The Chinese in America

by Iris Chang

  144 dropped to 279: Ibid., p. 3.

  144 in 1885, 22: Ibid., p. 3.

  144 a total of ten Chinese people: Ibid., p. 3.

  144 103,620 to 85,341: U.S. Census.

  144 “They would stab through the rice”: Judy Yung interview with Mr. Chew, file 20, “Angel Island Oral History Project,” Asian American Studies Library, University of California at Berkeley.

  145 “My cousin and I”: K. H. Wong, Gum Sahn Yun (Gold Mountain Men) (San Francisco: Fong Brothers, Inc., 1987), p. 187.

  145 “It seemed not more than several minutes”: Gladys Hensen, Denial of Disaster (San Francisco: Cameron and Company, 1990), p. 26.

  145 “They carried their bundles”: Chung Sai Yat Po, May 10, 1906.

  145 robbed by the soldiers: San Francisco Chronicle, June 10, 1906, and

  April 29, 1906, as cited in Erica Y. Z. Pan, The Impact of the 1906 Earthquake in San Francisco’s Chinatown (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 1995), pp. 43 and 54. 145 ordered by these soldiers to perform physical labor: San Francisco

  Chronicle, June 10, 1906. 146 “shoot to kill”: Erica Y. Z. Pan, p. 53.

  146 “high railroad officials”: San Francisco Chronicle, April 29, 1906.

  146 “the National Guard”: Gordon Thomas and Max Witts, The San Francisco Earthquake (New York: Stein and Day, 1971), p. 259.

  146 Between 1855 and 1934: Stanford Lyman, Chinese Americans (New York: Random House, 1974), p. 110.

  147 the ratio of Chinese sons to daughters: Betty Lee Sung, p. 99.

  147 “if the stories told in the courts”: U.S. Treasury Department, Annual Report 1903, p. 98, as cited in Madeline Y. Hsu, Dreaming of Gold, Dreaming of Home, p. 75. The quote in the report comes from p. 51 in “Report of Proceedings of a Chinese-Exclusion Convention,” which was held in San Francisco, November 21-22, 1901.

  147 “overrun with vermin”: Silas K. C. Geneson, “Cry Not in Vain,” p. 29.

  147 “a race of pigs”: Ibid.

  147 Description of Angel Island: Him Mark Lai, Genny Lim, and Judy Yung, Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1991).

  147 “prevalent among aliens from oriental countries”: Ibid., p. 13.

  147 some 175,000 Chinese immigrants: Ester Wu, “Chinese Immigrants Remember Detention at Angel Island,” Dallas Morning News, May 21, 2000.

  148 75 to 80 percent: Unpublished paper given to author by Bob Barde, Academic Coordinator of the Institute of Business and Economic Research at Berkeley.

  148 “dumped together as so many animals”: “The History and Problem of Angel Island,” p. 3. Major Document #150, Box 26, Survey of Race Relations, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University.

  148 “There is no privacy whatsoever”: Ibid., p. 1.

  148 “veritable firetrap”: Letter from the Special Immigration Inspector in Meredith, New Hampshire, to the Commissioner General of Immigration in Washington, D.C., August 21, 1915. File 53438-54, Box 208, Entry 9, Record Group 85, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

  149 pitched a tent for him: Ibid.

  149 “a prison with scarcely any supply of air or light”: Letter from L. D. Cio to F. S. Brockman, July 19, 1913, p. 2. File 53620/211, Entry 9, Box 230, Record Group 85, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

  149 “cattle”: Letter from J. C. Huston, American Consul in Charge at American Consulate General in Tientsin, China, to the Secretary of State, April 10, 1923. File 53620/115C, Entry 9, Box 229, Record Group 85, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

  149 customary for the Chinese to eat only twice a day: Letter, Office of the Commissioner, Chinese Division in Boston, Massachusetts, to Commissioner General of Immigration, June 5, 1915. No. 2513, File 53775-139 and 139 A, Box 235, Entry 9, Stack Area 17W3, Row 2, Compartment 17, Shelf 1, Record Group 85, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

  149 angry demonstrations in the dining room: Him Mark Lai, Genny Lim, and Judy Yung, Island, p. 19. In an oral history interview, Law Shee Low described the food served at Angel Island: “The bean sprouts were cooked so badly you wanted to throw up when you saw it. There was rice but it was cold ... The food was steamed to death; it smelled bad and tasted bad. The vegetables were old and the fatty beef was of poor quality. They must have thought we were pigs.” Judy Yung, Unbound Voices: A Documentary History of Chinese Women in San Francisco (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), p. 216.

  149 post a sign in Chinese: Him Mark Lai, Genny Lim, and Judy Yung, Island, p. 19.

  149 troops to Angel Island: Ibid.

  150 “Is your house one story or two stories”: Betty Lee Sung, p. 102.

  150 “There are many cases”: “Life History and Social Document of Mr. J. S. Look,” Seattle, August 13, 1924, by C. H. Burnett.” p. 3. Major Document #182, Box 27, Survey of Race Relations, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University.

  151 tiny windowless closet three feet square: Origins & Destinations, p. 82.

  151 “calm down”: Ibid., p. 82.

  151 “chopsticks slaying case”: Case 4139/11-29, Record Group 85, National Archives, Pacific Sierra Region, San Bruno, California.

  151 Leong Bick Ha: Yen Le Espiritu, Asian American Women and Men: Labor, Laws and Love (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1997), p. 55.

  151 “Wait till the day I become successful”: Him Mark Lai, Genny Lim, and Judy Yung, Island, p. 94.

  151 “Leaving behind my writing bush”: Ibid., p. 84.

  152 “Now poor Wong Fong”: Letter, Collector of Customs, Port of San Francisco, to Mr. H. A. Ling, Attorney, August 21, 1895, National Archives, Pacific Sierra Region, San Bruno, California. Given to author from the personal files of Neil Thomsen, archivist at NARA San Bruno.

  152 Information on Elsie Sigel murder: Arthur Bonner, Alas! What Brought Thee Hither? The Chinese in New York 1800-1950, pp. 120-22.

  153 draperies to be removed from each room, stall, and both: Providence Daily Journal, June 25, 1909, and Providence Sunday Journal, June 20, 1909, as cited in Origins & Destinations, p. 423.

  153 90 percent of such raids: Letter written on behalf of United Chinese Association of Ohio and the Chinese Merchants Association of Cleveland, Ohio, to William B. Wilson, Secretary of Labor, March 30, 1916. File 53775/139, Entry 9, Box 235, Record Group 85, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

  153-54 Description of arrests and imprisonment: Petition to President Wilson, stamped June 1, 1914. File 53620-115A, Box 229, Entry 9, Stack Area 17W3, Row 2, Compartment 1, Shelf 6, Record Group 85, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

  154 “solitary, dark confinement”: “Report of the Special Committee in Charge of the Investigation of the Treatment of Chinese Residents and Immigrants by U.S. Immigration Officers.” By the Special Committee appointed by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Chinese-American League of Justice of Los Angeles, California, January 4, 1913. File 53620/115, Entry 9, Box 228, Record Group 85, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

  154 “unfit for the transportation of cattle”: Ibid.

  155 “This business had been going on for a number of years”: Letter to the Attorney General, December 16, 1917. File 54184/138, Box 259, Entry 9, Record Group 85, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

  155 as much as $100,000 a year: San Francisco Examiner news clip, October 1917. File 54184/138B, Box 259, Entry 9, Record Group 85, National Archives, Washington, D.C.; Valerie Natale, ”Angel Island ’Guardian of the Western Gate,’” Prologue: Quarterly of the National Archives Record Administration 30:2 (Summer 1998).

  155 charging $1,400: Valerie Natale, “Angel Island ‘Guardian of the Western Gate.’”

  155 Description of the extent of Immigration Service corruption: Letter, John Densmore to the Secretary of Labor, May 1, 1919. File 54184/138-B, Box 259, Entry 9, Record Group 85, National Archives, Washington, D.C; Valerie Natale, “Angel Island ‘Guardian of the Western Gate.’”

  155 discharge of some fo
rty people: Letter, John Densmore to Alfred Hampton, Assistant Commissioner-General of Immigration, May 14, 1917, National Archives. Also, research of Bob Barde, academic coordinator of the Institute of Business and Economic Research, University of California, Berkeley, provided to author.

  156 “May 27 10:20 p.m. Chink called McCall”: Page 16, “Copy of Complete Telephone Conversations; May 23, 1917 to July 4, 1917. Inclusive.” File 54184/138B, Box 259, Entry 9, Record Group 85, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

  156 Chen Ke: Renqiu Yu, p. 23.

  156 “Whenever my mother would mention it”: Donald Dale Jackson, “Behave Like Your Actions Reflect on All Chinese,” Smithsonian, February 1991.

