Part 2: The Story of Hai Ping and Hoi Lung Yuen
This is one of two articles submitted by Brian A. Wong, the son of Ging Ching Wong and the grandson of Chang Wing Wong.
At the beginning of the 20th century, China had been engulfed in political strife, war and uncertainty for decades. That’s when Hoi Lung Yuen left Gom Benn Village in 1909 for America. The United States was a land of contradictions – a racist nation but a place of enormous opportunity. Only a few years earlier, Congress had made permanent the restrictions in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 – the first, and only, U.S. law to prevent members of a specific ethnic or national group from immigrating to America. Yet, there was a loophole allowing merchants and their families to come.
So Lung Yuen came. Almost two decades later, in the 1920s, on the eve of the Depression, he became one of the founding partners of Ying Chong Lung grocery store on San Pedro Street in Los Angeles, and brought his family to America.
‘It is not his wife is the wife to short man…”
Anonymous accuser
Lung Yuen was not the first in his family to come. In 1932, when Lung Yuen was applying to have his wife and children come from China to the United States, he provided testimony about how he came to America. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) exclusion act documents indicate that Lung Yuen was admitted as the son of a merchant, Hai Ping, who worked at a company in Upland, Calif. These records establish clearly that an earlier generation had come from the Gom Benn area. (Note that the Hai and Hoi surnames are different ways the Chinese name 許 has been Romanized from Cantonese or other Guangdong dialects. Other transliterations include Huey, Hui, Hoei, and others.)
Who was Hai Ping?
The NARA documents for Hai Ping relate primarily to his application in 1915 for pre-investigation to leave and return to the U.S. Those records indicate that his name was Hai Ping (Huey Bing) 許秉, and his “marriage” name was Hai Sai June許世準. He gave his age as 37, born in Sin Hah village in Sunning (Toisan). His father’s name was Hai Hoy who died about 20 years earlier in China, and his mother’s name was Wong Shee (Figure 1a).
Hai Ping stated that he had two sons. One son, Hai (Hoi) Lung Yuen, was in America. Lung Yuen had a wife, Jeung Shee, and son, Hai Fook, who remained in China. Also in China was Hai Ping’s unmarried son, Hai Lung You (Figure 1b).
Hai Ping first came to America aboard the British steamer, Gaelic, in San Francisco, Calif., on Feb. 16, 1898. He was 20 years old, and his occupation was listed as “accountant” (Figure 2a). He landed with a section 6 certificate (Figure 2b) issued by the Chinese government. The certificate showed that the holder was in an exempt category (merchant, teacher, student or traveler) of America’s Chinese Exclusion Act. At the time, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 barred Chinese laborers from immigrating to the U.S., but not Chinese in the exempt category.
Hai Ping made his way to Southern California and the Riverside/San Bernardino or Inland Empire area. In the 1890s, the citrus industry was booming in the Inland Empire, and thousands of Chinese flocked there to find work. In a later interview with U.S. Immigration, Hai Ping stated that he first stopped in Los Angeles, then went to San Bernardino, Upland, Redlands, and finally to Cucamonga. In Upland, he started a business called Sun Hop Lee. In Redlands, he worked in the Hi On store. He maintained an interest in the Hi On store, but then in 1912 opened another store called Hop Lee (Figure 3). After the interview, he signed the transcript with both names Hai Ping and Hai Sai June in Chinese, which were traced on the transcripts (Figure 4).
Hoi Lung Yuen’s Story
Hoi Lung Yuen was about 14 when he came to the U.S. in 1909, joining his father, Hai Ping, in Cucamonga. Lung Yuen gave his “marriage name” as Hai Gong Choon and said he was born in 1895 in Sin Hai Village, according to his 1932 testimony (Figure 5). Lung Yuen partnered with his father, Hai Ping, and two others to start the Hop Lee (合𠛐) business in November 1915 (see Figure 6a and b, Partner list and partner list translation). Their names were transliterated as Huey Ban and Huey Lung Yeon.
After he arrived, Lung Yuen made several trips back and forth between the U.S. and China, in 1913-1914, 1922-1924, and 1928-1929 (from testimony given in 1932). Lung Yuen’s son Hoi Fook was born in 1914. His second son, Hoi Look, was born in 1923, and a third son, Chew, was born in 1929. Lung Yuen’s first wife, Jeung Shee, died sometime after son Chew was born. He married his second wife, Hsu Ying Yin. They had a son, Kin Hong, presumably during Lung Yuen’s last trip to China in 1937 to 1938. Altogether, Lung Yuen had at least four sons. Hoi Family stories say that Lung Yuen made a trip to China approximately every five years, and that during a trip around 1919, another son was born, but died in infancy (personal communication Larry Jue, 2020). This trip was not reflected in documents found in NARA records.
Hoi Lung Yuen, in 1927, partnered with six other men, including Chang Wing and Wong Shoo Tan from Gom Benn Village to start a market on San Pedro Street in Los Angeles called Ying Chong Lung. This was just blocks from City Market, Los Angeles’ center for fresh produce. In the early decades of the 20th Century, Chinese and Japanese vegetable growers and peddlers were major produce providers. For Lung Yuen, once he was established as a merchant in Ying Chong Lung, he could join with his partners in bringing over their families.
In these Depression years, Wong Shoo Tan brought over his wife, Lee Shee, and children in 1932. Lung Yuen brought over his wife Chung Shee, son Fook, and (adopted) daughter Lan in 1933. He also planned to bring over son Look, but a medical condition prevented Look from boarding the ship in Hong Kong, so he had to return to the village. The family members who came had paper-relationships in some instances, necessitated by the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. Additional information regarding the entry of actual and paper family members of Hoi Lung Yuen, Wong Shoo Tan and Chang Wing is described in Part 1 of this article.
