San Francisco Chinatown

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San Francisco Chinatown Page 4

by Philip P Choy


  Although dominated by provincialism within, the American-born generation was not immune to the influences of the country they inhabited. Community life, religion, entertainment, fashion, music, and sports mirrored that of the white middle class. In the Chinese community, the Chinese Young Men’s Christian Association, community businesses, and social organizations sponsored sport tournaments. By the 1920s, the Chinese YMCA had become a center for sports. Sporting events included competition with other YMCAs in the City. These events were about more than winning a game or running a race. They provided opportunities to socialize with people outside of the community.

  In the big band era of the 1930s, the music of Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, and Glenn Miller swept the nation. Chinatown likewise was in full swing. On weekends, the gymnasium of the Chinese Young Women’s Christian Association and the hall of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance were jammed with young crowds dancing to the music of the Cathayans or the Chinatown Knights. With patriotic fervor, not forgetting the struggle against Japanese aggression in their ancestral homeland, the bands also gave their services to the China War Relief and Rice Bowl, raising funds for war-torn China in the years 1938-1946.

  Mme. Chiang Kai Shek.

  On December 7, 1941, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor! Never in the history of the United States was there such upheaval of the masses as the whole nation mobilized for war. Patriotism bonded people of different colors and backgrounds. Patriotism also blinded us from justice as we branded fellow Americans “the enemy” because they were born of Japanese descent. Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 8066, people of Japanese ancestry, citizens or not, were herded to internment camps—their businesses abandoned, their properties sold pennies to the dollar. On the other hand, the Chinese were embraced as allies against a common enemy.

  No single person did more to change the attitude of America toward the Chinese than the first lady of China, Mme. Chiang Kai Shek, during her goodwill tour of the United States in February 1943, fourteen months after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. Christian, educated at Wellesley College, speaking flawless English, she was immediately accepted by America. For six weeks, newspaper headlines and press reports of her grace, charm, and intellect held the nation spellbound. Her welcome to the White House, hosted by America’s First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was unprecedented. Never in the history of America had a Chinese person commanded such influence and authority as she addressed the Senate and the House of Representatives. As she continued her nationwide tour, hundreds of thousands gathered, cheered, and responded with standing ovations, at New York City Hall Plaza, Madison Square Garden, Carnegie Hall, and Boston’s Symphony Hall. Mme. Chiang was the model for the thousands of Chinese in the United States. In San Francisco Mme. Chiang’s speaking engagement was at the Civic Auditorium, where the Cathay Band was invited to perform. Band member Wilson Wong reflected on that moment with pride: “We (the Chinese) were allowed to play in the Civic Auditorium for the first time ever!” The band opened the ceremony with the national anthems of the two countries, the “Star Spangled Banner” and China’s grand march “Qi Lai” or “Arise!”—a symbol of better times to come. In Chinatown, Mme. Chiang spoke to the audience in Mandarin at the Great China Theatre (now the Great Star) on Jackson Street. With every pause or at the end of every sentence, a thunderous applause brought the house down, despite the fact that most of the audience understood only Cantonese!

  Time was right to pressure Congress to repeal the Exclusion Act.

  World War II and the Civil Rights Movement of the ’60s and ’70s were the two major historical events that profoundly changed the social milieu of Chinese America. Emerging from decades of exclusion, the Chinese were thrust into mainstream America as comrades in arms. The Exclusion Acts were repealed, allowing a token 105 per year to immigrate, but most importantly, foreign-born Chinese were now eligible to become citizens. Following the war, civil service, private industries, and businesses lowered their barriers toward employment of the Chinese. There was yet one bastion to surmount. In peacetime memories were short, and the spirit of wartime camaraderie was left on the battlefield. We can die together in the same foxhole but we cannot live together in the same neighborhood. It took Civil Rights legislation of the ’60s and ’70s to open the doors to equal housing with the passage of the California Rumford Fair Housing Act of 1963 and President John F. Kennedy’s executive order (1063) to end racial discrimination in housing.

