Press release from Humboldt Asians and Pacific Islanders in Solidarity:

After more than five years of research, planning, organizing, and community effort, Eureka will soon have a permanent place to remember the Chinese community that once called the city home.

Humboldt Asians & Pacific Islanders in Solidarity (HAPI) invites the community to celebrate the grand opening of the Eureka Chinatown Monument on Sunday, October 11, from 1 to 4 p.m. at the monument site on the corner of First and E streets in Old Town Eureka.

This free public celebration marks the culmination of this heartfelt project and will feature music, dance, food, remarks from the Moon family, Eureka Mayor Kim Bergel, and a poetry reading by Daryl Ngee Chinn. There will also be opportunities to learn from local historians about the history the monument commemorates.

The celebration also marks the launch of HAPI project, Yung Stands Strong: A Story of Expulsion and Resilience, a new children’s book about the 1885 expulsion, authored by local writer and artist Annette Makino and illustrated by Yukari Mishima of Hiroshima, Japan. The book draws on historical records and tells its story from the perspective of a nine-year-old girl and her cat, living through the Expulsion of 1885.

The Eureka Chinatown Monument serves as a place of remembrance and education, marking the history of the Chinese community in Eureka and the devastating events of 1885, when the city’s roughly 300 Chinese residents were expelled from their homes. “

The monument provides a physical space to recognize the Chinese community’s contributions and to reflect on the generations of people whose stories have been largely absent from local history,” said HAPI co-founder Sheri Woo, who coordinated the monument project.

Daryl Ngee Chinn’s poem “The Water Book of Questions” is an integral part of the Monument and will be read as part of the monument celebration. The poem asks the powerful questions of what remains when people are driven out, whether a landscape can hold memories, and what it means to create a place to remember when there was no evidence left.

“If we all go away, what remains?” Chinn asks. The monument echoes the question and highlights not only the expulsion but also resilience and hope. The monument looks both back and forward to create a place where future generations can encounter this history, ask questions, hear stories, and consider how the experiences of those who came before continue to shape the community today.

The October 11th celebration will bring together people of many cultures from throughout Humboldt County to mark this significant moment. Chinese lion dancers will perform a special blessing of the monument site at both the beginning and conclusion of the event. Performers include Humboldt Taiko, Humboldt County Lao dancers, White Lotus Cultural dancers and the Eureka High School K-Pop dancers.

The celebration will feature Asian food trucks,, a kids’ zone, and eight informational banners created by the Eureka Chinatown Project. Local historians will be available to share information about Eureka’s historic Chinatown, the 1885 expulsion, and the history of the Chinese community in Humboldt County at an “Ask a Historian” table.

The Eureka Chinatown Monument was formed by HAPI, its supporters and community partners to bring this history into public view. Through research, historic tours, educational programs, public events, and advocacy, HAPI has worked to ensure that the history of Eureka’s Chinatown is not forgotten.

The Eureka Chinatown Monument was made possible by numerous donors and grants from organizations including the California Coastal Conservancy, the California Humanities, Humboldt Area Foundation + Wild Rivers Community Foundation, Social Justice Donors Circle, the Eureka Cultural Arts District, Ink People Center for the Arts and Culture, Keep Eureka Beautiful, Humboldt Botanical Garden, California North Coast Native Plants Society, the City of Eureka, and Deborah Lee Cooper.

For more information, please visit hapihumboldt.org and @hapihumboldt, or email hapi.humboldt@gmail.com