“Block 14 in Lone Fir Cemetery, the first Chinese burial ground in Portland – and site of as many as 1,500 burials – now stands a fenced off void of gravel after most of the remains were exhumed and shipped back to China in 1928 and 1949. Sixty years later, director Ivy Lin follows the footsteps of the missing 1949 shipment in an extraordinary journey from Portland to Hong Kong”

~ Come Together Home DVD

In the documentary Come Together Home: Death. Disinterment. Reburial. filmmaker Ivy Lin explains how she uncovers the mystery of Chinese disinterment in Oregon and the story of Block 14.

The documentary begins with Brent Walth, a journalist for The Oregonian. He retraces his steps his research process regarding Block 14's history. First, he spoke with with local community members and then he searched through various sources starting with Oregon newspapers and several archival repositories including the Multnomah County Office, the Oregon Historical Society, and the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA). Then Rebecca Liu, of the CCBA, shares two ledgers with detailed records of all those buried and later disinterred from Block 14 in Lone Fir.

The story continues with Lin traveling to Tung Wah Coffin Home and Hospital in Hong Kong to find out what happened to the 1949 shipment of disinterred remains. Tung Wah Hospital acted as a transition point where remains were cared for and stored before being picked up by relatives or shipped to home villages. Through archival research at the Tung Wah Museum and with assistance from Dr. Hon Ming Yip, a Professor of History at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Lin finally uncovers the final resting place of the nearly 600 Chinese Oregonians.   

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To find out more about the film, visit the documentary website: Come Together Home, and to learn more about the filmmaker and her other documentaries visit: Ivy Lin Film.