Bulletin CHINESE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA | SUMMER 2007 | VOL. 43, NO. 2

Upcoming Remembering 1882: Events Fighting for Civil Rights in the June 18 Shadow of the CHSA will co-sponsor a lecture and book signing for Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against at Historical Society, 678 Mission, 6-8 pm. This event marks the beginning of a collaboration with CHS. Look for future events & exhibits!

June 27 The SF Town Hall for Hate Crimes commemorating the 25th Anni- versary of Vincent Chin’s murder is co-sponsored by CHSA, Chinese for Affirmative Action, and APAs for Progress at CAA’s office at 17 Walter U. Lum Place at 6:30 pm. Panelists include journalist Helen Zia, SF Police Commissioner Yvonne Lee, Asian Law Caucus attorney Malcolm Yeung, and Kavneet Singh of Sikh American Legal Defense & Education Fund. The Remembering 1882 exhibit was ore than a hundred atten- viewed by thousands in the lobby of the July 21 M dees commemorated the the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Artist Alice Fong will present a 125th anniversary of the Chinese Circuit during APA Heritage Month. slide show & talk featuring pieces Exclusion Act with CHSA’s Mercury News, Contra Costa Times, in Alice Fong: A Retrospective at Remembering 1882: Fighting for CHSA’s Yick Gallery at 2 pm. AsianWeek, World Journal, Sing Tao Civil Rights in the Shadow of the Daily, KPIX-TV, KTSF-TV, KQED- Chinese Exclusion Act panel and August 3 FM, and KPFA-FM, and more. In reception on Wednesday, May 9 at Celebrate our new exhibit To Enjoy total, the combined circulation and & Defend Our American Citizenship the Ceremonial Courtroom of the reach of these press outlets gar- about the Chinese American Northern California District Court nered nearly 1.5 million media Citizens Alliance with a reception in the Phillip Burton Federal at CHSA from 4-6 pm. impressions. Building. CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 August 22 The panel was an Images of America: Angel Island book enormous success Remembering 1882 traveling exhibit has event with author William Wong, with a standing-room been on display at the Phillip Burton Federal co-presented with Angel Island only crowd, wide- Building and the United States Court of Appeals Immigration Station Foundation, spread community at CHSA, 7 pm. for the Ninth Circuit. It will be at the California participation, and Historical Society in June. Please email All CHSA events are expansive media cov- [email protected] if you'd like to bring the free to the public erage by The Associated exhibit to your organization or are interested in For more info, call (415) 391-1188 Press, San Francisco or visit www.chsa.org sponsoring this landmark traveling exhibit. Chronicle, San Jose William Poy Lee Wows the Crowd CHINESE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA

BOARD OFFICERS

Calvin Fung, President Robert Fung, 1st Vice President Willard Chin, Secretary Paul Fong, Treasurer

BOARD DIRECTORS

Donald Chan Joyce M. Chan Linda A. Cheu Colleen Fong, Ph.D. uthor William Poy Lee and Author William Poy Lee, Kim Walker, Frank Jang A his mentor, Pulitzer Prize- and Alice Walker pose happily in the Agnes Lam aftermath of a successful book event. winning author Alice Walker, Alexander Lock catered to a maximum capacity moved, as was Lee’s mother, Poy Kenneth Louie crowd at CHSA’s Learning Center Jen Lee, who was the inspiration Galin Luk on Thursday, April 26, for a perfor- behind the book. William G. Roop mance reading & book signing of The Eighth Promise provides a Connie Young Yu The Eighth Promise. rare glimpse of the Chinese- Jeffery P. Woo, Esq., Legal Counsel More than 130 attendees filled American immigrant experience the room for the special presenta- BOARD EMERITI from a mother-son perspective as tion of readings by Lee in English his affecting tale criss-crosses both Him Mark Lai and Toisanese, clan sisterhood songs time and place from his mother’s Philip P. Choy by Wilma Pang, and a ToiZounz’ & war torn childhood in China during FOUNDERS Riddimz' performance of Toisanese the 1930s, immigrating to the hous- linguistic tones and rhythms with Thomas W. Chinn ing projects of San Francisco’s percussionist Layton Chan. Alice in the 1950s, and finally C.H. Kwock Walker, along with her niece Kim to the counterculture of North Chingwah Lee Walker, sat in the audience visibly Beach in the 1960s. e H.K. Wong Thomas W.S. Wu, D.D.S. Annie Soo Spirit Award Presentation STAFF

