Chinese | Page 3 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

August 15, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Asked to Come … Then Excluded

Except for the few Chinese adventurers who remained in Hawai’i from the ships of whalers, fur traders and merchants, their numbers did not have a significant impact upon the society of the Hawaiian kingdom.

Starting in the 1850s, when the Hawaiian Legislature passed “An Act for the Governance of Masters and Servants,” a section of which provided the legal basis for contract-labor system, labor shortages in the sugar industry were eased by bringing in contract workers from Asia, Europe and North America.

This planned immigration had a strong influence on the growth, size, and composition of the population as well as on sociological change in the young Territory of Hawai’i at the turn of the century. (Nordyke)

The first contract from China came in 1852: 195 workers from the city of Amoy in the Fujian Province. By the 1880s more than 25,000 Chinese immigrants (more than 20% of Hawaii’s population) were working on Hawaii’s sugar plantation. (Jillian)

Because of excellent employment opportunities in Hawaiʻi, as well as the high value placed by Chinese on education (even though most immigrants had little formal schooling,) Chinese parents encouraged their sons to get as much education as possible. (Glick)

This strong emphasis on education resulted in a highly favorable position for Chinese men and women in Hawaiʻi. Nearly three-fourths of them are employed in higher-lever jobs – skilled, clerical and sales, proprietary and managerial, and professional. As a result, the Chinese enjoy the highest median of income of all ethnic groups in Hawaiʻi. (Glick)

On the continent, in the 1850s, Chinese workers migrated to the US, first to work in the gold mines, but also to take agricultural jobs, and factory work, especially in the garment industry. Chinese immigrants were particularly instrumental in building railroads in the American west.

Chinese immigrants worked as domestic servants, laundrymen, miners, road graders, railroad workers, cannery workers, fishermen, cooks, farmers and other occupations that were often shunned by others. (Chin; Organization of Chinese Americans)

Objections to Chinese immigration took many forms, and generally stemmed from economic and cultural tensions, as well as ethnic discrimination. Most Chinese laborers who came to the US did so in order to send money back to China to support their families there.

At the same time, they also had to repay loans to the Chinese merchants who paid their passage to America. These financial pressures left them little choice but to work for whatever wages they could.

Non-Chinese laborers often required much higher wages to support their wives and children in the US, and also generally had a stronger political standing to bargain for higher wages. Therefore many of the non-Chinese workers in the US came to resent the Chinese laborers, who might squeeze them out of their jobs. (State Department)

Competition with American workers and a growing nativism brought pressure for restrictive action. (US Archives) On the continent, the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act prohibited (1) the immigration of Chinese laborers, (2) denied Chinese of naturalization; (3) and required Chinese laborers already legally present in the US who later wish to reenter to obtain “certificates of return.”

The latter provision was an unprecedented requirement that applied only to Chinese residents. Other Acts were passed and steps taken by the US to extend the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.

Scott Act (1888) prohibited all Chinese laborers who would choose or had chosen to leave the US from reentering, cancelled all previously issued “certificates of return,” which prevented approximately 20,000 Chinese laborers abroad.

Geary Act (1892) extended the Chinese Exclusion Act for 10 years, required all Chinese persons in the US – but no other race – to register with the federal government in order to obtain “certificates of residence.” In 1898, the US annexed Hawaiʻi and took control of the Philippines, and excluded thousands of Chinese in Hawaii and the Philippines from entering the US mainland.

In 1902, Congress indefinitely extended all laws relating and restricting Chinese immigration and residence. (Chin; Organization of Chinese Americans)

In the Islands, in 1883, the Hawaiian Cabinet Council, concerned that the Chinese had secured too strong a representation in the labor market, passed a resolution to restrict Chinese immigration to 2,400 men a year and to require Chinese leaving the Islands to obtain a passport to prove previous residence if they expected to return.

In 1885, harsher regulations limited passports to Chinese who had been in trade or who had conducted business for at least one year of residence, and no return passports were to be issued to departing laborers.

Further government regulations introduced from 1886 to 1892 virtually ended Chinese contract labor immigration by restricting passports to business people who had resided in the Islands, Chinese women and children and a few persons in China who were specifically invited by the minister of foreign affairs.

A limited number of Chinese laborers were permitted to enter Hawaiʻi under conditional work permits for agricultural purposes, provided that they left the Islands after five years. (Nordyke)

An effort to stabilize the Chinese population was made by a Hawaiian government policy that curtailed Chinese immigration so that the number of arrivals would not exceed departures.

While 5,727 Chinese were employed on sugar plantations in 1888, only 2,617 were reported in that occupation by 1892. Many of these workers migrated to the cities to obtain higher-paying jobs, but some laborers returned to their homeland. Between 1884 and 1890, the Chinese population declined from 18,254 to 16,752 persons. (Nordyke)

The Chinese Exclusion Acts were not repealed until 1943, and then only in the interests of aiding the morale of a wartime ally during World War II. (State Department)

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Chinese men-PP-14-4-013-00001

June 21, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Chinese Wo Hing Society Temple and Cookhouse

Some suggest Captain James Cook’s crew gave information about the “Sandwich Islands” when they stopped in Macao in December 1779, near the end of the third voyage.

In 1788, British Captain John Meares commanded two vessels, the Iphigenia and the Felice, with crews of Europeans and 50-Chinese. Shortly thereafter, in 1790, the American schooner Eleanora, with Simon Metcalf as master, reached Maui from Macao using a crew of 10-Americans and 45-Chinese. (Nordyke & Lee)

Crewmen from China were employed as cooks, carpenters and artisans, and Chinese businessmen sailed as passengers to America. Some of these men disembarked in Hawai’i and remained as new settlers.

The growth of the Sandalwood trade with the Chinese market (where mainland merchants brought cotton, cloth and other goods for trade with the Hawaiians for their sandalwood – who would then trade the sandalwood in China) opened the eyes and doors to Hawaiʻi.

The Chinese referred to Hawaiʻi as “Tan Heung Shan” – “The Sandalwood Mountains.” The sandalwood trade lasted for nearly half a century – 1792 to 1843. (Nordyke & Lee)

Starting in the 1850s, when the Hawaiian Legislature passed “An Act for the Governance of Masters and Servants,” a section of which provided the legal basis for contract-labor system, labor shortages were eased by bringing in contract workers from Asia, Europe and North America. The first to arrive were the Chinese (1852.)

“These Chinese were taken to the plantations. There they lived in grass houses or unpainted wooden buildings with dirt floors. Sometimes as many as forty men were put into one room.”

“They slept on wooden boards about two feet wide and about three feet from the floor. … (T)hey cut the sugarcane and hauled it on their backs to ox drawn carts which took the cane to the mill to be made into sugar” (Young – Nordyke & Lee)

The sugar industry grew, so did the Chinese population in Hawaiʻi. Between 1852 and 1884, the population of Chinese in Hawai’i increased from 364 to 18,254, to become almost a quarter of the population of the Kingdom (almost 30% of them were living in Honolulu.) (Young – Nordyke & Lee)

During the years 1852-1898, many thousands of Chinese came to Maui to work on sugar plantations and in sugar mills. Chinatown in Lahaina began as one-story shops and housing on Front Street, and as more Chinese were attracted to the area, two-story wooden buildings were built to accommodate them.

Between 1869 and 1910 over thirty secret societies that have their roots in seventeenth century China were established in the Islands, six on Maui. These secret societies were formed to politically re-establish the deposed Ming dynasty.

The societies in Hawai‘i were not significantly interested in the political aspects of the parent societies. However, these societies made financial contributions to the 1911 Chinese revolution conducted by Sun Yat-Sen.

These local clubs were mutual aid societies which met social and recreational needs of its members providing funeral services and burial, protective services and made contributions to their members.

The Wo Hing Society – Wo, meaning “peace and harmony” and Hing, meaning “prosperity” – a branch of the Chee Kung Tong in Lahaina was incorporated in 1905 and the original structure repaired in 1906. “The extensive improvements at the Wo Hing Society House will be completed in season for the Chinese New Year’s festivities.” (Maui News, December 23, 1905)

The Society was an important aspect of cultural and social life for its immigrant Chinese members. Since many of the early Chinese immigrants were single men the society provided a fraternal structure which was a substitute for the absent family.

The Chinese Tong Society was a club opened to men sixteen to sixty. An initiation fee was paid and members participated in rigorous initiation rites and took an oath based on thirty-six codes of morality, brotherhood, patriotism and chivalry. Members could be identified by special gestures, secret chopstick maneuvers and passwords.

The members would meet to exchange news of China with people from other island , and read, or have read to them Chinese newspapers. The festivals and celebrations have included the Kuan Ti festival , to celebrate the god, the New Year festival to celebrate the Chinese New Year, the Ching Ming in April , when offerings were made to ancestral graves.

In 1912, using private donations, the society built a two-story temple on Front Street; the society provided social contacts, support in times of crisis, and housing for retired workers. It is believed that the present building replaced the older structure.

Upstairs is a temple with an altar for religious ceremonies, downstairs was the social hall and adjacent was the cookhouse. It served the growing Chinese population centered in Lahaina.

By the 1940s the declining Chinese population in Lahaina slowly made the building redundant and the property was neglected. In 1983, Lahaina Restoration Foundation took steps to restore this valuable site for Lahaina.

Under a long-term agreement with the Wo Hing Society, the foundation provided funds to bring the buildings back to life and maintain them as a museum. (Lots of information here is from Lahaina Restoration Foundation and National Park.)

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Wo Hing Society Social Hall, Temple & Cookhouse-NPS

Wo Hing Temple Founders, Chung Koon You and Chan Wa-WC

Wo Hing Society Social Hall, Temple & Cookhouse

Wo Hing Society Social Hall, Temple & Cookhouse-plaque

March 24, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Surnames

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
(The New Colossus, Emma Lazarus, 1883)

“About 1 in every 25 Americans is named Smith, Johnson, Williams, Brown, Jones, Miller or Davis.” (NY Times)

“Originally, … men had but one name.” “About the year of our Lord 1000 … surnames began to be taken up in France, and in England about the time of the Conquest, or else a very little before, under King Edward the Confessor, who was all Frenchified…”

“(T)he French and we termed them Surnames, not because they are the names of the sire, or the father, but because they are super added to Christian names, as the Spanish called them Renombres, as Renames.” (Camden; Philomathic Journal)

In old English name-making, every surname was essentially based on one of four reasons (1) personal, from a sire or ancestor, (2) local, from place of residence, (3) occupative, from trade or office, (4) a nickname, from bodily attributes, character, etc. (Weekley)

Today, we say a patronym is a personal name suited to its owner. For some, like ‘Smith,’ the person was a metal worker; for others, like Johnson, he was ‘son of John.’

Some say there is a relationship between a person’s name and his occupation – nominative determinism is the theory that people tend to gravitate towards areas of work that fit their name. (Thomas Crapper invented the toilet.)

“Smith (the most common surname in the US) – which would be even more common if all its variations, like Schmidt and Schmitt, were tallied – is among the names derived from occupations. (As recently as 1950, more Americans were employed as blacksmiths than as psychotherapists.)”

Miller is another (it’s an English and Scottish occupational surname for a grain miller. Another possible origin is from the Irish word ‘maillor,’ meaning soldier.)

The very first documented ‘Jones’ in America was in Virginia in 1587. It’s a patronymic surname from the Middle English first names John or Jon, but it is a particularly common surname in Wales. In fact, 10% of Welsh people share the name- despite the fact that there is no letter ‘J’ in the Welsh alphabet.

“The Census Bureau’s analysis found that some surnames were especially associated with race and ethnicity. More than 96 percent of Yoders, Kruegers, Muellers, Kochs, Schwartzes, Schmitts and Novaks were white.”

“Nearly 90 percent of the Washingtons were black, as were 75 percent of the Jeffersons, 66 percent of the Bookers, 54 percent of the Banks and 53 percent of the Mosleys.” (NY Times)

Between 1892 and 1954, over twelve million people entered the USs through the immigration inspection station at Ellis Island, a small island located in the upper bay off the New Jersey coast.

There is a myth that persists in the field of genealogy, or more accurately, in family lore, that family names were changed there. “Nearly all … name change stories are false. Names were not changed at Ellis Island.”

“The proof is found when one considers that inspectors never wrote down the names of incoming immigrants. The only list of names came from the manifests of steamships, filled out by ship officials in Europe.”

“In the era before visas, there was no official record of entering immigrants except those manifests. When immigrants reached the end of the line in the Great Hall, they stood before an immigration clerk with the huge manifest opened in front of him.”

