Welcome back everyone to another episode of the China History Podcast,

Lauslle Montgomery coming to you for the 205th time. You know lately immigration has been more of a front

and center issue than usual here in the US as I record

this anyway for many of us who think these times we live in are so cold and

heartless.

Well, historically, it's really sort of business as usual.

A new chapter and an old story.

We tend to view things through the prism of events that happen in our own lifetime or maybe

as far back as the generation before us.

You know, that's the history most familiar to us.

But history has been repeating and rhyming for as long as it's been recorded.

And so, I wanted to tell you a story from the annals of Chinese American history. It takes place during the exclusion years, 1882 to

1943. The backstory for these times have been told and re-told in past CHP episodes, this tale had a twist to it that sort of appealed to me.

That is, the story took place in a rather obscure part of a state that usually doesn't get the top billing it deserves

when discussing Chinese American history.

That's right.

I'm talking about the Beaver State, the ninth biggest state in the country, admitted to the Union

on Valentine's Day 1859, the State of Oregon.

But our story doesn't take place in the Chinatown of Portland or anywhere near the Pacific Coast. No, this one takes place 260 miles to the east in that geographic slice of Oregon sandwiched in between the Umatilla and

Malherd National Forests. The closest city that may come to mind around those

parts isn't even in Oregon.

It's Walla Washington.

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