The Chinese in America

by Iris Chang

  178 a group of white parents at Washington Grammar School: Victor Low, pp. 109-10.

  178 a Chinese boy graduated at the top of his class: Author interview with Sam Chu Lin, November 2002; Cheng-Tsu Wu, ed., “Chink!,” p. 147.

  179 “I remember rushing home from school”: Ruthanne Lum McCunn, Chinese American Portraits, p. 133.

  179 Bernice Leung: Interview with Bernice Leung, interview #137, Southern California Chinese American Oral History Project.

  179 “I was brought up purely Caucasian”: Huping Ling, Surviving on the Gold Mountain, p. 78. Original citation: Arthur Dong, Forbidden City, U.S.A., color video, 56 minutes, 1989, in The American Experience.

  179 “There was endless discussion”: Victor Wong, ”Childhood II,“ in Nick Harvey, ed., Ting: The Caldron: Chinese Art and Identity in San Francisco (San Francisco: Glide Urban Center, 1970), p. 71.

  180 “We have never lived in Chinatown”: “Interview with Lillie Leung,” by Wm. C. Smith, Los Angeles, August 12, 1924. Major Document #76, Box 25, Survey of Race Relations, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University.

  180 “Well, you read all right”: ”Story of a Chinese College Girl,” p. 4, Major Document 54, Box 24, Survey of Race Relations, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University. Also Judy Yung, Unbound Voices, p. 301.

  180 “In grade school I was fairly successful”: Interview conducted October 13, 1924, in Los Angeles, unnamed participant. Major Document #233, Box 28, Survey of Race Relations, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University.

  180 “When we came to the study of China”: Ibid.

  181 “Mother watched us like a hawk”: Oral history interview with Alice Sue Fun, in Judy Yung, Unbound Voices, p. 269.

  181 “a lot of housework”: Ibid.

  181 “When we grew up”: Grace Pung Guthrie, A School Divided: An Ethnography of Bilingual Education in a Chinese Community (Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1985), p. 63.

  182 Some fifty Chinese-language elementary schools and a half dozen Chinese-language high schools: Haiming Liu, p. 19.

  182 “an ordeal that I grew to hate”: Louise Leung Larson, Sweet Bamboo, p. 65.

  182 “totalitarian attitude”: Interview with Rodney Chow, interview #149, 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.

  183 “It was not that I was entirely unwilling to learn”: Pardee Lowe, Father and Glorious Descendant (Boston: Little, Brown, 1943), p. 140.

  183 “I had to learn the Chinese language”: “Interview with Mrs. C. S. Machida,” by Wm. C. Smith, Los Angeles, August 13, 1924. Major Document #73, Box 25, Survey of Race Relations, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University.

  183 almost all of the Chinese American children in San Francisco: Judy Yung, Unbound Feet, p. 151.

  184 very first Boy Scout troop: Thomas W. Chinn, Bridging the Pacific: San Francisco Chinatown and Its People (San Francisco: Chinese Historical Society of America, 1989), pp. 122-25.

  184 “Take it all in all”: Victor Low, pp. 112-13.

  185 “It is almost impossible to place a Chinese or Japanese”: Betty Lee Sung, p. 236.

  185 “You Chinee boy or Jap boy?”: Pardee Lowe, Father and Glorious Descendant (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1943), pp. 191-92.

  186 “Everywhere I was greeted with perturbation”: Ibid., pp. 146-47.

  186 “‘Sorry,’ they invariably said”: Ibid., p. 147.

  186 “Recently two friends of mine”: “Life History and Social Document of Fred Wong,” p. 6. Date and place given on document, August 29, 1924, Seattle, Washington. Survey of Race Relations, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University.

  187 a Los Angeles bank: Interview with Clarence Yip Yeu, interview #102, Southern California Chinese American Oral History Project.

  187 “Don’t you have an accent?”: Victor Low, p. 170.

  187 Information on Frank Chuck: Connie Young Yu, Profiles in Excellence: Peninsula Chinese Americans (Palo Alto, Calif.: Stanford Area Chinese Club, no date listed, possibly 1986), pp. 19-23.

  188 Information on Chan Chung Wing; found it very difficult to defend my clients“: Lillian Lim, “Chinese American Trailblazers in the Law,” unpublished paper presented at the Sixth Chinese American Conference, July 9-11, 1999.

  189 graduate from high school in numbers equal to Chinese boys: Judy Yung, Unbound Feet, pp. 126-27.

  189 refused to finance her college education: Jade Snow Wong, Fifth Chinese Daughter (original publication, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1945; reprint edition, 1997), p. 109.

