Connect with us

San Francisco, CA

SF Chinatown Steps Up To Save Forgotten Chinese Cemetery

Published

on

SF Chinatown Steps Up To Save Forgotten Chinese Cemetery


A small town in Northern California will soon reclaim its forgotten Chinese immigrant history.

Dutch Flat, an unincorporated rural hamlet along Interstate 80 about 60 miles northeast of Sacramento, was once home to thousands of Chinese immigrants during the Gold Rush era. These days, however, the total population has fallen to only 183—and the local Chinatown and Chinese community have long vanished.

But underground, a piece of Chinese history remains.

Since 2022, a group of activists from San Francisco’s Chinatown who are passionate about preserving Chinese American history has been working with Dutch Flat historians to restore an abandoned 19th century Chinese cemetery, which is now a vacant plot with no visible gravestones.

Advertisement
Two elderly people sit on a log in a forest with incense in the foreground.
People light incense during a ceremony in Dutch Flat on July 4, 2023. | Source: Courtesy Min Xiong Li

“There has been great interest in saving the cemetery,” said David Lei, a leader of the project. “Both the Dutch Flat community and Bay Area Chinese community are working together to make that happen.”

A Rural Chinatown

In the 1850s, many Chinese immigrants settled in Dutch Flat, and the local Chinese population was called “one of the largest” outside of San Francisco. Chinese immigrants worked in restaurants, laundromats, mining, lumber mills and railroad construction—as well as in brothels and gambling dens.

Records show Dutch Flat had 3,500 Chinese residents in 1853, over half its population. A Main Street plaque states “Chinese inhabitants numbered about 2,000” in 1860. Chinese New Year and Ghost Festival—a time of year when restless souls are believed to walk the Earth, according to Chinese lore—were major cultural events at the time.

A black and white picture from 1866 with people and horses on the street.A black and white picture from 1866 with people and horses on the street.
A historic photo shows Main Street in Dutch Flat in 1866. The town had thousands of residents at the time. | Source: HUM Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

However, as in many other Gold Rush towns, racism against Chinese people grew, resulting in Dutch Flat’s first Chinatown getting burned down in 1877. Even as Chinese residents built a second one, they slowly moved away, and when the last Chinese resident in Dutch Flat died in 1933, it presaged the erasure of the town’s Chinese history.

Surprising Findings

Almost a century on, not far from town, the former Chinese burial grounds lie untouched in a hilly pine forest. Families with means often disinterred bodies and sent them back to China, but not every family could afford it, so some of them stayed.

Local husband-and-wife historians Tom and Sarah Fugate have long been aware of the lost Chinese cemetery and thought these Gold Rush pioneers’ stories deserved proper remembrance.

“The Chinese cemetery has been totally ignored,” Tom said. “I thought it was disrespectful.”

Advertisement

Sarah, the president of the Golden Drift Historical Society, a Dutch Flat museum with Chinese history documentation, started to contact Bay Area activists in 2019, sparking a movement to save the cemetery. They also coordinated with local governments and technology firms to conduct ground-penetrating radar checks—which, surprisingly, found over 300 graves.

The conditions of any coffins, caskets or remains are unclear, as these findings are preliminary. However, the Fugates said the area was considered the “Chinese section” of Dutch Flat, so they’re confident that the bodies are those of Chinese Americans. 

Lei also said they may seek permission to dig up some of the graves to verify identities.

A group of people stand for a portrait.A group of people stand for a portrait.
Bay Area activists and Taoist masteres pose for a picture during a ceremony in Dutch Flat on July 4, 2023. | Source: Courtesy Min Xiong Li

On July 4, 2022, and again on July 4, 2023, a group of Bay Area Chinese Americans visited the cemetery, including volunteers from the Chinese American Pioneer Heritage Committee, Chinatown History & Culture Association and the San Jose-based Chinese Historical & Cultural Project.

Masters from the Lotus Taoism Institute, based in San Francisco’s Sunset District, also went to Dutch Flat to perform a traditional Taoist ritual to honor ancestors buried in the town.

Stepping Up With Money

This Sunday, a press conference will be held in San Francisco’s Chinatown to officially kick off the restoration effort. The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, the city’s most historic Chinatown association, has decided to donate $20,000 and the Golden Drift Historical Society will chip in about $6,000.

Advertisement

“We hope to see our history rebuilt in Dutch Flat,” Ding Lee, a board member of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association and longtime Chinatown leader, told The Standard.

According to the Fugates, the money will be spent on cleaning up the cemetery site, covering the radar technology fees and building the memorials, such as a plaque and burner for rituals. The Fugates will help oversee the project, as most Chinese American activists involved with the project are Bay Area-based.

