Tanner Creek Farms Revisited
重訪坦納溪農田
Jason King
坦納溪沿岸的内陸農業區城市擴張
As a follow up to this post from about a year ago, Farming Tanner Creek, which delved into the history of Chinese farmers in Portland, this post picks that thread up by looking a bit closer at Marie-Rose Wong’s 2004 “Sweet Cakes, Long Journey: The Chinatowns of Portland”. The book is a comprehensive look at the history of immigration and settlement and contributions to the development of Oregon and early Portland, integration into the city and its architecture, and frank accounts of local institutional racism and displacement, most notably the impacts of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.
我在大約一年前所寫的《在坦納溪耕種》深入研究了波特蘭中國農民的曆史。作為後續，本文通過仔細研究Marie-Rose Wongy于2004年出版的《甜蜜的蛋糕，漫長的旅程：波特蘭的唐人街》來重訪這個話題。這本書全面審視了移民和定居的曆史，移民對俄勒岡州和波特蘭市早期發展的、融入城市及其建築的貢獻，以及對當地制度性種族主義（尤其是1882年排華法案）和流離失所的坦率叙述。
As the title suggests, there were many incarnations of Chinatowns over the years in Portland focused around two zones. The first is the urban development zone of habitation that shifted shape running along the Willamette River to areas centered on Burnside and running to the north and south. These emerged first as a cohesive enclave, and later into a dispersed ‘non-clave’ that persists somewhat today in the small district of Old Town/Chinatown. The second is a zone of Chinese Vegetable Gardens further upland south of Burnside and west of 14th and provided more informal housing and opportunities for vegetable gardens. My focus here is on the latter, the farming zones inland along the banks of Tanner Creek, which Wong discusses and outlines their evolution over time, and how the fates of Chinese farmers and the creek were linked.
正如這本書的标題所暗示的那樣，多年來，波特蘭有許多條唐人街，主要集中在兩個區域。一是城市居住開發區，沿威拉米特河向以伯恩賽德街為中心向南北延伸。這些街道首先作為一個有凝聚力的飛地出現，後來成為一個分散的“非飛地”，至今仍保留在老城區/唐人街的小區域。二是位于伯恩賽德街以南和十四街以西的高地的中國菜園區，提供了更多的非正式住房和菜園。我在這篇文章裡的重點是後者，即坦納溪沿岸的内陸農業區。Wong讨論并概述了它們随時間的演變，以及中國農民的命運如何與小溪聯系在一起。
The three vicinities of Chinatown – From Wong, p.206
三片唐人街區域，圖檔來自《甜蜜的蛋糕，漫長的旅程：波特蘭的唐人街》第206頁
雙重描述
Much of the backstory here is found in the previous post, which focuses on a 2016 article by Putsata Reang in Oregon Humanities, entitled ‘The Farmers of Tanner Creek’ along with some additional information from Tracy Prince’s book “Portland’s Goose Hollow”. In this case, I was pretty fascinated by the dual narratives of the erasure of the Chinese Vegetable Gardens in tandem with the erasure of Tanner Creek, which is illustrated in the series of maps in Wong’s book, spanning 1879 to 1908.
這裡的大部分背景故事都可以在我的上一篇文章中找到。上一篇文章側重于俄勒岡人文學科的Putsata Reang于2016年的一篇文章，題為《坦納溪的農民》，以及Tracy Prince的書《波特蘭的鵝谷》中的一些附加資訊。是以，我非常着迷于“中國菜園被抹去”與“坦納溪被抹去”的雙重叙述，這在Wong的《甜蜜的蛋糕，漫長的旅程：波特蘭的唐人街》從1879年到1908年的一系列地圖中有說明。
Via “The Farmers of Tanner Creek” – Oregon Humanities “Tanner Creek runs between Chinese gardens and shanties, circa 1892. Providence Park, the Portland Timbers soccer stadium, now stands where these gardens once did.”