“The clerk then proceeded, usually through interpreters, to ask questions based on those found in the manifests. Their goal was to make sure that the answers matched. (Cannato; NY Public Library)

But some names were changed due to necessity (North American typewriters did not have diacritical markings for letters found in several European languages) …

Inability to spell or carelessness, difficulty in pronouncing or spelling a name (person wrote the name as it sounded to him,) desire to break with the past (new name in new land,) dislike of the original name, desire for material success (fearing a ‘wrong’ name might prevent them from becoming successful or getting a particular job. (RootsWeb)

In the Islands, because their names were not easy to pronounce by the Hawaiians, missionaries were given Hawaiianized names (that sounded somewhat like the original name:)

Hiram Bingham was called Binamu; Asa Thurston was called Tatina; Amos Cooke was called Kuke; Lorenzo Lyons was called Laimana, etc.

These weren’t the only Hawaiianized name changes.

The Chinese-Hawaiian surname was formed by adding a letter or syllable ‘a’ or ‘ah’ to the Chinese given name (or last part of his given name,) rarely his surname.

For example, if a person’s name used in the Chinese style with the surname first is Lau Say Kan, his Hawaiianized name becomes Ah Kan. Later, that may become Akana. (Lai)

Some other examples are: Tang Hung Sin became Ahsin or Akina. Tang Chow became Akau or Akao. Lau Fai became Hapai. (Kai)

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statue-of-liberty

January 31, 2017 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Timeline Tuesday … 1850s

Today’s ‘Timeline Tuesday’ takes us through the 1850s Kuleana Act, Smallpox Epidemic, death of Kamehameha III and growth in rice cultivation. We look at what was happening in Hawai‘i during this time period and what else was happening around the rest of the world.

A Comparative Timeline illustrates the events with images and short phrases. This helps us to get a better context on what was happening in Hawai‘i versus the rest of the world. I prepared these a few years ago for a planning project. (Ultimately, they never got used for the project, but I thought they might be on interest to others.)

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January 26, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Chinese Baseball

Baseball is based on the English game of rounders. Rounders become popular in the United States in the early 19th century, where the game was called “townball”, “base” or “baseball”.

In 1845, Alexander Cartwright organized the New York Knickerbockers team with a constitution and bylaws, and suggested that they could arrange more games and the sport would be more widely-played if it had a single set of agreed-upon rules.

Cartwright went on to teach people in Hawai‘i how to play the game; he also was part of Honolulu’s first Volunteer Fire Brigade, and became Fire Chief.

Cartwright was the executor of Queen Emma’s Last Will & Testament, as well as executor of the estate of King Kalākaua. Alexander Cartwright died at the age of 72 in Honolulu on July 12th, 1892. A large, pink granite monument in Oʻahu Cemetery marks the final resting-place of Alexander Joy Cartwright, Jr.

Japan had already adopted the sport during the Meiji era (1870s), when Japan was adopting western customs to establish a more modern national identity. Baseball, to the Japanese, incorporated both western and eastern cultural elements. Baseball had Japanese values of harmony, determination and discipline while also reflecting Western characteristics. (Pang)

The recorded history of Japanese American involvement in baseball in Hawai‘i dates back to 1899, the year Reverend Takie Okumura of the Makiki Christian Church formed a team made up primarily of boys who boarded at his Okumura Home.

He named the team Excelsior, and they captured the youth league championship in 1905. (Chinen) Other ethnic teams formed, including the Chinese.

“Although Chinese baseball players are mighty scarce in this country, over in Honolulu there is a team composed exclusively of Chinese and they play good baseball. The team is called the Chinese Alohas.”

“In a recent game with the players representing the Hawaiian Hotel, the Chinese team won by the score of 9 to 8. The line-up of the Chinese team is as follows:”

“F You, catcher; Chang Yen, pitcher; N. Sheng, first base; Ah Yap, second base; Yuan Chew, third base; Hoi Sing, shortstop: Ho Tong, right field: Ah Sam, center field; Hung Nyam, left field.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, April 17, 1907)

“During the period between 1910 and 1925, (Chinese) baseball teams … ruled supreme in the territory. The aggregations were so successful that they new worlds to conquer.”

“Starting in 1912 and through 1916, Chinese diamond squads annually invaded the mainland, returning each time with impressive records.” (Franks)

“Honolulu had become a hotbed of Chinese American community baseball. In the early 1900s, the Chinese Athletic Club (CAC) team and the Chinese Alohas called on the services of some of the best ballplayers in the city.”

