Lan Su Garden is a magnificent Ming scholar garden in downtown Portland, Oregon. It opened in 2000, a collaboration between sister cities Portland and Suzhou, hence the name: Lan Su. Photographer and local resident Carol Isaak found refuge there during the Covid pandemic, fell in love with it, and began photographing the oasis through the following seasons and years. The result: her photographic book, Seasons: Lan Su Chinese Garden, published in 2025 by Seattle-based bookstore and publisher Chin Music Press.

Carol and John chat about Lan Su, the Asian-American community in the Northwest, and Suzhou’s rich heritage as a center of book culture and scholar gardens, especially during the Ming dynasty (1368 to 1644).

Also mentioned is the graphic novel We Hereby Refuse: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration by authors Frank Abe, Tamiko Nimura, and illustrators Ross Ishikawa and Matt Sasaki (Chin Music Press, 2021).

To see Carol’s work, including photographs of Lan Su, visit her website.

The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press.

Podcast host Amy Chavez is author of The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island. and Amy's Guide to Best Behavior in Japan.

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