PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) – On the morning of March 12, 73-year-old Xinmin Liang was attacked while fishing by the Portland waterfront. He said a random man picked up a thick log and started hitting him in the head, leaving him with a concussion and a broken arm.
The incident was enough to prompt the local Asian American community to take action.
On Saturday, April 6 at 2 p.m., 18 Asian American organizations will host a gathering at Tom McCall Waterfront Park to show unity, and to prompt law enforcement to catch the perpetrators of such acts.
“Waterfront Park is a public park, we should feel safe to visit there any time, no matter you go fishing or go walking,” said Iris Zhao, the Program Director for community events with the Chinese Friendship Association of Portland. “We feel in this public place it’s so unsafe for us, especially volatile for the Asian community.”
She said the incident represents a trend of violence against Asian Americans over the past few years.
“Since the pandemic, the Asian hate crime, based on our reports, you can see it’s on the rise,” Zhao said.
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On Sunday, she joined a call with other local Asian American group leaders over Zoom to discuss the purpose of the event.
“This is the most beautiful city and most peaceful city, is what I feel, but recently that changed,” said Heyou Lin with the Hoy Yin Association.
Olivia Jhao with the Lung Kong Tin Yee Association said she fears for her daughter growing up in Portland when these types of incidents take place.
“We’ve had a lot of Asian people get hurt, get beat up for no reason,” she said.
This comes nearly a year after Japanese diplomat Yoshioka Yuzo was attacked in the Southwest Park Avenue area, and two years after a man was charged with a bias crime for punching a young girl and her father (both of Japanese descent) near the Hawthorne…
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