Event

Sweet Cakes, Long Journey: A walking tour of Portland's Chinatown

The Dill Pickle Club and Friends of Portland Chinatown proudly partner to present Sweet Cakes, Long Journey, two behind-the-scenes community tours of Portland's Chinatown. The tours offer a unique opportunity to learn about the neighborhood through its architecture, oral history and little-known cultural heritage. A rare lecture by visiting scholar Dr. Marie Rose Wong offers a broader sociological and historical view of the area.

Highlighting many of Chinatown's lesser known landmarks, the walk encompasses Yat Sing Music Club, New Market Theater, historic Chinese association buildings, as well as the original Chinatown on the south side of Burnside. Along the route, elders will meet the tour to share their memories. The walk will stop at sites more familiar to most, including Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, Portland's Chinatown gate and Lan Su Chinese Garden.

The tours conclude at University of Oregon's White Stag Building, where Dr. Wong will give a slide lecture based on her research for her authoritative book, Sweet Cakes, Long Journey: The Chinatowns of Portland, Oregon (University of Washington, 2004). Dr. Wong will place the tour in context, detailing how discrimination and public policy have affected Chinatown, from its years as home to the second largest Chinese population in the U.S., to its present-day period of development, economic struggle and changing identity. Dr. Wong is an associate professor specializing in urban design at the Institute of Public Service, Seattle University.