A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

On Wednesday, April 18, 1906, 5:12 a.m., a devastating earthquake hit San Francisco. Although the earthquake and aftershocks were powerful, they did not cause serious damage to the structures in Chinatown. However, widespread fires broke out over other areas of the city and many water lines were down. In order to save San Francisco, the firefighters chose to create a firebreak, or a clear area, where Chinatown was. They used explosives to blow up the existing buildings in Chinatown and sacrificed the homes and businesses of the people who lived there.

Unfortunately, instead of stopping the fire, the dynamite caused new fires. By the next day, all of Chinatown was reduced to ashes. The fire burned for four days.

At the time of the 1906 earthquake, about 400,000 people lived in San Francisco. City officials set the number of those who died in the earthquake and fires at 300. In this death count, they did not include any of the 14,000 or so Chinese people who lived in Chinatown. No one knows how many Chinese immigrants died in the earthquake and fire.

About 25,000 buildings were destroyed in the fires.

Today, researchers estimate that close to 3,000 people lost their lives. The researchers believe that city officials at the time reported a lower number of fatalities so investors would not be scared away from rebuilding San Francisco.

During this time, hatred and racism against Chinese immigrants was very high. Like other immigrants at the time, many Chinese people came to the United States for better opportunities. They were paid lower wages than their white working counterparts, and were then blamed for driving down pay and taking away jobs.

The Chinese Exclusion Act was a law put into place in 1882 to not allow any more immigrants from China. It was the first time the United States restricted immigration based on race. Many of the men who came to the United States to work would not be able to bring their families over. Because of this law, there were few Chinese women and girls who could come to America.

A Chinese man looked out over the ruins of Chinatown following the 1906 earthquake.

Chinatown was in a good location in San Francisco and the land was very valuable. After the fire, San Francisco officials took the destruction of Chinatown as an opportunity to relocate the Chinese population to a less desirable area. The Chinatown residents did not want to give up their home. The empress of China was unhappy with the plan to move Chinatown. She had intended to rebuild the Chinese Consulate in the heart of Chinatown. Fearing the city would lose tax dollars and valuable trade with China, the officials dropped their plans.

When the time came to rebuild Chinatown, a businessman named Look Tin Eli convinced residents to make the new Chinatown a tourist attraction. They hired American architects to redesign the buildings with pagodas and colorful designs. They had dragons on top and curved rooftops, just as the Americans imagined China looked like.

I use the term “Americans” in reference to white Americans during this time. Even though Lily and her family were born in the United States, many white people did not consider them Americans. I don’t think Lily’s family considered themselves American either. They weren’t allowed to attend school with white children, they had to live in a certain area, and the Chinese Exclusion Act wasn’t repealed until 1943.

For this book, I was inspired by the account of Lily Sung, a seven-year-old girl who survived the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco. Like the Lily I wrote about, Lily Sung also heard cats screeching the night before the devastating earthquake. She traveled in a group with her siblings and a woman with bound feet to be reunited with her family. Lily Sung’s birth certificate and family documents were destroyed in the Chinatown fires. In 1922, she lost her American citizenship because of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Lily Sung was very brave. I hope there is some of her blossoming in the fictionalized Lily I wrote about.

I lived in San Francisco when I was a kid. I was actually in the Loma Prieta earthquake on October 17, 1989 that killed 63 people. Even though I am Chinese American, lived in San Francisco, and often went to Chinatown, I didn’t learn about the racism against Chinese immigrants in school. I wasn’t aware of the segregated schools or living areas. I didn’t know the extent of the Chinese Exclusion Act until I began research for this book.

The Loma Prieta earthquake caused severe damage to buildings throughout Oakland and San Francisco.

Chinese American experiences and stories are not widely known. Writing Lily’s story has given me chance to examine a piece of history that has long gone unnoticed. I hope you’ve also been able to find inspiration in Lily’s journey and her chance to be seen.