Salem residents celebrate Qing Ming on April 3, 2021 at Pioneer Cemetery (Courtesy photo)
In 2017, as part of an effort to better understand the history of some of Salem’s underrepresented communities, the City of Salem’s Historic Landmarks Commission decided to learn more about Salem’s Chinese community. As a city staff member working with the commission, I began researching.
Ben Maxwell, one of Salem’s local reporters and photographers, had written one of the only histories I could find: “The Chinese in Salem,” published by the Marion County Historical Society in 1961. Maxwell confirmed that Salem did, in fact, have a Chinatown located in our downtown, but I was not able to find any buildings that still remained downtown from this community.
A newspaper article published in 1963, “Shrine Uncovered in Pioneer Cemetery,” provided the first clue that there could be a Chinese Shrine in our Pioneer cemetery.
A March 24, 1963 Oregon Statesman article about the discovery of a Chinese shrine in Salem’s Pioneer Cemetery.
In the picture accompanying the text, Charles Gale, former City of Salem Parks and Recreation director, kneeled near a stone centered on a concrete slab at the Salem Pioneer Cemetery (formerly the Independent Order of the Odd Fellows Rural Cemetery). The stone, made of what looked like marble, had Chinese characters engraved on the face. Was it a grave? A memorial? Why was it covered with debris? Was it still in the cemetery now, almost sixty years later?
This article led to a collaborative public archaeology project at the cemetery and ultimately brought me as far as China and led us to unearth a much larger story below the surface, from quite literally under the dirt.
We discovered the remains of a funerary table, similar to community shrines in their home villages in China right here in Salem. This shrine was used during the Qing Ming festival in the late 1800s, which is the Chinese traditional day for honoring the dead and cleaning headstones.
While Salem’s Chinatown has been lost, this shrine remains, a testament to the connection these early Chinese immigrants retained to their home villages in China and serves as evidence of the Chinese traditions they practiced here in Salem at a time when they were experiencing discrimination and exclusion.
Our Historic Landmarks Commission established an advisory committee in 2017 to assist with this project, with members fromSalem’s Chinese community, the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, the Hoy Yin Association, Friends of the Pioneer Cemetery, Willamette University, the Willamette Heritage Center and other interested historians. This committee made a decision to reinstate the Qing Ming festival in Salem in 2018.
At the first celebration, the names of those Chinese still buried in the cemetery were read by elders from Salem’s Chinese community and Salem’s mayor attended and read a proclamation which called upon the residents of Salem to join in recognizing this Chinese custom with thousands of years of history, confirming that the City of Salem has been a home to the Chinese community since the city’s foundation.
The fourth annual Qing Ming Festival will be celebrated this Saturday at the Pioneer Cemetery with an open house from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Learn more about the event and the history of Qing Ming here.
Editor’s note: This column is part of an effort from Salem Reporter to highlight local history in collaboration with area historians and historical organizations. If you have any feedback or would like to participate in Salem Reporter’s local history series, please contact managing editor Rachel Alexander at [email protected].
JUST THE FACTS, FOR SALEM – We report on your community with care and depth, fairness and accuracy. Get local news that matters to you. Subscribe to Salem Reporter starting at $5 a month. Click I want to subscribe!
