
The bulletin in bend. She serves as trea-
surer for America’s Newspapers, an indus-
try group representing more than 1,600
newspapers across the country.