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CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE
East Meets East
A Chinese Restaurant in Little Tokyo
A Video Documentary
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
For the degree of Master of Arts in
Mass Communication
By
Changyue Xie
May 2015
The thesis of Changyue Xie is approved:
______Prof. David A. Blumenkrantz Date
______Dr. Jose Luis Benavides Date
______Dr. Melissa A. Wall, Chair Date
California State University, Northridge
ii ACKNOWLEGMENTS
Upon completion of this Master’s degree and related project, I would like to thank my committee chair, Professor Melissa Wall. I couldn’t have made it this far without your help; thank you for your encouragement and expert guidance. Also thanks to my committee members Professor Jose Luis Benavides and Professor David
A. Blumenkrantz for their continuous support, understanding and helpful suggestions.
I am also thankful for the people of the Far East Café, Little Tokyo Service
Center and Chinese Historical Society Southern California for their kind help and friendliness. It was very difficult for me as a foreign student to do interviews and to film in Los Angeles. This project would not have materialized without their support and hospitality, especially Dr. Edith Chen in Asian American Studies of California
State University, Northridge, who recommended the Far East Café as my thesis project and offered me contact information; Mr. Bill Watanabe and Mr. Erich
Nakano, who offered their knowledge of the history of Little Tokyo; Mr. Raymond
Douglas Chong and Mr. Andrew Chong, who shared the history of the Far East Café;
Dr. John Jung and Mr. Eugene Moy, who offered their knowledge of the Chinese immigration history; Mr Tony Osumi and Mrs Patty Ito Nagano, who shared their memories of the Far East Café, and various other who contributed on and off the camera.
Lastly, I would like to thank my parents for their continuous support, encouragement and love. And thanks to my wonderful boyfriend Feng Liang, who became my camera assistant, best boy and driver. Thank you for giving me your never-ending understanding and sweet love.
iii TABLE OF CONTENTS
Signature Page ii
Acknowledgements iii
Abstract vi
Chapter 1: Introduction 1
Project Aims 2
Research Questions 4
Significance 5
Chapter 2: Literature Review 8
Introduction 8
Theoretical Framework 8
Hegemony 8
Culture Hegemony, Ideological effect and Mass media 9
Cultivation 10
Media in the U.S. Representations of Asian Americans 11
Chinese Americans 12
Japanese Americans and other Asian groups 14
History of Chinese immigration to the United States 14
Chinese communities and Chinatown in Los Angeles 18
Japanese communities in Los Angeles 18
The history of the Chinese restaurant in America 19
History of the Far East Café 23
Chapter 3: Methodology 26
Preparation 26
Timeline 27
Interview Subjects and contact 27
iv Interview Questions 31
Equipment 33
Release 33
Limitations 33
Video Outline 34
Chapter 4: Transcription of Multimedia 35
Part 1 Introduction: Transported Back in Time 35
Part 2 Chong’s History of the Far East Cafe 38
Part 3 Memories and Significance of the Far East Café 43
Chapter 5: Conclusions 50
References
Appendix A: List of Television Shows Star Chinese Americans From 1949 to 2005
Appendix B: Visual/Audio Image Release Form
Appendix C: My Far East Café by Raymond Chong (Zhang Weiming)
Appendix D: China Meshi Dreams by Tony Osumi
v ABSTRACT
East Meets East
A Chinese Restaurant in Little Tokyo
A Video Documentary
By
Changyue Xie
Master of Arts in Mass Communication
This project is a video documentary that focuses on the 80-year cultural and symbolic history of the Far East Café, a restaurant began by Chinese immigrants in
1935. The documentary records the stories and experiences of the Chong family, who opened this restaurant. The Far East Café reflected the relationship between Chinese immigrants and Japanese immigrants in Los Angeles. Particularly after World War II, the Far East Café helped a number of Japanese American families come back to Los
Angeles from Relocation Camps. The documentary also shows the history of early
Chinese immigrants. It displays how difficult it was for the early Chinese immigrants to come to this country and build their own community.
The purpose of this documentary is to depict Chinese and Japanese immigration stories, encourage people to change their stereotyped views of Asian
Americans and help American audiences better understand Asian groups. The warm relationships between Chinese and Japanese immigrants, the Far East Cafe may influence other race relations, not just Asian groups, but also perhaps throughout the world.
vi CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Based on the 2012 United States Census data, the total population of Asian
Americans is 18,205,898, or 5.8% of the U.S. population. Asian groups have a long immigration history, and now these groups are the highest-income, best educated and fastest growing in this nation of immigrants (Pew Research Center, 2012). This growth may result in Asian American groups becoming a more significant part of the
United States, especially in the twenty-first century. Asian immigrants historically have made a significant contribution to helping the United States enter the advanced stages of capitalist development (Hamamoto, 1994). Asian American stories, culture and history need to be highlighted. That is one of the goals of my project, to depict
Chinese and Japanese immigration stories.
Non-Asian people in the U.S. often learn about Asian culture from TV programs, films and other media products. Media plays a significant role in the creation of Asian American images. Asian Americans rarely play the main characters in most U.S. TV programs, and although Asian elements are present in media programs, the Asian depictions that American audiences come to know through media are often stereotyped, vague and misleading. Also Asian Americans are underrepresented in U.S. media.
Throughout the history of U.S. film and television, Asians and Asian
Americans have several common stereotypes: “yellow peril, dragon lady, the delicate lotus blossom; the mild, asexual Asian male; and the fierce master of martial arts” are the images U.S. media gives American audiences of Asian Americans (Holtzman，
Sharpe & Gardner 2014, p.321). As Hamamoto (1994) argues in her book Monitored
1 Peril, “Most of the Asian American figures depicted in TV programs were indeed one-dimensional and peripheral when compared with the dominant, Euro-American lead characters” (p. ix). Yet, Asian Americans come from many places; they have different histories, cultures, and experiences in the United States.
While some non-fiction contents such as documentaries reflect the history of
Chinese immigrants’ history in the United States, these programs are seldom shown in the U.S. mainstream media. Compared with other ethnic groups, Asian immigrants’ history is subordinated and neglected in media and TV representations. Especially, there are very few TV programs that reflect the relationship between Asian immigrant groups.
Project Aims
For my thesis project, I filmed the documentary East Meets East -- A Chinese
Restaurant in Little Tokyo. This story of a Chinese restaurant embodies the history and experience of the early waves of Chinese immigrants. It also reflects the immigrants’ relationships, especially the Chinese and Japanese communities in the
U.S.
Conventional wisdom has it that Chinese and Japanese are both defined as
East Asian. Compared to other immigrants from the east, people from these two countries came voluntarily to the U.S. in search of economic opportunity. In contrast,
Vietnamese and Thai people often came as refugees (Holtzman, Sharpe & Gardner
2014). Chinese and Japanese have similar cultures; furthermore, both Chinese and
Japanese, in particular, were targeted as the “yellow peril” in the nineteenth century
(p. 278). However, political events (for example, the militarism of Imperial Japan and the U.S. “loss” of China), different immigration experiences (for example, the
2 internment camps for Japanese), and living conditions create distinctions between these two groups. When “East” (Chinese American) meets “East” (Japanese
American), their stories can be insightful and meaningful.
The Far East Café, a Chinese restaurant located in the heart of Little Tokyo in
Los Angeles at 347 East First Street, has an 80-year-old history. Ten Chinese immigrants, all part of the extended Jeong family, made the arduous journey from
Guangdong Province in Kaiping County, China to the U.S. in 1935. Initially, the
Jeong cousins leased the storefront commercial space and established the restaurant.
In 1963, the cousins were finally able to buy the property for $70,000 (Chong, 2013).
The Jeong family’s experience was similar to many early Chinese immigrants’ experience.
K. Connie Kang, an LA Times staff writer states, the Chop Suey sign and the
Far East Café in Little Tokyo were “part of Japanese American life in Southern
California” for six decades. For those customers of the Far East Café, it was “like a home away from home”, and the Far East Café is “a part of history, a part of community and our (Japanese American) heritage” (Kang, 2003, B.3).
The Far East Café was very famous in the mid-20th century. Sports figures including Michael Garret, gangsters including Micky Cohen and film sarts like Anna
May Wong attended the Far East’s grand opening (National Trust For Historic
Preservation, 2010). Since the 1970s, film and history buffs discovered the Far East
Café and used it for location shots in some movies such as Farewell, My Lovely;
Chinatown, Dragon; Running Through the Night; A Year in the Life (Harris, 1988);
Restore America; Gasa-Gasa Girl, and Community Matters (Chong, 2013). It also played host to countless events for those in and around Los Angeles City Hall. “The
3 world changed, Los Angeles changed, but the Far East was set in its ways” (Harris,
1988, D. 1)
The Northridge Earthquake of 1994 damaged the Far East building and the Far
East Café suddenly closed. In 2006, a new restaurant reopened with help from
Japanese Americans, and the Far East Café was renamed Far Bar.