  189 a total of four Chinese female students: Huping Ling, p. 45.

  189 not until the 1920s that the San Francisco public school system began hiring female Chinese schoolteachers: Judy Yung, Unbound Feet, p. 129.

  190 Chinatown Telephone Exchange: Ibid., p. 139.

  191 Alice Fong Yu: Ibid., p. 129; Thomas W. Chinn, Bridging the Pacific, pp. 236-38.

  191 Information on Martha, Mickey, and Marian Fong: Judy Yung, Unbound Feet, p. 131.

  191 Faith So Leung: Ibid., p. 133. Also Thomas W. Chinn, Bridging the Pacific, pp. 187-89.

  191 Dolly Gee: Judy Yung, Unbound Feet, pp. 138-39.

  192 Information on Bessie Jeong: Interview with Bessie Jeong, interview #157, Southern California Chinese American Oral History Project; ”Story of a Chinese Girl Student,” Major Document #5, Box 24, Survey of Race Relations, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University; Judy Yung, Unbound Feet, pp. 131-33, 142, 165-66.

  193 ”My parents wanted to hold onto the old idea”: ”Interview with Lillie Leung,” by Wm. C. Smith, Los Angeles, August 12, 1924. Major Document #76, Box 25, Survey of Race Relations, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University.

  193 ”spooning”: Judy Yung, Unbound Feet, p. 166.

  193 One San Francisco ABC couple: Description of Daisy Wong Chinn and Thomas W. Chinn in Judy Yung, Unbound Feet, p. 167.

  194 founded Pi Alpha Phi: A magazine, February/March 1995, p. 14.

  194 Sigma Omicron Pi: Judy Yung, Unbound Feet, p. 128.

  194 ”Chinese Collegiate Shuffle!”: Ronald Riddle, Flying Dragons, Flowing Streams: Music in the Life of San Francisco’s Chinese (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1983), p. 145, as cited in Huping Ling, p. 104.

  194 ”our parents always preached”: Diane Mark and Ginger Chih, A Place Called Chinese America, p. 86.

  195 Expatriation Act of 1907: Judy Yung, Unbound Feet, pp. 168-69.

  195 1922 Cable Act: Sucheng Chan, ”The Exclusion of Chinese Women,” in Chinese Historical Society of America, Chinese America: History and Perspectives 1994, p. 124.

  195 ”My Most Embarrassing Moment”: Interview with Yu-Shan Han, interview #152, Southern California Chinese American Oral History Project.

  195 ”Chinese women who are born here are regular flappers”: “Mr. Mar Sui Haw,” Seattle, Washington, by C. H. Burnett, August 28, 1924, p. 11. Major Document #244, Box 29, Survey of Race Relations, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University.

  196 ”It is not right for Chinese man born in China”: ”Life History and Social Document of Andrew Kan,“ Seattle, Washington, August 22, 1924, by C. H. Burnett, p. 12. Major Document #178, Box 27, Survey of Race Relations, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University.

  196 ”Don’t get married in the United States!”: Lee family oral history project, 1991, p. 21, as cited in Erika Lee, ”The Chinese American Community in Buffalo, New York 1900-1960,” honors thesis at Tufts University, 1991.

  196 did not want any of their offspring to marry outside their own dialect: Interview with Rodney H. Chow, interview #149, Southern California Chinese American Oral History Project.

  196 Milton L. Barron s
urveyed 97 Chinese marriages: Milton L. Barron, People Who Intermarry (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1946), pp. 11-19, as cited in Betty Lee Sung, The Story of the Chinese in America, p. 258.

  197 ”foreign devil child”: Judy Yung, Unbound Feet, p. 170.

  197 ”disapprove very much”: Tye Leung Schulze, ”Ting,” in Louise Schulze Lee private collection, as cited in Judy Yung, Unbound Feet, p. 170.

  198 killing or wounding more than seven thousand people: Him Mark Lai, ”Roles Played by Chinese in America During China’s Resistance to Japanese Aggression and During World War II,” Chinese America: History and Perspectives, 1997, p. 76.

  Chapter Twelve. Chinese America During the Great Depression

  201 ”I remember wearing sneakers with holes in them”: Interview with Lillian Louie, p. 4, New York Chinatown History Project, Museum of Chinese in the Americas.

  202 2,300, or 18 percent: Judy Yung, Unbound Feet, p. 183.

  202 22 percent: Ibid.

  202 ”During the Depression”: Interview with Mark Wong, in Victor G. and Brett de Bary Nee, Longtime Californ‘, p. 168.

  202 ”tens of thousands of Chinese laundry men”: Chinese Nationalist Daily, April 24, 1933, p. 1, as cited in Renqiu Yu, To Save China, to Save Ourselves, p. 35.

