It was standing room only at the Pantages Theater’s rehearsal studio on Feb. 25, as people gathered to learn about the story behind a brilliant new production coming to Tacoma Opera.
Based on true historical accounts and written affidavits, the “Tacoma Method” opera bears the same name as what came to identify the forced expulsion of Tacoma’s Chinese residents in 1885 – the Tacoma Method. The infamous term put Tacoma at the forefront of targeting Chinese Americans in that era, as such expulsions happened in other areas of the west coast as well. [Soloist Hai-Ting] Chinn spoke about the expulsion that happened in her birthplace.
“I grew up in Eureka, California, which very unfortunately took the example of the Tacoma Method and carried it out in Eureka,” she told the audience. “My father was one of the first two Americans of Chinese heritage to move back to the county in the 1970s when there had been no Chinese in the entire county since Eureka carried out the Tacoma Method.” …