On 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 lining 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 middle 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 Astoria’s Chinese immigrants remains regal. The garden is a journey. History is embedded there. Rail ties pay homage to the Chinese who built railroads. 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 cultures, 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, celebrations, 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 collective 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 Astorian Experience,” organized by the Portland Chinatown Museum.

It was a powerful discussion.

The talk, which is available online, provided a window into the history of Astoria’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 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 Clatsop County. This went down significantly in later years because of the Chinese Exclusion 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 forming anti-Chinese organizations, encouraging people to patronize businesses hiring only white people and cutting the Chinese’s pigtails 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 history 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 skill & 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 housekeeping 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 Society’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.”