About this Project

While the writer himself admitted to having forgotten what he wrote more than 70 years ago, while we continued struggling with shedding off discouraging sentiment shaped by fear of utter indifference towards minority literature, diaspora study, and personal accounts of life recorded as reflection of intellectual, cultural and social history, while we embraced further uncertainty about the role of AI in the preservation, interpretation, and the production of literary and artistic works at large, the decision of republishing Wong’s writings was finalized upon an effort to preserve a certain collective past expressed in some literary works that had never been acknowledged, formally documented, nor much read beyond an ethnic community enclosed by social discrimination and nationally implemented policy of racism. The very decision was also made with the knowledge that such a project could only be pursued through personal connection with the writer provided the nature of anonymity of the author published under many pseudonyms. The decision was found within an embrace of laments toward and defiance against unending content being produced on the world wide web that are filled with more vacuity while becoming fully chaotic in the crisis of meaning of our times.

Wong and I began this project in 2019 with a lengthy process of organizing and selecting his writings to be translated. With the intention to keep more of the writer’s original voice, I suggested Wong to translate his own writings. Upon completion of a few pieces, Wong requested for my assistance to polish his translation. As a result and for the interest of yielding a more presentable rendition, I took over the task of translation for all the writings when the initial editing of Wong’s drafts was proven to be less productive.

Although Wong had kept nearly all original copies of his writings taped onto a leather-bound notebook, the publication dates of some pieces were found missing. During this organization process, we went to UC Berkeley twice in the summer of 2019 to verify publication records. Unfortunately, a few volumes of The Chinese Times are missing in the archive collection of Berkeley’s Ethnic Studies Library, and some pieces remain with unverified publication dates.

As I translated the original writings in Chinese, I consulted Wong numerous times about terms and expressions unique to his generation and local dialects in order to render more precise translation and transliteration. As each piece of translation went through minimally two to three drafts throughout the 18 months from the beginning of 2019 to mid of 2020, Wong and I have countless discussions on his writings. All of these drafts and discussions still remain in our Google Drive. Nevertheless, it is important to note that any translation errors and flaws in the crafts of all current translations are fully mine.

Seeking for further understanding, I also requested Wong to write a “Foreword” for this project, in addition to a piece reflecting on the first few years of his life upon returning to America from China. In response, Wong wrote the following “Foreword” and “Jobs after School”, which is collected on the Miscellaneous page. Both pieces are meant to give readers additional background information about this project as well as the young writer’s life before he embarked upon commited years of writing to be published for the overseas Chinese community in the 1940s, San Francisco Chinatown.

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An Informal "Foreword"

The 1940’s was a transitional period from old to new in San Francisco Chinatown. During this decade the great turn of events in the world affected the changes in Chinatown. In 1937 our motherland arduously struggled against the Japanese invasion, and in 1941 the United States entered into the world war. The war ended in the middle of the decade and many established systems were destroyed. The overseas Chinese who were stranded in America could now resume their back and forth journeys to their homeland. However, the civil war soon erupted in China, and at the end the overseas Chinese were unable to adjust to the new Communist regime, so they suffered again the separation from their homeland. There were two new waves of people coming into Chinatown during this decade - first the youth and later the women. They were the new blood which became new forces in promoting the transformation of Chinatown.

The youth of the ‘40s belonged to a special generation. The older generations came to America as laborers and returned home when they saved enough money. Upon his return he would invariably find a wife for his son, build a new house, buy half an acre of farmland, and when all his money was spent he would return to America with his now grown son and continue their hard laboring. And so this cycle repeats generation after generation. But the youth of the 40’s decade had more education than their fathers’ generation – some had high school training – so their outlook in life was broader than the old one.