It should be emphasized that the Far East Café reflected the relationship between different immigrant communities, especially Chinese immigrants and
Japanese immigrants in Los Angeles. Particularly after World War II, the Far East
Café helped a number of Japanese American families come back to Los Angeles from
Internment Camps through an offer of “on credit” room and food for those unable to pay. The Far East Café also provided Japanese Americans a place to hold cultural events. With this good will, it helped the Far East Café become one of the most popular establishments in the Japanese American community and made it more successful.
Research Questions
1. What is the historic and cultural significance of the Far East Café?
2. What does the story of the restaurant tell us about the Chinese and Japanese
immigrants’ experience in mid-20th century in Los Angeles?
3. How does media in the U.S. represent Asian American, especially the Chinese
American and Japanese American?
4 Significance
The significant of my documentary lies in its address of Asian American history and culture. It challenges the conventional wisdom about racial identity as well as of Asian American history. Three groups, the Asian American (especially
Chinese American); non-Asian Americans; and the new waves of Chinese immigrants to the U.S., such as international students are my target audience.
One of the goals of my documentary is to make people cognizant of the contribution from early Chinese immigrants. Another goal is to create pride in the accomplishments of early Chinese American generations and their families. Due to historical reasons, the lives of many members of the older Chinese generation in the
U.S. were filled with hardship. Their parents or they themselves are sometimes embarrassed to talk about their family story. For example, Lee (1965) states, “because of the haunting troubles of the past”, the early Chinese immigrants “seldom speak of the hard times they have lived through here” (p. 1). Never will they speak of the prejudices from which they have suffered. In addition, there are a few Chinese
Americans who feel shame about their ethnicity. One of my interviewees, Raymond
Chong told me that he felt uncomfortable when he realized he is Chinese because his parents never told him about his family history and family stories. After his father passed away several years ago, he became curious about his family’s experience, which related to the Far East Cafe. After that, he became aware of Chinese culture and developed a strong love for the hometown of his family, Kaiping village,
Guangdong Province, China. In other words, involuntary internalized racism makes these early generation immigrants “take in negative messages of overt and covert racism, superiority, and inferiority, and apply those messages to themselves and others in ways that are self-destructive rather than self-affirming” (Holtzman, Sharpe
5 & Gardner 2014, p. 301). My goal is to change people’s image about Chinese immigrants.
Second, for the non-Asian audience, I also hope my documentary can fill the gaps in the history of Asian immigrants and help American audiences better understand Asian groups.
Finally, I hope my documentary will help younger, new wave immigrants better understand the older generations and their own identities in the United States. I have been working in the Intensive English Program of California State University
Northridge for two years, and I have seen the number of Asian students, especially
Chinese students, increasing. Because of the rapid development of the Chinese economy, incoming Chinese students are extremely different from the early waves.
For example, wealthy families support the majority of students, whereas the early waves of Chinese immigrants were desperately poor, having come to America for a better life. Their personal values, life situations, group ideologies and social identity are incomprehensible to the new wave of students. Many times, the students are shocked by what they see in Chinatown, assuming that all Chinese who live in
America are rich. My documentary shows the history of early Chinese immigrants. It displays how difficult it was for the early immigrants to come to this country and build their own community. My documentary will help provide a historical education for a new wave of Chinese immigrants.
Furthermore, my documentary portrays the amicable relationship between
Chinese and Japanese communities in Los Angeles. China and Japan had strained diplomatic relations during World War II and in recent years, but the two groups in the documentary love and help each other. I hope through my documentary, this warm
6 relationship can influence other race relations, not just for the Asian groups, with
American groups, but also for all people in the world.
7 CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
In this literature review, I first provide the theoretical framework; I next focus on research about the media representation of Asian Americans, especially Chinese and Japanese Americans. Also, I will explore the history of Chinese and Japanese immigration in the United States and in particular in Los Angeles. Then, I detail the history of the Far East Café that embodies the history and relationship between
Chinese and Japanese American communities.
Theoretical Framework
Media productions are much more than simple cultural products. Whether referring to American films, televisions, plays, and videos on our smartphones, laptop or other assorted screens, the majority of U.S. media productions reflect American ideology. This type of cultural content has helped the U.S. become the dominant mediated creator of culture. Scholars argue that the audience will accept the dominant
American ideology in an unconscious manner (Malden, 2006). The U.S. mainstream media carry the county’s dominant ideologies.
Hegemony
Gitlin (1980) defined hegemony as a ruling class dominating subordinate classes through affecting the daily practices and common sense of the public.
According to Holtzman, Sharpe and Gardner (2014), hegemony is “the process by which those in power secure the consent or social submission of those who are not in power” (p. 23). To put it simply, as Iwahura (2011) suggests “hegemony is the
8 expression of the interests and world-views of a particular social group or class so expressed as to pass for the interest and world-view of the whole of society” (p. 115).
Hegemony was most likely derived from the Greek egemonia, whose root is egemon, meaning “leader, ruler”, often in the sense of a state other than his own (Williams
1985, p.144). Holtzman, Sharpe and Gardner (2014) emphasize that hegemony creates social submission through socialization other than direct influence on society, that is to say, “the structure and values of hegemony are often invisible” (p.23). For instance, hegemony influences people’s values via religious, educational, and media institutions.
Cultural Hegemony, Ideological effect and Mass media
In his book Selections from Prison Notebooks, Gramsci first proposed the concept of Cultural Hegemony. Within a country or a nation, powerful economic forces attempt to impose their culture and ideology onto others, creating culture hegemony——which de-legitimizes other subordinate cultures (Gramsci, Hoare &
Smith, 1972). Cultural hegemony is especially prominent in the age of mass media.
For example television delivers the dominant ideology through its entertainment and news programming (Abercrombie & Turner, 1978; Abercrombie, Hill & Turner,
1980).
The dominant class constructs the main systems of meaning and the framework of understanding, which then becomes dominant through the output of media content. From the cultural studies perspective, this has three aspects: class, gender and race. People who have advantages in terms of class, gender and race usually play the main characters in media programming. People who were born to a disadvantaged class, race or gender usually only have the chance to be a minor character, or the negative character. The views and morals that belong to the dominant
9 class will be unconsciously revealed in the content. The second method of exerting dominance is omission. While highlighting certain content, other content is ignored.
Subsequently, the omission is in favor of the dominant class (Abercrombie & Turner,
1978).
For example, David Croteau and William Hoynes (2014) state, “The absence of a racial signifier in this country usually signifies whiteness”, and “the pervasiveness of white perspectives in media is perhaps its most powerful characteristic” (p. 192). Adding to this, Hamamoto (1994) maintains, “Asian
Americans on network television programs exist primarily for the convenience and benefit of the Euro-American lead players. Rarely are the lives of Asian American characters examined on their own merit, and the problems they face in daily life are not considered to be of intrinsic interest” (p. 206). On the surface, media productions may include Asian culture and Asian elements. However, often their treatment is superficial and played for comic effect.
Hamamoto (1994) also pointed out that popular cultural forms are “especially effective vehicles for the transmission of a racialized discourse that confers legitimacy to white supremacist social institutions and power arrangements” (p. xi). Holtzman,
Sharpe and Gardner (2014) agree when they acknowledge, “Throughout our history, there have been an untold number of assaults on the humanness of people of color in the interest of white hegemony” (p. 248). In this case, it cannot be generalized as simply just as a cultural problem, but a consequence resulting from political and economic interests.
Cultivation
According to Gerbner, Gross, Morgan and Signorielli (1980), Cultivation
Theory was developed to explain the effects of television viewing on people’s
10 perceptions, attitudes, and values or the teaching of a common worldview, roles and values. “The television set has become a key member of the family, the one who tells most of the stories most of the time” (p.14).
Cultivation Theory especially emphasizes the effect of television, arguing that the more time people watch TV, the more their opinions of social reality will be influenced by what they have watched. The advocates of Cultivation Theory consider television viewing behaviors a daily ritual. Therefore, audience ideas about social reality are closer to what is shown on TV instead of the reality. Some researchers argue television creates a direct connection to audience ideas and beliefs about social and political life (Yu, 2003, p. 207; Severin & Tankard, 2001).
Media productions can have a powerful effect in sharing ideas about ethnicity.
As Kellner (1995) claims, “Media culture helps shape the prevalent view of the world and its deepest values” (p. 1). In sum, prime-time television, film and other media productions tell people what is popular and what is normal. In other words, audiences define what is advantageous or disadvantageous, and understand or identify themselves and other groups by media representations.