  Chapter Ten. Work and Survival in the Early Twentieth Century

  158 Biographical details on Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, and Sun Yat-sen: See Eugene Anschel, Homer Lea, Sun Yat-sen and the Chinese Revolution (New York: Praeger, 1984); Michael Gasster, Chinese Intellectuals and the Revolution of 1911: The Birth of Modern Radicalism (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1969); Jane Leung Larson, “New Source Materials on Kang Youwei and the Baohuanghui: The Tan Zhangxiao (Tom Leung) Collection of Letters and Documents at UCLA’s East Asian Library,” Chinese America: History and Perspectives 1993; Jung-Pang Lo, ed., K’ang Yu-wei: A Biography and a Symposium (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1967); L. Eve Armentrout Ma, Revolutionaries, Monarchists and Chinatowns: Chinese Politics in the Americas and the 1911 Revolution (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990); Franklin Ng, “The Western Military Academy in Fresno,” Origins & Destinations: 41 Essays on Chinese America; Young-tsu Wong, “Revisionism Reconsidered: Kang Youwei and the Reform Movement of 1898,” Journal of Asian Studies, August 1992; Robert Worden, “A Chinese Reformer in Exile: The North American Phase of the Travels of K‘ang Yu-wei, 1899-1909,” Ph.D. dissertation, Georgetown University, 1971.

  161 1913 Alien Land Act: Sandy Lydon, Chinese Gold, pp. 408-11.

  162 “The whites treated us Chinese like slavesc;”: Jeff Gillenkirk and James Motlow, Bitter Melon: Inside America’s Last Rural Chinese Town (Seattle : University of Washington Press, 1987) p. 89.

  162 Lum Yip Kee: Lynn Pan, Sons of the Yellow Emperor, p. 73.

  162 Chun Afong: Ibid., p. 73.

  162 Thomas Foon Chew: J. C. Wright, ”Thomas Foon Chew: Founder of Bayside Cannery, in Gloria Sun Hom, ed., Chinese Argonauts: An Anthology of the Chinese Contributions to the Historical Development of Santa Clara County (San Jose, Calif.: Foothill Community College, 1971), pp. 20-41; Thomas W. Chinn, Bridging the Pacific: San Francisco Chinatown and Its People (San Francisco: Chinese Historical Society of America, 1989), pp. 105-7; Eric A. Carlson, ”Fortunes in Alviso,” Metro, April 12-18, 2001, p. 15.

  162 Chin Lung: Ruthanne Lum McCunn, Chinese American Portraits: Personal Histories 1828-1988 (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1988), pp. 89-97. For more details on his life, see Sucheng Chan, This Bittersweet Soil: The Chinese in California Agriculture, 1860-1910 (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1986), pp. 206-12.

  163 roughly a quarter of all Chinese workers: Out of 45,614 Chinese, 11,438 worked in restaurants. Asians in America: Selected Student Papers, Asian American Research Project, University of California at Davis, Working Publication #3, p. 31.

  163 Chow mein: Imogene L. Lim and John Eng-Wong, “Chow Mein Sandwiches: Chinese American Entrepreneurship in Rhode Island,” Origins & Destinations, pp. 417-35; Peter Kwong, The New Chinatown (New York: Hill and Wang, 1987, first edition, and 1996, revised edition), p. 34.

  163 David Jung: Chicago Tribune, February 17, 1988.

  164 “as a rule Caucasians”: Tan Fuyuan, The Science of Oriental Medicine, Diet and Hygiene (Los Angeles, 1902), p. 11, as cited in Haiming Liu, “Between China and America,” Ph.D. thesis provided to author, p. 96.

  164 Hu Yunxiao: Haiming Liu, p. 89.

  164 ran advertisements in English-language newspapers: Ibid., p. 94.

  164 twenty-eight Chinese herb doctors: International Chinese Business Directory Co., Inc., Wong Kin, President, International Chinese Business Directory for the World for the Year 1913 (San Francisco, 1913). As cited in Haiming Liu, p. 90.

  164 Chang Yitang: Haiming Liu, pp. 97-99.

  165 believes he invented those credentials: Louise Leung Larson, Sweet Bamboo: Saga of a Chinese American Family (Los Angeles: Chinese Historical Society of Southern California, 1990), p. 19.

  166 “The [more] he was arrested”: Ibid., p. 71.

  166 Joe Shoong: Thomas W. Chinn, Bridging the Pacific, pp. 185-86; “Joe Shoong, Chinese Merchant King, Dies,” San Francisco Chronicle, April 15, 1961; Ronald Takaki, Strangers from a Different Shore, p. 252.

  166 “the richest, best-known Chinese businessman”: Time, March 28, 1938, p. 56.

  166 Ray Joe: Oral history conducted by Sam Chu Lin and provided to author.

  166 “I sleep on two trucks pulled together for bed”: Ibid.

  167 kept a stick in their stores: James W. Loewen, p. 33.

  167 earn on average twice the white median income: Ibid., p. 53.

  168 almost 30 percent of all employed Chinese worked in laundries: Betty Lee Sung, The Story of the Chinese in America (New York: Collier, 1971), p. 188.

  168 out of a total of 45,614 Chinese workers, 12,559 were laundry people: Asians in America: Selected Student Papers. Asian American Research Project, University of California at Davis, Working Publication #3, p. 31.

  168 scrub board, soap, and an iron: Betty Lee Sung, p. 190.