照片來自《坦納溪的農民》——俄勒岡人文學院。“大約1892年，坦納溪在中國菜園和棚戶區之間流淌。普羅維登斯公園（波特蘭伐木工隊的足球場）現在矗立在這些菜園曾經所在的地方。”
I took the liberty of adding a few items of color to these maps, focusing on the routing of Tanner Creek and the extents of the Portland Chinatown Vegetable Garden Community. As mentioned by Wong the roads “…were needed to serve an expanding population, but the flood-prone Tanner Creek and the gulch that meandered through this area were dominant nature features that controlled much of the building potential of the region.” (211) Thus improvements were required to tame this and create conditions better for development and expansion. Wong continues:
我冒昧地在這些地圖上添加了一些顔色，重點是坦納溪的路線和波特蘭唐人街菜園社群的範圍。正如Wong所說，道路“……為了向不斷增長的人口提供服務而被大量需要，但以蜿蜒而過的峽谷和易發洪水的坦納溪為主的自然特征限制了該地區的大部分建設潛力。”(211)是以，需要對坦納溪進行改進以緩和這一問題，并為發展和擴張創造更好的條件。Wong繼續說道：
“In 1873, the old wooden bridge that spanned the creek connecting B Street to a small number of residences collapses in the rise water fed by winter rains, necessitating replacement and improvement. In July of that same year, the City of Portland contracted Chinese workers to construct a 115-foot cylindrical brick culvert sixty feet below the level of B Street. The culvert was to run along the bed of the creek, with some infill of the gulch to permit construction of a new bridge. At six feet in diameter, the culvert was large enough for a man to walk through and was intended to provide drainage for at least a hundred years. This improvement made it possible to control, if not totally prevent, flooding of the creek and associated erosion along the creek bed and the embankment up to street level.” (211)
“1873年，連接配接B街和少數住宅的小溪上的舊木橋在冬雨滋養的漲水中倒塌，需要更換和改善。同年7月，波特蘭市與中國勞工簽訂合同，在B街水準面以下60英尺處建造一座115英尺的圓柱形磚涵洞。涵洞将順着河床延伸，并填充一些峽谷以建造一座新橋。涵洞直徑為六英尺，足以讓一個人穿過，并預計将提供至少一百年的排水功能。這項改進能控制（如果不能完全防止）溪水的泛濫以及沿河床和路堤至街道高度的相應侵蝕。”(第211頁)
Between 1879 and 1889 the amount of area for Vegetable Gardens increased dramatically, from 3 acres to over 21 acres, as shown on the map below (page 214). The reduced flooding allowing for farming and Shanties to expand, filling the entire lowland zone.The new plank road to the east and a new wooden bridge spanned new developments towards Jefferson to the west. The Creek was still intact through this zone as well, however starting to get chopped up with development on the edges. The ability of the Chinese to extract maximum production from this space was notable, as Wong mentions: “The immigrant gardeners… acted collectively, sharing the labor and the profits as they continued to farm the low-lying ground and slopes of the Tanner Creek Gulch. The Chinese applied their extraordinary agricultural skills, shared by Cantonese immigrants of rural background, to successfully cultivate the land.” (212)
1879年至1889年間，菜園的面積急劇增加，從3英畝增加到超過21英畝，如下圖所示（第214頁）。減少的洪水允許農業和棚戶區擴大，填滿整個低地地區。東面的新棧道和一座新的木橋跨越了西面傑斐遜的新開發項目。穿過這個區域的小溪仍然完好無損，但随着邊緣的發展開始被切斷。正如Wong所說，中國人從這個空間中提取最大産量的能力是值得注意的：“移民園丁……集體行動，分享勞動力和利潤，他們繼續耕種坦納溪峽谷的低窪地和斜坡。有農村背景的廣東移民們運用他們非凡的農業技能，成功地耕種了這片土地。”(第212頁)
1890s – Trestle bridge, Chinese vegetable gardens, Portland High School Courtesy Oreg. Hist. Soc. Research Lib., bb007389
1890年代–棧橋、中國菜園、波特蘭高中。由俄勒岡州曆史社會黨研究圖書館提供，bb007389
As seen above, at the time, there was some development, but more residents were moving near here and building larger houses, and for a short time the two lived in close proximity with little issue. “Perhaps the year-round beauty of the gardens and the convenience of easily available low-cost produce enable two such economically disparate and cultural distinctive social groups to coexist for many years.” (215)
如上所見，當時有一些發展，但更多的居民搬到這附近并建造更大的房子，并且在很短的時間内，兩方住得很近，沒有什麼問題。“也許是一年四季的美麗菜園和易于獲得的低成本産品的便利性使這樣兩個經濟上截然不同且文化獨特的社會群體能夠共存多年。”(第215頁)
逐漸消失的小溪
The 1901 map (below, from page 216) shows the impact of a new resident, The Multnomah Amateur Athletic Club (now the current The MAC ), which displaced some of these gardens by moving into 5 acres to the north of the creek, using the natural slope as a viewing amphitheater and building a clubhouse. They also constructed considerable raised plank infrastructure on Alder Street, which eliminated gardens below there (but did keep the creek free flowing for a while longer). Farmers expanded the Shanties in existing areas, and moved to the area west of Jefferson where they installed new gardens and Shanties. The creek it seems to also have started disappearing more in this period. The drawing doesn’t show a key to connote what dashed lines mean versus solid, but it’s probably not a stretch to imply much more culverting of flows, and the plank roads also serving to visually disconnect the creek from views of residents.
