Odyssey of a Taishan American

By James L Eng

The use of coaching books systematically deceived the American immigration system during the years following the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Follow Jim’s life as an eight-year-old immigrant from Taishan whose diligent memorization of false identities, dates and places erased all memories of his boyhood in China. After facing language difficulties and isolation during assimilation and education, he eventually achieves academic success. But then he must overcome the institutional racism of the 1950s, and reaches the plateau of middle class America during the Cold War. He finds himself oddly suited to the silence and secrecy shrouding his work with the military and NASA. But despite having lived the American Dream, he sees the world as a Chinese American in a racist society. Mr. Eng completed this memoir at the age of 95. He attributes his health, long life, and success to his beautiful wife Lan.

• Language: English
• Publisher: LifeRich Publishing
• Release date: Dec 28, 2018
• ISBN: 9781489720696

James L Eng

James Leigh Eng worked for the U.S. Government during the Cold War as an electronic engineer in many civil service assignments like the secret Stanely R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex near Minot, ND, and at NASA as an aerospace technologist during the Apollo project.

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Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, blaming cheap Chinese labor as one cause of the economic recession in the United States during the 1870’s. This was the nation’s first immigration law. Its intention was to stop all labor class Chinese from entering the U.S. To circumvent the law, American Chinese used a citizenship provision beginning in 1855 stating that a child born overseas of an American father was by birthright an American citizen. The practice required American Chinese to go to China for a visit, and upon his return claim that he had married and left his wife and children behind. The longer the visit was, the greater the number of children he might have. The scheme was quickly recognized, as most travelers returned from one of only four counties in southern China: Taishan, Xinhui, Kaiping and Enping of Guangdong Province, approximately 40 miles west of Hong Kong. For simplicity, the four counties were referred to as Taishan. Our ancestral home was in Fook Lim Village occupied by an Eng Clan in the northeast section of Taishan County.

In 1983, during my second trip to China, I had the chance to visit the village. It was my first time to see it since 1931, which was the year I left for America. I was eight years old.

Fook Lim means enchanted forest. The village was lined by trees on the west, north, and east sides - with a small grove of bamboo in the northeast corner. There were about 40 houses built with brick walls inside and out. Near the southeast corner of the village was a seven-storey tower encircled by an eight-foot high concrete wall. Some distance to the east was a river with a dam that provided fishing and swimming. Fook Lim was in District 49, one of the many districts that comprise the county. The nearest country market, named Fifty Market, was officially in the adjacent District 50 and was situated one half of a mile southwest of Fook Lim. Fifty Market also served as a train station, serving the railroad that ran from Guangzhou, the capitol of Guangdong Province, to the centrally located Taishan City. Travelers from our village going to the U.S. would take the train from Fifty Market to Guangzhou, then southward to Hong Kong. After Hong Kong fell to the Japanese in 1941, the Japanese removed the train tracks to be used as materiel in their war effort.

There were about 100 villages in Taishan County. Each village had a designated area for farming. There was absolutely no outside employment. To find work, villagers had to migrate to a foreign country.

Ng Ming Sun, my grandfather, went to Mexico as a teenager sometime in the late 1890’s. He worked in Mexico for a few years then returned to China, married, and began a family. His first child was my father, Ng Sit Khey. He left the village again and voyaged to Mexico for the second time, where he eventually became determined to somehow gain entry into the United States. His first attempt to cross the U.S. border illegally ended in his capture and deportation back to China. While again at home in our family village, a second son was born and was named Ng Sit Pon. Following this stay, he returned to Mexico a third time to attempt the border crossing, now a wiser and more cautious young man.

He entered the U.S. by crossing the Mexico and California border as an undocumented alien and made his way to Watsonville, California where several other clan members from his village were already settled. To protect himself and to establish residency, he purchased documents that gave him a useful, although false, identity.

At 5:12 A.M. on Wednesday April 18, 1906 a powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.8 on the Richter scale hit San Francisco and the Northern California coast along the San Andreas Fault. Aftershocks and subsequent fires destroyed many buildings including City Hall and its records - including birth certificates. After that event, many Chinese men claimed that their personal documents had been lost in the 1906 catastrophe. Some Chinese no doubt lost their records then but many of those claiming such losses were exploiting the event.

