An Orientation / Training class was held for CHCP's Student Docent Cultural Ambassador Program (SDCAP) at History Park San Jose. Visit our SDCAP page for information about this rewarding program for high school / college students and their parents.

By Connie Young Yu, CHCP Advisory Board Member

In celebration of Constitution Week 2024, Citizen Wong, a one-man play about the first Chinese American activist, Wong Chin Foo, had two performances – one in San Jose and the other in Saratoga. I was invited by CHCP President Dave Yick to participate in a panel discussion following the performance.  My pioneer ancestors suffered greatly from relentless Chinese exclusion laws, and so this is personal. I gladly agreed to be on the panel for both programs.

Sunday afternoon, September 22
Saratoga Public Library

Citizen Wong comes to the Saratoga library. The community room has a capacity of 130 and every seat is filled.  We are made welcome by librarian Lisa Liu, and tea and cookies are on a side table for us. Enter Wong Chin Foo, as played by Richard Chang. He is as powerful and mesmerizing as the last time, connecting with the audience with references to this town of Saratoga, where several thousand Chinese workers cleared land and built the roadways. He speaks again of the large Chinatown in San Jose burning down and Yung Wah Gok of Heinlenville.  He takes us back in time – all the while his speech evoking today’s social turmoil over immigration and the never-ending battle against racial injustice. The audience is mesmerized by Citizen Wong, and when it’s over, everyone wants to talk about it.

Richard Chang as Citizen Wong returns to join the panel discussion, moderated by Yvonne Kwan, Professor of Asian American studies at SJSU. We start on the relevance and substance of Citizen Wong. There’s Professor of Anthropology Barbara Voss, who heads the Market Street Archaeology Project at Stanford, and Professor Loan Le of SF State University speaking on civic involvement today and that local politics matter, and I’m there with family documentation. I show the Certificates of Residence of my grandfather and others, and this time I hold up a placard copy of a receipt in Chinese for a dollar donation – a day’s wages - from a Mr. Ng of San Jose toward legal fees to fight the Geary Act in the Supreme Court. The audience then enthusiastically takes over with questions and commentary. "Why isn’t the Chinese Exclusion Law taught as part of American history? It’s the root of anti-Asian hate!" "How did it last for 61 years?" ...

After the discussion people stay involved, lingering to chat and have their pictures taken with Citizen Wong. We are in solidarity with his bold activism of the 1880s. We have been immersed in a drama of American history and emerge inspired and motivated.

Citizen Wong lives!

Be sure to read about the 09/20/24 San Jose performance of Citizen Wong: 
09/20/24 CHCP Speaker Series: "Citizen Wong: Portraying the First Asian American Civil Rights Leader"

by Connie Young Yu, CHCP Advisory Board Member

In celebration of Constitution Week 2024, Citizen Wong, a one-man play about the first Chinese American activist, Wong Chin Foo, had two performances – one in San Jose and the other in Saratoga. I was invited by CHCP President Dave Yick to participate in a panel discussion following the performance.  My pioneer ancestors suffered greatly from relentless Chinese exclusion laws, and so this is personal. I gladly agreed to be on the panel for both programs.

Saturday night, September 20
County of Santa Clara Board Chambers, San Jose

I am with groups of people entering the vast Santa Clara County Auditorium guided by CHCP volunteers, and we spread out in the stately venue, the chambers of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors.  There is a cordial welcome from the podium by Dave Yick and CHCP VP of Education Chris Jochim, and then Supervisor Otto Lee gives a warm address in English and in Cantonese.

Citizen Wong, played by Richard Chang, appears alone on the platform, a commanding figure in a vintage black suit and cap, greeting us in a powerful, uplifting voice.  With a sweeping gesture, he orates about Chinese laborers building America, and the glorious completion of the first transcontinental railroad, uniting East and West.  Smiling and nodding, he says some of their families are with us here today. I’m sitting there, surprised and delighted by the acknowledgement, being the great-granddaughter of Lee Wong Sang, a worker on the Central Pacific, 1866-69. Then Citizen Wong becomes intense, fierce about how Chinese are being treated in America and transports us to a political forum on the Chinese Exclusion Act.  Chinese are denied equal rights and barred from naturalization to citizenship and our working people are excluded from further immigration.  Why, he asks?  Are people from Germany or Ireland excluded? And how are the Chinese who are already here being treated?  They are driven out of their homes and businesses, robbed, beaten, and murdered. Their communities are set on fire. He speaks of the Market Street Chinatown in San Jose destroyed by an anti-Chinese act of arson, but the Chinese would not be driven out. I hear the words “there is Yung Wah Gok, ... a leader in the new Chinatown called Heinlenville.”  My heart skips a beat.  That’s my grandpa!  I’m sitting there, on my lap a copy of Yung Wah Gok’s Certificate of Residence, a document all Chinese were forced to carry, which was kept in our family’s trunk that I inherited. I was going to show it at the panel discussion. I am flabbergasted. How does Citizen Wong know about Yung Wah Gok, my grandfather, who came to San Jose’s Market Street Chinatown as an 11-year-old laborer in 1881, a year before the Chinese Exclusion Act? He fled the burning Chinatown on May 4, 1887. He would return to support a new Chinatown called Heinlenville, and he and his wife raised two sons in their store, the younger one, my Dad.

But the American government does not want Chinese families, aims to end Chinese immigration with the Geary Act, and to make lives unbearable for those remaining, even the native-born.  Citizen Wong declares that Chinese people here are no different from other immigrants in wanting life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The law that excludes Chinese from America is unconstitutional and undemocratic. Citizen Wong appeals to the conscience and humanity of the U.S. Government that has neither.  His voice is empowered by defiance and an urgency to challenge the Geary Act of 1892 which requires that all Chinese carry a photo identification, like criminals. It’s because Chinese are seen as evil, a clear and present danger to American society, and they are rat-eating heathens!  Citizen Wong scoffs at the absurdity of the accusations -- and then he shouts, ”I offer $500 to anyone who can prove Chinese eat rats!”

There’s a ripple of laughter from the audience. We sense the parallel ... The message of Citizen Wong is clear. It’s happening again, and we must fight injustice and defend democracy.  At the end of his oration, we burst into applause and cheers.

I am energized for the panel discussion, moderated by Paul Fong, former California State Assemblyman, and I sit on stage with professors Russell Jeung of SF State University and Vivian Leung of University of Santa Clara – and Richard Chang in character as Citizen Wong.  Russell explains the resistance by Chinese to the Geary Act of 1892. The Chinese Six Companies organized civil disobedience, telling people not to register and that their lawyers will challenge the constitutionality of the Geary Act before the U.S. Supreme Court. But the Chinese were defeated. The Chinese Exclusion Law lasted 61 years. Th I'mis is history that must be told, and Vivian Leung stresses the importance of comprehensive AAPI studies and having Chinese American history in the school curriculum. As an independent historian following a paper trail, I show my documentation of Chinese exclusion, holding up the copy of my grandfather Yung Wah Gok’s Certificate of Residence, stamped "Laborer" - with his photo as a young man, dated 1894, and then I show certificates of a Chinese family: a father, mother, and their 8-year-old son, born in San Francisco; his certificate bearing this stamp "Persons other than Laborer."

Questions and commentary from the audience lead to a lively discussion on the relevance of Citizen Wong. “Why isn’t the story of Chinese immigration part of the American narrative? We never learned about the Chinese Exclusion Act in school.” “History is repeating itself. Chinese Americans still are perpetual aliens. How to turn this around?”

This is the most dynamic, engaging history program I’ve ever experienced. I would soon be in another.

Be sure to read about the 09/22/24 Saratoga performance of Citizen Wong: 
09/22/24 CHCP Speaker Series: "Citizen Wong: Portraying the First Asian American Civil Rights Leader"

The following is an excerpt from 09/08/24 Ding Ding TV:

By Gerrye Wong, CHCP Co-Founder and Trustee

The Chinese American Museum of Northern California (CAMNC) held its grand opening of a new museum site in Marysville, California on September 7.  Hundreds of interested  viewers  and museum guests  especially enjoyed the signature exhibit THE FORGOTTEN  CHINATOWNS OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.  San Jose was one of the 10 forgotten Chinatowns which was included in this California Humanities grant-funded exhibit, as prepared by CHCP Board members Mike Mak and Gerrye Wong. Other CHCP Board members attending were Brenda Wong, Erwin Wong, and Elizabeth Lee.

Representatives from the 10 featured Chinatowns spoke on their specific town’s history of the Chinese who settled there, many finding evidence as far back as the 1850’s timeline. The forgotten Chinatowns were in the cities of Auburn, Fiddletown, Folsom, Hanford, Locke, Mendocino, Red Bluff, Sacramento, San Jose and Stockton. 

Mike Mak spoke of the revitalizing of the Stockton Chinatown community of which its Chinatown was once demolished for building of a highway through the area.

Gerrye Wong shared the history of the five Chinatowns that once existed in San Jose from 1860s to 1930s and shared the fact that the last standing building of the last Chinatown, the Ng Shing Gung temple, was demolished in 1950.  In 1991 a replica was built by the Chinese Historical and Cultural Project to house the Chinese American Historical Museum which the nonprofit group gifted to the City of San Jose as a gesture of friendship from the Chinese American community of Silicon Valley.

Marysville’s Chinese American Museum of Northern California's grand opening at its new site at 303 1st Street is where the original Chinatown once stood.  It was an outgrowth of its first museum opened in 2005, according to the dedicated Brian Tom who wanted to present and preserve the history of his hometown. This museum, in addition to the Forgotten Chinatowns section, had areas telling of California Ghost Towns and Survivors, Food and Food Containers, Chinese Medicine, and China-US Relations – Past, Present, and Future.

For more information:  Read the full 09/08/24 Ding Ding TV press release.

By Gerrye Wong, CHCP Co-Founder and Trustee

Upon hearing of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association of State and Local History (AASLH), a national organization based in Nashville, Tennessee, Wilhemina Li of KTSF wrote wanting to interview me regarding this title. I thank Mina for letting me tell her about my Chinese Historical and Cultural Project and my personal background on how I became interested in Chinese American history to spend my retirement years as a volunteer for various Asian American non-profit organizations.

View the recording of the interview below (in two parts):

By Liz Chew, CHCP Secretary

If you ever had the desire or passion to find out about family history, NARA (National Archives and Records Administration) is one of the fabulous places to research information and get resources. Living in the SF Bay Area, we are fortunate to have one of the facilities located in San Bruno.

Did you know it is quite easy to get an appointment to visit the facility to get information for your research? This is one of the bits of valuable information that came out of the BACGG (Bay Area Center for Genealogy Group)/CHCP joint field trip on Monday, August 19, 2024. Sixty eager participants from both organizations descended upon the NARA Facility for a well-organized day with an informational overview session and tour of the records facility. Lunch (provided by CHCP) was enjoyed by all including the NARA Staff.

Here are a few comments from the attendees:

• The BACGG Team and NARA Staff planned and implemented an amazing event! The NARA staff gave an excellent and very informative presentation and behind-the-scenes tour. Showed us the many ways to research our family histories. Resources were provided to all the participants. - Dave

• The trip was nice, but in-depth information was generally not there. However, one must be prepared to go in and get information. I learned to have an appointment if I wanted files pulled from the facility. - Willy

• Very informative. After the presentation, I found additional information on my father at home. Always wanted to visit NARA and this trip provided me with the opportunity. - Mona

• The NARA trip was very valuable because I did not understand the many details and sources of information that can be found. The genealogy search was more difficult and was a high challenge regarding the Chinese search as so many Chinese had similar names. It was a fun field trip. – Brenda

• A fun, informative, valuable field trip for all participants. The tour showed the massive files in storage and how most are retained and discarded. – Liz

• Going to NARA is always like a treasure hunt for me. I’ve been doing genealogy research since 1995 and have been to NARA. Now it is so much easier to get information. I have found so much information on my father, my father-in-law, and my mother and mother-in-law. This place is a wealth of information. It was great going there. – Sue

A huge THANK YOU to BACGG Ron Chan, Gail Chong, Jeannie Young, CHCP Dave Yick, and NARA Stephanie Bayless for the opportunity to visit the National Archives and Records Administration.

There are several ways to make individual appointments for research. Contact information:

• Regular Mail: Attn. Archival Operations, National Archives & Records Administration – Pacific Region (San Francisco), 1000 Commodore Drive, San Bruno, CA 94066-2350

• Telephone: 650 - 238 – 3501

• Fax: 650 – 238 – 3510

• Email: sanbruno.archives@nara.gov

• Website: https://www.archives.gov/san-francisco

5 appointments are accepted each day and one can spend the entire day from 9am-4pm to do research.

Happy family history hunting!

By Brenda Hee Wong, CHCP Director

During World War II, about 20,000 Chinese Americans served in the United States Armed Forces as well as other aspects of the war effort across all theaters of conflict. According to the 1940 Census, this represented over a quarter of the 77,000 Chinese people living in the United States at the time. Just over 60% were U.S. native-born citizens. Those born in China were denied citizenship, while all Chinese Americans faced discrimination and challenges to property ownership, voting, and other rights. Despite these barriers based on discrimination and racism, many Chinese Americans answered the call to serve.

