Erasure and Reclamation: Centering Diasporic Chinese Populations in Oregon History

Abstract

This essay provides an overview of early Chinese American history and introduces the key themes of the Oregon Historical Quarterly special issue on the Chinese diaspora in Oregon. It asserts that the history of Chinese people in Oregon should be centered within the state’s history because doing so compels a rethinking of Oregon’s earliest waves of colonization and economic, political, and social development. The articles in this special issue illustrate how Chinese people were transnational historical actors, navigating a social and cultural terrain that was often unwelcoming and oppressive. They humanize early Chinese settlers in ways that avoid reliance on, or reinforcement of, Orientalist stereotypes and Eurocentrist assumptions as well as a tendency to reduce Chinese immigrant experiences to either resistance or victimization. Each contribution in this special issue helps undo nearly two centuries of erasure and reclaims the place of Chinese people in the history of Oregon.