OHQ on the Road Program: Searching for Salem’s Early Chinese Community

Thursday, June 30, 2022 7:00 pm – 8:30 PM
Free and Open to the Public
Searching for Salem’s Early Chinese Community
In partnership with the Oregon Historical Quarterly

Individuals of Chinese heritage have been living and working in the Salem area since at least 1860. Despite this long history, little research had been done to document and share their stories. Several community-wide projects in the past five years have been working to change that. A local advisory committee, including historians, members of Salem’s Chinese community, representatives from the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, the Hoy Yin Association, Friends of the Salem Pioneer Cemetery, and Willamette University helped advise an archaeological team in uncovering a funerary table in Salem’s Pioneer Cemetery, one of very few physical remnants of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century community. Together, the project committee and today’s Salem Chinese community reinstated the funerary table’s use in a revived annual Qingming festival at the cemetery, now in its fifth year. Further research has helped name individuals, families, and businesses and collect photos, maps, and data to help better tell this story in public programs, articles, and exhibits. This program is part of the OHQ on the Road series, with upcoming programs inspired by the Winter 2021 “Chinese Diaspora in Oregon” special issue.

Event link: https://www.ohs.org/events/searching-for-salems-early-chinese-community.cfm