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Reviews
DREAMS OF THE WEST: A HISTORY OF THE CHINESE IN OREGON 1850–1950
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edited by Nancy D'Inillo
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| Ooligan Press, Portland, Oregon, 2007. Illustrations, photographs, maps, bibliography, index. 109 pages. $19.95 paper. |
| Who were the pioneers of the American West and where did Chinese immigrants fit into the pioneer history of Oregon? These are the questions members of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA) of Oregon and students and faculty at Portland State University asked in 2002. From that collaborative inquiry, Dreams of the West has become the latest addition to the historiography of Chinese immigration history in Oregon. |
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The book is broken into four chapters, which are framed by regions where Chinese immigrants settled: Astoria, on the Oregon coast; Josephine County, in southern Oregon; John Day, in Eastern Oregon; and metropolitan Portland. Like most studies of the Chinese immigrant experience, Dreams of the West begins in nineteenth-century China amidst political and environmental upheaval. After the first wave of Chinese settled in California, many migrated north to take advantage of new gold strikes in Oregon. |
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The second chapter examines the contributions Chinese immigrants made to the state's mining, fishing, and agricultural industries. Short vignettes printed in the margins demonstrate the role Chinese merchants played throughout the state in supplying immigrants with goods from home and with labor contracting services. |
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In chapter 3, the authors address the rich cultural history that Chinese brought to the state. Similar to the rest of the book, this discussion moves readers from the coast, to eastern and southern Oregon, and into Portland's Chinatown through images of annual celebrations, religious temples and ceremonies, and Chinese theater. |
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The final chapter covers the long history of discrimination against Chinese immigrants in the state. Federal exclusion laws severely limited the number of new immigrants entering the state and denied re-entry to Chinese who had formerly settled in Oregon. Chinese exclusion laws were not removed until 1942, when the United States allied with China in war against Japan. The authors pay special attention to the role Chinese Americans (primarily from Portland) played in the war effort. This is done through the lives of fighting ace Major Arthur Chin and Hazel Ying Lee, two Portland natives who served as pilots during the war. Through their involvement in the war, white Americans began to view Chinese and Chinese Americans as "faithful allies, heroic fighters and tragic victims" (p. 94). |
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This latter discussion adds to recent studies that argue the Second World War marked a generational shift among the Chinese community in Oregon and the United States in general. In many cases, Chinese Americans involved in the war represented what historian K. Scott Wong referred to as a "generation in transition" (Americans First: Chinese Americans and the Second World War, 2005, p. 203). Direct involvement in the war provided many Chinese Americans the chance to demonstrate their patriotism to the United States, challenging exclusion laws that had for so long denied earlier generations access to citizenship. In this way, the war not only changed how white Americans viewed the Chinese population but also shaped the way Chinese Americans viewed themselves. |
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What stands out most about this book is its presentation of materials, its use of bilingual texts, and the collaboration that drove its research, writing, and publication. From cover to cover, both English and traditional Chinese characters are used in order to reach a wider audience than books published in English only. Photographs and short vignettes from periodicals and letters written by Chinese immigrants line the margins. Finally, the initiative of the CCBA of Oregon, Portland State University students and faculty, and Ooligan Press (also located at Portland State University) demonstrates the coming together of different voices, experiences, and expertise to produce scholarship useful to the general public as well as the academic community. Teachers, students, and the public — both in the United States and overseas — will learn much about the broad history of Chinese immigration to the state and the changing nature of the Chinese American community. |
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| Sarah Griffith
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| University of California, Santa Barbara |
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