Media in the U.S. Representations of Asian Americans
In discussions of western media representation of Asian Americans, common sense seems to dictate that the majority of Americans often fail to distinguish and differentiate among Asian groups. This is because the Asian American histories are often inaccessible in educational and daily life. Specifically, as Holtzman, Sharpe and
Gardner (2014) argue, “there is no mention of the disruption of the Chinese family, the internment of Japanese American citizens during World War II” in America
11 understanding of Asian immigrants (p. 279). Holtzman, Sharpe and Gardner (2014) argue that “images of Asians are often collapsed and homogenized as one” (p. 277),
In fact, the term “model minority” lumps together all Asian groups, failing to appreciate the vast different in the experience of someone from Vietnam and Japan.
Western media not only ignore the different experiences of Asians, they also blatantly deny the distinction between each group (Holtzman, Sharpe & Gardner,
2014). In reality, there are vast distinctions between the immigration experiences and economic successes of various Asian groups and each group experience is honorable.
Even when the Asian Americans were represented in early films, Asian characters were often played by white actors (p. 325). Media activist Loni Ding maintains, “To be absent in T.V. imagery is a special kind of ‘non-existence’ or way of being ‘non-
American’” (Hamamoto, 1994, p. 91). In recent years, Asian Americans still rarely play the main characters in media productions. There are common stereotypes of
Asian American images, for instance “yellow peril”, dragon lady, the delicate lotus blossom, the mild and asexual Asian male, and the fierce master of martial arts
(Kawai 2005, p. 2; Shah 2003).
Chinese Americans
Hamamoto (1994) suggests that the late nineteenth through early twentieth centuries were the media’s height of Sinophobia, during which Chinese were seen as evil. The American audience was given an image of Chinese being “prone to violence, anarchy, corruption, vice and prostitution” (Holtzman, Sharpe & Gardner
2014, p. 325). This is seen in the novel The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu (1913); the film The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932) and the novel The Adventures of Fu Manchu
12 (1945). Dr. Fu Manchu is a character who is a genius, but also, crafty and evil. This personification of the “yellow menace” left a deep impression on American audience members. Another famous Chinese character in American popular culture is Charlie
Chan, from the 1930s films. Unlike Fu Manchu, Charlie Chan is clever and patient, possibly one of the few positive images of Chinese during the period (Lee, 1965, p. xii).
In the 1950s, Chinese continued to be demonized by the media, with the additional trope of the Yellow Red, a reference to the Chinese Communist government (Hamamoto 1994), and China became the symbol of Asian evil in post- world war II films (p. 326). The 1960s saw the rise of depictions of Asian women; such as seen in The World of Suzie Wong, which gave American audiences the stereotype of the beautiful and exotic Asian woman. A second male stereotype of the martial arts hero arose (Holtzman, Sharpe & Gardner 2014, pp. 326-327) replacing the evil Chinese.
While a wealth of TV programs featured Chinese characters, however, in contrast with Euro-American characters, the Chinese Americans were one- dimensional and peripheral. They were always the sidekick or minor characters.
According to Encyclopedia of Television Subjects, Themes and Settings by Vincent
Terrace (2007), there are few programs that star Chinese Americans. (For a list of television shows that from 1949 to 2005. See Appendix A.)
13 Japanese Americans and other Asian groups
Compared with Chinese media representations in the American entertainment media, the Japanese images were more directly evil (Holtzman, Sharpe & Gardner
2014). Especially during World War II, Japan was presented as “a nation of fanatical, blood-thirsty” people and considered as enemies to Americans (Hamamoto 1994, p.
97). During that period, “there was no complex, sympathetic” Japanese American characters in popular U.S. films. Consequently, the propaganda appearing in the U.S. media influenced people’s view of Japanese Americans. Even after World War II, the negative Japanese images continued. Since the 1950s, the image of Japanese
American has been become less negative on many television programs (Hamamoto
1994), but remains stereotyped.
Asian evil, Yellow peril, yellow Red, the lotus blossom, dragon lady, model- minority — all these images of Chinese and Japanese American were created for historical and political reasons. While there was some variety in images offered, the overall messages were always negative.
History of Chinese Immigration to the United States
The Earliest Arrivals
Chinese immigration to U.S. began with the California Gold Rush in the
1840s. The Chinese were the first Asian group to arrive in the United States in large numbers. By the 1850s, there were 18,400 Chinese immigrants with the largest
Chinese settlements “in Nevada City, Auburn, Coloma, Placerville, Angeles Camp,
Chinese Camp, Coulterville, and Hornitos”. Most of these Chinese worked as miners
14 (Lee, 1965). By the mid-20th century, “more than 400,000 Chinese workers arrived in
Hawaii and the U.S. mainland, leaving their homeland to escape poverty, widespread political conflict, and the deleterious effects of contact with Western imperialist countries” (Hamamoto, 1994, p. 6).
At the time, because of the weakness of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, the
Taiping Rebellion and the Opium Wars, China was in turmoil and the people were suffering (Chen 1982). As a result, many poor Chinese came to America looking for richer and better lives; the majority of them came from Guangdong province in southern China (Chen 1982). The original plan for the early wave immigrants was to earn enough money in the United States to return to China and support their families in their home villages. On other hand, most of the Chinese people who came to
America “paid their own way either out of their own savings or those of their families”; some even borrowed money, “promising to repay the loan out of future earnings in America” (Chen 1982, p. 25). So the journey to the United States was a difficult, life-changing experience.
Meanwhile, due to traditional Chinese culture and American policy, it was nearly impossible for Chinese women to come to United States, thus, “the lack of
Chinese women created a culture of Chinese bachelors, which in turn created a culture of prostitutes and a double life for these laborers” (Holtzman, Sharpe & Gardner
2014, p. 279).
Angel Island and paper sons
As a result of 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, Chinese laborers were barred from entering the United States for ten years (Chan, 2006, p. 175). Although the Chinese were unwelcome, they continued to try to come to United States, because “their entire
15 extended families in China expected to benefit from their sacrifice” (Kwong &
Miscevic, 2005, p. 135). Every Chinese immigrant entering the Unites States was detained at a processing station at Angel Island in San Francisco or Ellis Island in
New York. The living conditions on Angel Island “were deplorable, the treatment subhuman, but the worst were the interrogations” (Kwong & Miscevic 2005, p. 139).
After the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, only merchants, scholars and diplomats were allowed enter in the United States. Yet, the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco challenged this rule. The fire following the earthquake destroyed all immigration records, including all birth records of Chinese immigrants. Because U.S. law stipulates that children of American-born citizens are automatically granted citizenship status, and even if the parents were born in foreign countries, many
Chinese claimed citizenship (Nadeau & Lee 2011). As a result, they could sponsor their family to enter the United States after 1906. Kwong & Miscevic (2005) write that, “Smuggling operators found individuals willing to sell a paper son slot, that matched the details” of the Chinese immigrants (p. 138). A wave of “paper sons” immigrated to America in search of a better life (Chin & Chin, 2000; Lau, 2006).
According to Newman (2001), there were about 20,000 Chinese living in
California by 1852. By 1860s, the numbers of people increased to 15,000. Kwong and
Miscevic (2005) explain their immigration strategy: “all family members pool resources to help the individual chosen for the mission”, and “after the one has established a foothold, he sent for other relatives so that the entire extended family can share in his economic gain” (p. 135). Family businesses are a main way for older generations to live in U.S.
16 In 1900, the population of Chinese immigrants reached around 90,000. Latter in second quarter twentieth century, the kind of Chinese immigrants changed (Chen,
1982, p. 202).
In 1952, the McCarran Walter Act allowed Asians to become U.S. citizens
(Holtzman, Sharpe & Gardner 2014). From 1965 to 1984, 419,373 Chinese immigrants came to the U.S. Through the new policy that favored family reunification. Most Chinese preferred to settle down with their family in cities with
Chinatowns like New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The population of
Chinese people in North America increased rapidly, especially females (Liu & Lin,
2009).
The more recent wave of Chinese immigration was called the “new Chinese immigration” because these Chinese immigrants had more education. They specialized in medicine, engineering and education, so they were able to strengthen the relationship between the United States and China (Ren, 2007). Furthermore, the new Chinese immigrants were more adept than prior waves at taking part in politics by using their higher social status and voting rights. Some tried to contribute to the diplomatic relationships between the U.S. and China.
