Idaho Librarian

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Priscilla Wegars, historian and historical archeologist, figures prominently in the current effort to recover Chinese cultural remains in northwestern states such as Idaho and California.  She edited and compiled Hidden Heritage: Historical Archaeology of the Overseas Chinese (1993), which includes her article on the lives of Chinese women living in the northwest during the 19^th and early 20^th centuries.  A more recent work, Chinese at the Confluence: Lewiston’s Beuk Aie Temple, serves as both a general introduction to Chinese culture and as an exhibition catalog for the permanent exhibit at the Lewis-Clark Center for Arts and History. 

In the preface to Chinese at the Confluence, Wegars points out the early influence of Chinese culture on Lewiston, Idaho, a town built near the meeting point of the Clearwater and Snake rivers: “There, in the mid-1860s, representatives of the Kingdom of China met and interacted with citizens of the United States of America, resulting in a cultural confluence as dramatic and enduring as that of Lewis and Clark with the Nez Perce Nation.”  These early arrivals were mainly men from Guangdong Province in southern China, who either found work in the gold fields, or provided essential services for Caucasian and Chinese miners. Although these Chinese workers were welcomed at first, growing anti-Chinese sentiment, particularly in cities such as San Francisco and Seattle, eventually lead to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.  While many workers returned home to their families, a significant number of them stayed on. 

Chinese at the Confluence includes essential background information on the history of the Beuk Aie Temple, Chinese religious practices, the Hip Sing Tong, Chinese women, artifacts associated with daily life, Chinese mining, and other occupations.  In the section on Chinese religion, Wegars discusses the blend of Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism that characterized Chinese religious practices.  Lewiston’s Beuk Aie Temple, appropriately named after the god of flood and water control, was always open, and “any Chinese man and woman who desired to consult the gods could visit.” 

The Hip Sing Tong, known as the “Chinese Masonic Lodge,” had its own altar, which is also part of the permanent exhibit in Lewiston.  As Wegars observes, illegal activities such as prostitution, opium use, and gambling gave tongs a bad name and may have contributed to anti-Chinese sentiment. Yet most of the Chinese fraternal organizations, including Lewiston’s own chapter of Hip Sing Tong, were committed to providing benevolent services and opportunities for socializing, along with teaching honesty and fair dealing to new arrivals.  Wegars also notes that some furnishings and other objects from the Hip Sing Tong and Beuk Aie Temple have been missing since 1959, when the contents of both buildings were moved into a cement block storage house.  (Negotiations are currently underway to recover some of the missing items.).

Chinese at the Confluence is aesthetically appealing as well as instructive.  Nearly every page contains one or more illustrations, over half of them in full color. An appendix at the end of the book includes a detailed description of each illustration.  Readers who decide to further research the topic will find the list of references a useful starting point.  Anyone interested in learning more about Chinese culture, Idaho history, or the early Chinese settlers in Idaho should read this book.  Public libraries, particularly those located in the western states, will want to include it in their collections.