Documenting immigrants' impact

Vancouver filmmaker Beth Harrington is working on a new documentary titled “Kam Wah Chung,” about a general store run by two Chinese men in John Day, Ore. (STEVEN LANE/The Columbian)

This historic photo of Ing Hay, the herbalist at a John Day, Ore., store run by two Chinese men, will be used in Beth Harrington’s documentary, “Kam Wah Chung.”

From the outside, this ramshackle building in downtown John Day, Ore., offers no hint of the surprises inside, other than the obscure hand-painted sign that reads, "Kam Wah Chung & Co."

That's one of the reasons that for 20 years after the last owner died this place rested undisturbed, a trove preserved by metal shutters, the nondescript appearance and its location in a remote rancher community between Bend, Ore., and Idaho.

When the building finally was opened back up and examined, right before it was scheduled to be demolished, John Day officials discovered an amazing collection of artifacts inside that helps to illustrate the impact of Chinese immigrants on the establishment of the American West.

Volunteers raised $1.5 million to convert the place into a museum. They successfully lobbied for its designation as a National Historic Landmark, and Kam Wah Chung is open for business again, with guided tours offered from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily during the summer. Vancouver filmmaker Beth Harrington has documented this building's strange history and resurrection for Oregon Public Broadcasting. That film will debut Thursday as part of the station's "Oregon Experience" series.

"The quirkiest part," Harrington said, "is that this place was just so full of stuff. It was as if the people living there had just walked out the door a few minutes ago, and you were just walking in and missed them. It feels like they are still there. … It was like opening a time capsule."

Those former residents, Harrington learned, were a couple of Chinese immigrants named Ing "Doc" Hay and Lung On, who came to Eastern Oregon as miners during the Gold Rush of the late 1880s.

Christy Sweet, curator of the historic site, said the Chinese population in John Day rapidly grew during that time period until 2,000 of the town's 3,000 people were Chinese immigrants. Chinatowns meanwhile were being erected throughout Eastern Oregon, while the Chinese Exclusion Act restricted women and children from coming to this country, creating a bachelor society frozen in time as a single generation of influx.

Hay and On apparently met in the mines, became friends and decided to become business partners to pursue other interests. They bought the Kam Wah Chung building, a name which reportedly translates to "Golden Flower of Prosperity."

Hay was a master in pulse diagnosis, who started an herbal medicine practice. On ran several businesses, including the first car dealership in Eastern Oregon, which also reportedly was the first Chinese automobile dealership in the United States.

"Everyone talks about assimilation, how someone comes to this country and is changed by the experience," Harrington said. "But we don't always factor in that other people come in contact with these immigrants, and they get changed, too."

The 1,250-square-foot Kam Wah Chung structure served as a general store, community center, temple and apothecary, with Hay's remedies necessitating jars filled with snakes, feathers and a bear's claw. Chinese epigrams - good-luck sayings and proverbs - cover the walls, and large altars pay tribute to Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. Both men also lived here, in small attached bedrooms. There was a hand pump for water but no toilets or showers.

"This is part of the forgotten history of the West," Sweet said. "The stereotype is that the Chinese worked on the railroads and worked in the mines. But they also developed the communities. Doc and On became very rich in what they did. They really made a life here, and they became well respected." They were known for healing people from throughout the region, enterprising entrepreneurship and always having pieces of candy on hand for children that came by their shop.

On died in 1940, and Hay died in 1952. After that, Sweet said, the doors were locked, and the place essentially was forgotten about until the mid-1970s, when the city decided to tear down several structures in that area of town to build a park.

When the building was reopened, curious town officials found a wok still on the stove, dirty dishes still in the sink and a shop filled with thousands of items that reflected a splice of time. It was like no other collection of Chinese artifacts in the West, because the items had been preserved in their original setting.

Harrington said she tried to stay focused in the film on "what the personalities of these guys were like, how they really negotiated this world. … Unlike the stereotypes of the laundry guy, or the cook, these were tough guys, weathered a lot in China by famine and war. They came here for survival."

Harrington's last "Oregon Experience" program was "Searching for York," about the man enslaved to William Clark on the Lewis and Clark expedition. That film has been nominated for two regional Emmy awards, including one for best historical/cultural program, with the ceremony upcoming on May 30.

"I think it's important to visit other time periods, to look at what contributions people have made," Harrington, 53, said. "I knew a little about the Chinese and mining and the Chinese and the railroads, but I didn't know anything about a guy like Doc Hay, who became the center of medicine in Eastern Oregon."

Each story represents a different perspective, Harrington said, then added, "And sometimes we lose sight of that, when we talk about the vast seas of immigration. When we look at these stories closely, we can see how unusual the individuals can be."