There were among this group of youth native, American-born children who went to the motherland to study. Although the older generations lacked training in education and culture, they were very concerned about the youngsters’ identities with the motherland and its culture. They established six Chinese schools in the tiny Chinatown for all youngsters to learn Chinese. But the children after attending English school during the day and Chinese school in the evening found it difficult to focus on Chinese learning, so the result was not satisfactory. But Chinese learning was important at the time, because there were few job opportunities outside of Chinatown due to discrimination in American society. Even if one could work in low paying jobs, running a Chop Suey restaurant or a laundromat, they still have to socialize in Chinatown and must be able to speak Cantonese. Therefore, to overcome this difficulty before a child became of age, he would be taken by his family or sent to China to study for a few years and returned to Chinatown to work.

As the anti-Japanese war continued deteriorating and the Japanese army was approaching the homeland Guangdong, by the beginning of the 1940s, a large group of youth either grew up in the motherland or native born in America who was sent to China arrived in Chinatown. Having higher education than their parents and being tested by the war, they have individual ambition as well as social responsibility. Although far away from their motherland, they had not forgotten the task of national salvation. Being socially conscious and idealistic, it didn’t take long for them to realize Chinatown was a ghetto subjected to discrimination from the outside, and the attitude of the older generation who stood still and refused progress. Such realization encouraged their criticism of the ills of the society and took up the responsibility of [individual] enlightenment. They formed musical clubs for maintaining Chinese culture and remembering their homeland. The drama clubs they established encouraged national salvation and imparted new knowledge to the people of Chinatown. On the individual level they strengthen themselves with knowledge and skills, preparing either to serve their motherland or to break out of the backward and confined Chinatown to advance into the greater American society.

Chinatown was a small closed society. Those who were born here and never sent to China for education and those who did were able to maintain normal social interaction without mutual alienation because they were classmates either in English school or in Chinese school. Although the first group has limited Chinese language skill, they, being in Chinatown, nevertheless, have gone to Chinese schools and were influenced by Chinese culture. Most of them, of course, would not participate in the activities of those who returned from China.

After America entered the war in 1941, this youth-group was in the right age to be drafted, including non citizens, and with few exceptions they were not enthusiastic to become war heroes. The war subsequently brought some benefits to Chinatown. Many outside establishments began to hire Chinese because of shortage of help due to the war, especially in well known restaurants, and the shipyards welcomed all who wanted to be trained to work. Old lady sweeping the floor in the yard never thought of getting such high pay. Just before the war Japanese antique shops were pushing into the border of Chinatown, and they had to sell the shops cheap to the Chinese when they were being sent to concentration camps. After the war the returned veterans received subsidies to attend college, and among them non-citizens had the privilege to become citizens. Many of them went to China to get a wife, as Chinatown had an acute imbalance of male and female [ratio], making finding a wife a bitter part of a man’s life. Now the father’s generation could return home and bring back their long separated wives. These wives together with the GI brides formed a large surging wave of women who changed the bachelor society. Family number greatly grew in Chinatown. The family, now with the husband and wife working together, enduring hardship and saving money, brought housing near Chinatown and began to move into the Richmond residential district. They provided higher education for their children, assuring their abilities to make their living in the greater American society. These newly formed families leaped from the ghetto to middle class, and their children almost completely westernized. The old belief of “fallen leaves returning to their roots” began to change into the concept of “fallen leaves fall to where new roots grow.”

The youth in the 40’s bitterly struggled in the conflict between old beliefs and new concepts, and they became the dedicators of this transactional period in Chinatown. While the previous generation following old tradition had no anxiety and the next generation being westernized was free to pursue their happiness, the in-between generation of the 40’s had a rougher life than those before and after. We can say that they grew up drinking the milk of Chinese culture, their heart tied to the motherland cannot be severed and they didn’t want it cut. They could not forget those who raised them in a fatherless home, especially their mothers. They could not forget the charming lives in their youth in China, nor could they forget the suffering of their motherland and their helpless loved ones under the iron boots of the invaders. So in America they participated in the task of raising money for the war effort, skimped and saved money to send home supporting their mothers, brothers and sisters. On the personal level they have ambitions, striving to achieve higher education in preparation either to return home to serve the country or to develop in America. But in almost the whole decade of the 40’s, Chinatown was separated from China and they could not go back. The flow of mail was problematic and sending money home was almost impossible. It was a bitter experience not knowing the members of the family were dead or alive. Although there was a short period after the war ended that opened for travel, civil war broke out, a communist regime was established, and many struggling campaigns followed. Since the Nationalist government had a long history in Chinatown, the Chinese here once again could not return home to unite with their family.

