San Francisco Chinatown

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San Francisco Chinatown Page 11

by Philip P Choy


  Charlotte Ah Tye Chang was the granddaughter of G. Ah Thai and also the mother of Oliver Chang, the first playground director of Chinese descent in San Francisco, who directed the first Chinese playground in Chinatown. In 1969, at the age of 96, Charlotte attempted to save the building from demolition by having it declared a city landmark, with the support of Inter-Collegiate Students for Social Action at the University of California, Berkeley. This was the first attempt by a community activist to save a Chinatown landmark, but unfortunately it didn’t succeed. Before demolition, however, members saved all the temple’s paraphernalia, including the horizontal plaque with the calligraphy executed by Wu Ting Fang, minister of the Chinese Legation in Washington, D.C., for reinstallation in their new building.

  (See Ning Yung Benevolent Association and Chinese Benevolent Association of America.)

  Kuomintang (KMT)

  830-48 Stockton Street

  Following the 1911 Revolution, Dr. Sun Yat-sen consolidated his political activities under the party name Kuomintang (KMT) and strengthened his military forces with the establishment of the Whampoa Military Academy, under a young officer named Chiang Kai Shek. With Sun’s death on March 12, 1915, Chiang took command of the KMT and led the fight against Japan. For the next three decades, the overseas Chinese continued to be embroiled in the politics of China and established chapters of the KMT throughout the United States. Since 1915, the KMT headquarters in San Francisco have been at 830-48 Stockton Street. The local Chinese newspapers covered the war daily. Orchestrated by the Chinese Six Companies, the Chinese throughout the United States were unified in the effort to defeat Japan.

  Kuomintang (KMT) Building.

  ROSS AND SPOFFORD ALLEYS AND WAVERLY PLACE

  Waverly Place was originally known as Pike Street. Since the 1880s, local residents called it “Tien Hou Mew Guy” after the Tien Hou Temple located there. In the 1890s, the street was also home to the Kwan Kung Temple of the Ning Yung district association. On the opposite side of the street (22 Waverly) sat the Sing Wong Mew (Temple of the City God), while the Tung Wah Mew (Temple of the Fire God) was at 35 Waverly.

  Westerners have often referred to Chinese temples as “Joss Houses” although the Chinese word for temple (in Cantonese) is actually Mew. The word joss is a corruption of the Portuguese word Dios for God, stemming from the time of Portugal’s colonization of Macau in 1557 (Hunter 1965, 61).

  The street was also known as “Ho Bu’un Guy” or “Fifteen Cent Street,” because of the barber shops providing tonsorial services for the price of fifteen cents.

  On Waverly Place there is a unique concentration of buildings that represent the different types of traditional Chinese organizations. Architecturally the contiguous line of buildings combining classical motifs with Chinese elements and color created a Chinese streetscape neither East nor West but rather indigenously San Francisco.

  As early as the 1880s, Spofford Alley has been known to Chinese residents as “Sun Leuih Sung Hohng” (“New Spanish Alley”) and Ross Alley (formerly Stout) was known as “Ga’ow Leuih Sung Hohng” (“Old Spanish Alley”) because they were frequented by Hispanics for gambling, prostitution, and opium.

  In the 1870s, when Chinatown dominated the sewing industry, the sewing machine operators were all men. In the 1920s, women began to outnumber male operators and, by 1939, after the onset of World War II, women had entirely replaced male workers. When immigration laws became more liberal, an increasing number of women began to appear in the workforce. Trapped by linguistic and cultural barriers, many women had little choice but to work in sewing factories. Long hours, low wages, and substandard working conditions earned the industry the label “sweatshops.” In 1969, wages were from thirty-five cents to fifty cents an hour, while the work hours were seventy hours per week. From the 1950s until the 1980s, the humming of sewing machines could be heard along Spofford and Ross Alleys.

  The only fortune cookie factory remaining in the community is in Ross Alley. The fortune cookie became a favorite with tourists shortly before World War II, just as restaurants became popular.

  Golden Gate Fortune Cookies Co.

  56 Ross Alley

  Today Ross Alley is famous for the Golden Gate Fortune Cookies Co., where the only remaining old-fashioned fortune cookie machine in Chinatown is still use. This is a “must-see” for tourists.

