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Learn about Salem’s former Chinatown during online event Saturday

Salem residents celebrate Qing Ming on April 3, 2021 at Pioneer Cemetery (Courtesy photo)

Learn about Salem’s early Chinese community during an online event hosted by the Portland Chinatown Museum Saturday.

Registration link. The event runs from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on April 24.

The program will feature new work being done in Salem to uncover the history of its early Chinese American residents. Kimberli Fitzgerald, Salem’s historic preservation program manager, will provide a summary of the excavation of the Chinese Shrine at Salem’s Pioneer Cemetery and Salem’s renewed Qing Ming celebration.

Kylie Pine, curator at the Willamette Heritage Center, will share some of the documents, maps and photos from the museum’s collections helping expand the understanding of Salem’s historical Chinatown.

Panelists Myron Lee, a retired physician, and Juwen Zhang, a professor at Willamette University teaching Chinese, will discuss Salem’s connection to China by sharing history of early immigrants.

It’s the second program in a series titled “Hidden Histories: Oregon’s Early Chinatowns and Chinese Worker Settlements” and made possible by an Oregon Humanities grant

-Saphara Harrell