Longevity

In this Oregon Places feature, authors Christopher Ruiz, Marlene Jampolsky, and Jon Krier explore an unknown chapter of Chinese diaspora history in Eugene, Oregon. Recent construction in downtown Eugene revealed Chinese ceramics associated with a restaurant and gift shop that was operated by Wing Kee Westfall and Marie Westfall from about 1912 to 1928. Local newspaper advertisements and articles indicate they successfully marketed their businesses to a largely Euro-American clientele. As Americans began to embrace exoticized Asian goods and food during the nineteenth century, practicing a form orientalism, they rejected many Asian immigrants, enacting restrictive Chinese exclusion laws codified in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. The story of the Westfalls’ thriving businesses in a community that was almost exclusively Euro-American adds to our understanding of that broader narrative, and Marie Westfall’s story illustrates the changing roles of Chinese women in the United States and abroad

Archaeology · Art · Art history · Chinese americans · Cityscape · Diaspora · Downtown · Immigration · Literature · Media studies · Narrative · Newspaper · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Thriving · Visual arts · Asian American and Pacific Histories · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · History · Law · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy