REGIONS   西北角地区
BRITISH COLUMBIA
Vancouver Chinatown
加拿大温哥华唐人街
This page presents information in terms of the places where Northwest American Chinese lived and worked.  The area involved reaches from the far northern part of California to Alaska and from the Pacific coast to the western parts of Montana and Wyoming.    Chinese played a role, often an important one, in the history of all parts of this area.
WASHINGTON STATE
Seattle's early Chinatown, home of Chin Gee Hee. 华盛顿州
西雅图华埠: 陈宜僖故居
OREGON
奥力根州波特兰市
Classical Chinese Garden,
Chinatown, Portland
FAR NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
加州最北部华人庙
Joss House, Weaverville
WYOMING 怀俄明州
Memorial shrine, Evanston
IDAHO 爱达荷州
Altar furnishings from local temple, State Museum. Boise
MONTANA 蒙大纳 州
Wah Mee Museum,
Butte
ALASKA 阿拉斯加州
Chinese merchant, Juneau, early 1900s
Click here to add text.
BRITISH COLUMBIA
Kamloops 锦录
Nanaimo  坭磨
New Westminster    二埠
Vancouver咸水埠
Victoria    或多利
Yale 火者



ALASKA
Juneau     金坑

CALIFORNIA   旧金山
“Sebastopbe”   八家保
Dutch Flat[ ] 治付列
Eureka    夭力架
Holland Flat     倒崙付列
Los Angeles    那山忌利
Marysville        三埠
Monterey Co.   芒子里
Mountain View 尾啡
Napa拉罢
Nelson Point    扭慎泮
Nevada    那必地
North San Juan北边山灣
Oakland   屋崙
Oroville    荷花
Point Arena     泮地僯打
Sacramento     二埠
Salinas    市连打
San Francisco 正埠
San Jose 山多写

CALIFORNIA, continued
Saport     立砵
Stockton 士作顿埠
Sweetland火? 龙
Truckee   卓忌
Virginia City     故知彌失地

OREGON
Astoria     埃士左利
Baker City白加失地
Boise City贝市失地
Canyon City     忌寅失地
Dixie Creek      滴社坑
Empire City      点派失地
Granite     加兰?
Kalama     加榄地
Portland   砵崙
Salem      西林
Watsonville      挖慎委利

WASHINGTON      華盛顿
Black Diamond       朱茂炭山
Colfax            哥兒發
Coupe Ville     曲华里
Dayton           即午
Dungeness    進陳也
Fall City         科失地
Fidalgo           花地高
Franklin Colliery     入边炭山
Free Port        非李砵
Green River   青水坑
Irondale          铁山
Laconner        力困打
Muckilteo       墨加斜何

Chinese place names in the Pacific Northwest, 1880-1890
from the unpublished account book of Chin Gee Hee, a Seattle merchant.

This and other place name lists will be included here because of their usefulness to researchers using Chinese-language sources on the history of the region.  The Chinese place names in those sources are often incomprehensible even to the most literate reader.  A good example is the effort by a well educated Chinese student working with Prisicilla Wegars and the Asian American Comparative Collection at the University of Idaho.  The student transcribed part of the trade mark on an early opium can as "Yudouli" (click here to see the trade mark).  This made no sense.  If the student had read it in Cantonese, "Wik To Lei," she/he might have guessed that it meant "Victoria," and connected the can with one of the well-known opium factories in Victoria, British Columbia.  But in many cases, even a good dictionary and a thorough knowledge of Cantonese and Taishanese do not help, especially when--as is often the case--the accepted Chinese version of a place name was changed in later years.

This is why we are putting things as boring as place name lists on line.  They are not much fun to look at.  But, for historians who work with Chinese-language primary sources, they are vitally important.
WASHINGTON, continued
New Slope      新炭孔
New Tacoma   新工?罢
Newcastle      舍路大炭山
Olympia         多连破
Port Blakely   砵力利
Port Discovery砵士甲北利
Port Gamble   砵今步
Port Ludlow    砵[ ]路
Port Madison 砵吗利慎
Port Townsend砵党顺
Puget Sound   票地夹
Pullayup         票打立
Renton Coal Mine   抱李炭山
San Juan lime kiln  山湾石灰窑
Seabeck        失逼
Seattle King Co.     舍路
Skagit River    士吉治
Snohomish City      士努钦地示
Snoqualmie   雪山壊花园
Sparta            士八地
Stuck Junction       士作转神
"Tal Bot"         斜兒别炭山
Utsalady        鸭示狸?地
Vancouver      芒果花
Waitsburg     厨是边
Walla Walla    抓李抓嚹
Whatcom       挖今

OTHER
Chicago          士加古
Salt Lake City 梳力失地
New feature: a List of  Chinese place names for the Pacific Northwest in the late 19th century, from the unpublished account
boooks of a Seattle merchant.  Also a list of place names in BC from a 1901 directory.  For use by historical researchers using Chinese-language sources

A discovery: A previously unknown 19th century Chinese secret society manual, in Clinton, B.C 天地会会簿

A surprisingly old temple still in use: Tam Kung Temple in Victoria, BC 卑斯省域多利谭公庙
A 19th Century Chinese Secret Society Manual in Clinton, B.C.  加拿大卑斯省天地会会簿

Last month the editors visited Clinton in British Columbia, located on the Cariboo trail that in the 1860s-1890s led from the southern Fraser River to the rich gold fields around Barkerville and Quesnel Forks.  In those days, the population of the region was devoted almost entirely to gold mining, and more than half were Chinese.