“In 1912, the CAC, with the financial help of Chinatown merchants and haole boosters anxious to promote Honolulu on the mainland, assembled an ‘all-Chinese’ team that journeyed across the Pacific and engaged in over 100 games against college, community, semiprofessional, and professional teams.”

In June 1912, a Chinese in Hawai‘i organized an amateur league with teams such as the Wah Mun, CAU, CYA, Kukuis and Man Lun. (Franks)

A September 1912 game had thousands watching a game between Wah Mun (representing the ‘Chinese revolutionary faction’) against their rival Man Lun team (representing the Chinese Emperor Reform Association, which backed the continued dynastic rule of China.) There were fears of a riot; but there was none.

However, a fight flared in a later CAU – Man Lun game. Apparently, a Filipino Hawaiian fan was trying to compliment a Chinese Hawaiian player using a Chinese phrase. In reality, he uttered an insult. “For his compliment, the Filipino got a beating by from the Chinaman. The police let it go at that.” (Franks)

About this time there had been growing tensions in China and the revolutionary movement grew stronger and stronger, culminating in the October 10, 1911 Wuhan (Wuchang) Uprising which succeeded in overthrowing the Qing (Manchu) dynasty and establishing the Republic of China.

That date is now celebrated annually as the Republic of China’s national day, also known as the “Double Ten Day,” when the Qing Dynasty finally fell. Sun Yat-sen (the Father of Modern China – and who learned the game of baseball when he lived in Hawai‘i in 1883,) who had been on the American mainland, returned to China at the invitation of the successful revolutionaries to be sworn in as China’s first president in 1912.

Sun’s presidency lasted only 45 days. His most powerful rival was Yuan Shikai (Shih-kai,) who had built a strong base of power in northern China in his role as a top Qing military leader. When Yuan began to flex his muscles, Sun decided it would be politically prudent to abdicate in his favor. Sun turned his attention to forming the Guomindang (Nationalist Party.) (Asia Society)

The Republic of China governed mainland China until 1949; in that year, during the Chinese Civil War, the communists captured Beijing and later Nanjing. The communist-party-led People’s Republic of China was proclaimed on October 1, 1949.

Back to baseball … in 1915, “arrangements have been completed for the famous All-Chinese baseball team of Honolulu, which was so successful against the leading American College clubs on its tour of the United States last year, to come to Shanghai and take part in the series for the open baseball championship of the Far East.”

They needed to raise $5,000 for expenses. Chinese President Yuan Shih-kai sent a letter of support, “stating the president’s hearty approval of the effort to popularize baseball in China as a suitable outdoor sport for Chinese youth …”

“… and the president also sent his check for $500 as a personal contribution towards the expenses of bringing out the All-Chinese baseball team from Honolulu, which he believes will do much to stimulate interest in the game among Chinese.” (Star Bulletin, April 8, 1915)

Furthermore, “Under the patronage of the Chinese government and with the personal assistance of Wu Tang-fang, former Chinese minister to the United States, a baseball team of American-born Chinese is on its way to Shanghai on the steamer Mongolia, by way of the Philippines and Japan.”

“Their expenses in China will be met by the Chinese Government. The team will tour the (principal) cities of the interior to introduce American athletics for the physical improvement of the youth of China.” (Columbus Weekly Advocate, April 15, 1915)

“Sixteen games were played in all during the trip to the Philippines and China, and of these 12 were won, three lost and one tied.”

“In Peking the president of China gave us a reception, and talked to us for about five minutes. We received special permission
to visit the old royal residence, and altogether were treated as distinguished guests.” (Star-Bulletin, June 22, 1915)

In Hawai‘i in 1920, an All-Chinese team knocked off a visiting University of Chicago team; they tied University of California, and later in 1922, Honolulu’s All-Chinese team beat a visiting Stanford team. (Franks)

“For several decades thereafter Hawaiian Chinese organized their own leagues, while supporting a team called the Chinese Tigers that competed in the Hawaii Baseball League.” (Jorae; Zhao)

Chinese Americans used baseball as a means of developing and maintaining sense of community. Through baseball, they cross cultural boundaries to play with and against varied racial and ethnic identities. Some American ballplayers of Chinese ancestry have competed effectively at the highest levels of professional baseball. (Jorae; Zhao)

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