  202 3,200 members: Renqiu Yu, p. 55.

  203 Lillian Lee Kim story: Lillian Lee Kim, ”An Early Baltimore Chinese Family: Lee Yick You and Louie Yu Oy,” Chinese America: History and Perspectives 1994 (Brisbane, Calif.: Chinese Historical Society of America, 1994), pp. 155-74.

  203 ”thoroughly modern”: Ronald Takaki, Strangers from a Different Shore, p. 247.

  204 ”the looks that made China’s beauties so fascinating”: Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, ”The Loveliest Daughter: A Melting Pot of the East and the West,” Journal of Social History, Fall 1997, p. 7.

  204 almost one-fifth of the city’s tourist trade: Ronald Takaki, p. 248.

  204 ”Make tourists WANT to come”: Ibid., p. 249.

  204 pulling rickshaws for white sightseers: Interview with Rodney H. Chow, interview #149, Southern California Chinese American Oral History Project. In Los Angeles, China City opened in 1938 but burned down the following year. Later, it was rebuilt but was again destroyed by fire in 1949. Source: Asian American Studies Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California, Linking Our Lives: Chinese American Women of Los Angeles (Los Angeles: Chinese Historical Society of Southern California, 1984), p. 16.

  204 guides warned visitors to hold hands: Betty Lee Sung, p. 130.

  204 ”opium-crazed”: Ronald Takaki, p. 251.

  205 ”a joint stock company”: Adam McKeown, ”Chinese Migrants Among Ghosts,” p. 284.

  205 Information on Forbidden City: Huping Ling, Surviving on the Gold Mountain, pp. 119-20; Judy Yung, Unbound Feet, pp. 202-3; author interviews with Chinatown residents.

  205 suggested having naked girls jump out of a cake: Gloria Heyung Chun, Of Orphans and Warriors: Inventing Chinese American Culture and Identity (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2000), p. 35.

  206 ”Every day and all year round”: Letter to New York Times, October 1, 1922, from S. J. Benjamin Cheng, a Columbia University student, as cited in Arthur Bonner, Alas! What Brought Thee Hither?, p. 107.

  206 ”I never saw an underground tunnel”: Victor G. and Brett de Bary Nee, p. 71.

  206 so that chickens could be raised there: Interview with Rose Wong, interview #80, Southern California Chinese American Oral History Project.

  206 ”We hated them!”: The Life and Times of Lung Chin: A Story of New York Chinatown, manuscript in folder labeled ”Chinatown 19[15]-? Restaurants, Tongs, Opium, Sports, basketball, social culture,” Museum of Chinese in the Americas.

  207 ”the great and evil man”: Cheng-Tsu Wu, ed., ”Chink!,” pp. 136-38. Original citation: Sax Rohmer, The Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu (New York: McKinlay, Stone and MacKenzie, 1916).

  207 ”green eyes gleamed upon me”: Ibid.

  209 ”You’re asking me”: Los Angeles Times, July 12, 1987.

  209 ”Because I had been the villainess”: Hollywood Citizen News, 1958, as cited in Judy Chu, ”Anna May Wong,” in Emma Gee et al., eds., Counterpoint: Perspectives on Asian America (Los Angeles: Asian American Center, University of California at Los Angeles, 1976), p. 287.

  210 did little more than provide exotic background: Interview with Lillie Louie, interview #135, Southern California Chinese American Oral History Project.

  210 Information on Tom Gubbins: Interviews with Eddie E. Lee (#17), Gilbert Leong (#19), Mabel L. Lew (#22), Lillie Louie (#35), Bessie Loo (#38), Ethel Cannon (#64), and Gim Fong (#89), Southern California Chinese American Oral History Project.

  210 ”the closest we would ever get to China” Louise Leung, ”Night Call in Chinatown,” Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine, July 26, 1936, pp. 3-4.

  211 ”the older people, they were always talking about going back home“: Victor Wong, ”Childhood II,” in Nick Harvey, ed., Ting: The Caldron, p. 70.

  211 ”If your uncle comes back to America”: Letter, Sam Chang to Tennyson Chang, January 4, 1925, as cited in Haiming Liu, unpublished manuscript, p. 205; Origins & Destinations, p. 260.

  211 more than 90 percent of their placements: Hsien-ju Shih, ”The Social and Vocational Adjustments of the Second Generation Chinese High School Students in San Francisco,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1937, p. 72. As cited in Gloria Heyung Chun, Of Orphans and Warriors, p. 17.

  211 ”Father used to tell me”: Interview with James Low, in Victor G. and Brett de Bary Nee, p. 169.

