The Chinese in America (62 page)

139 Wong Wai:
Wong Wai v. Williamson
(1900).

140 Information on the attempt to destroy San Francisco Chinatown:
Sucheng Chan, p. 57; L. Eve Armentrout in
The Life, Influence, and the Role of the Chinese in the United States, 1776-1960,
pp. 57-59.

140 “We helped build your railroads”:
Petition to President Wilson of the United States, June 1914. File 53620/115 A, Entry 9, Box 229, Record Group 85, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

141 “reduced to the status of dogs in America”:
Silas K. C. Geneson, “Cry Not in Vain: The Boycott of 1905,”
Chinese America: History and Perspectives 1997
(Brisbane, Calif.: Chinese Historical Society, 1997), p. 30; editorial, “The U.S. Government to Extend the Exclusion Agreement, Part 6,”
Chung Sai Yat Po,
April 2, 1904.

141 United States v. Ju Toy:
Silas K. C. Geneson, p. 29.

141 “final and conclusive”:
Ibid., p. 29.

142 “to order an alien drawn, quartered and chucked overboard”:
Ibid., p. 29.

142 725 of 7,762 Chinese:
Ibid., p. 29.

142 rejection rate rose to one in four:
Ibid., p. 29.

142 “even the old monks”:
R. David Arkush and Leo O. Lee, p. 58.

143 some $30 million to $40 million worth of trade:
Betty Lee Sung, p. 65.

143 90,000 cases of fuel monthly to 19,000:
Silas K. C. Geneson, pp. 40-41.

143 difficult to even give away free cigarettes:
Consul General Julius Lay to Acting Secretary of State Francis Loomis, September 28, 1905, Foreign Service, Despatches of United States Consuls in Canton, 1790-1906, Washington, D.C. National Archives microfiles, as cited in Silas K. C. Geneson, p. 34.

143 Theodore Roosevelt issued an executive order:
Silas K. C. Geneson, p. 36.

143-44 29 percent of the certificates:
Ibid., p. 37.

144 “Much trouble has come”:
Ibid., p. 36.

144 8,031 Chinese:
Erika Lee, “Enforcing and Challenging Exclusion in San Francisco: U.S. Immigration Officials and Chinese Immigrants, 1882-1905,”
Chinese America: History and Perspectives,
p. 3.

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 forty 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.

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.