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This article was revised based on Bing K. Wong’s files from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service.

Bing Kwun Wong, (AKA Wong Park Dung or Huáng Bǎi Zōng or 黄柏宗), was born Sept. 20, 1917, in Gom Benn. He was the second son of Hong Sam Wong, (AKA Chun Fot or 传法), and the younger brother of Bing Tew Wong (AKA Park Soon or 柏旋).

In his family, all the men eventually went to America. Bing K. left Gom Benn in the summer of 1938, as a 20-year-old. This was not long after he married his 16-year-old wife, Sau Kuen, who stayed behind in Gom Benn.

A year earlier Japan had invaded China. As Bing left for America, Japan was attacking and soon capture Wuhan — then the political, military and economic center of China. For the next 10 years, Bing would work in America, separated from wife by the Pacific Ocean and World War II.

It must have seemed as if he might never return.

Coming to America

Bing arrived in San Pedro, California, on July 22, 1938, aboard the SS President Coolidge from Hong Kong. After a two-day interrogation, he was officially admitted into the United States by a board of special inquiry on Aug. 20, 1938.

He came as Wong Bing Kwun ( 黄炳崑), as a U.S. citizen, the paper son of Los Angeles tea merchant Wong Wong (黃旺) or Wong Chung Wong (黄昌旺) AKA Wong Lai Chee (黃礼池). Decades later when Bing “confessed” his paper son deception, he explained that Wong Wong’s wife (Fong Woon Him or Fong Shee) was a close friend (or maybe a relative) of Bing’s mother Ng Shee.

Wong Wong could document his birth in America — in March 17, 1892, in San Francisco. He also had documents showing he had travelled to Nar Sai (雅世) Village in China in 1916, and returned to America in 1918. During that time in China, Bing was born — supposedly as Wong Wong’s son.

Living in L.A.

In Los Angeles, Bing lived at 444 N. Los Angeles St., in the same apartments with his brother Bing. T. Wong. The building was also home for their cousin, the butcher Wong Toy Wing (AKA Wong Chun Sing) and his Sam Sing meat market. The area was part of the historic old Chinatown, being demolished to make way for the Union Station rail hub, which opened in May 1939.

Bing K. attended Belmont High in Los Angeles as a “foreign student,” until the spring of 1940. From then, until the end of 1941, Sam Sing Market listed him on its payroll. Eventually Bing became adept at butchering meat, and making cha siu (BBQ pork).

Kitchen Work

He then worked at a number of Los Angeles-area restaurants (Queyrels French Cafe on Washington Boulevard, Kimling Inn on Gurling Way, New Shanghai Cafe in Culver City and, from 1944 to 1948 at Chung King Cafe in Riverside) — washing dishes and later cooking American and Chinese-American dishes ranging from apple to egg custard pies.

He and his friends liked to visit Yosemite and San Francisco (to see his father-in-law, Lee Soon Loy).

The War Ends

Near the end of the World War II, his mother died in China. When the news of her death reached America, Bing’s father Chun Fot was so grief-sicken that he gambled away money they’d saved to return to China. Finally, several years after the war, Bing returned to China in the summer of 1948, and brought Sau back to America in the spring of 1949, to live in Los Angeles.

Bing and Sau would eventually have three children: Arthur, Leland and Andrea. For a brief time, Bing tried operating a laundry on Sunset Boulevard. But by late 1950, he was back working at a Chinese restaurant: Forbidden Palace Cafe on Gin Ling Way.

He went to work at his brother, Bing T. Wong’s restaurant, the Great Wall, in West Covina in 1955. In the 1950s, they lived in the East Adams area south of downtown Los Angeles.

His Own Business

Later in 1955, he joined with a partner to open his own take-out restaurant, Kun Ming Kitchen, in Covina. He would operate the restaurant for 25 years, until he retired.

Meanwhile, Sau worked for decades in the garment industry as a seamstress, often working day and night behind her sewing machine. In 1960, they moved to El Sereno next to Cal State L.A.

Beginning in the mid-1950s, U.S. immigration authorities offered Chinese Americans a “confession program” to clear up their immigration histories, and provide them a path to be naturalized U.S. citizens. In 1963, Bing “confessed” his paper son deception in his application for permanent resident status. It was granted, and in 1970, Bing became a naturalized U.S. citizen.

Back to China

Until the late 1970s, China was effectively closed to outside visitors. So it wasn’t until 1980 that Sau returned to Gom Benn with a group of close relatives to celebrate the opening of a garment factory.

In 1986, Bing and Sau returned to Gom Benn with their daughter, Andrea, and son-in-law, Peter Young.

They hired a van, but no one really knew the way. As Andrea recalled, “Dad kept pointing to the mountains, and said he lived at the foot of the mountain. When we got close, Mom recognized a lady. The lady recognized her, too, and said, “Are you A-Foong?”

Soon the villagers crowded around them. They were taken to their ancestral home. Later they visited Andrea’s grandma’s grave. Andrea, a school teacher, visited the Gom Benn school and a library funded by her uncle, Bing T. Wong.

In 1994, Bing returned to visit Gom Benn with his son, Arthur, and daughter-in-law Jennifer, and their two daughters. It was quiet, with few people about. By then, the Chinese economy was growing rapidly, and the villages’ young people were moving to the bigger cities for jobs. Gom Benn was once again becoming a sleepy little village.

Bing and Sau never went back after that.

Final Days

After retiring, they cared for Art and Jennifer’s daughters, Linz and Hayley; Leland and Dorothy’s kids, Dorenda and Erik; and Andrea and Pete’s kids, Brent, Keith and Brittney.

They loved a good cup of coffee, apple pie and home-cooked prime rib. Sau was a big Lakers fan, and Kobe her favorite player.

Bing  died on March 24, 2008. He was 90 years old. Sau died in February 25, 2017, when she was almost 96 years old.