Many post-1965 Chinese immigrants have maintained their Asian lifestyle and ethnic identity while working and living in the United States. They do not see this preference as conflicting with their American life. At work, they speak English, crack jokes with their colleagues, and comfortably behave as typical Americans. At home, however, they speak Mandarin, Cantonese, or another Chinese dialect. They also eat
Chinese food, listen to Chinese-language radio stations, watch Chinese-language television channels, and read Chinese-language newspapers (Liu & Lin, 2009).
17
Chinese Communities and Chinatown in Los Angeles
Chinatown today for most people is a place to sightsee, to eat, or to purchase handicrafts. Even though the Chinatown in Los Angeles is located in Downtown Los
Angeles, it seems distant from mainstream society. But for the early Chinese
Americans, Chinatown was their sanctuary and home (Wu, 2003).
Los Angeles Chinatown was built in 1938. It was from first modern American
Chinatown, owned and planed from the ground up by Chinese. From 1890 to 1910, the old Chinatown (now destroyed) grew with 15 streets and 200 buildings, restaurants and shops. The new Chinatown was built on what was at the time an
Italian neighborhood.
According to Zhou (2009), by the mid-1980s, the number of Mainland
Chinese immigrants surpassed the number of Taiwanese. As more Chinese immigrants put down their roots in Monterey Park, newer arrivals started to settle in adjacent suburban communities such as Alhambra, Rosemead, San Gabriel, and
Temple City. These new Chinese communities are not isolated ethnic areas like traditional Chinatown.
Japanese communities in Los Angeles
In Los Angeles, Chinatown and Little Tokyo for the Japanese community are neighbors. Even though the Chinese and the Japanese were both segregated from white America, their communities were not alike.
18 According to Levine and Rhodes (1981), Los Angeles has always been the major destination for the Issei (the first-generation Japanese immigrants) from 1908.
Moreover, 40 percent of Issei lived in Los Angeles in the 1960s and 38 percent of the
Nisei (the second-generation Japanese immigrants) live in Greater Los Angeles.
During World War II, many of the Japanese from Los Angeles made up residents of internment camps. According to Hamamoto (1994), at the conclusion of World War
II, approximately 44,000 Japanese Americans were being held in concentration camps scattered throughout the Western states. The U.S. government’s goal of dispersing the
Japanese American population had proven effective to a certain extent, but in time fully two-thirds of the Japanese American population returned to the West Coast after having been ‘relocated’ (p. 97). After the relocation period, many Japanese immigrants returned to Los Angeles and increased the Japanese American community once again.
Many families who returned to their former communities came home to find black migrants had moved into their neighborhood and their businesses areas
(Robinson, 2012). However, because Japan was no longer the hated enemy, hostile acts against Japanese Americans did become somewhat less acceptable.
The history of the Chinese restaurant in America
Chinese restaurants are not just a place for food, the Chinese restaurant is a place where family and friends gather, talk about business, and hold weddings and other major ceremonies. Restaurants are a place for Chinese people to network. In
China, the subsistence and development of the country depends on conducting social and business life in restaurants.
19 Shen (2011) states that, “Restaurant entrepreneurs and cooks were part of the early Chinese migration flow” (p. 16). The history of the Chinese restaurant in the
United States is not only about food, but also political, economic, cultural and social relations. The restaurant business reflects the social background, lifestyle, and ethnic identity of Chinese immigrants. Chinese immigrants have made the Chinese restaurant business an American icon; the restaurant is a key business brought wealth to some Chinese immigrants (Liu and Lin, 2009).
19th Century
The California Gold Rush attracted numerous Chinese laborers, and with their immigration came the development of the Chinese food business as one of the earliest businesses for Chinese immigrants in the United States (Cassel, 2002). In 1849, the first Chinese restaurant “Canton” opened in San Francisco. The early Chinese restaurants mainly served miners and railroad workers (Lee, 1965). These restaurants usually served Cantonese food or they invented dishes like Chop Suey, Chow Mein,
General Tso’s chicken, Egg Foo Yuan and paper wrapped chicken (Liu & Lin, 2009).
By the 1890s, Chinese restaurants had opened in big cities on both coasts.
Because the earliest Chinese immigrants were from southern China, they brought particular eating habits and their traditional cuisine. But they also adapted to unfamiliar local ingredients and catered to their customers’ tastes. During this period, the Chinese restaurants in smaller towns served what their customers requested, ranging from pork chop sandwiches and apple pie to beans and eggs (Xiang-dong,
2011).
During the mid-19th century, East European Jews flocked to Chinese restaurants. This happened due to the Jews religious prohibition where meat was not
20 allowed to be cooked with milk products. Most Chinese restaurant food is cooked this way, so Chinese food became their first foreign food choice. Secondly, Jews were marginalized in the early mid-20th century similar to the Chinese; therefore, they felt at home in a Chinese restaurant. According to Lee (2008), Chinese restaurants were famous for their exoticism; Jewish people went to Chinese restaurants wanting to show they were open-minded and wanted to try new foods. They also wanted to develop a new, modern, identity as a way of becoming American. The third reason is that Chinese restaurants were open during Christmas. Lastly, many Jews traditionally liked to drink tea and generally prefer tea and chicken, which were offered at Chinese restaurants (Xiang-dong, 2011).
20th century
At the beginning of the 20th century, increased immigration from Asia was permitted. More Chinese immigrants joined the restaurant business. In the 1920s, among 45,614 employed Chinese, 11,438 were cooks, waiters or kitchen operators. In the 1930s, Chinese Americans who worked in restaurants in San Francisco accounted for 6% of the workforce, while it was 20% to 25% in East Coastal cities (Liu &Lin,
2009).
Chinese restaurants in the U.S. slowly began to proliferate, but neither customers nor proprietors cared about whether or not the dish was truly authentic
Chinese food. Cost and convenience were the most important factors for Chinese
American food (Lee, 2008). Liu and Lin (2009) note in 1900 “there only were two or three Chinese restaurants in Los Angeles, frequented almost exclusively by Chinese”
(p.136). Ten years later, in 1910, the number of Chinese restaurants rose to more than
21 fifteen, and they had spread outside of Chinatown. The Chinese restaurants business were increasing.
During the 1930s and 1940s, China was constantly at war. Song May-ling, also known as Madame Chiang Kai-shek, came to the United States as an ambassador for the Kuomintang, the Chinese maximalists. She gave a public speech to the U.S.
Congress asking for more support from the international community in their fight against Japan. Song May-ling raised the profile of Chinese culture. Afterwards,
Chinese culture became more popular, and more and more people wanted to go to
Chinese restaurants. According to Liu and Lin (2009) and Coe (2009), Chinese restaurant businesses became “a conspicuous ethnic label” for Chinese Americans.
According to Lee (2008), by the mid-20th century, Chinese American dishes like Chop Suey and chow mein were so popular they were added to the U.S Army cookbook. According to Liu and Lin (2009), there were about 4,300 Chinese restaurants in the United States during the 1940s, with 7% of Americans going to
Chinese restaurants regularly. The number of Chinese restaurants increased to 4,500 in the 1950s, “with over 20 percent of Americans frequenting Chinese restaurants.”
According to Liu and Lin (2009), in Los Angeles’ Chinatown, Cantonese cuisine was no longer the main food after “Shanghai, Sichuan, or Hunan flavor appeared” in the early 1970s. In same way, the dishes with unique features from Sichuan, Hunan
Shanghai and other parts of China rapidly replaced former Cantonese favorites.
In the late 20th Century, the U.S. President Richard Nixon visited China. In a historical political turning point, the trip influenced a new U.S. interest in Chinese food and classic dishes like Peking Duck became very popular on the Chinese restaurant menus. This U.S.-China trip brought the American Chinese restaurants another opportunity to boost their businesses (Jang & Liu, 2011).
22
21st century
By the 21st century, Chinese food had become a normal part of the U.S. food culture. Today there are some 43,000 Chinese restaurants in the United States, exceeding the total number of all McDonalds, Wendys and Burger King domestic outlets combined. A typical Chinese restaurant is still individually or family owned
(Jang & Liu, 2011).
History of the Far East Café
During the Qing Dynasty, the Jeong family joined successive waves of desperate immigrants who sought their fortune on Gold Mountain. They came to
American by steamships that took one month to arrive, hoping to realize their
American dreams and help their family in their home country (Chong, 2013).
When the Joeng (sometimes called Chong) cousins arrived in the United
States, they were immediately placed on Angel Island in San Francisco. After being interrogated, they were issued Certificates of Identity. With the help of other Jeong family members, they looked for work as laundrymen, Chinese restaurant workers, or market workers, and searched for jobs on the Central Valley farms or laying railroad tracks. The cousins lived as “paper sons.” They were constantly afraid of deportation and arrest. They were bachelors far away from their hometown. They faced racial prejudice, legal discrimination and economic ghettoization (Chong, 2013).
