[ { "id": 211409, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1988", "page_number": 125, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "101\n\nsome of the Au's in Honolulu, such as to Evelyn Lee Ho's mother, who was born an Au. First Uncle thought I resembled Grandmother in looks. She had six children, three sons and three daughters:\n\nDaughter Yim Chan Shee\n\nSon Ping Wing Wi\n\nSon Chung Chi\n\nBC née Chan Yung Kam hao Shing Mi\n\nBBC née Chan Yung Yick\n\nPing I William\n\nDaughter Leong Chan Shee\n\nDaughter Auyoung Chan Shee\n\nSon Ping Yip 炳業\n\nGrandfather, from hearsay and from a photograph taken in his 60s, was a sophisticated, handsome and bewhiskered gentleman. He had a literary degree which was purchased, no doubt to enhance his status. He evidently enjoyed the lighter side of life, and even in his old age, he would sing Chinese operas while accompanying himself on a moon harp, an instrument he left to us but which we failed to appreciate. Whether he gave Grandmother cause for worry or not, she became mentally ill after the birth of Father. She would voice concern that Grandfather would take in a concubine and would express fear of losing her children. She died on 23 November 1880, when Father was barely two years old. Grandfather remarried and by his second wife surnamed Leong had his seventh offspring, a son, Ping Lim. She was from Lung Ait Tau Village (龍隘頭村), and was born on 13 October 1860.\n\nGrandfather followed First Uncle to California, then sent for Second Uncle to join them. Grandfather then went to Hawaii and sent for his second wife and Ping Lim, but left Father in the village with the wife of First Uncle. When Father was 14, he accompanied his oldest sister, Yim Chan Shee, to Hawaii. The two families settled in a small Chinese community located on Prison road, across the road from the former site of Oahu Prison, overlooking Honolulu Harbour and the Oahu Railway Station, and easily accessible to Chinatown.\n\nGrandfather and a group of friends started a Chinese grocery business at 79 N. King Street on the Maikai side between Manunakea and Smith Streets, named Wing On Tai (永安泰). On its Waikiki side was a similar store managed by Yee Mun Wai, father of Dr. Lester Yee; on the Ewa side was Yuen Chong Mil¦ owned by Lee Lit, father of Dr. Robert Lee,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211418, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1988", "page_number": 134, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "110\n\n mourning for one year. He expressed his hope that Grandfather would marry again.\n\nWhen Uncle learned from Father's letter of 11 February 1900 that Grandfather, Aunt Yim and her husband had been taken to a camp, along with others, for quarantine during the Honolulu Chinatown fire on 20 January, he wrote that he was sorry to receive such news of ill-treatment and discrimination against the Chinese. At the same time, he announced the birth of a son named Ting Kin (Toby), who was growing rapidly and smarter by the day. Uncle sent Aunt and the infant to the village to escape the violence of the Boxer Rebellion in 1900. To avoid being accused as a Nge Mow Tsz or being killed, he bought a queue to wear whenever he alighted from his sedan.\n\nThe next letter preserved was dated 22 February 1902, when Uncle wrote from Canton that he had resigned as house surgeon from the Bok Chai Hospital\n\nwhere he had been assisting an American whose name in Chinese was Dr. Kwan. Uncle was not able to save from his salary of 60 dollars a month and he was kept busy night and day taking care of emergency cases, and consequently felt too confined. He thought he would teach physiology and chemistry for two hours a day at the Shi Man School and would start private practice. He also announced the birth of a second child, a daughter named Moo Ching, on 5 February\n\n1902.\n\nWhile still in Canton, he wrote on 21 October 1902 that Grandfather was indeed wise to have chosen a ‘large-footed' girl to be Father's wife, because women in China were beginning to unbind their feet, and that Second Aunt was thinking of doing it also. He stated that Ting Kin was anxiously waiting for the parcel Father was sending him and had asked many times what the gifts would be. Uncle's office was located on 12th Street in Canton. On 9 March 1903, while on board the Rajaburi on the way back to Hong Kong from Singapore via Swatow, Uncle informed Father that he was considering Manila or Honolulu as the next place for him to practise. Butterfield and Swire had retained Uncle and several other physicians to be ship surgeons, but the health authorities of Singapore only allowed ships with Chinese Physicians from the Alice Medical College in Hong Kong to enter the harbour. Uncle was not considered qualified because he only had three years of medical school.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211423, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1988", "page_number": 139, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "Son Zhi Leong & Daughter How Ming W\n\nSon Zhi Gong EMI\n\n115\n\nDaughter Leong Yuk J R\n\nZhi Leong, not yet married, is a secondary school teacher in Canton, and How Ming is in the performing arts. Little else is known of their education and their careers.\n\nIn summary, Second Paternal Uncle was an ambitious man, unwavering in his goal for advancement. He worked hard to attain a profession which afforded his children more opportunities than he had and with which he served his country and humanity. His love for his parents and siblings was no less, as evidenced from the letters of concern, advice and encouragement he wrote to Father.