Sue Lee, Executive Director Judy Hu, Communications Manager Liana Koehler, Weekend Supervisor Marisa Louie, Exhibitions Coordinator Anna Naruta, Ph.D., Director of Collections Russell Ow, Bookkeeper Candace Tom, Operations Administrator Charlie Chin, Artist-in-Residence riends, family, and supporters award was renamed on Annie’s F feted longtime CHSA board 80th birthday last year commemo- member Annie Soo with the rating her many decades of activism unveiling of the Annie Soo Spirit at CHSA as board director, Bulletin Award plaque on Saturday, May 12 editor, and monthly lecture manag- at CHSA. The annual volunteer er. Congratulations, Annie! e

CHSA BULLETIN n PAGE 2 Driven Out: The Forgotten War 2007 American Against Chinese Americans Association of Book Reading and Lecture Museums Annual Co-hosted with the California Historical Society Meeting in HSA, in collaboration with the Chicago C California Historical Society, rom May 12-18, 2007, I hosted a book reading and lecture F attended the American of Driven Out: The Forgotten War Association of Museums (AAM) Against Chinese Americans by annual meeting in Chicago, the author Jean Pfaelzer on Monday, largest conference for museum pro- June 18, from 6-8 pm at the fessionals nationwide. My trip was California Historical Society. funded by AAM’s Diversity In the years before and after Fellowship program, which sup- the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, ports those who the brutal and systematic ethnic I met new friends and encourage diver- cleansing of Chinese Americans sity among muse- fellow across the West is a shocking and um staff or muse- virtually unexplored chapter of colleagues um audiences. American history. A startling new from among In addition to book, Driven Out, unearths this for- the over attending sessions Chinese Americans organized gotten episode in our nation's past 6,000 in and workshops strikes and vegetable boycotts in as author Jean Pfaelzer reveals how attendance. on topics such as order to starve out towns that tried lawless citizens and politicians museum education, developing to expel them. They ordered arms purged thousands of Chinese resi- docent and volunteer programs, from China and, with Winchester dents—and how the victims bravely and telling immigrant stories in rifles and Colt revolvers, defended fought back. museums, I also met new friends themselves. In 1893, more than In town after town, Chinese and fellow colleagues from among 100,000 Chinese Americans refused miners, merchants, lumberjacks, the over 6,000 in attendance. I the governments order to wear and field workers were gathered up learned about professional photo identity cards to prove their at gunpoint and marched out of resources and standards offered by legal status—the largest mass civil town, often thrown into railroad AAM, and I heard about the expe- disobedience in United States histo- cars along the very tracks they had riences of veteran museum staff in ry to that point. built. From the port of Seattle to “A Day in the Life of” development In Driven Out, Jean Pfaelzer the mining towns in California's sessions. sheds a harsh light on America's Siskiyou Mountains to Nigger Alley I visited the Chinese American past. This is a story of hitherto in Los Angeles, the first Chinese Museum of Chicago (CAMOC), unknown racial pogroms, purges, Americans were hanged, purged, where representatives from the roundups, and brutal terror, but and banished. Chinatowns across Angel Island Immigration Station, also a record of valiant resistance the West were burned to the the Chinese American Museum of and community. This deeply reso- ground. Los Angeles (CAMLA), and I were nant and eye-opening work docu- But the Chinese fought back: graciously hosted by CAMOC vol- ments a significant and disturbing They filed the first lawsuits for unteers. CAMOC’s exhibit on episode in American history. reparations in the United States, Chinese American involvement in This book reading marks the sued for the restoration of their Chicago’s Two World Fairs was par- beginning of CHSA’s collaboration property, prosecuted white vigi- ticularly interesting and well- with the California Historical lantes, demanded the right to own designed. Special thanks to Soo Lon Society that will culminate in a land, and, years before Brown v. Moy, Grace Chun, and Chuimei Ho Board of Education, won access to grand exhibit next year entitled The for their hospitality! e public education for their children. Chinese in California. e MARISA LOUIE, CHSA STAFF