  168 “In the old days, some of those fellows were really ignorant”: Paul C. P. Siu, Chinese Laundryman: A Study of Social Isolation (New York: New York University Press, 1987), p. 52.

  168 charged at least 15 percent less: Interview with Danny Moy, New York Chinatown History Project, archived in Museum of Chinese in the Americas, 70 Mulberry Street, New York City.

  169 “My father used to joke”: Judith Luk oral history interview with Tommy Tom, assistant manager of Wah Kue wet wash, January 9, 1981, New York Chinatown History Project, Museum of Chinese in the Americas, New York.

  169 “I heard that some of them used a string to hang a piece of bread from the ceiling”: Renqiu Yu, To Save China, to Save Ourselves, p. 26.

  169 “In China in the old days”: Interview with Loy Wong, April 26, 1982, New York Chinatown History Project, Museum of Chinese in the Americas, New York.

  169 “became like balls”: Ruthanne Lum McCunn, p. 155.

  169 in the thirty-eight years she worked in a laundry, she left it only three times: Yen Le Espiritu, Asian American Women and Men, p. 38.

  169-70 “Some of these old-timers”: James Dao interview with Andy Eng, manager of the Wing Gong laundry, New York Chinatown History Project, Museum of Chinese in the Americas.

  170 enjoyed an astounding 90 percent literacy rate: Renqiu Yu, p. 38.

  170 yishanguan: Renqiu Yu, p. 28.

  170 1920s correspondence between Hsiao Teh Seng: Translated by Paul C. P. Siu and archived in the Ernest Burgess Papers, Regenstein Library Special Collections, University of Chicago. An excellent description of these letters can be found in Adam McKeown, “Chinese Migrants Among Ghosts: Chicago, Peru and Hawaii: The Early Twentieth Century,” Ph.D. dissertation in history, University of Chicago, 1997, pp. 80-86.

  172 L. C. Tsung’s The Marginal Man: Jack Chen, The Chinese of America, pp. 158-59.

  Chapter Eleven. A New Generation Is Born

  173 100,686 men and 4,779 women: 1880 U.S. Census.

  173 seven Chinese men for every Chinese woman: Diane Mei Lin Mark and Ginger Chih, A Place Called Chinese America, p. 173. According to the 1920 U.S. Census, there were 53,891 Chinese males and 7,748 Chinese females.

  174 only about one hundred fifty Chinese women: Origins & Destinations, p. 89.

  174 not a single Chinese woman: Victor G. and Brett de Bary Nee, Longtime Californ’, p. 25; Jack Chen, The Chinese of America, p. 176.

  175 “My parents wanted us to become professionals”:
Interview with Herbert Leong, interview #141, Southern California Chinese American Oral History Project, sponsored by the Asian American Studies Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California.

  175 “You can make a million dollars”: Victor G. and Brett de Bary Nee, p. 151.

  175 “baboons”: Victor Low, The Unimpressible Race, p. 15.

  175 shut down a public school for Chinese children: Victor Low, p. 14.

  175 segregate Asians, American Indians, and blacks: Ibid., pp. 20-21. For instance, the 1864 School Law stated, “Negroes, Mongolians, and Indians shall not be admitted into the public schools; provided, that upon the application of the parents or guardians of ten or more such colored children, made in writing to the Trustees of any such district, said Trustees shall establish a separate school for the education of Negroes, Mongolians, and Indians, and use the public school funds for the support of the same.”

  176 new California state law granted separate public education for blacks and Indians: Ibid., pp. 26-27.

  176 Chinese children were the only racial group to be denied a state-funded education: Victor Low, pp. 37, 49.

  176 “the association of Chinese and white children”: Judy Yung, Unbound Feet, p. 48.

  176 “filthy or vicious habits”: Victor Low, p. 50.

  176 “dangerous to the well-being of the state”: Ibid., p. 60.

  176 rather go to jail: Ibid., p. 61.

  177 adopted a resolution: Ibid., p. 61.

  177 punish the board members with contempt citations: Ibid., p. 63.

  177 “urgency provision”: Ibid., p. 66.

  177 “May you Mr. Moulder”: Ibid., p. 71. The letter, dated April 8, 1885, was published in the San Francisco Daily Alta California newspaper on April 16, 1885.

  177 Lum Gong: James Loewen, pp. 65-68; Sucheng Chan, p. 58.

  177 A few Chinese American children managed to find ways to attend Caucasian schools: In places like San Jose, California, and Hawaii, Chinese American children were integrated into white schools. There, the law stipulated that they could attend white schools as long as no white parents complained. Darlene T. Chan, “San Jose’s Old Chinatown, Heinlenville, 1850-1930: A Historical Study,” Ph.D. dissertation in education, University of San Francisco, 1994, p. 26.