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Historical Record of Chinese Americans | The Queen of Nuclear Research and the Chinese Madame Curie, Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu (吳健雄)

1 Comment / English Articles, People/人物

Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu (1912-1997) was an experimental physicist who is best known for her work on the Manhattan Project in WWII. She helped two colleagues win the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957 based on the Wu Experiment. She was both the first Chinese American to be elected into the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and was the first female president of the American Physical Society. She was also the first living scientist to have an asteroid (2752 Wu Chien-Shiung) named after her. Her awards include the National Medal of Science by President Ford in 1975.

Her birth centenary was celebrated in her hometown of Liuhe(浏河镇), Taicang City(太仓市) in Jiangsu Province (江苏省) in 2012. Her tombstone bears the inscription “Forever Chinese/永恒的中华气质.​​”

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Historical Record of Chinese Americans ǀ Lost Jewels– The Woman on the Shores of Walker Lake

English Articles, People/人物

ABSTRACT
Ah Cum Kee (1876 – 1929) was a second-generation Chinese woman. At age ten, she was left behind when her prosperous parents decided to return to China when anti-Chinese sentiment swept Carson City, her birth place.  When she was fourteen, she got married and moved to Hawthorne, a railroad hub where she became a homemaker and a restaurant/boarding house operator. With few Chinese people in her vicinity, Ah Cum not only intermingled with local European immigrant families but also befriended Native American Paiute tribe members.  When her husband died in 1909, she continued to manage the family vegetable farm as the first Chinese American female farmer in Nevada.

 Compared with her contemporaries, Ah Cum took an active role to assimilate into Euro-American society, and enjoyed the fruits of her efforts.  She devoted her life to pursuing a brighter future for her six children, led them into different cultures, and encouraged them to engage in the mainstream society.  Under her influence, a daughter bravely broke the inter-racial marriage barrier, and two of her sons joined the US army, fighting in both WWI and WWII. The path she trailblazed exemplifies the gradual but successful transformation from a Chinese person living in America to becoming a Chinese American.

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Historical Record of Chinese Americans | Aiming for the Sky – First Chinese hydroaeroplane Designer

English Articles, Honor & Duty/荣誉和责任

In the history of aviation development in the early-20th century, Tom Gunn was one of the greatest Chinese aviation pioneers. He was the very first Chinese individual who achieved the “FAI – Fédération Aéronautique Internationale” license. He not only created a new type of hydroaeroplane, but also won the international award. 

In order to revitalize Chinese aviation industry, American-born Tom Gunn crossed a long journey to China to follow Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s revolution to overthrow the feudal warlords.

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Historical Record of Chinese Americans | The Second Decade of the Chinese Exclusion Act

2 Comments / Chinese Exclusion Act/排华法案, English Articles

By 1892, measures such as the Geary Act required all Chinese residents in the United States to carry “certificates of residence” or “dog tags,” as the Chinese community tended to call them. When the Chinese Exclusion Act entered its second decade, with the support of the Chinese government and the Six Companies (the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association in San Francisco, California), many Chinese immigrants began organizing to resist the enforcement of the law. The brave efforts of average Chinese Americans turned out to be one of the largest mass civil disobedience movements in US history.

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Historical Record of Chinese Americans | Seventy-year struggle: Fighting Against School Segregation

1 Comment / English Articles, Legal Battle/维权

In 1884, Mamie, then eight years old, was denied admission to the Spring Valley School, because of her Chinese ancestry. Her parents sued the San Francisco Board of Education. On January 9, 1885, Supreme Court Justice McGuire handed down the decision in favor of the Tapes. After the decision, the San Francisco school board established a separate school system for Chinese and other “Mongolian” children. Only 69 years later in 1954, racially segregated public schools were ruled out by the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education.

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Historical Record of Chinese Americans | Lau Sing Kee, Chinese-American Hero of the First World War

1 Comment / English Articles, Honor & Duty/荣誉和责任

Lau Sing Kee (1896-1967), a World War One hero who served in the 77th Division of US Army, was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the French Croix de Guerre. Although he was the first Chinese American to be decorated for his bravery in war, Lau Sing Kee is not even well-known in Chinese American Communities. Stevie Wonder, however, has immortalized him in his song “Black Man.” The lyrics are, “Who was the soldier of Company G who won high honors for his courage and heroism in World War 1? Sing Kee – a yellow man.”

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Historical Record of Chinese Americans | Chinese American Figure: Queen of Silver State – Our Missy Wah

1 Comment / English Articles, People/人物

Wah’s story not only reflects the struggles, contributions and achievements of female Chinese immigrants of her generation, but also it reflects the acceptance and the support from her kind-hearted community. Gue Gim Wah made the Prince-Castleton area her home; she was and still is the pride of that community.

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Historical Record of Chinese Americans | Chinese Americans Challenging the “Racial Quota”

English Articles, Legal Battle/维权

In 1994, a lawsuit was filed by the Asian American Legal Foundation against the San Francisco Unified School District (Ho v. San Francisco Unified School District), challenging the use of a “racial quota” to restrict the school admission of Chinese Americans. This case successfully ended the practice of applying a “racial quota” in student admissions to K-12 schools. In accordance with this ruling, the San Francisco Unified School District adopted the “diversity index” instead of the “racial quota” in 2001.

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