A man named Ng Men succeeded with his claim. He came to the U.S. in 1900 at age 14 as a student, a documented alien, which allowed him to travel to China and return. Grandfather bought Ng Men’s documents to be protected from deportation as an undocumented alien and for his future travel to China. The immigration service was not able to phonetically write our family name so Ng was used. We later added an E to make it ENG.

Chinese immigrants arriving in San Francisco in the late 1890’s and early 1900’s were detained in a warehouse on the dock. They were kept three weeks or longer for interrogation to be admitted or rejected. In 1907, the U.S. government decided to build an immigration facility on Angel Island. The immigration station was completed in 1909 and opened for service in 1910.

A young man named Wong Don came to Watsonville in 1908. He was actually an Eng, the son of one of Grandfather’s cousins from our village. At some social gatherings, old railroad workers would reminisce that Mexicans in Texas treated the Chinese as equals and that San Antonio had a sizeable Mexican population. Wong Don left Watsonville in 1910 returning to China to be married. He came back in 1912 with his wife and a baby girl. From Angel Island, the three of them went to San Antonio, Texas.

Wong Don started a bakery on the west side of San Antonio and found quick success. He opened a grocery store next and had the same success. News of Wong Don’s good fortune spread to our village and encouraged many of our relatives to go to San Antonio.

Grandfather worked diligently and became a partner in a fruit drying plant in Watsonville. As an established merchant legally residing in the U.S., he planned to bring his two sons to the U.S. - the first of which was my father in 1916. In San Francisco he contacted a clan member for assistance, Mr. Ng Yee Yan, who worked for a Chinese newspaper. He took Grandfather to an immigration service agency to coordinate the entire process. The agency was part of an import-export company with contacts in Hong Kong. Grandfather was told that my father would come as the third son of a Chinese American named Ng Ming Schuck, an American citizen.

Ng Ming Schuck was born in Seattle, Washington in 1879. He was taken by his family to China in 1887, returning to the U.S. in 1903. Now age 24, he claimed that he was married and that he left his wife and four sons in China. The immigration service recorded the names and birthdays of the four sons on an Immigration Service Form 2602 and placed it in Ming Schuck’s file.

In August of 1913, Ming Schuck went to China a second time. Returning in July 1915, he claimed he left a fifth son in China. He then had five sons on paper. To the Chinese the children were known as paper sons and Ming Schuck was a paper father.

Ming Schuck’s first paper son named Ng Gim Foon came to the U.S. on December 6, 1915. He processed through Angel Island without any problem. Ng Gim Foon was from our village, the son of Grandfather’s cousin. The second son’s immigration slot named Ng Gim Pang was already sold. My father became the third paper son, named Ng Gim Toon. Having been assured of the situation, Grandfather paid the fee to the agency and returned to Watsonville.

The agency arranged for the number 2 son and my father to come together. Coaching books were prepared for the two boys to memorize before coming to the U.S., containing all questions and answers expected during the interrogation at Angel Island. Later the agency had a lawyer notify the immigration service of the two boys’ pending arrival. The boys arrived on October 31, 1916.

At Angel Island on November 4, Gim Pang was required to answer 73 questions, and my father was asked 83 questions in the same afternoon. A transcript of the two boys’ questions and answers was sent November 6 to Buffalo, N.Y. On November 17, Ming Schuck was questioned more extensively with 114 questions. As with the two boys, questions pertained to relatives and neighbors back in the village, their education, ages, marital status, names of children and so forth. Gim Pang and my father were admitted into the U.S. on November 23, 1916. Father went directly to San Antonio.

My father, as a fifteen year old, had to go to school for three years. To earn money he worked each evening after school in the stores and businesses of relatives from his village.

Grandfather later purchased paper so his second son Sit Pon could travel to America. Documents were bought from a man who claimed to have been born in Hawaii who owned a slot for a son named Ng Jack Sam.

Uncle Jack Sam, on September 13, 1921 was processed through Angel Island as a son of native as registered with the U.S. Immigration Service. He traveled directly to San Antonio where he began working on behalf of the family.

By 1922 it had been nearly twenty years since my grandfather left China. It was also time that my father returned to China for marriage in order to begin his family. For any Chinese in America at this time, especially a non-citizen, who wanted to leave the States and return later, a somewhat complicated documenting process was mandatory. Before leaving the U.S., each person was required to apply for a Return Certificate which for Grandfather was a Form 431, declaring his Student/Merchant status.

Since his successful entry into America in 1916 as a son of native, my father qualified for Form 430 as a citizen. Both forms authorized the issuance of a Return Certificate for each man.

Father’s Form 430 and Grandfather’s Form 431 had this last statement: Upon his return to this port and his identification as the person to whom this paper thus approved is delivered, he will be permitted to re-enter the United States unless pending such return it has been found that his claim is false.

Because of the last statement both Form 430 and 431 were referred to as Return Certificate.

But before either man received the document, he was subjected to another lengthy interrogation. His answers to those questions were then compared to his answers on file that were given in previous sessions sometimes many years earlier. This process was mandated to occur before the return certificate could be issued to the applicant. The forms validated the legal status of the applicant for their residency in America upon return from China. The Immigration Service created these forms specifically for use only by Chinese travelers who planned to leave the States and return at a later date as had become common practice during the Exclusion Era. Its owner guarded the precious Certificate securely, for without it there would be no re-entry into the States. My father applied for a Certificate on December 21, 1921. San Antonio Immigration Service officials interrogated him on January 2, 1922 and his Form 430 Certificate was approved on January 28, 1922. Prior to my father’s interrogation, the San Antonio Immigration office obtained the files of his paper father and four paper brothers from the San Francisco office. Those files contained past and current data. On January 2, 1922, my father was asked 191 questions. He was required to draw a sketch of the location of the five houses in the village and was questioned on each occupant, their name, age and marital status. That information was compared with the sketch and data he made in 1916 when he came to the U.S.

My grandfather applied for a Certificate on January 24, 1922 and he was questioned on January 26, 1922 at Immigration Service office in Watsonville. His Form 431 was approved on January 31, 1922. He had submitted papers for re-entry as an applicant for return certificate as a domiciled merchant which was one of the few exceptions written into the Exclusion Act. Grandfather claimed merchant status as a partner in the Song Yuen Fruit Company of Watsonville, CA. The process involved in establishing these credentials was complex and costly.

An interesting element in the complicated immigration procedure was that two white U.S. citizen witnesses were also required to vouch for the credibility of Grandfather’s claims of merchant status.

In his case, the paperwork showed that his title in the Song Yuen Company was superintendent of the fruit drying equipment for which he was paid $500 per year. Another Q&A further shows he did no actual labor like preparing or lighting the fires in the drying ovens. Instead he supervised the flow of fuel into the dryers, which made him a manager rather than a worker. The two white witnesses were also local businessmen in Watsonville who dealt with the Chinese.

These various documents were all notarized and handled by an attorney, paid for by the applicant. Some of the information was falsified in order to establish the required status by the Exclusion laws’ strict codes. The manipulation of the system was the way in which many Chinese immigrants were compelled to perform due to the unfair laws that did not apply to any other ethnic group at that time.

On February 21, 1922 Grandfather and Father left America for the return to China so that Grandfather could build a family home suitable for his eventual retirement. For Grandfather, building a retirement home had been a major part of his agenda from the beginning of his time in America. That plan had always been to save money by working for several years, then return to the ancestral village and build his home. Grandfather selected a lot in the northeast corner of the village, next to the grove of bamboo trees. The house followed the villages’ standard floor plan for a 2-story home. Construction was quick as there were many unemployed men in the area. In the meantime, my father had adequate time to canvas the neighboring villages for his bride. From a nearby Lee village he selected a 17-year old named Lee Mee Fong. My parents were married on May 16, 1922. Dates used during the immigration period were made up to fit the situation. Also, the Chinese used dates on the Chinese calendar, which was based on a different calculation. That is why Chinese New Year is in February or late January each year. For immigration reasons that I do not understand, it was decided that I was my father’s first son, born on May 30, 1923, and Sit Bong was born later on June 2, 1924. Because Grandfather was permanently registered with the Immigration Service as an unmarried merchant, he could not officially claim children. A decision was made that his new son, Sit Bong, would be claimed by my father as his paper son. About then my mother was pregnant with me.

A few months later, I was born and named Ng Gim Ngew. Because Grandmother had bound feet, it was decided that my mother must remain home to care for the older woman until such time as a younger daughter-in-law became available. After Grandfather and Father left for the U.S. in October of 1923, terrifying news circulated in our county. There were rumors of lawless bands slowly moving south terrorizing the villagers for money, one village at a time. Our village decided to build a fortress tower in 1924 to retreat into when a gang approached our area. To reserve a place