  212 ”Oh, you couldn’t get a job”: Grace Pung Guthrie, A School Divided, p. 35.

  212 Chung Sai Yat Po openly urged young Chinese Americans: Haiming Liu, p. 20.

  212 dreaming about going ”back” to China: Interview with Rodney H. Chow, interview #149, Southern California Chinese American Oral History Project.

  212 75 percent of the attendees: Chinese Digest, July 3, 1936, p. 14.

  212 ”ever since I can remember”: Robert Dunn, ”Does My Future Lie in China or America?,” Chinese Digest, May 15, 1936.

  213 ”built on the mound of shame” Kaye Hong, ”Does My Future Lie in China or America?,” Chinese Digest, May 22, 1936.

  213 The careers of Robert Dunn and Kaye Hong: Gloria Heyung Chun, p. 31.

  213 one in five ABCs migrated to work in China: Gloria Heyung Chun, Of Orphans and Warriors, p. 26; Judy Yung, Unbound Feet, p. 159.

  214 Recruitment of ABCs by organizations in China: Gloria Heyung Chun, p. 26.

  214 Information on Flora Belle Jan: Judy Yung, Unbound Feet, pp. 143, 169.

  Chapter Thirteen. ”The Most Important Historical Event of Our Times”: World War II

  216 some 250,000 casualties: Jonathan D. Spence, The Search for Modern China (New York: W. W. Norton, 1990), p. 447.

  216 locals simply starved to death: Madeline Y. Hsu, Dreaming of Gold, Dreaming of Home, p. 179.

  217 pawned first their jewelry and furniture: Ibid.

  217 at least 150,000 Toishanese—about one in four—had either died or disappeared: Ibid., p. 180. Also June Y. Mei, ”Researching Chinese-American History in Taishan: A Report,” in Genny Lim, ed., The Chinese American Experience: Papers from the Second National Conference in Chinese American Studies (1980), p. 58. As James Low recalled of those years, ”I saw other families starve during the Japanese war and World War II. The mothers had used all the money for gambling, for jewelry, for eating.” (Victor G. and Brett de Bary Nee, Longtime Californ’, p. 173.)

  217 distributed thousands of English-language flyers: Renqiu Yu, To Save China, to Save Ourselves, pp. 101-2.

  217 fewer than ninety planes in safe working condition: Iris Chang, Thread of the Silkworm (New York: Basic Books, 1995), p. 31.

  217 two thousand in the Japanese military: Ibid.

  217 aviation schools or clubs: Him Mark Lai, ”Roles Played by Chine
se in America During China’s Resistance to Japanese Aggression and During World War II,” Chinese America: History and Perspectives 1997 (Brisbane, Calif.: Chinese Historical Society of America, 1997), pp. 79-81.

  218 Information on Ouyang Ying and Katherine Cheung: Judy Yung, Unbound Feet, p. 162.

  218 Stanley Lau: Ibid., p. 99.

  218 Clifford Louie: Ibid., p. 98.

  218 thirty-nine Chinese sailors: Ibid., p. 110.

  218 demonstrated in front of the Spyros: Judy Yung, Unbound Feet, p. 241.

  218 ”spattered with blood and tears”: Chung Sai Yat Po, December 19, 1938, as cited in Judy Yung, Unbound Feet, p. 242.

  219 ”100 percent opposed to passing the picket line”: Judy Yung, Unbound Feet, p. 242.

  219 ”Rice Bowl” parties: Huping Ling, Surviving on the Gold Mountain, p. 107; Judy Yung, Unbound Feet, pp. 239-40.

  219 American Bureau for Medical Aid to China: This organization, with the support of prominent Caucasian Americans, provided more than $10 million worth of aid to China during the war. Madame Chiang served as the honorary chair of the bureau. The archival papers of ABMAC are available in Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

  219 blood bank in New York: Huping Ling, p. 108.

  220 relief-fund boxes on their counters: Renqui Yu, pp. 101-2.

  220 garment workers sewed thousands of winter garments: Judy Yung, Unbound Feet, p. 244.

  220 collecting tin cans, foil, and other scrap metal: Florence Gee, ”I am an American—How can I help win this war?,” Chinese Press, May 15, 1942, as cited in Ronald Takaki, Strangers from a Different Shore, p. 373.

  220 $20 million for the Chinese War Relief Association: Him Mark Lai, ”Roles Played by Chinese in America During China’s Resistance to Japanese Aggression and During World War II,” p. 94.

  220 $25 million: Him Mark Lai, ”China and the Chinese American Community,” Chinese America: History and Perspectives 1999, p. 6.