  With the popularity of Chinese dining came the fortune cookie. Like “chop suey,” no one knows when it was introduced into Chinatown. Both the Chinese and Japanese take credit. Thus the legend of the Chinese fortune cookie crumbles.

  Jennifer B. Lee, in her article in the New York Times (1/16/08), reported the researcher in Japanese confectioneries Yasuko Nakamachi uncovered an 1878 book illustrating a man attending multiple round iron molds with long handles resting on a rectangular grill over a bed of charcoal, much like the way fortune cookies were made for generations by small family bakeries near the Shinto shrine outside Kyoto, Japan.

  Confectionery shop owners Gary Ono of the Benkyodo Co. (founded 1906) and Brian Kito of Fugetsu-do of Los Angeles (founded 1903) both claim their grandfathers introduced the fortune cookie to America. Erik Hagiware-Nagata mentioned his grandfather Makato Hagiware made the cookie at the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park. The daughter of David Jung claims her father made the cookie at their Hong Kong Noodle Co. founded in 1906 in Los Angeles.

  Fortune cookies being molded at Golden Gate Fortune Cookies Co.

  At one hundred years old, Eva Lim remembered that while visiting the Tea Garden in the 1920s, her father bought her a package of the cookies but they were flat, not folded, without the fortune. She was fascinated watching a woman baking the cookies with two waffle-like irons through the window of a market at the northeast corner of Dupont and Pacific Avenue.

  Originally the batter was baked in individual molds made in Japan and the cookie was folded by hand when it hardened. The late dentist Dr. Gene Poon described his father’s home operation in the early 1930s, with some seven to ten electrically heated units set in a U-shaped assembly line. Each unit was like a waffle iron with two round castings. During World War II, his father, Bing Cheong Poon, went to work in the shipyard but continued making cookies at night. Gene used to deliver them to Fong Fong Bakery (established 1937), Eastern Bakery (established 1924), and the sidewalk stalls.

  Apparently in Chinatown, fortune cookies were a homemade commodity until the mechanized carousal machine was invented by the Japanese and manufactured in Los Angeles.* Kay Heung Noodle Co. on Beckett Alley (founded 1933) by Charles and Harry Soo Hoo used such a machine, which had multiple molds placed in a roughly seven-foot-diameter circle. Workers sat outside the circle, individually picked the soft pliable cookie, and folded in the fortune. Eastern Bakery bought the machine and began to make its own cookies in 1940.

  Coming to America in 1952, Franklin Yee worked for ten years before saving enough money to go into business for himself. Yee started his Golden Gate Fortune Cookies Co. in 1962, when most existing fortune cookie bakeries had already switched to a completely automatic system. Lacking funds, Yee stayed with the old-fashioned machine. He remembers clearly that in his initial operation, his sales were only $5.00 a day. From this humble beginning, he turned the business into a main tourist attraction.

  How and when the Japanese fortune cookie became the Chinese fortune cookie remains a mystery but it is clear the Chinese made the cookie famous.

  Chee Kung Tong

  36 Spofford Alley

  In Chinese, the word “Tong” means a meeting hall. For example, a church is called “Lai By Tong,” meaning “Sunday meeting hall.” But in America, the word “Tong” came to mean secret societies notorious for their illegal activities—gang wars, prostitution, gambling, and opium—that plagued the Chinese community for over half a century. The Chee Kung Tong (Chinese Freemasons) was founded in San Francisco in 1853 and incorporated in 1879, with chapters established throughout Chinese American communities. This modest three-story
brick building is noted not so much for its architectural design as for its historical significance. In China, Chee Kung Tong was a branch of the Triad Secret Society founded to overthrow the Manchu government (1644-1911) and restore Chinese rule. In California, the Chee Kung Tong degenerated into criminal activities, competing with other secret societies to control prostitution and gambling.

