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.