Help Build the Eureka Chinatown Monument

The Humboldt Asian and Pacific Islanders in Solidarity (HAPI) and the City of Eureka are proud supporters of the Eureka Chinatown Project (ECP), which seeks to honor the history and culture of the first Chinese people in Humboldt County, CA. The City of Eureka identified the corner of 1st and E Streets in Old Town Eureka where a permanent Chinatown monument could be constructed. Our need is to raise funds to build the monument; the City has offered in-kind assistance and future maintenance. With design, permitting, structural engineering, and construction, the monument will cost approximately $250,000 and HAPI has raised about 67% so far. ALL funds raised through this Gofundme will be directed to the monument.

HAPI, the City of Eureka, and ECP supporters envision a public art installation that honors the residents of the former Eureka Chinatown, remembers the 1885 Chinese expulsion and banishment for 70 years, and celebrates the growth of a vibrant and diverse community.

This monument exemplifies how past actions can be acknowledged and reframed with present day grace, compassion, and beauty in the form of public art, education, and poetry. We seek to give a voice to those silenced and erased by expulsion and tell their story.

Through the ECP, we have deepened our understanding of the familial ties between Chinese people and local tribes. Biracial Chinese and Native American people survived atrocities of Humboldt County’s 19th and 20th centuries. The monument will also celebrate their endurance and the familial connections between the Chinese people and local tribes.

We could break ground as soon as Summer 2024 at the corner of 1st and E Streets. An exciting development is the recent surfacing of 1884 Eureka title maps (one year before the 1885 Chinese expulsion). We now know that the monument site is central to numerous historical Chinese wash houses, laundries, and dwellings.

Thank you for considering a donation, taking a stand against racism, and supporting the Eureka Chinatown Monument. Please share this fundraising link and information.

“Doh jeh!” (thank you in Cantonese).

MONUMENT DESIGN

The monument is designed to be walked through and is accessible by people who are vision or mobility challenged. A visitor may experience learning without talking, feeling emotions that will vary depending on their race and unique individual background.

Elements of the monument include:

• A tile “river” timeline with nine concrete “stone” markers symbolizes the changing populations of Chinese residents in Eureka over time. At the beginning, marker heights rise representing the growing Chinese community from the 1850s to 1880s. Markers then become flat to represent the 1885 forced expulsion and the subsequent 70 years of banishment. Marker heights rise again for Asian people returning to Humboldt from the mid-1950s to present and including all who support and hope for an inclusive community.

• Each stone marker will be inscribed with a Chinese character and corresponding English word that describes the journey of Eureka Chinese resident and include: Hope (for opportunity), Gold Mountain, Chinatown, Expulsion, Resistance, Resilience, Return, Community and Hope (for inclusive future).

• A moon gate arch is a central focal point, symbolizing family completeness, cohesiveness, and return home. In an instance of good fortune and serendipity, one of the biracial Chinese and tribal families is surnamed Moon.

• A ginkgo tree and ginkgo leaves symbolize remembrance, and a magnolia tree and flowers symbolize perseverance, dignity, luck and stability.

• A commissioned poem written by a local Chinese American poet will be engraved onto metal reader-boards and asks, “How do we talk without words?”

• An interpretive panel will provide an overview of Eureka’s Historical Chinatown and links for more information.

Find out more about the Eureka Chinatown Project and monument at:

https://www.hapihumboldt.org/eureka-chinatown-project