The youth of this transitional period concerned [about] their motherland, thought of their kin in hunger and sickness, but were unable to help and bore the pain silently. Living in a bachelor society they brooded over the lack of tender feelings from female companions. When they reunited with their old wives or brought back their new picture brides, there were unhappy marital problems because of the lack of adjusting time living together. The happy family embraced western culture for the benefit of their children, but the youth of this generation struggled in the uncertainty of national and cultural identity. Whether to follow the goals of the previous generation or to meet the needs of the following one? Whether to cherish the memory of the past in motherland or to forsake it to lessen the sadness of being pulled [by both sides]? Whether to take up hard work and schooling or just find an easy job and forget one’s ideal and succumb to immorality? Whether to return to the motherland as “the falling leaves returning to their roots” or to stay here as “falling leaves fall to where new roots grow”? They were bearing all kinds of pressure, being pulled in all directions, feeling the pain as a body being pulled apart by five horses. Their hearts were full of doubts, a sense of wondering and disappointment, and they could not see their future clearly. Silently holding their tears, they occasionally expressed a weak and depressed voice from the heart.

I was a member of this group of youth. Our whole family went back to China when I was 8 years old. I attended elementary school for three years and fled from the war for three to four years. Finally I sailed on a fishing boat from my parent’s homeland Taishan to Hong Kong and arrived back to San Francisco Chinatown at the beginning of 1941. I was then 15 years old and had to start at elementary school again. The school was Washington Irving, located outside the border of Chinatown, and it served almost all over aged school kids from China. A year later I began to write in order to discharge my pent-up melancholy emotions. There were 5 daily and 1 weekly newspapers in Chinatown at the time. The daily papers were not interested in local creative writings with the exception of Mr. Gilbert Woo of The Chinese Time, so I submitted my writings to The Time, and when Mr. Woo went to The Nationalist Daly, I submitted writings there too. Later, Mr. Herbert Lee of The Chinese Time designated a page for local writers; I continued submitting to that paper. In the late 40’s Mr. Woo published The Pacific Weekly, making it easier for me to submit writing there. In the first part of the decade the pen name I used most was Liu Lang 流浪, and in the latter period, [the pen names I used] were Hai Bai 海白 and Bing Hui 炳輝. There were many [other] less frequently used pen names during this decade.

All these writings were published in the newspapers while I was working and going to school at the same time, some 70 years ago, and I have long forgotten what I had written. Recently a young classmate of mine, Honghong Ma, considers these writings to represent the voice of those special youth having high ideals and bitterly struggling in life in Chinatown during the period of transformation. She retyped and edited the whole work and polished my English translations. Actually she chopped with an ax and finely smoothened the text to make it more readable. Furthermore, she provided concise criticism of the writings. Her criticism is like a bright light eliminating my work for greater clarity as well as deeper meaning. She also views the 40’s from the current standpoint, making meaningful comparisons. Her worthy criticism can be appreciated independently. I sincerely thank her for her devoted effort and contributions.

In bringing these writings out at this time, we have corrected the original indifferent punctuations, corrected a few unclear wording, but retained the original complex form of Chinese characters.

93 years old man, James Wong
July, 2019

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A Short Translated Autobiography

James Poy Wong (1925-2020) was born in Chinatown of San Francisco, California. His ancestral hometown was in Taishan city, located in Guangdong, a coastal province of southeast China. In 1910, his father, Huang Wenkui 黄文槐, migrated to the United States as a merchant, who in 1923 brought his wife, Liu Xiuqin 劉秀琴 and their two sons for settlement in America. During this period, Liu and her sons were detained for over two weeks at Angel Island Immigration Station located in the San Francisco Bay on the West Coast of the United States. James ranked third in his family with four sons. In 1934, his entire family went back to China and did not return to America until 1941.