One of the high points of Clinton is the excellent Clinton Museum.  We were guided
through the museum’s rich historical collection by the curator, Mike Brundage
<clintonmuseum@telus.net>.  While looking through the Chinese part of that collection,
we made a discovery: a small woodblock-printed book in Chinese characters that appears
to be an early edition of a membership manual for a famed secret organization, the
Heaven and Earth Society or Tiandihui (天 地 會).

The Tiandihui came into existence in China in the late 17th century.  It had two main
goals: (1) mutual aid among members and (2) resistance to the Manchus, whose alien
Qing Dynasty ruled China from 1644 to 1911.  Because the Qing emperors saw the
Tiandihui as dangerously subversive and thus persecuted it mercilessly, the Society
stayed deep underground.  In China during the imperial period, entire families would
have been executed solely because a member posessed a manual like the one in
Clinton.  Outside China, in Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, Australia, and America, the
danger was not so acute, and the Society and allied organizations not only dared to
show themselves but often became, in slightly altered form, the social foci of overseas Chinese communities.   A number of early Tiandihui manuals survive in those places.  All are heavy with rituals, utilizing many legends and historical stories.
























The Tiandihui no longer exists in its original incarnation, but several daughter organizations are still important in overseas regions.  Much such organizations use Tiandihui rituals.  One of the oldest is the Hung Mun (= Hong Men, 洪 門; or 洪 门) or Chee Kong Tong (= Zhigongdang, 致 公 堂 ), which assumed great importance among late nineteenth century Chinese North Americans and still has branches in most large U.S. and Canadian cities.  Often called Chinese Freemasons, the Hung Mun has a history of early revolutionary activities (Sun Yat-Sen was a member), and charitable work within the Chinese community.  According to Lily Chow, there were Chee Kong Tong lodges in Quesnel, Quesnel Forks, Barkerville, and other gold-rush towns in the interior of British Columbia.  We may assume that the Clinton manual was used by one such lodge.





















Is the manual unique?  No.  Modern copies with a very similar text are widely used in Hong Kong.  Cai Shaoqing says that there are earlier copies, representing several versions, in libraries in Europe, North American, Australia, and China itself (Cai 2002, p 33).  The Clinton version bears a cyclical date equivalent to 1892, which makes it later than several others, including the one reproduced by the pioneering Dutch scholar, Gustave Schlegel, in 1866.  Most versions seem not to include images of deities and the founders of the Tiandihui.  The Clinton version does include such images.  Its colors are bright, and the condition, except for an eaten-away corner, is excellent. 

We do not know whether other copies of the1892 version exist.  The editors of this website, as well as Mike Brundage on behalf of the Clinton Museum, would be grateful for any information that our readers may have.

   Lily Chow, Sojourners in the North, Prince George, BC: Caitlin Press, 1996
   Cai Shaoqing  On the Overseas Chinese Secret Societies of Australia,  New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 4, 1: pg 30-45, 2002
   Gustave Schlegel, Thian Ti Hwui: the Hung League or Heaven-Earth League: A Secret Society with the Chinese in China and India, 1866
   W. P. Morgan, Triad Societies in Hong Kong.  Hong Kong: Government Press.  1960.

Title page:  "Illustrated Manual of the Heaven and Earth Society.  Printed in
the Autumn of the Renchen -Tianyun year."  [cyclical date: 1892]

    Right  The flag for the Fourth of the Later Five Lodges.  The large central character is a made-up word that combines “tiger” with “harmony”.  The latter is the designated character for the Fourth Lodge.  On its right are four characters that read “stream”, “large”, “person”, and “head”.  These are the Society’s signature truncated versions of the phrase, “follow and practice the way of Heaven,”  popular among underground societies in China for more than a millennium.
    Left  The flag for the Fifth of the Later Five Lodges.  The design is identical to that of the Fourth Lodge with the compound word made up from “tiger” and “together”.  The poetic verses summarize the identity and sovereignty of the Fifth Patriarch who headed the lodge. 
   Right  Wu Dedi.  One of the Society’s Former Five Patriarchs, shown here in secular garb.  In some accounts he is referred to as one of the five surviving monks of the Shaolin Monastery’s Southern Branch in Fujian.
 