  The 1960s were tumultuous times that transformed the Nation. America was divided by the Vietnam War and confused by the counterculture of “hippies” rejecting the values of their middle-class parents and the “establishment,” dropping out of society, abandoning social conventions, experimenting with mind-expanding drugs, and advocating sexual freedom with the slogan “make love not war.” It was a period of racial, gender, and ethnic awareness. It took protests and riots from the black community against discrimination to prompt the passage of anti-discriminatory laws to end segregation and unfair legislation in housing, employment, and voting.

  The Civil Rights Movement had its roots in the 1950s when African Americans dared to challenge segregation in the South, where intimidation by the Ku Klux Klan, murders, lynching, and bombing were still tolerated. Following Rosa Parks’s arrest for refusing to give up her seat on the bus to a white person, blacks took action by deliberately sitting in the white section of buses, staging sit-ins at lunch counters, organizing boycotts against white merchants who discriminated against them, and attempting to desegregate the Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. But these incidents in the ’50s did not as yet raise the consciousness of equal rights in the Chinese community, nor did the Chinese identify this struggle with their own half a century ago. The World War II generation, consisting predominately of illegal “paper sons,” dared not protest. Furthermore, the improved relationship with white America, sharing in its postwar posterity, would be jeopardized, and the newly gained acceptance of the Chinese community contrasted starkly with the struggles of the black community. Indeed, some Chinese were ready to wear the mantle of “the model minority” who overcame almost a century of discrimination. The improved relationship led to the Immigration Act of 1965, effective 1968, which eliminated the racial bias of previous acts and placed the Chinese on an equal basis with other nations, with a quota of 20,000 annually.

  Following World War II, the War Brides Act of December 28, 1945, and the Fiancée Act of June 26, 1946, wives and fiancées of military veterans were allowed admission to the United States. Between 1948 and 1959, several emergency and temporary laws were passed to admit political refugees and displaced persons seeking asylum. The passage of these acts benefited the Chinese and expanded the population. In addition, President John F. Kennedy signed a presidential directive on May 13, 1962, allowing refugees fleeing from the People’s Republic of China to enter the United States. The liberalization of immigration laws increased the population of Chinese America. The affluent, no longer restricted to Chinatowns, were free to move anywhere. Some saw business opportunities outside Chinatown, but those with limited knowledge of a new language and those who were less affluent gravitated to the squalid, overcrowded Chinatowns, breeding grounds for discontent and crime.

  The rise of crime plagued Chinatown, as gangs of youths intimidated the Chinese business community, extorting “protection money,” smashing windows, eating in restaurants and entering theaters without paying and slashing seats on the way out. Attempting to solve their own problems, a group of well-meaning, U.S.-born teenagers incorporated as the Leway, an abbreviation for Legitimate Way, and appealed to the traditional established organizations of the community but received minimal assistance. Viewing them as delinquents, the police hounded the Leway and the organization was short-lived. China-born youths, moreover, maintained their distance from the Leway and organized as the Wah Ching (Chinese youths), but their demand for assistance from the Chinese community and th
e community at large was likewise rejected. A number of its members, politicized by the activities of the Black Panthers and influenced by the Cultural Revolution of Red China, regrouped and proclaimed themselves the Red Guards. Emulating the Panthers, they served breakfast to needy children at Portsmouth Square, with Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book in their pockets. On the other hand, the Panthers had adopted their own slogan, “Power flows out of the barrel of a gun,” from Mao’s Little Red Book. The black Civil Rights Movement spurred political action in the Chinese community. Aided by President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, social workers organized social service programs in the community. Students, energized from participation in the Third World Strike at San Francisco State College and the Yellow Identity Symposium held at the University of California, Berkeley, returned to the community to fight the social injustices and inequalities that plagued Chinatown. From campus rhetoric to community action, college students joined with liberal and radical elements to go on strike against exploitation of women in the garment sweatshops and waiters and busboys in restaurants, and to rally against the demolition of the I-Hotel and the eviction of its low-income tenants.