The Jeong family settled in Mason City, Iowa by the 1910s. The cousins operated the “Le Chung Brothers Chinese Hand Laundry” in the city’s downtown. As their business grew, they invited other Jeong cousins to join them. During the
23 Depression, the business gradually declined, and they decided to move to California
(Chong, 2013).
The Far East Building was built in 1896. Ninomiu formerly occupied the building, which hosted 24 single-occupancy apartment units, and a studio owned by
Ichiro Ninomiya. But the building was particularly well known for its Far East Café.
(National Trust For Historic Preservation, 2010)
According to Chong (2013), the Jeong cousins opened the Far East Café in the
Little Tokyo neighborhood of Los Angeles in 1935. But Kang (2003) states, the Mar family owned the Far East building and opened restaurant from 1936 until 1994
(Kang, 2003). Many celebriteis attended the Far East’s grand opening, like sports figure Michael Garret, gangster Mickey Cohen and film star Ana May Wong.
The Far East Café introduced Cantonese specialties such as chop suey, “hom yu”, “cha shu” and chow mein to a diverse clientele; it was also famous for reasonable prices, friendly family service and characteristic like booths with curtains (Chong,
2013). As soon as the Far East Café opened, it quickly became the informal center of the Japanese American community; they often gathered with their families and friends in the restaurant, held weddings and funerals at the Temple, as well as other important gatherings and celebrations.
During World War II, Japanese Americans were forced to leave their homes and businesses behind to enter detention centers; most of the Far East Cafe costomers became African Americans. After the Japanese Americans came back from the internment camps, the Far East Café welcomed then as old friends and customers, providing meals and housing on credit for those unable to pay (Chong, 2013). Scott
Harris (1988) said, Japanese families returned and again rented the restaurant’s
24 mezzanine for wedding receptions and wakes. Then the Civic Center expanded, creating more business.
Since the 1970s, Hollywood made the Far East Café well known as filmmakers used it as a setting for movies such as: Farewell, My Lovely; Chinatown,
Dragon; Running Through the Night; Mamo’s Weeds, Big Bach, Gasa-Gasa Girl, A
Year in the life; Community Matters (Harris, 1988).
In 1994, the Northridge earthquake damaged the Far East building, and the structure sat vacant for nearly a decade. The Far East Café was forced closed. In 2001, the Mar family donated the restaurant and building to the Little Tokyo Service Center
Community Development Corporation (LTSC), which has undertaken numerous revitalization projects in Little Tokyo and other ethnic communities.
It cost nearly $4 million to repair the building. The Far East Café was reopened as Far Bar and Lounge in 2006 (Chong, 2013).
25 CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
In this chapter, I will explain the documentary filmmaking process and outline the project design, preparation for this thesis project, sample interview questions and the limitations.
Preparation
I was born in Kunming, a beautiful city in Yunnan province, in southern
China. Having lived there, I have been able to experience a significant sliver of the enormous variety of cultures that thrive in China. Of the fifty-six ethnic groups in
China, twenty-five can be found in Yunnan. This tremendous ethnic diversity played no small part in attracting me to gain a deeper understanding of my heritage. I have deep affections for my hometown culture and Chinese traditional culture. During secondary education, I came to America as a member of the government cultural exchange youth club. Since then, I dreamed that I could be the bridge between
Chinese and American culture, helping each side gain a better understanding of the other.
In 2013, I came to the United States to finish my master’s degree in Mass
Communication. I learned about shooting and editing videos, and I also spent time with local Chinese immigrants, which helped me better understand the life of those who left their homes to live abroad.
26 Timeline
The conceptual phase of this project was from January to February 2014. I researched the history of Chinese immigration and Chinese restaurants in the U.S. In
August, I decided to focus my documentary on a Chinese restaurant that has long history in Los Angeles. I contacted a list of famous Chinese restaurants in Los
Angeles and finally decided on the Far East Café as the subject of my documentary.
The reason I choose the Far East Café was because I wanted to focus on the relationship between Chinese and Japanese immigrants. Then I started to contact the people who have a relationship with the Far East Café. I got their feedback and they offered helpful information. I make appointments with some of them and arranged interviews with them from October to November 2014.
Interview Subjects and contact
I interviewed 10 people for my project. Some of these were for background and others appear in the documentary.
People in the documentary:
Bill Watanabe, Executive Director of the Little Tokyo Service Center
Bill Watanabe renovated the Far East Building and is its owner. His family is
Japanese Americans who were sent to an internment camps, then returnees to
Southern California after World War II in 1945. It was very hard for them to found a place to live; they were housed temporarily at the Koyasan Temple on First Street in
Little Tokyo at first.
27 I interviewed Watanabe at the Little Tokyo Service Center in November 2014.
After the interview, Mr. Watanabe showed me around Little Tokyo and explained its history and how they protect the old buildings of the neighborhood.
Raymond Douglas Chong (Zhang Weiming), Deputy Director of Transportation for the city of Houston, Texas.
Raymond Chong is a fifth generation Chinese American born in Los Angeles.
His father, Gim Suey Chong, was a weekend waiter at the Far East Café working for his Jeong cousins from the 1950s to the 1970s. He also has produced a documentary film and wrote poem about the Far East Café (See Poem in Appendix C). Chong has also written articles1 about the Far East Café.
Chong flew to Los Angeles from Houston to be interviewed at the Far East
Café in November 2014.
Erich Nakano, Deputy Director of Little Tokyo Service Center
Erich Nakano was the project manager for the renovation of the Far East
Building in the mid-2000s. He is the chair of the Asian Pacific Planning Council; and project manager for the Little Tokyo Service Center Community Development
Corporation.
I interviewed him in October 2014 at Little Tokyo Service Center.
1 The articles Chong write include Far East Café Reunion- Memories and Nostalgia; The Far East Café: A Proud Legacy in Little Tokyo produced in Gum Saan Journal 2013; and Far East Café and China- Meishi published in Flavor & Fortune in spring 2009.
28 Eugene Moy, former president of the Chinese Historical Society of Southern
California
Eugene Moy is an urban planer for City of El Monte. He has passion for
Chinatown and Los Angeles’ multiethnic history.
I interviewed him in October 2014 at the Chinese Historical Society Southern
California in Chinatown.
Tony Osumi, Teacher
Tony Osumi is Hapa Yonsei who lives in Culver City, CA. Currently he teaches 3rd grade and during the summer is active with Camp Musubi, a Japanese
American heritage camp based in Little Tokyo.
Osumi was born into a Japanese immigrant family; he and his father were regular customers at the Far East Café. He has written an article and poem about the
Far East Café. (See Poem in Appendix D)
I interviewed Osumi in October 2014 at Little Tokyo service center.
Patty Ito Nagano, Member of the Little Tokyo Historical Society
Patty Nafano was born into a Japanese immigrant family in Pasadena. She and her family were regular customers at the Far East Café. She says she has unforgettable memories about the Far East Café with her family.
I interviewed Patty Nagano in October 2014 at her home. After the interview,
Patty and her husband, Stephen Nagano, showed me old photos and maps of Little
Tokyo, which I have used it in my documentary.
Andrew Chong, Doctor at La Puente Optometry Center and Vision Care Partners
29 Andrew Chong worked at the Far East Café from the age of 11 to 22. His grandfather was the owner of the Far East Café and four of his uncles were the founders of the Far East Café.
I interviewed Dr. Chong and Mr. Raymond Chong in November 2014 in Little
Tokyo. I also interviewed Andrew a second time in the CSUN Journalism Department photo lab in November 2014.
Background interviews:
Edith Chen, Professor of Asian American Studies of California State University,
Northridge
Dr. Chen provided me with background materials, context for my topic and contacts for interviews.
John Jung, a retired psychologist who became an historian of Chinese culture in
America
John Jung was born into a Chinese immigrant family and grew up in Macon,
Georgia. His family members were the only Chinese in the city and lived above their laundry business. After moving to California, he majored in psychology at the
University of California, Berkeley and earned a Ph.D. at Northwestern University. He was working as professor at California State University Long Beach. After retiring,
Dr. Jung became interested in Chinese immigration history. He published four books, include Southern Fried Rice, Life in A Chinese Laundry in the Deep South (2005);
Chinese Laundries: Tickets To Survival On Gold Mountain (2007); Chopsticks in the
30 Land of Cotton: Lives of Mississippi Delta Chinese Grocers (2008) and Sweet and
Sour: Life in Chinese Family Restaurants (2010).
I interviewed him in October 2014, at his home.
David R. Chan, accountant
Since the early 1990s, David Chan has visited in 6,090 Chinese restaurants in the United States.
I interviewed him in October 2014 in Century City.
