Lunar New Year brings discussion of culture and discrimination

In honor of the Chinese New Year, Mark Johnson, Extreme History and A.S.I.A partnered to present, “Keeping Chinese Culture Alive on the Montana Frontier,” a lecture on the legacy Chinese pioneers left behind here in Montana. Mark Johnson, born and raised in Helena, Montana, is an assistant professor with the University of Notre Dame. Johnson also spent time teaching in Shanghai, China, which helped him write his upcoming book, “The Middle Kingdom under the Big Sky.” 

Johnson started his lecture with a map of the Chinese population in Montana in 1870. Chinese Montanans made up 12% of the non-native population, with almost 2,000 settling in the state. Most lived in Butte, Helena, Virginia City and only two in Neihart, which Johnson said he’ll “get back to later.”

Unfortunately, this number would start to decline.

Immigrants coming to a foreign land in hopes of making money to feed their families at home during hard times was nowhere near easy, but one thing that provided them “comfort, connectedness and culture continuity,” Johnson said, was practicing their cultural traditions, like Chinese New Year. Chinese New Year is “a massive celebration even if you're just two Chinese people living in Neihart, Montana,” Johnson said. “When the clock hit 12:01 it was unbelievable.”

“The couplets, the blessings, the types of food, the types of celebrations, would be really foreign to non-Chinese Montana when looking in,” the professor said. Unfortunately, the newspaper coverings by non-Chinese on this holiday tend to be racist and cause backlash, judgment and hate.

“Curiosity can also turn into animosity,” and Chinese were discriminated against and attacked for practicing these cultural beliefs and traditions, Johnson said.

He also described anti-Chinese attacks that took place on several different occasions in Anaconda, Billings and Butte. These attacks included boycotts and the vandalization of Joss houses (Chinese temples). Multiple gods were destroyed and the Chinese started to question celebrating the Lunar New Year. Although this pushed some away, others still persevered and stood their ground. “They rebuilt their destroyed gods” and “with or without a temple or a temple keeper, the Chinese culture was kept alive,” Johnson said.

Johnson then spoke on three instances where Chinese men put their foot down to animosity and antagonism in order to celebrate the Chinese New Year. These accounts were on Tong Hing in Helena during 1872, Hue Pock in Butte during 1896 and Chin Au Ban in Bozeman during 1926-27.

Chin Au Ban, the owner of the International Cafe on 135 East Main Street, summarized two different times he hosted a Chinese New Year celebration for non-Chinese guests. For his first banquet, he only invited one guest who he let select all the other attendees. His parties were described as the “most entertaining and enjoyable affair.” These celebrations included “splendid feasts” that left “the male section unleashing their belts two notches.”

Johnson said American history of the Chinese can tend to be “exoticized and negatively exaggerated.” His passion for informing others of the truth is refreshing. He reminds us that Chinese culture plays an important role in the development of our region.