\n\nFourth Paternal Uncle\n\nA seventh child, a son named Ping Lim Wilff, was born to Grandfather and his second wife on 22 November 1883. He was five years younger than my father. I know little of his early childhood, except that he had left the village with his mother to join Grandfather when he was nine. It was not until December 1895, in a letter from Second Uncle to Father, that we learn he was attending the same school as Father, undoubtedly the Christian School for Oriental Boys in Honolulu. A bright and promising youth, he attracted the attention of a missionary, Miss Woods, who was instrumental in securing a home in Manoa for his convalescence before his death. She was evidently also a friend to Father because she gave my parents a wedding gift of a fine China fruit dish which we still treasure.\n\nWhenever Grandfather was unable to pay the full tuition for his two sons, he would ask for assistance from First Uncle, who would respond dutifully. There is no record of when Ping Lim finished high school. However, two of his letters to Father, then in Hilo, were especially interesting from a sociological and historical point of view. On 26 December 1899, he wrote that as a result of the discovery of plague in Honolulu's Chinatown, traffic among the Chinese had greatly decreased; that Aunt Chan Hoy's son had died suddenly; that the Chinese Church", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211425, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1988", "page_number": 141, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "There besides Chinese are Japs and Hawaiians of both sex but these women are not so weak and helpless as the Chinese women are.\n\nHaving told you so many unpleasant things now I tell you some good chances that we have met. The whole Chinatown is gone except fifteen to twenty brick buildings were left. It was very very fortunate that the fire did not reach our store side. The Honolulu Chinese Chronicle's whole block was burned, including several brick buildings, as Sing Chong, Yee Wo Chan and others.\n\nThe unexpected fire was caused by the strong wind. Anyway the whole town shall be burned but gradually had not the big fire had happened.\n\nWhen the people left their homes for quarantine they were not allowed to take anything more than they can carry. So one of these numbers had to lose 90% of what he had or more. The Chinatown Quarantine did not raise entirely but King St's quarantine was raised on the 15th Feb. Our store had been resumed to business on that day. The business is very rapid and profitable because there are only four or five big grocery stores in town now. It is also lucky that Yim Quen, Lum Kam Chin, Yim Seg Lock, Lum Chock Hoo and Chong Chug are not in quarantine, if they are the store will probably not reopen so soon.\n\nAll schools will probably reopen in a couple of weeks, if no more new cases have been known from now on. There have been no case for nearly two wks. in Honolulu. It is said that the quarantined people in Kalihi will be all let out before March.\n\nI shall be glad to tell you some more news happened later.\n\nYour loving brother\n\nPing Lim Chan**\n\nOn 14 April 1900, Ping Lam informed Father that all schools had reopened and that the Board of Education had designated Kauluwela School open to both Chinese boys and girls in view of the fact that the school for Chinese girls had been destroyed. Apparently there was sexual segregation as well as racial discrimination then. Ping Lim had been depressed over his mother's death on 4 October 1899, but the upheaval caused by the Chinatown fire a few months later drew his attention away from his grief.\n\nNo record has been preserved to indicate when Ping Lim matriculated at the University of California in Berkeley where he became interested in dentistry, then in law and in political economy. In his letter of 17 January 1903, he said that 250 students were expelled and 900 more received conditions because the large enrolment forced these eliminations.\n\n[17", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211427, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1988", "page_number": 143, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "119\n\nof wine, the man sprayed it all over the area as a purification ritual before he removed bone by bone and wrapped each with a piece of white cloth amidst burning incense. He labelled the bones as he went along in order that the remains would be in their proper positions when reburied in a sitting position in a large urn. Father learned that 90 percent of the bones were intact because the burial area was dry.\n\nStep-Grandmother was exhumed at a later date but I was not present. A pair of jade bracelets and a jade ring were recovered. After storing them in a large handkerchief for years, Mother finally threatened to throw them away as they were stained, probably discoloured by the absorption of body fluids. Thereupon I salvaged them, soaked them in alcohol for several days, kept one of them for myself and let Helen have the other. Dora would have none of it. Because the ring broke into pieces, we threw it away. Surprisingly, with wear, the yellowish stains disappeared and the bracelets became greener and greener, acquiring a beautiful sheen and revealing their original beauty. I gave mine to Dora when she learned to appreciate it and kept for myself a white jade bracelet, one of a pair that had been buried with Paternal Grandmother in China and shared with us by First Uncle's concubine. These bracelets are much treasured by us. The Chinese believe that funeral jade is a charm against harm, but for me, wearing the bracelet brings me closer to my ancestors.