by Roxanne Ray
(This article was previously published at International Examiner and has been reprinted with permission.)
Tacoma Method, the benign-sounding name of a new full-length opera composed by Gregory Youtz with libretto by Zhang Er, actually refers to a much more violent period in Tacoma’s history. In 1885, the mayor and prominent citizens of Tacoma decided that they had a “Chinese Problem,” and on November 3, 1885, they chose to forcibly expel their Chinese community at gunpoint, terming that action “the Tacoma Method” of creating a white city in what was then Washington Territory.
Continue reading Opera ‘Tacoma Method’ Takes On the Violent Expulsion of Chinese in Tacoma in 1885