   Left  Wu Tiancheng.  Leader of the Society’s Later Five Patriarchs.  Sometimes identified as a monk from the Baozhu Si [Precious Pearl Temple] in Guangdong. 

   Right  Guo Xiuying,  widow of Zheng Junda (an early leader of the Society killed by the Yongzheng government in a campaign),  who together with Zheng’s sister threw herself into a river in Hubei when pursued by the Qing army.  The bodies of the two sisters-in-law were recovered by a fisherman, Xie Bangheng. 
   Left   Xie Bangheng, a fisherman and incognito Ming loyalist who recovered the bodies of Guo Xiuying and Zheng’s sister.  Xie then built the “Sisters-in-Law” Temple on the riverside.  He was honored as one of the five “benevolent heroes” of the Society. 

   Right  Tonghai Er, also known as the Red Boy.  A character in The Journey to the West, the Red Boy was the son of the Bull Demon-King and Princess Iron Fan.  Full of mischief and skilled in martial art, he was eventually subdued by the Buddhist goddess, Guanyin.  Although he was not a regular deity in the pantheon of the Society, it is possible that the Clinton branch believed in evoking his spirit for initiation ceremonies. 
   Left  View of one of the three gates that a new member must pass during the initiation ceremony.  The two guards hold up swords to signify the “mountain of swords” test for initiates.

Tam Kung Temple, Victoria, BC  卑斯省域多利谭公庙

The oldest active Chinese temple in the Pacific Northwest is on the fourth floor of a building at Fisgard and Government Streets in Victoria's Chinatown.  The building is owned by the local Hakka association, Yen Wo Society 客属人和会馆
but the temple itself, founded in 1875 by Ngai Sze 魏泗, is older than the association.  According to David Chenyuan Lai, it is the oldest in Canada.  It is also one of the olderst in North America.  Although several shrines in San Francisco (for instance the Tian Ho Temple on Waverley Place, founded in 1852) are older than Tam Kung as institutions, their structures and furnishings are newer.  All were destroyed completely by the earthquake and fire of 1906 and were not rebuilt and refurnuished until after 1908.  However. a few other California temples are older, notably the one at Weaverville, of which the furnishings and structure date to the 1870s and 1880s.












A fuller description of the Tam Kung Temple, together with more pictures and detailed information about its dated temple furnishings, will be found on the Shrines page of this website (click here). Data on the history of the temple appears in an article by David Chenyuen Lai, "Tam Kung Feted" in the [Victoria} Times-Colonist  23 May 2004 p D12

Pewter Altar Set, 1897
Bell Stand with Drum and Bell
Copyright  information.  Nonprofit users are free to use text and original or  out-of-copyright  images from these web pages as long as they credit CINARC and ask subsequent users to do the same.  Images that are credited to other individuals or institutions, however, should not be reproduced without first consulting the owners.  For-profit users should get the permission of CINARC's editors before publication, in print or electronic form.
150 Mile House             150米路好市
Agassiz        的架士
Ashcroft                士卡笠
Barkerville              巴架威路
Cache Creek                 卡士隙
Caemainus                    智免呢士
Chilliwack              車梨役
Clinton                   乾蘭頓
Coquitlam              高隙倫
Cranbrook              奸布碌
Dog Creek              鐸固叻
Eburne                  衣巴倫
Extension Mines             的市丹臣
Fort Steele             市徂路
Greenwood             古連活
Hammond               坎文
Kamloops               錦線(录?)
Kaslo                     卡市老
Ladner                    連打
Lillooet                  李利埠
Lyton                     列午

Nanaimo                       乃無
Nelson                   尔利臣
New Westminister          二埠
North Bend             諾丙
Oyster Harbor                爱市打下砵
Princeton               布連市頓
Quesnelle              間那路埠
Quesnelle Forks     間那路福士埠
Revelstoke             利為市作
Rock Creek                   樂古力
Rossland              老市崙
Salmon Arm           沙文庵
Spuzzum               市巴森
Stanley                  士丹利
Steveston              市的為顺
Trail                      粗利路
Union Bay             夭寅下不
Union Mines           夭寅米
Vancouver             云哥華埠
Victoria                域多利

Chinese place names in British Columbia, 1901
from the International Chinese Directory 1901, published by the Chinese Directory
Company, 606 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, CA. 
The 1901 edition of the International Chinee Directory:was the first of two editions to be produced, almost single-handed, by an amazingly hard-working Chinese businessman in pre-Earthquake San Francisco.  Very few copies of either edition survive.  We borrowed the one we used from Philip Choy, who is not only a leading historian of Chinese America but a supportive and generous mentor to researchers who, like the editors, are new to subjects that he has long since mastered.
This list is taken from the account book of Chin Gee Hee 陳宜禧 (1844-ca. 1924), one of the most talented and creative Chinese businessmen in Seattle's history.  The book is now stored with other Chin Gee Hee papers in the Special Collections division of the University of Washington Library.  The list has not been published previously.