Hannah Kanter

UNST109
Dr. Naomi Adiv
March 30, 2016
OHS Field Trip
Portland has hosted and become home to a variety of immigrants since its
incorporation in 1851, and even prior. It is common knowledge within the Portland
community that Portland was built off the backs of immigrants, particularly those hailing
from Southeastern China. However their years of effort to make Portland the thriving city
it became still remains in the landscape of the city. Between 1870 and 1900 Portlands
Chinatown, second to San Francisco, was the largest in the nation. Starting in 1851 with
Hop Wo Laundry and the Tong Sun Boarding House, this ethnic enclave continued to
flourish in step with the rest of the Metropolitan area.
Though much like the Jewish and Italian immigrant communities of Southwest
Portland, the Chinese community was forced to move on multiple occasions. Prior to
visiting the Portland Chinatown exhibit at the Oregon Historical Society, I did not know
that Portlands Chinatown and rural population was forced to relocate. This not only
affected the Chinese communitys living stability, but also their financial livelihood too.
Located in Tanner Creek Gulch was what was known as the Chinese vegetable gardens,
which not only fed the Chinese community, but all of Portlands population. However
beginning in 1893, segments of land where the Chinese community lived and farmed,
was being bought out from underneath them. This caused for more rural farming
community to integrate in to the urban Chinatown located on the Waterfront (SW1st and
2nd Ave, and between SW Washington and Alder St), but ultimately closing their farming
plots.
The state of Portlands Chinese immigrants only further deteriorated, after the fire
of 1873 that left most of Chinatown in ruins. The fire burned 20 city blocks before it was

Hannah Kanter
UNST109
Dr. Naomi Adiv
March 30, 2016
contained. When the area was rebuilt, brick replaced many of the original structures, this
caused for rent and tax to be increased. As Chinese merchants were unable to afford these
increases, more and more Chinese merchants relocated their businesses north if Burnside
Street. As the Chinese population increased, and the demand for housing became more of
an issue, the relocation to what became New Chinatown became more realistic. By 1885
New Chinatown melted in to Old Chinatown spanning a fourteen-city block area.
In the background of these actions, Congress responded to the white working
classs consist agitation of the Chinese immigrants, with the Chinese Exclusion Act 1882.
This Act banned immigration of Chinese laborers into the United States for ten years, and
prevented Chinese resident workers from sponsoring their wives travel to the United
States as well. This resulted in a bachelor working class that indulged in gambling,
prostitution, and opium.
Peirce Lewis explains, that all human landscape has cultural meaning (Lewis1),
which can be seen in how Chinese immigrants congregated in a central area to both
practice and perpetuate their culture. Both practice and cultural perpetuation were
maintained through the upkeep of Chinese temples above businesses for religious
practice, and actively using Chinese as the communitys dominant language throughout
their enclave. Within Portlands formation, the Chinese immigrants were neither the first
nor the last immigrant community to create ethnic enclave to sustain cultural practice.
Though in the case of the Chinese community, they had an especially difficult time
establishing a protected and sustainable enclave. Due to racial prejudice and
environmental factors, their enclave was dissolved, spread, and put back together again
on multiple occasions. However similar to the experiences of the Jewish and Italian

Hannah Kanter
UNST109
Dr. Naomi Adiv
March 30, 2016
immigrant communities, the Chinese community still has a steady and consistent
presence in the current Portland vernacular landscape. Though it has fallen in to what
seems like disrepair, the New Old Chinatown is still a fixture of Chinese culture.
Eventually, much like the Italian Little Italy and Jewish enclave, the population
of Chinatown began to disperse into greater Portland. In 1943, the Chinese Exclusion
Repeal Act was enforced and only further justified the population moving in to Portland
neighborhoods and suburb. This Act also lifted the original restrictions on Chinese
immigration, allowing Chinese immigrants residing in the United States to obtain
citizenship. Additionally, this allowed for second and third generation Chinese residents
to become naturalized citizen, and granted them access to professional careers. However,
Portlands New Chinatown was still a thriving cultural center in the city where many of
the businesses were still sustained and owned by Chinese business owners and their
families.
Words: 727
Works Cited:
Lewis, Peirce F. "Axioms for reading the landscape: some guides to the American scene."
The interpretation of ordinary landscapes: Geographical essays (1979): 11-32. 10
Mar. 2016.
Oregon Historical Society. The Anti-Chinese Movement and Chinese Exclusion."
Portland, OR: Oregon Historical Society, 2016. Plaque.
Oregon Historical Society. Forward: New Chinatown." Portland, OR: Oregon Historical
Society, 2016. Plaque.

Hannah Kanter
UNST109
Dr. Naomi Adiv
March 30, 2016
United States. National Park Service. "Portland New Chinatown/Japantown Historic
District Portland, Oregon." National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the
Interior, n.d. Web. 31 Mar. 2016.