Kwan Ngau entered the United States at Seattle on 31 July 1927 on the S.S. Princess Marguerite. He was 21 years old and was born in Singapore. He was employed by the Mandarin Theatre Troupe in San Francisco, California. As with most actors, he was allowed a temporary stay of 12 months and a $1,000 bond was taken out to assure that he would not overstay his allotted time in the United States.
His photo as a soldier was most likely for one of his acting roles. He returned to China in July 1928. Kwan Ngau also had a membership card from the Mandarin Theatre Troupe. It contained a less flattering photo, his name, date and port of arrival, name of the steamer, immigration serial number, and stated that he was bonded by Union Indemnity Company.
[Many actors came to the United States especially for World Fairs. Their files usually do not contain much information. Earlier files do not even contain a photo. None of the actors who came for the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition in Seattle in 1909 had photos in their files. See Chinese Community at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909 ]