  Today there are numerous social agencies using the political process for federal programs and grants to assist the underprivileged, such as: Chinatown Community Development Center, Chinese for Affirmative Action, Chinese Newcomers Services Center, On Lok Senior Services, Self Help for the Elderly, and Wu Yee Children’s Services.

  The new generation, rejecting the dominance of the white majority from without and the authority of the old establishment order from within, became a “new voice” in the community. The Civil Rights Era of the ’60s and ’70s transformed the political landscape of Chinatown forever. In 2011, in the political arena, Edwin Lee—appointed to replace former Mayor Gavin Newsom after his election to Lt. Governor of California—was the first citizen of Chinese descent to become mayor of San Francisco. Across the Bay in Oakland that same year, Jean Quan became the first Chinese American woman elected mayor of a major American city. Currently, there are three Chinese American members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

  Not only has the political landscape changed, the Immigration Act of 1965 has brought a diverse population from Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and different areas of the People’s Republic of China. Chinatown is no longer strictly Cantonese. The newcomers brought with them their cultural baggage, breathing new life in the community. Food products in the marketplace, restaurants, Buddhist temples, herb shops, and acupuncture all reflect the changing face of Chinatown, but the buildings and old institutions remain, to remind us we have been here since the beginning of San Francisco.

  PORTSMOUTH PLAZA

  Portsmouth Square ca. 1880s.

  Portsmouth Square today.

  Once the civic center of San Francisco, Portsmouth Plaza today is the heart and soul of the immigrant Chinese community, used by the young and especially the elderly to escape the drudgery of their often cramped living quarters. When weather permits, women gather to socialize, chat, and play cards, and mothers watch their preschoolers at play, while men hover over players intent on outmaneuvering each other in the Chinese chess game Jook Kay (“capture the flag”). Few are aware that they are sitting at the birthplace of San Francisco, where their countrymen were among the multitude of gold seekers celebrating the admission of California to the Union on October 29, 1850. Nor do people realize these Chinese turned the fables of Gum Saan (Gold Mountain) into reality.

  During the Spanish and Mexican periods of California history, Portsmouth Square was referred to simply as “la plaza.” However, when Commodore John B. Montgomery of the U.S.S. Plymouth raised the American flag there to claim California during the war with Mexico, the plaza was officially named Portsmouth Square, and the street fronting the Bay was named Montgomery Street. Regardless of its official designation, the early Chinese called it “Fah Yuen Gok” (“the park corner”), a name the community still uses today.

  The Square was the center for the City’s public celebrations and ceremonies. On August 28, 1850, two prominent members of the Chinese community, Norman Assing and A-He, led the Chinese residents to the Square in front of the old Mexican Customs House, where a special public ceremony welcomed them to the City. Mayor John Geary, Reverend Albert Williams, and other representatives of the city, presented the “China Boys” (as they called themselves) with Chinese-language religious tracts that had been published in Canton. This event was the extension of the Protestant evangelical movement, the “Second Great Awakening.”

  The Cable Cars on Clay Street ca. 1880s.

  For over a century the Square remained a rectangular block sloping down from Walter U. Lum Place (formerly known as “Brenham Place”) eastward to Kearny Street, bordered on the east by Clay Street and on the west by Washington Street. In 1960, to accommodate an underground parking garage for this car-congested area, landscape architects Royston, Hanamoto & Mayes redesigned Portsmouth Square into the split-level park you see today.

  Clay Street Following Andrew S. Hallidie’s successful test-run of the first cable car on August 21, 1873, horse-drawn cars were replaced with a cable car on Clay Street. Thereafter, the Chinese called Clay Street “Mo Mah Lie Ch’eh,” which literally means “no-horse-drawn car.” Starting from the top of Leavenworth Street, the line ended at a turntable at the bottom of Clay and Kearny Streets, to send the car back up the hill.