Dozens of people attend a ceremony outdoor.Dozens of people attend a ceremony outdoor.
A group gathers at the Kong Chow funerary monument in San Francisco’s Lincoln Park Golf Course during a ceremony in October 2022. | Source: Benjamin Fanjoy/The Standard

Dutch Flat’s rediscovery of the Chinese cemetery is not a single incident. In San Francisco’s Richmond District, a former Chinese cemetery site, Kong Chow funerary monument 岡州旅厝, is now a city landmark, and the Chinese community will host ceremonies there every year. In Carlin, Nevada, local officials also established a new monument for the early Chinese immigrants buried there.

Lee attended the rituals this year on July 4 and said he would organize more people to visit Dutch Flat.

“We will continue to go back to Dutch Flat to honor our Chinese ancestors,” Lee said. “We have the responsibility to remember it.”



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

San Francisco, CA

San Francisco's Chinatown hosts events to celebrate city's new mayor Daniel Lurie

Published

on

San Francisco's Chinatown hosts events to celebrate city's new mayor Daniel Lurie


The celebration of San Francisco’s new mayor isn’t over yet.

San Francisco’s Chinatown hosted a community banquet, a special night market and community-led celebration for new mayor Daniel Lurie on Wednesday night.

There will be live performances, an opportunity to showcase artists and Chinatown restaurants and small businesses said they’re ready for it.

Some of the people who spoke to NBC Bay Area on Wednesday said that clear Lurie is bringing a lot of hope for change to those in this community. A section of Grant Avenue was transformed to host a special night market in celebration of San Francisco’s new leadership.

Advertisement

Lurie made the rounds on Wednesday morning before being sworn in as the city’s 46th mayor and touted the event.

“We’re going to have some celebrations in Chinatown tonight,” he said.

Tane Chan of the Wok Shop said that she thinks the new mayor’s decision to put Chinatown in the spotlight could have a lasting impact.

“We have had some tough times and with mayor Lurie here encouraging all the visitors and all the residents to come and walk through Chinatown and just give us boost,” she said.

Mark Young, co-chair of the unity celebration banquet, said that people can feel the buzz in Chinatown.

Advertisement

“There is going to be 18 vendors a local headliner DJ, his name is Zhu,” he said. “There is going to be cultural festivities as well as this banquet that we have going on which is going to have over 900 guests from the AAPI community.”

The night market celebration is cohosted by the inaugural committee and the non-profit group ” Be Chinatown.”

Jayde Wong with Lion Dance Me said they’re bringing about 75 high school students out to perform at Wednesday night’s event.

“We’re bringing out all red lions tonight and red is the symbol of good fortune and so we’re some hoping to bring some good fortune to Daniel Lurie during his term as mayor and hopefully he will bring some good fortune back to our community as well,” she said.

The night market runs until 9:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Advertisement



Source link

Continue Reading

San Francisco, CA

San Francisco Mayor-Elect Daniel Lurie Launches Political Career With Cable Cars, Chinatown Market and Prayer | KQED

Published

on

San Francisco Mayor-Elect Daniel Lurie Launches Political Career With Cable Cars, Chinatown Market and Prayer | KQED


After breakfast, Lurie walked through the Tenderloin with San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott.

“People in the Tenderloin are frustrated,” Lurie told KQED. “People in Bernal Heights are frustrated, so I’m going to commit myself every single day to be tireless in getting people the help that they need, whether it’s into a mental health bed or a drug treatment bed or into a shelter bed.”

It wasn’t Lurie’s first time walking through the Tenderloin, according to Kate Robinson, director of the Tenderloin Community Benefit District. She said he joined her team on multiple morning shifts to ensure kids got to school safely.

“Incoming Mayor Lurie was the very first to request to come back and then come back again,” Robinson said. “That set him apart just for me, personally, seeing the level of care and seeing how genuinely interested he was in talking to the residents, talking to our safety stewards.

Advertisement

“I’m optimistic.”

Scott said the new administration has a lot of ideas and energy, but San Francisco residents will expect the city to move forward.

“When all the ceremony and all that goes away, we still have a job to do, so it’s really important that we stay focused on getting that job done, and that’s where my focus is,” Scott said. “Of course, I’m gonna do the things that the mayor has asked for us to do and do that to the best of my ability.”

Darrell Luckett, who’s lived in the Tenderloin for 40 years, stopped Lurie and urged him to follow through on his promises to clean up encampments and drug use.

“He said he’s gonna do it. All we can do is kick back, and you see what he do,” Luckett said after shaking hands with the mayor.

Advertisement

“A lot of people always say they’re gonna do this stuff,” Deonte Dial added.





Source link

Continue Reading

San Francisco, CA

San Francisco Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie holds interfaith ceremony before inauguration

Published

on

San Francisco Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie holds interfaith ceremony before inauguration


Kelsi Thorud reports on an interfaith unity ceremony held by San Francisco Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie. Website: http://kpix.com/ YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/CBSSanFrancisco Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CBSSanFrancisco Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kpixtv/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/KPIXtv





Source link

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending