Unearthing Our American Journey, Generation-by-Generation

Why this site exists

Far removed from Chinatowns of my parents’ youth, in the suburbs where I grew up assimilation was easier than learning Cantonese. Two years of Cantonese school did not take. Our family’s past provided lessons in survival more often than reasons to celebrate. What stuck were fragments — instructions to work hard but don't be dependent on a corporate job; be frugal and save for a rainy day; a story mentioned once at dinner; a name brought up and never explained; a gravestone where I laid flowers a hundred times, knowing who was buried there, but never comprehending the Chinese couplet written for them. I knew assorted facts, but not how they connected or the the feelings behind them.

In college I delved into my Asian heritage studying the history and cultures of China and Japan. Later as an adult, I studied Mandarin, not my grandparents' native Hoisanese, but the dialect my father and his siblings learned in Burma from teachers “left over from World War II”, one dialect floating among the several that I couldn’t sort out as a kid. My heritage in the abstract.

Later I worked in Hong Kong and Shanghai for five years. By that point, I knew enough Chinese to to write letters to my grandmothers with the aid of a dictionary. Living there, I was liberated from American stereotypes. I could contribute and be recognized and rewarded for my efforts. Yet, I was still an American who relied on English subtitles, couldn’t read a newspaper, and didn’t fully understand the culture. I existed between two worlds. A foreign stereotype in America. Not Chinese enough in China.

Great-Grandfather Hong Yin Ming, age 28
 June 21,1898 Travel Affidavit
with July 14, 1899 S.S. Coptic departure stamp  
(National Archives)

When I returned to the U.S. in 2000, my father suggested, of all things, that we take a trip to the National Archives in San Bruno, CA. We were not entirely sure what we’d find, but this visit was the first step in an ongoing journey to unearth my family’s history that is now into its third decade. Among the trove of immigration documents, we discovered a photograph of my Dad’s grandfather, the first one I’d ever seen, taken around the same age I was. In it, I saw a face I’d never known and recognized myself.

Brother Fu: Chu Nieng Fu and the Last Fly Tigers

Chu Nieng Fu 趙仰富, known in the family as "Brother Fu", was the son of Chu Tui Goon's brother. Before and during World War II, Tui Goon and her husband Hong Hock How adopted him into their family, hoping to give him the opportunity to one day emigrate to the United States. Hock How treated him as a son, and to their children he was "Fu Goh" 富哥 — "(Elder) Brother Fu."

Hong Kong, December 1948: Chu Nieng Fu in pilot's gear, seated on the fuselage of a Curtiss P-40 Warhawk. Fu Goh inscribed the photo to his younger cousin Jack with their names, and the date and location: 連卓表弟，仰富表兄  卅七年十二月於香港

A photograph from around 1938 captures this bond: on the rooftop of the family home in Canton, Fu Goh stands with Larry — the eldest of the Hong children — and a young Jack, the three practicing kung fu together in easy camaraderie, while the clouds of the Second Sino-Japanese War gathered.

Canton, China, c. 1938: Fu Goh (Chu Nieng Fu) with his younger cousins Larry and Jack Hong, practicing gung fu on the rooftop of the Hong family home in Canton.

Canton, c. 1938: Fu Goh and cousin Larry (Back)
cousins Jack, Lily, and Paul (Front)

Later that year, Japan's southward advance forced the family from Canton. Tui Goon and the children first relocated to Hong Kong, eventually joining Hock How in Rangoon, Burma, where he managed the assembly of American trucks used to carry supplies to the Chinese resistence. In December 1941, Japan expanded the war — striking Pearl Harbor to the east and driving southwest into Indochina. The family escaped Rangoon in late February 1942, just weeks before it fell. They spent a month traversing the treacherous Burma Road to Kunming, a vital wartime hub in southwest China. 

Rose Chin Hong (1939-2026)

Rose Chin Hong

Rose Chin Hong was born on May 17, 1939, in Oakland, California, to Chin Pak Yick 陳伯釴 and Tso Mee Shew 曹美秀. Her Chinese name was Chin Joong Sen 陳仲仙. She died on April 23, 2026, at age 86, from complications following surgery, surrounded by loved ones. She is interred with her husband, Jack L. Hong, at Skylawn Memorial Park in San Mateo, California.

Oakland Beginnings

Rose grew up in a small Oakland Chinatown house filled with family: an older sister, four younger brothers, and nine older half‑siblings from her widowed father’s first marriage. Money was tight, her father was strict, and there were no after‑school activities or extras. Rose went to school and then came straight home.

May 16, 1941, Oakland, CA: Rose, brother Allen, mother Tso Mee She, and older sister Mabel

There were, however, a chicken coop, a vegetable garden, simple celebrations, and a pair of roller skates. She often recalled skating around the block “around and around and around,” happy just to move. She was the quiet thoughtful one in a family that wasn't shy about being loud in house where you couldn't help but be on top of each other. Those early years in Oakland shaped her lifelong unflappable calm and practicality.

Three Chinese Couplets for Jimmy Bo-Gar Chin: A Child's Death, A Family's Grief

Jimmy Bo-Gar Chin was born on May 4, 1948, in Oakland, California's Chinatown. He was the youngest child of Chin Pak Yick and Tso Mee Shew. He was born into a large family with two older sisters, three older brothers, and nine living half-siblings for Pak Yick's first wife who passed away when she was 40-years-old. The baby of the family, he was five years younger than his closest sibling, and the only of his siblings to be born after both World War II and the Great Depression.

On January 10, 1954, Jimmy was hit by a car and died in front of the family's 326 7th Street home. He was five years and seven months old. His death was a crushing blow to the entire family especially his mother. Tucked into his youngest sister Rose's collection of family photographs are two images that together tell the story of that grief.

This story is a follow-up to a previous post about my translation of a Chin family gravestone at the Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California. The grave is shared by Jimmy; twin brothers who died within weeks of birth in 1924; and three adult siblings who died in old age. However, the emotional core of gravestone inscription is the family’s grief at Jimmy’s untimely death in 1954, a grief that is more apparent when combined with the three handwritten inscriptions on the photographs below.

The first photograph shows Jimmy with his mother on Christmas morning in 1953. In the second Jimmy poses with his siblings two days later against a brick wall. Written on each are poetic couplets — pressed heavily into the paper in blue ballpoint ink by Jimmy's father, Pak Yick. He composed them in the classical Chinese form called 輓聯 (wǎnlián), the mourning couplet, and together they form a remarkable triad of grief: public sorrow, private rage, and reflective acceptance.

The photo below shows Jimmy with his mother on Christmas Day 1953, 16 days before his tragic death.

Jimmy with his mother, Tso Mee Shew
December 25, 1953, 7th St House, Oakland, CA

Angel Island Voices: John HONG Hock How

The Angel Island Immigration Station, often called the 'Ellis Island of the West,' was a major entry point for immigrants from Asia between 1910 and 1940. But unlike Ellis Island, Angel Island was designed not just as an entry point but as a gatekeeper to enforce restrictive immigration laws like the Chinese Exclusion Act. It was primarily used to examine, interrogate and detain undesirable Asian immigrants barred from the U.S. by law.

Three of my four grandparents were detained at the Angel Island Immigration Station in 1912, 1915, and 1937. They were held there for a few weeks to several months.

Inspired by the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation (AIISF) Immigrant Voices project, I created this video to share the Angel Island story of my paternal grandfather, John Hong Hock How. Because of the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882-1943), his immigration story became part of a multi-generational journey stretching from his father to his children.

This video is also posted on the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation website here: https://www.immigrant-voices.aiisf.org/angel-island-voices-john-hong-hock-how/

A Chin Family Gravestone

I've been visiting this gravesite at the Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California, for as long as I can remember, well over fifty years, once or twice a year when I was younger for Ching Ming and other occasions, less as I've gotten older. So, I know this tombstone, but I never really read it until my Aunt Millie asked me to help translate the Chinese words.

I know the names of my Uncles and Aunts etched here in granite, in both English and Chinese. If I had bothered, I would have seen the name of our family village in Chinese (Toisan, Luk Chun, Char Jew Village) and that they were members of the 25th generation (to live in Luk Chun). I had completely overlooked the poetic couplet between their English and Chinese names or perhaps ignored them as indecipherable. Yet a poem like this is rare on both Chinese and English gravestones. 

寶骨悲留千古地
家身慘掛萬年墳

Precious bones sadly remain in the earth for eternity
The family tragically hangs over the grave for ten thousand years

Jack Lan Hong (1933 - 2013)

Jack Lan Hong - 1953

Jack Lan Hong 曾連卓 was born in China, Guangdong Province, Toishan County, Ong On Village 中國廣東省台山縣東安村, on October 15, 1933, and pass away a month after his 80th birthday, on November 20, 2013 in Redwood City, California. He was the second son of John Hong Hock How, a Stanford-trained electrical engineer, educator, and business man, and Tui Goon Chu Hong.

Shortly after he was born, Jack, his parents and older brother Larry moved to Guangzhou, where his brother Paul and sister Lily were born. During China’s war with Japan, the family moved frequently and ended up in Kunming, China. There Jack's youngest sister, Mary, was born and Jack acquired his taste for spicy food. After the war, the family moved to Rangoon, Burma, where the children attended the Wah Sha School.

In Jack's Own Words

On September 7, 2009, a few weeks before his 76th birthday, Jack recorded his memories of the past 75 years, including:

Growing up in Kunming, China, and Rangoon, Burma

"My earliest memory is in Kunming because that’s where I grew up. I had a classmate who owned a restaurant. Oh maybe, they were Muslim. They didn’t eat pork. When I would show up at their restaurant, they would give me nong. You know the [rice] crust from the big pot. So they also served me beef. I never knew if it was horse meat, because in Kunming they ate a lot of horse meat too.

The Heavy Weight of a Trip to the National Archives

by Kenneth Hong
July 16, 2023

As I wind my way up Interstate 280, I take in the golden hills of California and glimpses of the Bay through the cool fog of an ordinary San Francisco summer morning. Exiting the highway, I drive by the rows of regimented white tombstones of the Golden Gate National Cemetery and up to the gray concrete bunker that is the National Archives. The usual feelings of anticipation build, a mixture of excitement and dread--excitement that I might find something new and dread that I end up with empty folders.

Entrance to the National Archives in San Bruno, CA
July 3, 2023

The Angel Island Files: Mysteries Solved and Found

By Kenneth Hong
July 16, 2023

Over the last 4th of July week, I spent a day and a half at the U.S. National Archives in San Bruno, CA, where many of the Chinese Exclusion Era immigration files from the Angel Island Immigration Station are kept. The archivist had located the files for my maternal grandfather (Chin Pak Yick), his father (Chin Gay Bin), his wives (Lee Moon Yee and Tso Mee Shew), and his prominent first cousin (Chin Lain).

   

Lee Moon Yee, 1918
An "entirely respectable Chinese woman"

   

Chin Pak Yick, 1918
"Well-dressed in American Clothes"

I had previously written about all five of these relatives. All but my grandmother Tso Mee Shew had died long before I was born, and in the case of my great-grandfather, Lee Moon Yee, and Chin Lain, before my mother was born. When I asked her or other relatives, "What do you know about your grandfather, father, or his first wife?" I would get only vague recollections about their father, and nothing about the other two.

I Owe My Life to Wong Kim Ark

By Kenneth Hong
May 30, 2023

The threads of history are woven together in unexpected ways. My family's story is inextricably linked to that of a man who fought for his rights as a U.S. citizen. A man whose name I had never heard of until a few years ago. I owe my very existence to that man named Wong Kim Ark.

Wong was born on Sacramento Street in San Francisco in 1870. My great-grandfather, HONG Yin Ming was born a few blocks away on Washington Street that same year.* We don't know whether or not they ever met, but they lived almost identical lives.

Identification Photo of Wong Kim Ark
 on 1904 Immigration Affidavit
(National Archives)

Identification Photo of Hong Yin Ming
 on 1899 Immigration Affidavit
(National Archives)

Official Map of San Francisco Chinatown 1885, with
Sacramento and Washington Streets Highlighted

Keep reading to learn more about Wong's legacy and how it affected Hong Yin Ming and his descendants.

Remembering Fred Chin (1943 - 2022)

Fred CHIN Bo Hing 陳寶興 was born in Oakland, California, on August 17, 1943 to CHIN Pak Yick and TSO Mee Shew, the sixteenth of his father Pak Yick's seventeen children, and the fifth of Mee Shew's six. Fred passed away on Tuesday, December 27, 2022 at age 79 at his home in Danville, California where he lived with his partner Lee Chen.

Fred Chin and Lee Chen, December 23, 2022

Fred grew-up in the family's home on 7th Street in Oakland Chinatown. Although his family did not have a lot of money, their home was filled with a lot of love and the Chin’s all worked together to get through lean times. Throughout his school years, Fred enjoyed playing basketball, football, and many other sports.

Fred (Center) in 1945 
with siblings (L-R) Rose, Dennis, Mabel and Allen

Looking back, his brother Dennis recalls that Fred was a good student, getting all A’s and B’s, especially in Math and Science. Freddie wanted to take a Chemistry class, but it was full so he ended up having to take a laboratory tech class instead.

Fred (bottom 2nd from left)
Lincoln Junior High School
6th Grade Photo

William S. Chin (1931 - ) Memories of Growing Up in Oakland, California

William S. Chin, 1959

My maternal uncle William Bo Shang Chin 陳寶瑺 was born in the Oakland, California on January 5, 1931, to Chin Pak Yick 陳伯釴 and Lee Moon Yee 李滿意. He was the youngest of their 11 children. Moon Yee died in 1933 a month before William's 3rd birthday. Pak Yick re-married in 1936, and William has two half-sisters (including my mother) and four half-brothers from that marriage.

Uncle Bill made the following submission for a project called "Memories of Growing Up in Oakland, California: Lincoln School Alumni". The project, published on September 24, 2010, encapsulates both family and school photos, individual memories, newspaper clippings and more covering 1370 pages. William's brothers Morris and Allen and sister-in-law Diane Lee (Chin) also had individual submissions.

* The Lincoln School is one of the oldest schools in the Oakland Unified School District. The first Lincoln School was created in 1874 when the Harrison Primary School at 10th and Alice Streets was renamed. It was the main primary school for generations of students from Oakland Chinatown and the surrounding area. It has had several incarnations and occupied different buildings. It was a 1-8th grade school during the time William's father attended in the 1910's and a K-9th grade school by the time William attended in the 1930s and 40s. The current Lincoln Elementary School teaches kindergarten through 5th grade students, and is located at 225 11th Street in Oakland, California.

Morris D. Chin (1927-2018): In His Own Words

My material Uncle Morris Bo Doong Chin 陳寶琮 was born in the San Francisco, California on September 14, 1927, to Chin Pak Yick 陳伯釴 and Lee Moon Yee 李滿意. He passed away at the age of 90 on June 29, 2018, in Oakland, California.

He made the following submission for a project called "Memories of Growing Up in Oakland, California: Lincoln School Alumni". The project has over 1300 photos and entries starting from around 1920.

The Hong Family: Recollections on Serving the Community

1951 San Francisco Civic Center Plaza - Paul, Larry, and Jack Hong

1955 San Francisco Richmond District
(L-R) Sister-in-law Marie Chu,
Mary, Lily, and Paul Hong

     My father, Jack, and his four siblings, Larry, Paul, Lily, and Mary came of age in the 1950's and 60's when it was common young men and women heeded their country's call. They felt a deep and abiding desire to serve their communities and country. They also grew-up at the tail end of segregation and exclusion in the United States when government jobs often provided some of the best (and often only) opportunities for hard-working, dedicated minorities to make a good middle-class life for themselves and their families.

     They were third-generation Chinese Americans, who were born in China and spent their early years there. After World War II they followed their father and grandfather's footsteps moving to the US in their teens, individually then in pairs. They spent most, if not all, of their careers serving their country, state, or local communities. They and their spouses served with distinction as teachers, doctors, engineers, lawyers, civil servants, and community leaders. All U.S. military service was completed with honorable discharges. Continue reading to learn more about their individual stories.

"Impressions of Doushan" Photography Contest

Doushan Township 斗山鎮 is one of the major market towns in Taishan County, Guangdong, China. My paternal grandparents, HONG Hock How and CHU Tui Goon, were from this area. My grandmother was from Fowsek Village 浮石村 near the market town , while my grandfather was born just across the Doushan River 斗山河 in Dong On village 東安村.

The city is surrounded by a vast area of fertile land, and boasts of a pleasant climate and beautify mountains and rivers. Known as the "No. 1 Overseas Chinese Hometown", Doushan is a tourist destination for the tens of thousands of overseas Chinese who hail from this area.

The Taishan Photographic Art Society recently published an exhibit of award winning photographs and videos of this area. Here are two of the photos showing Doushan and Dong On village:

Gold Collection Award:

A Bird's Eye View of Doushan Township by Xu Fangqun 徐方群

Award for Excellence:

[Heng River] Song of Earth and Wind + Doushan Heng River by Hu Sihong 胡思红

     Doushan can be seen in the distance at C3 and D3. Dong On Village is at A3 next to the rice paddies inside dramatic arc of the Doushan River--known as the Cow's Belly 牛肚圍. Fowsek Village is around F-G3. The area in the foreground is Yuet Wah月華 and Heng Jiang Village 橫江村.

Zeng Laishun - The first Chinese to enroll at an American College

From the Hong 曾 Family's American Diaspora Files^†:

ZENG Laishun 曾來順 was the first Chinese to attend an American college. Laishun attended Bloomfield Academy, a boy's boarding school in New Jersey for three years. He then enrolled at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York in 1846. The women from the First Presbyterian Church in Utica, NY, were Laishun's sole source of support and refused to extend his funding beyond their initial two-year agreement. In May 1848, Laishun left New York and set sail for Hong Kong.

According to historian Edward J.M. Rhoads, “he was a pioneer in Western studies, an early and lifelong convert to Christianity, one of the first Chinese in the United States, a leading second-echelon figure in China’s self-strengthening movement, and, during his CEM [Chinese Educational Mission] days in the United States, a diplomatic representative of the Qing government as well as an explicator of things Chinese to the American public.”

The pioneering achievements of Zeng Laishun, America's first Chinese college student, have often been overshadowed by Yung Wing 容閎 (November 17, 1928 - April 21, 1912), who followed Laishun's footsteps by four years and is forever remembered as the first Chinese student to graduate from an American university, Yale College in 1854.

Zeng Laisun late in his career. From the Smithsonian Institution, United States National Museum,
Department of Anthropology, Division of Ethnology.

The Smithsonian misidentifies this photo as “Portrait of Li Hung Chang, Viceroy of Chilhli in Costume with Fur Cost n.d.” Researchers have asserted that the photo is of Zeng Laisun and not the Viceroy. Moreover, the photo is signed “Tseng Laisun” (which is the way Zeng spelled his name in his later years). The Smithsonian has declined to correct its catalog.

Asian American History is American History

Why I started this blog?

In 2001, I started researching my family's roots in the US and China, trying to uncover the stories of my ancestors. The post below is my first attempt to connect my family's story directly to the broader history of the United States. It focuses on how American laws and institutions have shaped the lives of my forbearers and continue to shape the lives of my family today. It's content was excerpted from the October 21, 2021, panel discussion on "Asian Perspectives on Race & Equity" presented to the public in Tredyffrin and Easttown Townships, Pennsylvania.

This is the history that I wish I had learned growing up, and that my children and all of our children should learn. It is only by learning about all aspects of our history that we can create a better future together.

You can read the transcript that follows or watch the 13 minute video on YouTube.

[The following transcript has been edited for concision and clarity.]

Zack ZENG Zhe - A September 11th Fallen Hero

From the Hong 曾 Family's American Diaspora Files^†:

On September 11, 2001, Zack ZENG Zhe 曾喆 was working at the Bank of New York at One Wall Street near the World Trade Center. When his building was evacuated, Zack could have gone home like the rest of his colleagues. Instead the 29-year-old gathered all the first aid and medical supplies he could find and told his friends and colleagues he was heading to the disaster scene to assist.

While attended the University of Rochester college Zack had worked as EMT with the Brighton Volunteer Ambulance. So, on 9/11, Zack was doing what he was trained to do.

Chin Bok Lain (1869-1938) - Unofficial Mayor SF Chinatown

View from a Hang Far Low Restaurant balcony above Grant Street look toward
the corner of Sacramento Street and St. Mary's Cathedral on the left (Lee Rashall)

"Down the Street of Bazaars in San Francisco's Chinatown on July 31[, 1938], more than 1,300 mourners followed the body of Chin Lain to its last resting place. Son of Cantonese immigrants, the late Chin Lain lived to become a millionaire merchant, philanthropist and unofficial mayor of the greatest Chinese colony in the Western Hemisphere. Because the Chin family embraces the ranks of Chen and Chan, "relatives" of Chin Lain stretched in grieving files for six blocks behind the flower-filled phaeton which bore his picture at the procession's head (below). Observers said his funeral was the biggest, most dignified, Chinatown had ever staged." -- Life Magazine, August 15, 1938, page 14

Phaeton bearing portrait of Chin Lain (Lee Rashall)

The Burma Road (1938-1945)