Clark County History: First Chinese residents By Martin Middlewood, for The Columbian
Published: December 20, 2020, 6:05am
Share: Chin Wing was the Cantonese cook for Major General Thomas M. Anderson, commandant of Vancouver Barracks 1886-1898. His cook s photo was taken about 1890 and is one of the earliest photos of a Chinese person living in Clark County. (Contributed by Clark County Historical Museum)
When the photographer snapped this studio photo of Chin Wing in 1890, Washington had been a state just one year, and the Chinese population reached 3,260. Twenty years earlier, the census found 234 Chinese in the Washington Territory, and by 1880, the number reached 3,186.