1901年的地圖（下圖，第216頁）顯示了摩特諾瑪業餘運動俱樂部（現為MAC)的影響。俱樂部将其中一些花園搬遷到小溪以北的5英畝土地上，将天然斜坡用作觀景圓形劇場并建造會所。他們還在奧爾德街建造了相當多的高架木闆基礎設施，清除了下面的花園（但确實讓小溪多延續了一段時間）。農民在現有地區擴建棚屋，并搬到傑斐遜以西的地區，在那裡他們安裝了新的花園和棚屋。在此期間，小溪似乎也開始消失得更多。該圖沒有顯示出虛線與實線的含義的關鍵，但它應該不是暗示更多涵洞流量。同時，木闆路還可以在視覺上将小溪與居民的視線隔開。
By 1908 the map (from page 217) expansion of the city was reducing (to around 11 acres) the area of gardens even more as land became more desirable. The Creek was removed through conversion of bridges and plank roads into surface streets, which filled up gulches.This was a product of one of the “… city’s long-range projects for controlling flooding, raising the grade to accommodate roads, and encouraging urban residential development.” (218) The area near the Multnomah Amateur Athletic Club purchased the land and “over the next few years, both Tanner Creek and the land adjacent to it were filled to permit final construction of the athletic club and nearby homes.” (219)
到1908年，随着土地變得更加受歡迎，地圖顯示（第217頁）城市的擴張正在減少菜園面積（減少到大約11英畝）。通過将橋梁和木闆路改造成地面街道，小溪被移除，這些街道填滿了峽谷。這是“……城市控制洪水、提升地面高度以建設道路、和鼓勵城市住宅發展的長期項目”(第218頁)的産物之一。摩特諾瑪業餘體育俱樂部購買了附近的這塊土地，“在接下來的幾年裡，坦納溪和毗鄰的土地都被填滿，以便最終建造體育俱樂部和附近的房屋。”(第219頁)
Together with a number of ordinances aimed at reducing the number of Chinese vendors selling products, and finally just outright banning street peddlers in certain areas. As Wong concludes:
再加上一些旨在減少中國小販數量的法令，最後徹底禁止某些地區的街頭小販，正如Wong總結的：
“Portland’s urban growth and expansion into the Tanner Creek area, the filling in of the creek, and the city ordinance that prohibited the rural Chinese from earning a living did irreparable harm to the fragile gardening community. A reporter’s prescient statement in 1889, that the time would likely come when ‘the gulches [would be] filled up and used as building site,’ had come to pass, and the Chinese Vegetable Gardens community disappeared from the record after 1910.” (220)
波特蘭的城市發展和向坦納溪地區的擴張、小溪的填平以及禁止中國農民謀生的城市法令對脆弱的菜園社群造成了無法彌補的傷害。一位記者在1889年有先見之明地指出的“峽谷[即将]被填滿并成為建築工地”的時候已經到來，中國菜園社群在1910年後從記錄中消失了。”(第220頁)
It’s a wonder as well that it lasted as long as it did, within the rapid urban expansion and the racist undercurrents at the time. The map sequence is a great snapshot in time to see Tanner Creek in the midst of Portland’s urbanization towards the end of the 19th Century. While, it is not totally clear graphically which portions of Tanner Creek were still remaining and which were buried, it shows a valuable sequential picture of the development of this portion of the city and how land shifted from that which had little value to some (and immense value for growing food for others) to becoming more necessary for further development. Gardens and creeks presented barriers to this progress and were slowly eroded and ultimately erased. Wong’s ‘Sweet Cakes, Long Journey’ is an essential picture for understanding Chinese life and contributions to the history in Portland, of which the above is just one story. However, it is a critical one in terms of hidden hydrology, showing the displacement of Chinatown Vegetable Gardens in tandem with development that slowly buried Tanner Creek, forever losing its productivity as a creek and its ability to support agriculture in the city.
在當時快速的城市擴張和種族主義暗流中，中國菜園存在了這麼長時間也是一個奇迹。以上的一系列地圖是一份很好的記錄，可以及時看到19世紀末波特蘭城市化程序中的坦納溪。雖然在地圖上尚不完全清楚坦納溪的哪些部分仍然存在，哪些部分被掩埋，但它作為珍貴的地圖序列，顯示了該地區的發展，以及土地如何從對一些人毫無價值（對另一些人有重要的種植食物的價值）的地方變為對城市未來發展十分必要的地方。菜園和小溪是這一發展的障礙，被慢慢侵蝕并最終被抹去。Wong的《甜蜜的蛋糕，漫長的旅程》是了解華人生活和他們對波特蘭曆史貢獻的重要圖畫，以上隻是其中的一個故事。然而，就隐藏的水文而言，它是一個關鍵的水文特征，顯示了唐人街菜園的消散與緩慢掩埋坦納溪的開發同步。坦納溪永遠失去了它作為小溪的生産力和支援城市農業的能力。
關于Farming Tanner Creek——在坦納溪耕種這篇RESEARCH，同學們可以點選下圖跳轉連結進行閱讀了解。
原文作者：Jason King
翻譯：張喆茗
— 留學相關 —
想了解更多留學資訊、院校資訊
報名時間節點、作品集、競賽等相關内容
可添加下方RAC幹貨圖圖微信進行咨詢
長按識别二維碼添加
文中圖源網絡，侵權告知即删