  Chee Kung Tong returned to its lofty political ideology in 1900 when both Kang Yu-wei’s Reform Party and Sun Yat-sen’s Revolutionary Party sought its assistance. Originally the Chee Kung Tong supported Kang Yu Wei, but as Dr. Sun’s ideology gained popularity, the Chee Kung Tong switched allegiance. When in 1904 immigration officials did not allow entry to Sun, the leader of the Chee Kung Tong, Wong Sam Ark, and the Tong’s attorney Oliver Stidger, along with Reverend Ng Poon Chew and Reverend Soo Hoo Nam Art, worked successfully for his release. Sun stayed at the Chee Kung Tong headquarters and used the society’s newspaper, the Chinese Free Press, to propagandize his revolutionary cause. Accompanied by Wong Sam Ark, Dr. Sun went on a nationwide tour to generate support and contributions.

  Chee Kung Tong.

  When the revolution broke out in China on October 10, 1911, the Chee Kung Tong at 36 Spofford Alley became a distribution point for two million republican government bonds. On November 5, 1911, Chinatown celebrated the establishment of the Republic of China. Atop the roof, the dragon flags of the Manchu government were taken down and the flags of the New Republic were hoisted.

  Tien Hou Temple

  Sue Hing Benevolent Association

  125-29 Waverly Place

  The Tien Hou Temple is located on the top floor of the building. Tien Hou, the Queen of Heaven and Goddess of the Seven Seas, is the Chinese name for Waverly Place. The owners of the temple claim it is the oldest in San Francisco, established in 1853. Reports of a Tien Hou Temple at 33 Waverly Place during the 1890s likely refer to the same one. The temple was closed for many years, until 1975, when it reopened due to resurgence of interest from a new immigrant population.

  Tien Hou Temple on the top floor.

  Tien Hou Temple in the 1890s.

  The ground-floor façade of this building has been remodeled using an aluminum sash for the window of the central storefront. The façade of the levels above remains intact with its ornate features. The second floor has a simple iron balcony: brickwork surrounds the area of the three symmetrically placed double-hung windows. The third floor is enlivened by a deeper balcony, with two cast-iron columns and a central doorway framed by a marble surround engraved with Chinese characters and fringed by a band of egg and dart design. The balcony of the temple on the top floor has lotus-shaped metal lanterns, incense pots, shrines, and placard stands as well as two columns and an engraved marble arch around the doorway.

  Ning Yung Benevolent Association

  41 Waverly Place

  The Ning Yung Benevolent Association, comprised of immigrants from Toishan, was founded in 1853 when it separated from its parent organization, the Sze Yup Company. The new association purchased a site at 517 Broadway, behind Adler Place, to build their new headquarters. The association remained on Broadway until in the late 1880s, when it purchased the site on Waverly Place and constructed new headquarters, including a temple to patronize Kwan Kung, the God of War. After the 1906 quake, a new building replaced the old one on the same location.

  Embracing the spirit of Americanization, and contrary to the movement to create a new “Oriental City,” the association instructed its architect to design its building strictly in keeping with Western architecture, without Oriental embellishments. The temple, dedicated to Kwan Kung, was not included in the new plans.

  On October 26, 1907, the association held an open house for their new four-story brick building, followed by a banquet at the Suey Far Low on Jackson Street. That evening at the banquet, President Jow Doong Tarm gave a stirring speech insisting that greater Chinatown must be in keeping with greater San Francisco. Alas, cultural identity proved to be too deeply rooted to overcome. In the 1940s, a false canopy was added across the face of the building, above the second-story windows, simulating a Chinese roof.

  Ning Yung Benevolent Association.

  (See Kong Chow Benevolent Association.)

  * Filmmaker Derek Shimoda in his DVD The Killing of a Chinese Cookie (2008).

