James Poy Wong 黃培正

Notes on Miscellaneous Writings

Considering Wong’s primary backgrounds - educational, literary, academic, engineering, occupational - one would admire his commitment to writing the numerous works throughout his life despite excelling in a formal career as an engineer. Moreover, Wong was in reality deprived of continuous, formal education in the first sixteen years of his life, being driven in and out between segregated Chinese America and wartime China. Such disadvantages did not stop him from acquiring more university credentials in the decades subsequent to his completion of graduate school in engineering in 1956. With four degrees - a Bachelor of Science and a Master’s in Civil Engineering, a Bachelor of Arts in English, and a Master’s in Chinese linguistics and literature - Wong had devoted significant investment in academic training as well, which yielded at least two theses that had been evaluated with publishable quality. (name both of these) Similarly, Wong had also published research studies in his expertise field of engineering. Only one of such publications is collected at this time of writing, and it will be included on this website as a pdf document for those interested.

Other miscellaneous writings should also be mentioned. Between 1946 to 1948, Wong served as proofreading and translation staff for The Nationalist Daily. These positions may also have extended the focus of writing into a columnist for movie reviews. As a result, Wong also had written nearly two dozens of movie reviews for various newspapers in Chinatown.

As of now, only a few works are collected on this page. The prologue of Wong’s novella, The Song of Immigrant Sons and Daughters, may be translated to be included on this page in the future.

Miscellaneous Publications in 1940s, 1970s, and 1980s

Title		Summary
	Dross	This piece that is considered miscellaneous in both form and content - a collection of individual phrases that read like axioms - could be a record of what the young author was reading and thinking at the time.
	Sacrificial Victims	This short play has a setting taking place in southern China during the Sino-Japanese war portays young people sacrificing themselves, imploring upon overseas Chinese in America to take actions in support of the war back home.
	Criminal Citizens	Amid the Japanese invasion of China and expansion of its occupation to southeast Asia, a group of Chinese students organized an uprising against the local government in protest of its corrupt collusion with businessmen's market manipulation and sale of rice.
	Jobs after School	Written upon my request in 2019, a year before Wong passed, this piece provides valuable autobiographical accounts of the author’s life upon return to the U.S. from China, focusing on his employment as houseboy and busboy inside and outside of Chinatown in the early to mid 1940s.