For the Spirit of '45 event in History Park, to honor, celebrate, and preserve the legacy of the patriotism, sacrifice, and valor of the Chinese American WWII veterans, CHCP's Chinese American Historical Museum (CAHM) displayed brand new banners featuring the WWII China-Burma-India (CBI) Theater and also Chinese American military participation throughout U.S. history. A short clip of CHCP's film, "Our Story of War and Remembrance," featuring the stories and contributions of four Bay Area Chinese American WWII veterans of the Fourteenth Air Force, successor to the Flying Tigers, was also shown on the big screen TV.

Nearly all of us have made some progress on a family tree.  After you’ve gotten a couple of generations worth of names, a natural question would be “What am I going to do with this?”  You could keep it all in folders or boxes, or stick your tree and documents into a notebook, but that’s difficult to share with your family and friends. 

Chinese Family History Group (CFHG) volunteer Gary Leach wanted something to hang on a wall, something interesting and attractive to show others, but didn’t have any talent in layout, design, or computer program skills.  Then it dawned on him, he had kids for that!  And what better way to initiate discussions with your children about genealogy, than working on a family tree project together?

So Gary, with his son Kyle, are going to show you how they created their family tree using PowerPoint. There are other ways to do this.  YouTube has videos about making trees with Excel or you can purchase programs with family tree templates.  But they decided to use PowerPoint, so they will center their discussion on how they used it to create their Chew Family Tree.

CHCP Co-Founder Gerrye Wong

By Dr. Arthur Jue (CHCP Co-Vice President of Marketing/Outreach) and Kimberly Eng Lee (CHCP Director)

Sunnyvale, California resident, Gerrye Wong, has been selected by the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) to receive their 2024 Award of Excellence for Individual Lifetime Achievement for her decades of work in preserving and sharing Chinese American history in California. The award is to be presented at the AASLH national conference in Mobile, Alabama on September 13, 2024.

A passionate volunteer for the past 60 years working for many Asian American historical causes, Gerrye co-founded the Chinese Historical and Cultural Project (CHCP) in 1987. CHCP subsequently built the Chinese American Historical Museum at History Park San Jose and donated it to the City of San Jose. CHCP continues to operate the museum free of charge for the general public.

Gerrye also helped encourage the City of San Jose to issue one of the nation’s first formal apologies to Chinese immigrants and their descendants for historical atrocities and fires that destroyed five San Jose Chinatowns. She is a prolific writer and columnist for Asian Week, Chinatown News in Vancouver, BC, Silicon Valley’s DingDing TV, and Gentry Magazine. Gerrye has also written two books and given numerous interviews that chronicle the local Chinese American community, its culture, and its history. Her lifetime of written work has resulted in a sizable archive of historical source material about Bay Area Chinese Americans.

Furthermore, Gerrye served on the Board of Directors for the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation (AIISF) in 2010 and chaired their 25th Anniversary Gala in 2019 with “Immigrant Heritage Honorees” exemplifying the contributions and legacies of immigrants to the Pacific Coast. Angel Island Immigration Station served as an immigration port between 1910 and 1940, and was especially detrimental to Chinese during the Chinese Exclusion period. Gerrye also contributed the narrative “Calvin Chew Wong’s Family: Four Generations of Immigrants” to Angel Island’s Storyshare archive, an online resource that fosters knowledge, builds community, and provides content and texture to America’s immigration story. She modeled the importance of recording and preserving personal origin stories for present and future generations.

The AASLH leadership awards program was initiated in 1945 to establish and encourage standards of excellence in the collection, preservation, and interpretation of state and local history throughout the United States. It is the most prestigious recognition of its kind, and winners represent the best in the field.

CHCP’s mission is to promote, preserve, and educate citizens about Chinese and Chinese American history and culture. Besides operating the Chinese American Historical Museum, CHCP offers cultural and educational events and activities, a student docent program, and resources to advance AAPI interests throughout the Silicon Valley region.

In 1998, AASLH named CHCP the recipient of the Albert B. Corey Award, the most prestigious recognition for achievement in the preservation and interpretation of local, state, and regional history. The Albert B. Corey Award is reserved for very deserving, small, primarily volunteer-operated, historical organizations. This award is granted only when an organization meets the high standards of excellence set by Albert B. Corey, a founding member of the AASLH, and therefore, is not awarded annually.