Interview Questions
The questions I asked each subject depended on their area of expertise. Some people I interviewed for background and context on the history of Chinese-Japanese immigrants relations or the history and context of Chinese restaurants. (See sample question list No.1 and List No.2)
Others I interviewed specifically about the Far East Café and their connection to the restaurant and memories of it. (See sample question list No.3)
Sample question list No.1
1. What do you think is important to know about Chinese immigration in the U.S.?
2. What do you think is important to know about Japanese immigration in the U.S.?
3. Do you or your family have experience as immigrants? Can you talk about your
family or personal experience?
4. What do you think is important to know about the relationship between Chinese
and Japanese immigrant in Los Angeles?
31 5. What can bring immigrants together?
6. What sort of misunderstandings do Americans have of Chinese culture and
immigrants?
7. What sort of misunderstandings do Americans have of Japanese culture and
immigrants?
8. Any other comments?
Sample question list No.2
1. Why do you think the Chinese business is important for Chinese immigration?
2. What the food did Chinese restaurants in Little Tokyo serve?
3. Do you think the restaurant business is important for Chinese immigrants? If yes,
why?
4. What do you know about the history of Chinese restaurants in Los Angeles?
5. What kind of Chinese restaurants are there in Los Angeles?
Sample question list No.3
1. What is your relation to the Far East Cafe?
2. Do you have any personal stories about the Far East Cafe?
3. Could you share a favorite story about the Far East Café?
4. Do you or your family have any experience working at the Far East Café?
5. What makes the Far East Café special?
6. After WWII, did Chinese and Japanese immigrants have a good relationship at the
Far East Cafe?
7. Why do you think the Far East Cafe as a Chinese restaurant was successful in
Little Tokyo?
32 8. What do you think the influence of Chinese restaurants is on Little Tokyo?
9. What is the influence of the Far East Cafe on relationships between Chinese and
Japanese immigrants?
Equipment
I used a Nikon D7100 to record my interviews. The Nikon D7100 supports both video and photo shooting. I shot most of the b-roll by hand and I used a
Manfrotto tripod with a three-way head for the interviews.
I used a Takstar SGC-568 microphone. With its noise separator, I could record voices clearly from different distances.
I used my MacBook Pro laptop to upload, edit and store the footage. The program I used for photo editing is Photoshop. The video-editing programs I used is iMovie.
Release
I secured release forms for everyone who I interviewed. (See Appendix B for the copy)
All photos are used with permission from my interviewees.
Limitations
This documentary focused on one restaurant. I could have contacted the other restaurant or gotten additional background on the Far East Café.
33 Moreover, the stories are limited to Los Angeles, which may be different from other areas in terms of Asian American experiences.
Video Outline
In Part I-Introduction. I do not state the location of this documentary. Instead, old costumers’ experiences help create a tone and the topic is revealer about a historical restaurant in Little Tokyo of Los Angeles. Old photographs of the Far East
Café and Little Tokyo bring people back to the early time period.
Part II describes the history of the Far East Café. Raymond Chong and
Andrew Chong, whose family founded the restaurant, recount the early hardships of the Far East Café and provide a sense of the history of Chinese immigration to the
United States. Here, the histories of Chinese and Japanese immigration are brought together.
Part III explains how special and important the Far East Café was to Little
Tokyo and its influence on Los Angeles.
Part IV is the ending. The Far East Café is part of the history of immigration to the United States. It reflects relationships between different ethnic groups.
34 CHAPTER 4
Transcription of Video
In this chapter, I present a transcript of my video documentary in three parts:
Part 1 Introduction: Transported Back in Time, Part 2: Chong’s history of the Far East
Café and Part 3: Memories and Significance of the Far East Café.
Part 1 Introduction: Transported Back in Time
CUT TO:
“An immigration restaurant
can be a theatre,
performing happiness and sadness,
witnessing people’s ups and downs.
Los Angeles,
a city combining a variety of ethnic cultures,
and immigrant culture, has influenced the people who live here.
The diversified immigration culture
will influence a new generation of immigrants.”
FADE IN MUSIC
TITLE: “East Meets East”
SUBTITLE: “– A Chinese Restaurant in Little Tokyo”
35 CUT TO: NIGHT SCENE OF L.A.
CUT TO: STREET SCENE – DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES
CUT TO: STREET SCENE – LITTLE TOKYO
CUT TO: STREET SCENE – LITTLE TOKYO
PATTY ITO NAGANO:
It was one of our family favorite places. I think our family went there
probably almost once a week.
TONY OSUMI:
I grew up going there as a little kid.
Are you sure you want that? And at first you said, “Yeah,” and then later you were like, “Oh I think I better choose something else.”
PATTY ITO NAGANO:
It’s always kind of typical. If you ordered steamed rice, you know the white rice; they’d always serve it like this only on top. If this was full of rice, they’d go like that and so your rice one round mound on here.
ERICH NAKANO:
Because it’s a gathering place, it was a place where families came together.
BILL WATANABE:
I think my oldest brother had his wedding banquet here.
CUT TO: OLD PHOTOS OF THE FAR EAST CAFÉ
CUT TO: SCENE – THE FAR EAST CAFE
EUGENE MOY:
36 So when you walk in, you’re transported back in time. It also has a kind of special atmosphere or ambience: dark wooden partitions that separated each booth.
It reflected this diverse mixing of people in Los Angeles.
TONY OSUMI:
It was Far East Café
BILL WATANABE:
Far East
RAYMOND DOUGLAS CHONG (ZHANG WEIMING):
The Far East
ERICH NAKANO:
Far East Café
EUGENE MOY:
Far East Café
PATTY ITO NAGANO:
Far East
ANDREW CHONG:
Far East Café
CUT TO: SCENE – THE FAR EAST CAFÉ
FADE OUT
37 Part 2 Chong’s History of the Far East Café
ANDREW CHONG:
My name is Andrew Chong, uh, my grandfather is one of the owners of Far
East Café.
FADE IN MUSIC
CUT TO: SCENE – TO BLACK AND WHITE
ANDREW CHONG:
My grandpa went back to China when he was 28, to, uh. (Crying)
CUT TO: SCENE – PHOTOS OF CHIENSE IMMIGRATION HISTORY
ANDREW CHONG:
He came up to America when he was 17 years old on a boat from China. His
first job was a houseboy in San Francisco. He worked 3 years, paid his boat
fee. And after that he went to Mason City, Iowa to open a laundry with his
cousins. And that wasn’t very successful, so he came to Los Angeles with
cousins also to open Far East Café. That was in 1935.
CUT TO: SCENE – PHOTOS OF CHONG’S UNCLES
ANDREW CHONG:
Five uncles built the Far East Café, which started in 1935.
CUT TO: SCENE – PHOTOS OF HOY PING
ANDREW CHONG:
38 They all came from the same village. Which is Hoy Ping. In fact I went there,
in 1988 and I saw where all the villages are—small villages, very poor village.
Only one light in the whole house. And the—I don’t think they had a
refrigerator, there’s no running water, there’s an outhouse—there’s no toilet in
the building. And the water, you had to go to the well to get.
CUT TO: SCENE – PHOTOS OF CHINESE IMMIGRATION HISTORY
ANDREW CHONG:
I believe all the Chinese back then came to America because they were poor
and looking for better opportunities. Looking for a better life, a better life
here, but not only a better life here, but you… So get the money, make the
money and go back.
My uncle tells me that the original plan was not to stay here. The original plan
was to make the money, go back in China, and help the family.
The boat takes, the boat, from what I understand, takes about 30 days to come
to America in the old days. 30 days.
CUT TO: SCENE – PHOTOS OF ANGEL ISLAND
ANDREW CHONG:
And on top of that, they had to be [interrogated] at the Angel Island, for like
anywhere between two weeks to two months.
CUT TO: SCENE – PHOTOS OF CHINESE IMMIGRATION HISTORY
ANDREW CHONG:
My grandfather went back to China when he was 28 years old to uh to find a
bride, so he found my grandmother, and they married. He stayed there for
39 about a year, but he came back to America to work. My grandmother stayed.
And he had uh, my father, and my father had a brother.
It was good I his favorite, but you have to remember, k, he was happy because
he didn’t see my father grow up. He didn’t see my father until 13. So, I was
like his son.
Well, I don’t think they wanted the Chinese to stay in America. K, that’s.
because they were afraid the Chinese would take over. Because you look at the
history, when the Chinese built the railroads, the inter continental railroad, the
Chinese built the western part, and the Irish built the eastern part. So the
Chinese built it faster and it cost less. And because of that I think the
Americans were afraid the Chinese would take more jobs away and work for
less wages. So, they implemented the Chinese Exclusion Act.