\n\nFirst Paternal Aunt Yim\n\nFirst Paternal Aunt Ai, whose maiden name was Chan Yung Kam $32, was born in 1861 (?) and was the eldest of my Grandfather Chan's seven children. She was married to Yim Mow Chow also known as Yim Goon Chan, of How Chang Villaget. She was mother substitute to my father after Grandmother Chan's early death. Aunt Yim left China with my father in 1892, landing first in San Francisco before transferring to a whaling vessel for Honolulu to join Uncle Yim who had emigrated earlier to Hawaii. At one time, he repaired watches for a living, but during the Honolulu Chinatown fire of 1900, he was employed as a clerk in Sing Chan 14, a plumbing shop.\n\nSince Aunt Yip did not have children, they adopted George Goon Hop, reported to be the infant son of a Japanese barber, whose wife had become emotionally disturbed at childbirth. George was born", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211449, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1988", "page_number": 165, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "141\n\nthat day, a Tuesday, for Hilo to work for Man Sing Company and that future mail should be sent care of Yick Sing, Box 131, Hilo, Hawaii. A letter from Grandfather, dated 26 September 1899, stated that he was happy to learn of Father's safe arrival but added that his step-mother was not responding to medication.\n\nTwo important events occurred during Father's absence from Honolulu. His step-mother died on 4 October 1899. On 11 October that year, Grandfather wrote to Father that even though his sorrow was deep, he felt that they must take care of their own health and that Father must not grieve over the loss, but must turn his attention to bettering himself, since her death was final and she could not return to life. It was not until 7 November 1899 that Ping Lam was able to communicate with Father expressing his heartache over his mother's death and his inability to go to school for a whole week. Father became concerned about his brother's depression and when he acknowledged a letter of condolence from a schoolmate, Kong Ying Chi, he asked this friend to comfort Ping Lim.\n\nThe second event was the Honolulu Chinatown fire on 20 January 1900. In December 1899, bubonic plague had broken out sporadically among the Chinese in Honolulu, three of whom were friends of the family. Grandfather wrote to Father that Chiu Ngin Sin, who had moved to Wing On Tai from next door Yuen Chong, to obtain medical attention, had died on the 8th and was buried the next day. Ah An E, a son of Chan Hoy, died unexpectedly on the 24th. On the 27th Dai Joong\n\n, a son of Chan Jok San Mf, died and when the autopsy showed that he had had the plague, his body was cremated. The Board of Health had ordered the area quarantined, neither people nor goods were permitted to enter or leave. Not only was the home set afire but also other residences and old buildings to prevent the spreading of the disease. After a week, the quarantine was supposed to have been lifted, but Father received a brief letter dated 18 January 1900 from Grandfather, written on a piece of wrapping paper, stating that his residence had been condemned to be burned and they all would be moving outside the area to live. He added that Sung Jarn was also condemned and that Aunt Yim's husband who worked there would have to leave with his family according to regulations. Grandfather assured Father that he was well and that there was no need for concern.\n\nPage 165\n\nPage 166", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211489, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1988", "page_number": 205, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "181\n\nproceeding to New York to see Sarra Sam. While she and I were on a sight-seeing trip to Coney Island, we were bombarded with the exciting news of the end of the Second World War. We immediately returned to Chinatown where there was already great rejoicing. After a return visit with Dora and her family, and a short one with Mrs. Johnson, I left San Francisco on the Monterey for Honolulu, arriving home on 5 December, 1945.\n\nIn April 1946 I was briefly seconded to the American Red Cross to interview victims of a huge tidal wave that swept the islands and claimed a number of lives. I was assigned to the island of Molokai, where I found that those with losses were mainly Hawaiians leading a simple life of agriculture and fishing along the seacoast.\n\nOut of the clear sky in 1947, I was invited to apply for a scholarship from the Honolulu Chapter of the National Foundation of Infantile Paralysis under the chairmanship of Mr. Riley Allen. I had been recommended by Miss Mary Cattan, Director of Social Services at Queen's Hospital, who had given assistance to Ruth during her hospitalization. It was a generous grant and the only condition was that I would return to serve the community for two years. Accepted by the New York School of Social Work, Columbia University, during the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower. I studied there from March 1947 to August 1948 for a Master of Science in Social Work degree. My field work was at the Presbyterian Hospital and my thesis was \"An Explanatory Study of Thirty Poliomyelitis Patients Having Social and Emotional Difficulties”, patients selected from the Poliomyelitis Research Project, Department of Rehabilitation and Physical Medicine, New York University, Colleges of Medicine, at Bellevue Hospital, under the direction of Miss Mary C. Jarrett.\n\nI lived with Sarra Sam on 135th Street, between Riverside Drive and Broadway. She also shared her apartment with her sister Esther and with a friend from Fresno, Eunice Ma. Although the apartment was small and crowded, we managed to have some enjoyable gatherings there. We had many visitors from Hawaii: Ching Wan and his son Edmund; B. Y. and Mary Kamin Wong; Dr. F. H. Tong and his wife; and Bernard Young. Lillian Louis, Charlotte Wong and Jean Shigemura, all studying at Columbia, often shared our pleasantries. Dr. John Kometani, after", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 } ]