05/28/2026
Ta-da! I’m excited to share the cover of Yung Stands Strong: A Story of Expulsion and Resilience. This is the children’s book I’m writing about the 1885 expulsion of the Chinese from Eureka, California. The book centers on a real girl named Yung who lived in Eureka’s Chinatown and was the only Chinese student in her one-room school.
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The beautiful cover, by Japanese artist Yukari Mishima, shows nine-year-old Yung on one of the two ships that relocated 300 Chinese people from Eureka to San Francisco with just 24 hours notice. And the following illustration depicts Yung and her tuxedo cat, Miu Miu, walking to school.
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Funded by a grant from the California State Coastal Conservancy, the book is part of the Eureka Chinatown Project, an initiative of Humboldt Asians & Pacific Islanders (HAPI). The HAPI team is writing an extensive back section on the history of Chinese immigration to the United States, Eureka’s Chinatown, and Chinese people’s resistance and resilience. The lively book design by Amy Uyeki includes historical maps, old photos, political cartoons and newspaper stories.
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Yung Stands Strong will be printed by Bug Press in Arcata, California and published by The Press at Cal Poly Humboldt. While some of the art and text is still in progress, we are currently on track for a fall release. I’ll let you know when the book is available so you can meet Yung and Miu Miu!
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For more details, see MakinoStudios.com/blog