In the old days, Chinese didn’t have too many opportunities. They had, they
wanted to, they had to open a home business, provide a business for
themselves. So, they had to be either laundry, restaurant, grocery store—that’s
the basic jobs they can do, as Chinese were not very employable by other
people, so they had to make their own jobs. Laundry is ok, but a restaurant’s
better, because in a restaurant—you’re gonna work in a restaurant, you cook
what you want, you eat what you want. Ok? And everything’s fresh.
They had a laundry in Mason City; however, I think back then was the
recession? Or depression I would say. And everybody was having a hard time;
I think that the Chinese in Iowa probably were not very welcome. So they
came to a better place, which is Los Angeles, with other cousins.
CUT TO: SCENE – OLD PHOTOS OF L.A. CHINA CITY
40 ANDREW CHONG:
There were more Chinese here, and opportunities were greater, and probably
there were less racists.
CUT TO: SCENE – OLD PHOTOS AND MAPS OF LITTLE TOKYO
ANDREW CHONG:
Location, ok? It was close to Chinatown, and Chinatown already had their
restaurants, ok? Little Tokyo had less competition, so they came to Little
Tokyo because less competition, and also Japanese love Chinese food, and
also there was a street car—p-car—and going to [Boyyo] is like only 4 miles,
maybe only 3 miles, and very convenient, so nobody had cars back then, so
they, they took the p-car. So it takes 10 minutes to go to work. And the fare
was maybe a nickel—5 cents.
From my talk with my uncles and family members, they all have pleasant
memories of the Far East Café—no unpleasant memories, because we were
successful, but also it was such one that everyone got along, everybody helped
each other. We still have family gatherings once a year, the Chinese New
Year—we invite all the cousins and employees to come eat. I remember that
clearly, and often little kids were so happy because we get to drink soda and
we get candy.
CUT TO: SCENE FROM BLACK AND WHITE TO COLOR - ANDREW AND
RAYMOND IN THE FAR EAST CAFÉ
FADE OUT
41 ANDREW CHONG:
We are cousins
RAYMOND DOUGLAS CHONG (ZHANG WEIMING):
Cousins! Hoy Ping, from China.
FADE IN MUSIC
ANDREW CHONG:
I started working at the Far East Café when I was 11. Worked there until I got
my Master’s.
CUT TO: SCENE – ANDREW AND RAYMOND IN THE FAR EAST CAFÉ
ANDREW CHONG:
Raymond’s father and I worked together at this restaurant. During our off time
we had various events, such as peeling the pea pods and also do arm wrestling.
And the father was so strong, so muscular ok? He always wins. Muscular, and
he used to hold the tray with fingers—very, maybe a 30-40 pound tray with
fingers. Like this, and bring it upstairs.
CUT TO: SCENE – THE FAR EAST CAFÉ
ANDREW CHONG:
We made a game out our job, for example, when we swept the floor, that was
playing for us, because, like, uh, we’d race each other, uh, cleaning the floor.
Also when we peel the pea pods and do the, cut the uh chestnut—everything’s
fresh so we did everything by hand. We cut the chestnut; we listened to the
42 baseball game. The Dodger’s game in 1958. To LA, so the baseball was very
popular. We listened to a baseball game.
CUT TO: SCENE – THE STORAGE ROOM OF THE FAR EAST CAFÉ
ANDREW CHONG:
It was a very important because where we used to keep the storage, but also
this was where all the new immigrants used to come, if they had no relatives
here or nowhere to stay. So, it’s nicer than it was before, ok? But they used to
sleep down here until they get a place to stay. But also the Japanese from
camp, and they had nowhere to stay, and my uncles used to stay until they’d
find someplace to settle. But also, some of the people, the Japanese from the
camp, came here, temporary, temporary.
So what we do, we welcome the immigrants downstairs to rest, and when they
come up, they’re refreshed and we give them America. Welcome to America.
FADE OUT
Part 3 Memories And Significance of the Far East Café
FADE IN MUSIC
BILL WATANABE:
And I think one of the biggest things that stands out for me, uh, is during the
war, uh, of course they are Chinese, so they didn’t have to leave Little Tokyo
to go to camp. But uh, after the war, um, they helped many Japanese-
American families by giving them credit and allowing them to pay when they
had money. Because after the war many people didn’t have jobs or places to
43 live. And so I think that kind of thing, uh, really stood out for me, wow, this is a great institution, and uh, people knew everybody back then, so.
ANDREW CHONG:
From what I understand, before World War 2, the business was soso. It was barely surviving, ok? And during World War 2 there was no business because all the Japanese—all our customer base—went to camp. Relocation camp, and all my uncles, not all my uncles, but 3 of my uncles went to the war. In fact one uncle, he came from China and he did not know a word of English—they sent him to Europe. And then I had another uncle that was a chef, in the, for officers at the Zeng Rin, (name). He, uh, he was a head chef for officers in
England. And have another uncle we called him (name), he was another cook, in the Pacific. And so I had uncles that went to war, and when they came back, we welcome everybody.
The Far East Café before World War 2, I think was Japanese Americans, and I think after the war broke out, the World War 2, the Japanese went to camp. So, it was called (name). It became a different clientele. After World War 2, the
Japanese came back from the relocation camps, that’s when the restaurant became successful, because all the Japanese came back, and my uncles welcomed them back with open arms. In fact one uncle had tears in his eyes when he saw them. A lot of these Japanese—in fact most of these Japanese— didn’t have money, so the restaurant gave them food on credit. And so, then some of the Japanese had nowhere to go, we gave them the basement to stay until they found a place to live. And my uncles tell me that, as far as the money, “don’t worry, don’t worry, pay it when you get the money.”
44 FADE OUT
FADE IN MUSIC
PATTY ITO NAGANO:
The food was good, I know we called it chop suey, you know, you know we
had our favorite things like almond duck, (puckeye), (chashu), and we loved
(humyu).
TONY OSUMI:
So, sweet sour pork, chicken chow mein, (packeye), (chashu), almond duck,
shrimp and lobster sauce, maybe um, egg fuyun, and seaweed soup, and I’m
probably forgetting one more, (pechawu). Almond duck at Far East was the
best of anywhere around, I think—a lot of people say that.
BILL WATANABE:
And, uh, for the longest time, I thought the Far East Chinese food is how
Chinese food is supposed to be. And so I was often puzzled by other Chinese
restaurants—it wasn’t the same as the Far East. And then, as I got involved in
the Far East project, I began to realize that the Far East Café is a little bit
different because it is in a Japanese community. And so, the menu is
Cantonese style, but it’s also tailored to accommodate the Japanese-American
community.
I know quite a bit about the issue of the Far East, because when I was with the
Little Tokyo service center that building was damaged by the Northridge
earthquake, we took over the building about ten years ago and redeveloped it
or renovated it. But I also remember it as a child because when I was young,
my family, who lived in the San Fernando Valley, we would drive into Little
45 Tokyo maybe once or twice a month; sometimes stop at the Far East for dinner.
ERICH NAKANO:
I know it was also popular beyond Japanese-Americans—among like
Mexican-Americans in Laurel Heights. And kind of other in the general downtown area.
And I think after the war especially—you know after Japanese-Americans returnees—it was also utilized a lot by people from City Hall. A lot of politicians would come and have a lot of city officials—because City Hall’s, you know, literally a couple blocks away.
It was said that, you know, because historically it had those wooden booths, where you know people would sit, and there were curtains in the old days in front of those booths. It was said that, you know, politicians would have meetings over meals and close the curtains and cut deals—political deals behind closed curtains. It has an interesting history.
Japanese Americans often like to go to Chinese restaurants for banquets. I think probably just because, you know the family style way of serving makes banquets maybe more enjoyable. And Japanese—there just weren’t that many restaurants with enough size to handle a lot of banquets. And then Japanese food is just much more complicated and difficult to do at banquets, frankly, because there’s so many little dishes and plates.
BILL WATANABE:
The Far East was one of those restaurants, no matter where in the Japanese community you’re from, if you said, “oh, Let’s go to the Far East” That’s all
46 you had to say. Everyone knew where it was, everyone knew what it was, and we could just go there.
And so I think it played a very important role in the lives of many, many people. Dinners there, banquets, after funerals, weddings, engagements, many people had special parties there.
So, I’ll tell you one story: We were renovating the Far East—this was probably about 2007, 2008, something like that—this couple, older Japanese-
American couple, came in and they were looking around and so I started talking to them. So they asked me when it was going to reopen and so I said,
“Oh, it might reopen in a couple years.” And they said, “We want to have our
50th wedding anniversary here” because when they got married 50 years ago, this was where they had the wedding reception. And they had tears in their eyes as they were talking about remembering 50 years ago and I thought, you know, how many places kind of generate that kind of emotion.
