Recently Spencer Cheng of Los Angeles found a CEA blog post for his relative, Clement Joe, from the Mississippi Delta. This discovery got Spencer interested in finding other files on relatives. He has visited several National Archives branch facilities and obtained files on thirty-two family members.
This month’s blog entry is for Wong Kuen Hue. Wong Kuen Hue’s parents were Spencer’s great grandparents. Wong Kuen Hue’s father, Wong Hong Ping, was trying to send Wong Kuen Hue and his sister, Wong Lie How, to live with Jung Wing Chong, a merchant in New Westminster, British Columbia, because their mother was hospitalized after a still birth. Jung Wing Chong was the husband of the children’s older sister, Wong Lin Heung.
This 1909 photo is of Wong Kuen Hue and his family. He was about one year old at the time. The notation on the photo says “applicant and Father and Mother and sisters.” The kids are playing with a toy consisting of a long stick with an attached mechanical butterfly and a wheel so it could be pushed. The wings of the butterflies probably flapped up and down.
Wong Hong Ping started getting the paperwork completed for the children’s trip to Canada. Wong’s December 1914 affidavit includes photos of himself and two of his children, Wong Kuen Hue, born March 1908, and Wong Lie How, February 1913. Both were both in California. Wong Lai How’s birth certificate is included in the file.
Wong Hong Ping was interviewed a month later. He testified that he had three sons by his first wife before she died, and six children by his second wife, Jeng Shee.
Witness R. S. Fletcher, president of the Bank of Watsonville and the Watsonville Savings Bank, swore in an affidavit that he had been a resident of Watsonville for more than forty years, knew Wong Hong Ping for six years, that Wong was the manager of Wong Yee Kee Co., and that Wong and his wife Jung Him were the parents of Wong Kuen Hue and Wong Lie How.
A Form 430, Application of Alleged American-Born Chinese for Preinvestigation of Status, for each child, with their photo, is included in the file. A document dated in March 1915, tells that the children, Wong Kuen Hue and Wong Lie How, born in Walnut Grove and Watsonville, California, respectively, and were being detained by Canadian immigration officers at Vancouver, B.C. pending an investigation regarding evidence that their father was a merchant or if there was some other accepted classification by the Canadian Chinese Exclusion laws that would allow the children to be admitted to Canada.
The children were staying in New Westminster, B. C. with Jung Wing Chong, a merchant and the husband of their older sister. Their father wanted them to go to school where both Chinese and English were taught. Although the children were issued a Form 430 by Immigration in San Francisco, and their father was a merchant in the United States, they had no status entitling them to admission under Canadian Chinese Exclusion law. The children were detained in Vancouver but released on bond pending arrangements for their return to their home in the United States. They received their “Action Sheet, Departure” forms in February 1915. They were returned to the U.S. in April 1916, accompanied by their brother-in-law, Jang Wing Chong, were admitted and received their certificates of identity.
The children were staying in New Westminster, B. C. with Jung Wing Chong, a merchant and the husband of their older sister. Their father wanted them to go to school where both Chinese and English were taught. Although the children were issued a Form 430 by Immigration in San Francisco, and their father was a merchant in the United States, they had no status entitling them to admission under Canadian Chinese Exclusion law. The children were detained in Vancouver but released on bond pending arrangements for their return to their home in the United States. They received their “Action Sheet, Departure” forms in February 1915. They were returned to the U.S. in April 1916, accompanied by their brother-in-law, Jang Wing Chong, were admitted and received their certificates of identity.
The next document in Wong Kuen Hue’s file is a report dated February 1932. It states the Wong had a Vancouver file #2116, San Francisco file #12017/30030, San Pedre file #30160/2, and that he visited New Westminster, Canada, once and China twice. He was issued a U.S. passport in 1921, cancelled in 1924, and spoke English fluently without any Chinese accent.
His 1932 sworn statement in his file states his American name was Frank Wang. His parents moved back to China and his mother died there. Under Chinese and American rites he married Liang Pei Yee, also called Mabel Ling. She was living in Shanghai, China with their son and daughter. He answered many more questions about his siblings. When he returned to the U.S., he worked for Dr. Bewster in the circulation department of the Evening Herald (probably in Los Angeles). He thought he would be working in the movies at MGM Laboratory, but it didn’t work out. He was applying to go back to Shanghai and thought his house there was probably destroyed by the Japanese.
There is no document in the file that tells when or if he left for China.