  WALKING TOURS

  1 Chinese Culture Center

  2 Manilatown & I-Hotel

  3 Chinese Congregational Church

  4 Wing Sang Mortuary

  4 Everybody’s Bookstore

  4 Chinese for Affirmative Action

  5 Chy Lung Bazaar

  6 Chung Sai Yat Po

  7 Chinese Chamber of Commerce

  8 Yeong Wo Benevolent Association Building

  9 Nam Kue School

  10 Chinese Daily Post

  11 Chinese Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA)

  12 Willie “Woo Woo” Wong Playground

  13 Chinese Baptist Church

  14 Sing Chong

  15 Sing Fat

  16 Old St. Mary’s Church

  17 St. Mary’s Square

  18 The Chinese World

  19 Soo Yuen Benevolent Association

  20 Loong Kong Tien Yee Association

  21 Chinese Telephone Exchange

  22 Sam Yup Benevolent Association

  23 Yan Wo Benevolent Association

  24 The Mandarin Theatre

  25 City Lights Bookstore

  26 Chinese Hospital

  27 Chinese American Citizens Alliance

  28 Chinese Episcopal Methodist Church

  29 Gordon J. Lau Elementary School

  30 Gum Moon Residence

  31 Chinese Presbyterian Church

  32 St. Mary’s Chinese Mission

  33 Hop Wo Benevolent Association

  34 The Chinese YWCA (The Chinese Historical Society of America) & YWCA Residence Club

  35 Donaldina Cameron House

  36 Chinese Central High School

  37 Chinese Consolidation Benevolent Association

  38 Kong Chow Benevolent Association

  39 Kuomintang (KMT)

  40 Golden Gate Fortune Cookies Bakery

  41 Chee Kung Tong

  42 Tien Hou Temple & Sue Hing Benevolent Association

  43 Ning Yung Benevolent Association

  Main Tour

  The core of Chinatown is a historic district replete with landmarks that trace the development of the neighborhood from the City’s earliest days to the present. Begin the tour from Portsmouth Plaza with No. 1 through No. 43 and you will discover the realities of the history of the City’s oldest surviving ethnic neighborhood. From City Lights, walk on Columbus Avenue to Kearny Street toward Portsmouth Plaza. This tour will take the whole day, depending on your depth of interest. For those with limited time, the following short tours are suggested. Feel free to wander and explore yourself. I assure you, there are no secret underground tunnels—never were and never will be.

  1 Chinese Culture Center

  2 Manilatown & I-Hotel

  3 Chinese Congregational Church

  4 Wing Sang Mortuary

  4 Everybody’s Bookstore

  4 Chinese for Affirmative Action

  5 Chy Lung Bazaar

  6 Chung Sai Yat Po

  7 Chinese Chamber of Commerce

  8 Yeong Wo Benevolent Association Building

  9 Nam Kue School

  14 Sing Chong

  15 Sing Fat

  16 Old St. Mary’s Church

  17 St. Mary’s Square

  18 The Chinese World

  19 Soo Yuen Benevolent Association

  20 Loong Kong Tien Yee Association

  21 Chinese Telephone Exchange

  22 Sam Yup Benevolent Association

  23 Yan Wo Benevolent Association

  25 City Lights Bookstore

  40 Golden Gate Fortune Cookies Bakery

  Short Tour No. 1

  Portsmouth Plaza, Sacramen
to Street, and

  Grant Avenue.

  Following the numbers on the map, begin your tour from Portsmouth Plaza, walk south on Kearny onto Sacramento, thence to Grant Avenue, and from California, walk northward to Jackson Street. If time permits, take side trips along the way onto Washington Street to site No. 21, the original Chinese Telephone Company and the location of the first San Francisco newspaper published by Sam Brannan. Continue back to Grant and walk to Jackson. Turn uphill onto Jackson Street and note adjacent alleyways with their own Chinese names. Stop by Ross Alley and visit No. 40, the fortune cookie bakery. (Tour 1 may be combined with tour 2 or tour 3.)

  10 Chinese Daily Post

  11 Chinese Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA)

  12 Willie “Woo Woo” Wong Playground

  13 Chinese Baptist Church

  40 Golden Gate Fortune Cookies Bakery

  41 Chee Kung Tong

  42 Tien Hou Temple & Sue Hing Benevolent Association

  43 Ning Yung Benevolent Association

  Short Tour No. 2

  Ross, Spofford, Waverly Place

  Walk through Ross, cross Washington to Spofford, and stop at site No. 41, Chee Kung Tong. Continue through Spofford to Waverly. Observe the architecture on the buildings on the west side of the street, which makes eclectic use of classic design elements intermixed with Chinese colors to create the illusion of a Chinese streetscape. Climb three flights of stairs to No. 42, the Tien Hou Temple; stop by site No. 43, the Ning Yung Building. If time permits, continue on toward Sacramento Street and stop at No. 13 Baptist Church, No. 10 Chinese Daily Post, No. 11 Chinese YMCA, and No. 12 “Woo Woo” Wong Playground.

 

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