I have researched and written on Chinese American historical subjects for more than three and a half decades. Throughout these years, it has been a constantly evolving process of learning. Whatever I may have accomplished during this period would not have been possible if I had not had the help and support of a number of individuals and institutions to whom I now wish to express my gratitude and thanks. First and foremost, I am indebted to the Chinese Historical Society of America (CHSA) for providing the platform from which I launched my career in Chinese American historical research during the mid-1960s. Editor Maurice Chuck and Publisher Gordon Lew, started me on my writing career in late 1967 when they encouraged me to contribute articles on Chinese American history to East/West, the Chinese American Journal. These early activities prepared me for the opportunity to team-teach, with Philip Choy, the first college level course in America on Chinese American history offered by San Francisco State University in 1969.
During this same period, I also had the chance to consult frequently with the late Yuk Ow, who since the mid-1940s had done research and accumulated extensive files on the history of the Chinese in California. His research was conducted before the recent surge in interest in the history of American minorities and thus his writings remained unpublished and his research has gone largely unrecognized. Mr. Ow was a firm believer in using Chinese language sources whenever possible to research Chinese American history, a view that I eventually came to share at least partially. Following his lead I also began collecting clippings on Chinese America from English and Chinese publications. Mr. Ow was also interested in the history of Guangdong and the Cantonese, a fact that encouraged me to pay close attention to the history of Guangdong, and more particularly that of the Pearl River Delta from which most of the emigration to America originated. In another sector, it was his preliminary work on the evolvement of the Chinese Six Companies that motivated me to probe deeper into the development of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association/Huiguan system.
During the early 1970s a conversation at a restaurant with President Dick Quock of the Sam Yup Association led to the forming of an editorial team led by Yuk Ow, with Philip Choy and myself as assistants, to compile the history of the association, one of the oldest huiguan existing in Chinese America. While working on this project I had access to the organization’s records, which date back as far as 1881. This experience opened my eyes to the rich and complex history of the association and inspired me to do research on other locality and dialect group communities, such as the Hua Xian (Fa Yuen), Huangliang Du (Wong Leung Do), and non-Cantonese locality and dialect group communities.
In my research on these groups, the newspaper clippings and organization publications that I accumulated over the years proved to be invaluable. On the Fa Yuen and Wong Leung Do projects, I also benefited greatly from information and materials provided by friends and contacts. Kun Don of the Fa Yuen community thoughtfully saved and passed on to me his copies of Fa Yuen Association publications, which provided a wealth of information on the community. Other contacts in different parts of California provided helpful information and introduced me to other informants. They included David G. Chan, Kan Don, Albert and Edith Gong, John Gong, Homer Jung, George Lau, Yvonne Lee, Him Lew, Gange Coy Lowe, John S. Lowe, Chin F. Sun, Ernest Wong, Richard Wing, and Howard Young. In the Wong Leung Do community key individuals who provided information and helped me make contact with individuals to interview included my late brother-in-law Philip Fong, Judy Yung, and Connie Young Yu. Interviewees included Gordon Chan, John Chan, Kong Chow, Man Quong Fong, Robert Fong, Lawrence Jue, Kam Hong Kwong, Mamie Leong, John Mock, Norman Mock and his mother, Shek Ng Mock, William Mock, J. P. Wong, Mary Wong, and John Young. Another resource was the files of the Immigration and Naturalization Services at the National Archives Regional Archives (NARA) that were a rich source of historical data. The NARA staff, and especially Neil Thomsen, was always helpful.
In 1978–1979 I was invited to team-teach the course on Chinese American history at the University of California, Berkeley for Ling-chi Wang, who was on sabbatical. Following this course, in 1980–1982, I became a member of the advisory committee for establishing a Chinese language archives in the Asian American collection at the University. From 1986 to 1988 I was consultant for the archival collection. Working through Librarian Wei Chi Poon, the collection was able to obtain a copy of the Drum-right Report. This became a basic reference document for my essay on the Confession Program.
It was soon after my sojourn as lecturer at Berkeley that I was invited by Lucie Cheng to participate in the joint project with Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou to do research on the Taishan emigrant area. Through participation in the project I became acquainted with individuals in various offices of overseas Chinese affairs, associations of returned overseas Chinese, as well as scholars doing research in the field, which had just been revived around 1979. These connections proved to be extremely helpful in keeping up with developments in the field as well as collecting materials connected with the Chinese emigration to America. Thus it came to pass in the mid-1990s that Huang Kunzhang of Jinan University in Guangzhou and Zhou Nanjing of Beijing University called on me to contribute a number of articles on Chinese language schools in the Americas and Hawaii for the twelve volume Encyclopedia of Chinese Overseas. The research that I did for this effort laid the basis for two essays on Chinese language schools in America.
The writing of papers required typing and making copies. These tasks were particularly onerous in the 1970s when computer word processing and copying machines were not generally available. Fortunately, Ms. Victoria Chun and my wife Laura helped relieve me of much of this drudgery. Another service I enjoyed was my wife’s willingness to drive me to various places to do research. I wish to express my sincere thanks to them.
It was Lorraine Dong of San Francisco State University (SFSU), while she was president of CHSA several years ago, who first broached the idea of publishing my collected essays. A few years later Madeline Hsu of SFSU made the arrangements with AltaMira Press to make this a reality, and also to write the foreword to the collection.
To all these individuals and institutions, I again wish to express my deepest gratitude and sincere thanks.