Hidden Histories: Kam Wah Chung & Co: a “Golden Chinese Outpost” Heritage Site

Don Merritt, Museum Curator for the Kam Wah Chung State Heritage Site, opens the program with a virtual tour of the Museum. Originally established as a trading post in the 1870s, Kam Wah Chung & Co. was purchased by immigrants Lung On and Ing “Doc” Hay in 1888, who used the building as a Chinese medical clinic, general store, community center and residence until 1940. Scholars Chuimei Ho and Bennett Bronson then follow with the fascinating history of John Day Chinatown’s two Taoist temples, whose last remaining shrine is now housed at Kam Wah Chung and is dedicated to Suijing Bo, the “Pacifying Duke,” a deified mortal who once lived in Taishan County, west of Hong Kong.