Wong Chin Foo - History

Long before Dr. King dreams of an America that judges people according to the “content of their character,” Wong declares that only “character and fitness should be the requirement of all who are desirous of becoming citizens of the American Republic.” The struggle continues as AAPI activists seek the same recognition over a century after Wong's death in 1898.

 

In China, Southern Baptist missionaries rescue Wong, 10, and his bankrupt father from begging on the streets and send him to study in America. After about 3 years, he returns to China, preaches democracy, and is wanted for treason. He flees to America, leaving behind his wife and newborn son. In San Francisco, with the help of a local missionary, he frees young Chinese girls aboard his ship who had been sold into prostitution, earning the wrath of the slave traders – part of a life-long series of run-ins with the Chinese underworld, whites, Christians, authority figures -- anyone who offends his sense of justice and equality. 

 

Wong becomes a U.S. citizen in 1873 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He charms American society with his unlikely wit, sophistication, and superior command of the English language. New Age guru Helena Blavatsky, the founder of the Theosophical Society, introduces him to the press as a “Buddhist missionary” and arranges a nationwide lecture tour for him. He speaks and writes about all things Chinese in popular periodicals and newspapers, demystifies Chinatown, and becomes the loudest advocate for the community in the “Gold Mountain.” He befriends New York Deputy Sheriff Tom Lee, the de facto mayor and mob boss of Chinatown, who hosts a massive picnic and banquets with Wong to impress white society and by friends and influence. He believes acculturation offers the surest path to political rights and urges his compatriots to adopt American ways, give up opium and gambling, and learn English – to little avail.

 

YELLOW PERIL: After the transcontinental railroad is completed in 1869, largely with imported Chinese labor, the country plunges into the Long Depression. Chinese become convenient scapegoats. About 20 Chinese are massacred in Los Angeles’ Chinatown in 1871, the largest U.S. lynching at the time. Laws targeting Chinese are enacted, such as the Page Act of 1875 which banned “immoral” women from the Orient from immigrating to the United States. This reinforces the stereotype of the over-sexualized Asian dragon lady, and results in bachelor societies in Chinatown, buttressing the caricature of the nonsexual, effeminate Asian male who does laundry – one of the few job options available to them due to discrimination.

 

Wong is alarmed and becomes more outspoken and radical as Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. He coins the term “Chinese American” as the English name of his Chinese newspaper in 1983, defining a new identity for his countrymen in the New World. The impact of Chinese Exclusion on U.S. policy, education, media and entertainment is still being felt today as seen in the scapegoating of Asians during the COVID pandemic, the whitewashing of Asian roles by Hollywood, and the U.S.-China trade war.

 

Wong challenges Irish demagogue Denis Kearney -- whose mission is to “eradicate Chinese from the content” -- to a duel and heckles him at Cooper Union in New York, giving him his choice of weapon: chopsticks, Irish potatoes, or Krupp guns. Kearney, who had turned up his anti-Chinese rhetoric to fuel his political ambitions, finally relents to a public debate that Wong famously wins. He founds the first U.S. association of Chinese voters in 1884 and fights for citizenship rights for his countrymen as Chinese are assaulted, massacred, and driven out of numerous cities throughout the country. AAPI activists today continue to urge the community to speak up against aggressors and vote.

 

Wong outrages Christians with his 1887 essay "Why Am I a Heathen?" in the North American Review. The essay, reprinted as far as Britain, prompts a response, "Why I Am Not a Heathen," from fellow Chinese immigrant Yan Phou Lee, a devout Christian. His call for the Chinese to give up the vices of opium and gambling wins him enemies, within his community, but their verbal and physical assaults embolden him even more.

 

CULTURAL WARFARE: Wong offers $500 (equivalent to $15,000 today) to anyone who can prove that the Chinese eat rats, an image used to sell a popular rat poison. He opens a Chinese theater in New York, sets up a language school, and briefly opens a Confucian temple to show Americans real Chinese culture. This is to counter stereotypes in media and entertainment, e.g. in popular songs such as “Ah Sin!” about a wily Chinese servant who hides cards up his long sleeves. Bret Harte and Mark Twain turn the song into a Broadway-level “comedic melodrama” performed by a white actor in yellowface. Using resources unavailable in Wong’s time, Asian-American producers, artists, and social media influencers continue his mission – by creating shows with principal AAPI characters, campaigning to end yellowface and whitewashing onstage and onscreen, and taking Hollywood to task for excluding Asians from the creative process and industry awards. 

 

GRAPHIC LESSONS: On the campus of Stanford University, six young Stanford artists in a Creative Writing Program led by Shimon Tanaka read Wong's biography as they prepare to create a graphic novel about the activist's life. They decide that Wong’s character flaws add to his compellingly human story and do not diminish his heroism in challenging the oppressive status quo at a time when Asians faced systematic discrimination.

 

CIVIL RIGHTS: Harnessing the power of coalition building, Wong forms the Chinese Equal Rights League and rallies white supporters to pressure politicians to end Chinese Exclusion. He briefly forms a political party. After Congress extends exclusion with the 1892 Geary Act, Wong testifies on Capitol Hill -- probably the first Asian to do so – urging its repeal. Congressmen are unmoved but Wong’s efforts bear fruit three months later. After a massive boycott by the Chinese against registering for photographic IDs under the new law, Washington modifies enforcement procedures to avoid shipping them all back to China at great cost. Chinese American leaders such as Wong also turn to the courts for justice since the law denies the community the right to vote. In 1898 the U.S. Supreme court rules for birthright citizenship in the landmark case of the U.S.A. versus California-born Wong Kim Ark.

 

That year, Wong leaves for China to see his wife and son. In Hong Kong, he obtains a new U.S. passport that is quickly revoked on State Department orders as some officials believe the Chinese Exclusion Act voided his U.S. citizenship. In Shandong, he dies of heart failure in obscurity and is forgotten in his adopted country of over two decades – until now, when his words and actions clearly resonate as anti-Asian hatred and crimes fill the headlines once again.

 

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