  Kearny Street was called “Ngah Moon Gai” because the Hall of Justice was located there.

  Kearny Street Kearny Street was named for General Stephen Kearny, the first military governor of California, who was ordered by Secretary of State James Buchanan to take possession of California in the war with Mexico. The Chinese referred to it as Ngah Moon Gai (“Courthouse Door Street”) because it was the site of the Hall of Justice. After the Earthquake, the Hall of Justice housed the Supreme Court, the Traffic Court, and the Police Department, City jail, and morgue. The coming and going of “paddy wagons” and policemen were familiar sights on Kearny Street Although the San Francisco police never wore green uniforms, the Chinese called policemen look yee (“green coat”), a term probably imported from Hong Kong, where it was used to refer to the green-uniformed police. Chinese kids in San Francisco, moreover, used to chant the same ditty, Dai Tow Look Yee (“Big-Headed Green Coat”), as the kids in Hong Kong.

  Chinese Culture Center

  750 Kearny Street

  When the Hall of Justice moved out in 1965, Holiday Inn successfully bid to build on the site. Because public funds were involved, the official San Francisco Redevelopment Agency oversaw the project’s compliance with government policies, including the Equal Employment Action Program and the Affirmative Action Program. Seizing the opportunity, Chinese community activist organizations such as the Chinatown-North Beach Human Resources Development Center and Chinese for Affirmative Action, along with the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, negotiated construction jobs for Chinese during the building process, and employment at all levels after the hotel’s completion.

  Likewise, concerned citizens and the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (“Chinese Six Companies”), headed by J.K. Choy, organized and incorporated the Chinese Culture Foundation in 1965. The Foundation negotiated a lease with Holiday Inn at $1.00 a year for a period of 60 years to house a Chinese Culture Center. Initially, the directors of the Foundation consisted of both members of the pro-Taiwan Chinese Six Companies and sympathizers with the People’s Republic of China. But conflict developed when the Chinese Six Companies took offense to comments in Newsweek by a prominent community member, Joe Yuey, that the Taiwanese government had done nothing in forty years, compared to the progress of the People’s Republic of China. Accusing their opponents of attempting a political takeover, the Six Companies withdrew from the Foundation on September 22, 1970.

  Chinese Culture Center.

  During the dedication of the newly completed Holiday Inn in June 1971, a group of
young Asians, the Asian People’s Coalition, protested by passing out leaflets condemning the use of public money to build the 27-story Holiday Inn, and the fact that only one floor was reserved for the community. The group argued that instead of building critically needed low-income housing, the City had built 570 luxurious rooms for tourists to gawk at Chinatown. Group members harassed Mayor Alioto and other speakers during the opening ceremony.

  In the ensuing decade, just a block away, many more demonstrations would take place in the battle to save the last bastion of Manilatown, the International Hotel (“I-Hotel”).

  Manilatown and I-Hotel

  868 Kearny Street

  As with other immigrants from Asia, the coming of Filipinos to America was the result of the United States’s efforts to dominate the Pacific. Following the Spanish American War, the United States occupied the Philippines, and Filipinos were classified as United States nationals with unrestricted immigration. After the Philippines Independence Act of 1934, immigration was limited to fifty persons per year.

  For over sixty years, the eight blocks on Kearny from Jackson to Sutter were home to Filipino migrant farm workers and merchant marine sailors. The local businesses—such as Bataan Restaurant, Bataan Drugstore, and Bataan Pool Hall—identified the area as Manilatown. Cookie’s Bar was the popular hangout for boxers and wrestlers. Old-timers used to tell stories about Lucky Pool Hall, Mike’s Barbershop, and Mama and Papa Blanco, who never refused to help a Filipino.

 

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