SUMMER 2007 n PAGE 3 Remembering 1882: Fighting for Civil Rights

CONTINUED FROM FIRST PAGE

Featured panelists include: Justice Harry Low, Attorney Michael Lee, Law Professor Bill Ong Hing, Immigration Attorney Donald Ungar, and Historian Connie Young Yu. The panel kicked-off with a specially crafted Museum Theater performance of A Statement for Non- Exclusion featuring Dr. Ng Poon Chew (1866-1931), the legendary crusading newspaper editor and leader in the fight against Exclusion, as portrayed by Artist-in-Residence Charlie Chin. The following community co- Top photo: Panelists from left to presenters were also a tremendous right: Bill Ong Hing, Michael support: Angel Island Immigration Lee, Connie Young Yu, Donald Station Foundation, Asian Pacific Ungar, and Harry Low during the standing room only panel Islander Legal Outreach, Asian discussion. American Journalists Association, Left photo: Audience members Asian Improv aRts, Asian Law listen intently during the May Caucus, Asian Pacific Bar Associa- 9th panel at the Phillip Burton tion of Silicon Valley, Asian Pacific Federal Building. Democratic Club, , Chinese for Affirmative Kearny Street Workshop, Legal Aid and Education Fund, National Action, Equal Justice Society, Society/Employment Law Center, Japanese American Historical Japanese American Citizens League, Manilatown Heritage Foundation, Society, Oakland Asian Cultural Judicial Council of California, Mexican American Legal Defense Center, and Third Thursdays. e

(H)API APA Heritage Month!

API Hour, in conjunc- (H) tion with the Coalition of Asian American Government Employees (CAAGE), toasted the beginning of APA Heritage Month on Thursday, May 3 with the fundraiser at CHSA. Luminaries including San Francisco Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting, Miss Chinatown USA 2007 Betty Hsu, and the Cho Brothers of CBS’ Amazing Race 10 mingled with the hoi polloi at the event. All pro- ceeds benefited CHSA’s Remembering 1882 project. Miss Chinatown USA 2007 Betty Hsu, Miss Chinatown USA e 1981 Rose Chung, and CHSA’s Sue Lee pose prettily at CHSA

CHSA BULLETIN n PAGE 4 L. Ling-chi Wang: The Quintessential A Century of Scholar-Activist Reception Chinese American HSA, in conjunction with the Progressive Action CUCLA Asian American Studies Program hosted a reception Friday, May 18th in its gallery honoring UC Berkeley Professor Emeritus L. Ling-chi Wang and the publication of L. Ling-chi Wang: Quintessential Scholar-Activist. Nearly 100 people celebrated the commemorative edition from UCLA’s Amerasia Journal by the for- mer Chair of UC Berkeley’s Department of Ethnic Studies and HSA proudly presents its Director of Asian American Studies. Cnewest exhibit To Enjoy and L. Ling-chi Wang: The Quintessential Defend Our American Citizenship Scholar-Activist showcases his honoring the history of the Chinese groundbreaking writings on bilin- American Citizens Alliance. gual and higher education, More than a century ago, a Chinatown politics, and U.S./China group of Chinese American men relations. seeking to assert their US citizen- L. Ling-chi Wang: Quintessential ship organized themselves into a Scholar-Activist contains selected group called Native Sons of the essays from the 1960s through Golden State. This formation was a Ling-chi thanks his supporters 2006 and showcases how his during his book launch party. direct counterpoint to the fraternal impact as a scholar, activist, and club Native Sons of the Golden public speaker West—a whites-only fraternal club actively shaped Malcolm X, and that, for decades to come, would the domestic Martin Luther include California governors, may- and global King, Ling-chi’s ors, legislators, and immigration frameworks in vision is also officials. the field of grounded in This formation in 1895 of what Asian American Asian American would later become the Chinese Studies. This communities and American Citizens Alliance international grassroots orga- (C.A.C.A.) in 1913 when it was edition is also nizing. Since the established nationally, was a pivotal the first collec- 1960s, Professor point in Chinese American history. tion of Ling- Wang has been a C.A.C.A. is now one of the oldest chi’s essays and scholar/activist at civil rights organizations in the contains an the forefront of country and has championed the introduction in Asian American rights for all Americans through the both English politics and edu- aftermath of the 1882 Chinese and Chinese. cation, including Exclusion Act, 1913 Alien Land Rooted bilingual educa- Act, and Jim Crow segregation laws. intellectually in thinkers as diverse tion, admission quotas, the 1996 C.A.C.A. continues its progres- as the old Testament prophets, presidential campaign finance sive action today by advocating Soren Kierkegaard, W.E.B. scandal, and the Wen Ho Lee humane immigration policies based DuBois, Mao Tse-tung, Sun Tzu, debacle. e on family reunification, hate crimes, and voter rights. e

SUMMER 2007 n PAGE 5 Chinatownwill be held Rising Saturday, September 2007: 15 Glamour at the Four Seasons& Grace Hotel in GalaSan Francisco. Dinner For more information, please email [email protected] or call (415) 391-1188 x101.

Please note that the CHSA Bulletin is now published quarterly rather than bi-monthly. To contribute articles about Chinese American community and historical news and events, please submit articles to [email protected]. Editor: Judy Hu || Design: Elaine Joe

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