Category Archives: Form of Chinese Certificate

Chi Che Wan – Chinese biochemist and college professor

Form of Chinese Certificate, Return Certificate, Return Permit, Section 6 Student, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

In April 1931, Wang Chi Che 王季茝 (Chi Che Wang) was applying for a Return Permit so she could attend the annual meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology in Montreal, Canada. Wang Chi Che’s file contains a Form of Chinese Certificate from 1907 when she originally arrived in the U.S.as a Section 6 student. A photo was attached and the document was signed by M. P. Boyd, American Vice Consul General in Charge, Shanghai, China.

Black and white portrait of a woman with an elegant hairstyle, wearing a high-collared blouse. The image is enclosed in an oval border, with a small round object in the top left corner.
Wang Chi Che (Chi Che Wang), Chinese Exclusion Act case files, Record Group 85, National Archives-Seattle, Box 908, File 7032/1000.

Wang Chi Che had the documents she needed to enter Canada temporarily in 1931 but was applying for the documents she would need to reenter the United States after she attended the meeting. She planned to go by way of Detroit, Michigan.

In February, Thomas Thomas, District Director of Immigration in Cincinnati, wrote to the Immigration office in Seattle asking them to furnish a landing record of Miss Chi Che Wang. She arrived as a sixteen-year-old student on the SS Minnesota in August or September 1907. She had not left the country since she arrived.

The Seattle office sent a summary of the 6 March 1931, six-page interrogation of Chi Che Wang.:

  1. She was born in Soo Chow, China on 30 October 1891 and was admitted to the U.S. as a student in August 1907.
  2. Attended Walnut Hills Boarding School in Natick, Massachusetts to improve her English, then Wellesley College.
  3. Employed as head of the Department of Biochemistry at Michall Reese Hospital in Chicago from April 1920 to April 1930.
  4. Did biological research work at the Marine Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts
  5. Taught biochemistry in the Department of Home Economics at Chicago University.
  6. Since December 1939, employed as Senior Fellow, in charge of the Department of Metabolism of the Pediatric Research Foundation in Cincinnati, receiving a salary of $4,500 a year.
  7. Member of Honorary Scientific Society of Sigma Psi, American Chemical Society, American Society of Biological Chemists, Society of Experimental Biology and Medicine, and Institute of Medicine-Chicago section.
  8. Speaks English fluently and idiomatically.

Information in Chi Che Wang’s interrogation that was not included in the summary:
1. Living at 825 Locust Street in Cincinnati, Ohio.
2. Her sister, Chi Tsau Wang, a Theology student, was living at the International House in Berkeley, California.

After a review of Chi Che Wang’s documents in 1931, a Return Permit was issued to her.
A Reentry Permit was issued to her in 1939 with no additional paperwork.

For more information on Chi Che Wang go to:
Wikipedia
Wellesley College/Alumnae Corner/Chi Che Wang (1914)
AWIS (Association for Women in Science)
Galter Health Sciences Library & Learning Center

Thank you Andrew Sandfort-Marchese, for calling this file to my attention.

Li Kuo Ching – Chinese Financier Arrives in Seattle – Destination NYC

diplomatic passport, Form of Chinese Certificate, head tax, Letters of recommendation, Newspaper article, Section 6 Traveler, Witnesses, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Li Kuo Ching (K. C. Lee 李國欽) received his Section Six certificate issued by Edwin S. Cunningham, Commissioner for Foreign Affairs, American Consulate-General, Shanghai, China, on 5 January 1926. His class status was “Traveler.” He was traveling with his wife, Grace Kuo Li, age 26 and their children, Majorie [sic], Mildred, Kuoching Jr., and Marie.

Li graduated as a mining engineer in 1914 from the Royal School of Mines of London University. He completed one year post graduate course before becoming the director of Hunan Mining Board, Changsha, China in 1915. He was president of Wah Chang Trading Corporation in Shanghai from 1916 to 1920. The company had branch offices in Tientsin and in the Woolworth Building in New York City. Li was going to visit the office in New York and return to China within six months. His expenses would be paid for by the company. He was worth about $750,000 Mexican and had an income of $25,000 a year. He had letters of recommendation from M.D. Currie, vice-president of the International Banking Corporation, S. C. Chu, P. V. Jui, David Z. T. Yui, F. R. Sanford, Jr., and J. B. Sawyer. F. W. Schmid and M. D. Currie were also witnesses for Li.

Li Kuo Ching 1916
“Li Kuo Ching, Form of Chinese Certificate,” 1916, Chinese Exclusion Act case files, RG 85, National Archives-Seattle, Li Kuo Ching case file, Seattle Box 236, file 4725/3-4.

Li Kuo Ching’s was first admitted to the U.S. at San Francisco in 1916. He presented his “Form of Chinese Certificate” with his photo attached and signed by the Consul General of the U.S.A. It gave his date of birth as K.S. 16-9-24 (November 6, 1890).
In 1920 Li arrived on a diplomatic passport and the head tax was not assessed. T. S. Pierce, Immigrant Inspector, wrote a letter of introduction to Henry R. Monroe, immigration inspector in Seattle for Li’s wife, Mrs. Grace Kuo Li. She was taking the train from Santa Barbara, California to Seattle on her way to meet her husband in Victoria or Vancouver, British Columbia. Mrs. Li was staying at the El Mirasol Hotel in Santa Barbara.
The file contains an undated newspaper article from The [Seattle] Post-Intelligencer, ca. 1926, with a photo of Li. The headline is, “Li Luo-Ching, Prominent Chinese Financier, Here; Youthful Marvel of Celestial Kingdom Pays Visit to City With Wife En Route to New York from Orient.
[Volunteers Lily Eng brought this file to my attention and Hao-Jan Chang provided the Chinese characters for Li Kuo Ching’s name.]