ANDREW CHONG:
We had like 20 tables on the downstairs and then we had a banquet table at the upstairs, which holds maybe like 80-100 people. Business was good—good enough to support like 5 families. More than 5 families. You get the owner families, but also all the worker families.
ERICH NAKANO:
I think the story of the Far East Café is like that, people sharing culture, and appreciating each other, so that’s what our hopes are for what Little Tokyo can represent.
BILL WATANABE:
47 My grandfather came. My father. My father brought me, I brought my
daughter. So someday I’d like to bring my grandchildren and have 5
generations.
ERICH NAKANO:
But also good things—like the friendships between Far East owners and
Japanese-Americans that we want to be able to remember and know that it
happened in the past so that it can happen in the future. It’s just because, you
know, in general, it’s important to know where we all came from in order to
know where we’re going.
FADE TO BLACK
CUT TO:
“A Changyue Xie Film”
“Music by”
“John Williams Going to School”
“John Williams Becoming a Geisha”
“Rachel Portman The Letterbox”
“Roc Chen A bite of China”
CUT TO:
“Special Thanks to”
“Far East Cafe”
“Little Tokyo Service Center Bill Watnanabe”
“Erich Nakano”
48 “Parry Ito Nafano”
“Tony Osumi”
“Chinese Historical Society Southern California”
“Eugene Moy”
“Raymond Douglas Chong”
“John Jung”
“Andrew Chong”
“David R. Chan”
“California State University Northridge”
“Dr. Melissa A. Wall”
“Prof. David A. Blumenkrantz”
“Dr. Jose Luis Benavides”
“Dr. Edith Chen”
CUT TO:
“The End”
FADE OUT: MUSIC STOPS
49 CHAPTER 5
Conclusion
It might be best to conclude with some sentiments expressed in the interview with Andrew Chong and Bill Watanabe, who speak so eloquently about the significance of the Far East Café.
The Far East Café is a gathering place where families and friends came together. The restaurant always brought happiness. People came back with tears in their eyes, remembering decades before their wedding reception there. It was as Bill
Watanabe said, “Not many places kind of generate that kind of emotion.”
The Far East Café is a historical museum, which reflects the difficult pioneer period of the early Chinese immigrants. One of the founders, Andrew Chong’s grandfather, took about 30 days to come to the United States at the age of 17 on a boat from small village of China. Due to immigration policies, Chong’s grandfather was unable to see his sons and his wife for about 12 years. The Far East Café kept company with the bachelors like Chong’s grandfather.
Although the Far East Café is under different management today, the older customers like Patty Ito Nagano and Tony Osumi still speak eloquently about the dishes. Through their telling story, we seem as if we could smell the delicate Chashu,
Pakai, Almond duck and Homyu.
The Far East Café has been like a little theatre, playing the drama of immigrants, witnessing their ups and downs, their vicissitudes of life.
50 As an ancient Chinese proverb goes, “the times produce their heroes.” The Far
East Café may be considered one of the heroes of its time, a unique Chinese American restaurant being successful in the Japanese immigrant community.
I learned a lot from my interviewees and research about my project, and I realized my project wasn’t what I had predicted. I found a new window through which to look at immigration in the city of Los Angeles. The Far East Café reflects the Chinese and Japanese communities and the larger immigration culture of Los
Angeles.
The United States is a country comprising a variety of ethnic cultures.
Immigrants have influenced the country in many ways that are often overlooked. The diversified immigration culture will continue influencing new generations of immigrants.
To be journalists, we are responsible for encouraging people to change their
“stereotypical view” and help them better understand cultures other than their own.
In creating this documentary, it is very important to place the restaurant’s story in its historical background, enabling the audience to understand the story of
Chinese immigration. Human nature is similar everywhere, yet the circumstances make people different. By learning about this specific story, the audience will better understand other groups and other cultures, especially immigrants. Also, this might project help challenge the stereotypical view of ethnic groups.
It is important to learn about different cultures in this country of immigrants, learn to appreciate each other and know where we came from and where we will be going in the future.
51 References
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54 Appendix A
List of Television Shows Star Chinese Americans From 1949 to 2005
1949. Marvin Miller portrays Dr. Yat Fu on Mysteries of Chinatown. (ABC) 1950. John Carradine portrays Dr. Fu Manchu on The Adventures of Fu Manchu (NBC) 1951. The Gallery of Mme. Liu Tsong. (Mentionable, the sultry Anna May Wong becomes the first Asian to actually star in program about Asian). 1957. James Hong played his son and assistant, Barry Chan on The New Adventures of Charlie Chan 1960. Hong Kong (ABC) 1964. Sammee Tong plays Sammy Ling, the manager of the Newport Arms Hotel on Mickey. (ABC) 1966. Bruce Lee portrays Kato on The Green Hornet. (ABC) 1971. Bruce Lee portrays Li Tsung on Longstreet. (ABC) 1972. Kung Fu. (ABC) 1973. Carey Wong plays Steve in Keely’s Kids. (ABC) 1974. Khigh Dhiegh plays Judge Dee, as seventh century Chinese magistrate turned detective on Judge Dee in the Monastery Murders. (ABC) 1979. Ross Martin plays Charlie Chan on The Return of Charlie Chan. (ABC) 1982. Peking Encounter 1994. Jennie Kwan plays Samantha Woo on California Dreams. (NBC) 1998. Lucy Liu plays Ling Woo, on Ally McBeal. (Fox) 2003. Christina Chang plays Sandy Chang on L.A. Dragnet. (ABC) 2005. Sandra Oh plays Christina Yang on Grey’s Anatomy. (ABC) 2006. Breanda Song plays Wendy Wu on Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior. (Disney pilot)
55 Appendix B
Visual/Audio Image Release Form
I grant permission to Changyue Xie, to take and use visual/audio images of me. Visual/audio images are any type of recording, including photographs, digital images, drawings, renderings, voices, sounds, video recordings, audio clips or accompanying written descriptions.
I release Changyue Xie to publish and/or distribute a finished product containing the images, from any claims, damages or liability which I may ever have in connection with the taking of use of images or printed material used with the images.
I am at least 18 years of age and competent to sign this release. I have read this release before signing, I understand its contents, and I freely accept the terms.
Printed Name Date
Signature Telephone or email adderss
Address(optional)
Project Name:
Photographer name/ signature/ contact information:
Notes:
56 Appendix C
My Far East Café
By Zhang Weiming © 2011 Raymond Douglas Chong
My Far East Café Splendidly endures In the heart of Little Tokyo In the City of Angels Among the Nikkei community of Southland.
Cooks anxiously prepare In the chaotic kitchen Waiters calmly serve In the noisy dining room.
Amid timeless booths Cherry wood panels Vintage posters Shanghai cigarette girls. Cantonese cuisine of China-Meshi
Crispy noodles of Chow Mein Glistening skin of Almond Duck Pungent aroma of Hom Yu. Nostalgic place of fond memories Hungry farmers feasting on Saturday lunches
Jubilant newlyweds celebrating at wedding parties Loved ones sharing Sunday meals. Jeong Clan From Hoyping of China Happily handing out Chop Suey dishes
Delightful warmth Cheerful kindnesss My sentimental reminiscences My Far East Café.
57 Appendix D
China Meshi Dreams by Tony Osumi
Relaxing in a hot tub of seaweed soup Nori and egg whites swirl Por shoulder bobbing Translucent broth Cover my shoulders Lowering my chin to take a sip
Chashu Roasted brick red Chunks hang plump Like apples on a chashu tree Seedless Warm and ripe There for the picking Licking fingers Shamelessly Not even my own
Homyu Pungent and fresh Melting in my mouth With hot mustard and shoyu Whipped into circles Golden as Van Gogh’s Starry Night New research finds: Homyu Fat free Sodium free And lowers your Cholesterol
Shrimp and lobster sauce Ladled thick on steaming rice A priceless Chawan treasure Overflowing with Orange rubies Black bean pearls And egg white satin Magically The last shrimp Reappearing after every bite
Chicken cowmein Panfried timelines
58 Thread through Shiitake and china pea Weave and tie us To our pioneer past Every glazed noodle Guaranteed to have An Issei on the other end
Pakai Bell pepper and onion Witness the marriage Of pineapple and pork With vinegar presiding Honeymooning For seven days And six nights On a romantic Lazy susan
Almond duck Cradled by lettuce Spruced up with nuts Born from hard times Scraps of duck meat Pressed between Heaven and earth Working peoples’ Salvation—with gravy My father says Almond Duck? As hard to describe As the Grand Canyon’s Beauty
59