Hai Ping and Hoi Lung Yuen accused of being illegal residents
The immigrant life was a perilous one – especially for “paper” families. Between 1914 and 1915, Hoi Lung Yuen and Hai Ping were investigated for possibly being illegal immigrants. An anonymous letter was written in Chinese and sent to the Immigration Service in November 1914 which alleged that Wong Sai Jun, alias Huey Bing, and his nephew, Wong Lung Yeon, were residing in the U.S. illegally (Figure 7a). These illegal immigrants were said to live at the Hop Lee company in Cucamonga. The Immigration inspector connected Huey Bing to Hai Ping and Wong Lung Yeon to Hoi Lung Yuen, who were listed on the Hop Lee partners list. During the investigation, certificates of identity were examined, including the immigration records of the landing of Hai Ping and the trip to China made by Hoi Lung Yuen. The investigator found evidence establishing when they entered the U.S., but further evidence was needed to determine whether any action should be taken against them (Figure 7b).
Hoi Lung Yuen accused of bringing “wife” illegally.
In 1938, when Hoi Lung Yuen returned from China, another anonymous letter was written to the Department of Immigration claiming that the woman who came over with him from China in 1933 was not really his wife. The letter (Figure 8) claimed that the wife of “Hoy Lung Yen” “is the wife belong to short man” at 956 So. San Pedro St., the address of Ying Chong Lung. The writer gives the address of a residence on East 10th Place of the “short man.” The Immigration and Naturalization Service sent an inspector to the home of Hoi Lung Yuen at 716 E. Ninth Place. There the inspector found a woman, Chung Shee, who stated that she was the wife of Hoi Lung Yuen and had five children, Hoi Fook, Hoi Look (in China), Hoi Shew (Chew, in China), Hoi Bow (Kenneth Hai), and Hoi Jew (Francis Hai), and an adopted daughter, Hoi Lan. In addition, she stated that she had another son, Hoi Poy (Milton Hai) who died at about 2 years of age. She then provided additional information about her immigration process five years prior, with Hoi Fook and Hoi Lan.
At Ying Chong Lung, the Immigration inspector questioned Hoi Fook, who corroborated the story given by his mother, and produced the certificates of identity for himself, his mother and sister, and birth certificates for Kenneth, Milton, and Francis, the children born in the United States.
The inspector went to the location of the house of the alleged husband on the south side of East 10th Place. He could not find that exact street, and went to the house closest to the described location. He found a man but concluded he had no connection to the case. The inspector, when he was at Ying Chong Lung, said the only short person he could find was the manager, Wong Shew (Shoo) Tan. The inspector was aware that Wong Shoo Tan’s wife was Lee Shee and that she and their children were documented in an immigration file held in the San Pedro office.
The inspector concluded that the information in the anonymous letter was false, or that the informant confused the subject with someone else (Figure 9). If the inspector had found evidence that Chung Shee was not Lung Yuen’s wife and had entered illegally, she could have been deported, and her immigrant children also. Presumably the U.S.-born children were citizens, and could have stayed. Hoi Lung Yuen was also at risk of having his reentry to the U.S. denied if he was guilty of having a wife in China and illegally bringing in someone else’s wife and family as his own.
Was the illegal wife accusation correct?
Yes, the claim in the 1938 anonymous letter was actually correct. Chung Shee was not married to Hoi Long Yuen. She was actually the wife of Chang Wing, the “short” bookkeeper at Ying Chong Lung. Chang Wing was the father of Chung Shee’s U.S.-born children, but they used the last name Hai for the children, to be consistent with Chung Shee immigration status. We know that Lung Yuen, Chung Shee and Chang Wing maintained these immigration relationships in official documents such as the 1940 census records, and the applications for citizenship by Lung Yuen and Chang Wing (described in Part 1 of this article).
What about the illegal residence accusation?
What was the actual relationship between Hai Ping, Hoi Lung Yuen, the other business partners, Chang Wing and Wong Shoo Tan, and their family members? Was the accusation in 1914 that Wong Sai Jun and his nephew, Wong Lung Yeon, were residing in the U.S. illegally, allegedly as Hai Ping and his son Hoi Lung Yuen actually correct?
Documents presented during their immigration claimed that Hai Bing and Hoi Lung Yung were father and son. However, as mentioned above, they were alleged to actually be uncle Wong Sai Jun and nephew Wong Lung Yuen. According to Wong family genealogy, the allegation is correct: Hai Ping is Wong Sai Jun and Hoi Lung Yuen is the son of Sai Jun’s brother, Sai Ting, and therefore actually the nephew of Wong Sai Jun. Note that in Figure 4, Hai Ping signed as Hai Sai Jun, and in Figure 5, Hoi Lung Yuen stated that his “married” name was Hai Gong Choon whereas his name is Wong Dong Cheun (transliterated to Gong Choon). So, these men used their actual “married” names with the family name of Hai or Hoi instead of Wong.
The immigrants from Gom Benn overcame obstacles so they could come to America. Then they had to sidestep the risk that their paper relationships might be uncovered, forcing them to return to China. Within the framework of American legalities, and its loopholes, they nevertheless established businesses and brought their families to this land of opportunities. Subsequent generations of Gom Benn descendents are a testament to their sacrifices and proof of their success.
My research continues as I seek to answer other questions. Why did Hoi Lung Yuen and Hai Ping use the surname Hai/Hoi when they left China, and not Wong? Is there an earlier generation Gom Benn figure who brought Hai Ping to the U.S.? Is there an earlier generation that was organizing or directing the immigration of people from Gom Benn?
