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Connie Young Yu - Part 2 of 2

Date: February 23, 2023
Interviewer: Yvonne Kwan, Ellina Yin, Victoria Taketa
Interviewee: Connie Young Yu (2 of 2)

Transcript of Connie Young Yu

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Systems & Power Timeframe 00:00 >> 10:22

So I'm frequently asked, you know, how long have you been here? How long has your family been here? When I talk about the Chinese working on the railroad and the building, the Transcontinental railroad railroad, I always say I'm fourth generation because my [maternal] great grandfather, Lee Wong Sang, that's my mother's grandfather from the Lee Village in Toi San came in 1866 as a laborer. And I'm sure at the time he didn't know he was going to work on the railroad. They didn't know what they were going to work on. But once he got here and I must say Chinatown was established San Francisco, Chinatown, he first came to San Francisco, China. That's where they landed. So anyway, he he worked on the Transcontinental railroad for several years. He was very, very fortunate in that... he had some he must have been very skillful in learning languages because he picked up English and they made him a foreman, and he was able to work with the, you know, the white bosses. And that's, that's the story that I got from my my mother. And she's the carrier of the history and the culture for me.

And she's passed this down. So so my- Lee Wong Sang, so I was saying very fortunate, as I keep saying, coming so early before the exclusion law and also being able to survive, you know, the harsh conditions and go back to Chinatown, San Francisco, and be involved with the store... Guo Seng Wo, that's the name of the store it was, they had different places, was on Commercial Street when he was manager, but he, was, he saved up enough to be able to send for his wife, because he came when he was 18, 19 and then had him engaged and betrothed to to a young woman. And he was able to send for her and she was from the Chin family. And I have her picture as an elderly woman because my mother actually knew her and got some of the stories from her. So to make a long story short, my grandfather, my great grandfather and his wife had raised a family on Du Pont Guy, which is now Grand Avenue. And my [maternal] grandfather, their second son, was born in 1878, above a store on Du Pont Street.

And because he was born here and a son of a merchant, he he was... had, you know, a leg up and he was able to carry on his father's business. And he became an importer exporter and an agent for Levi Strauss. So so that was kind of a big deal. That's why we have so much documentation, because I have photographs with my grandfather, my mother's father, with Walter Haas and his brothers, you know, who was president of Levi Strauss. And so my grandfather went back and forth to, to China, you know, and you-- a San Francisco representing Levi Strauss and the Haas brothers. The Haas brothers had a grocery store before that. And then-- then he became a member of the China Trade Corporation. And, and then going back and forth, that was a big deal. And he he was given a big party by the Haas brothers. And we have this photograph of, you know, a farewell party because he was going there to live, you know, and and not be, you know, an agent anymore. So that's why my mother and her siblings went to China and that's how she became educated in Chinese, because my grandfather said there's no opportunity for it for for the next generation to be well-educated. They're in segregated schools and they're barred from some schools. And then the... We want them, if they're going to learn anything, they will learn Chinese literature, Chinese history, you know, but they're American citizens. So they were my mother was very was educated in, about China.

They were coming-- when my grandfather was was, was 42 years old. He, he had cancer. And on one of his trips to San Francisco... or actually, coming back from San Francisco, in 1922 in September, he died. He died on board ship. And it was, he was, it was quite a very, you know, devastating to the Chinese community who, who knew him. And, you know, he was involved with trade. And so my grandmother with her, all her kids, children, said there's no opportunity for a widow in in China and no opportunity for their education. There's no opportunity here. I'm going to go back to America. So this is a big story. The Angel Island story, my grandmother, a widow, coming in January 1924, during, just before the next immigration act would be passed, brings my mother, my mother's three sisters, and two brothers back to San Francisco. The children are allowed to land. My grandmother is, her paper said...You know, she's a has reentry permit and everything. They said right away, you're a widow? Your husband's not with you, you have no status. And there's a law that went for all women. You know, a woman loses the stature of her her husband in immigration, and I guess and a lot of other things.

So like my mother was taken off the ship, my grandmother, the children were allowed to land. They lived with relatives. It was a very tragic time. They were just stunned. My mother remembers the time when they were on board a ship and they could see San Francisco and they're jumping the the sisters are jumping up and down. They're teenagers. You know, they're so excited. We're home. We're home. We're home. And then then to be stopped and and to have that devastating thing happen. Anyway. So my grandmother was... there's a board of inquiry. And they said and they said, well, you know, you're going to you have to go to the hospital. The hospital, which is now a museum, you know, to be tested, you know. And then she was have a physical exam, which is very traumatic for a Chinese woman with bound feet. And, and then, you know, she was found to have a liver fluke. You know, there's a name for it. And that was one of the the diseases or ailments, afflictions that, you know, would send the person be deport all. And so many Chinese were deported because of that. It was a very common-- it's a parasite. And so she was going to be deported, the daughters, the elder daughter-- this my aunt, she was older I guess she was 18 or 19. My mother was 15. And so she went to the Haas Brothers; I guess the sisters went together to the the office of Walter Haas. I guess at that time he was with Levi Strauss. And he immediately said, I will have my my legal team take care of this. She'll be off in no time. I have the letters and and the the... the lawyer he had assigned was Charles Fickard, who became-- who was quite well known at the time.

And he wrote a letter in its address the envelope says "Angel Island" you know and "Wong Xi" she that you know, the identity of women… you know they didn't even have their her husband's name they just put her as Wong Xi as she and then they later just called her "the detained". You know [chuckles], and but she was. Wang Xi and then Mrs. Lee. So he redressed her and say, Mrs. Lee. We are very sorry that it seems inhumane that you'd be separated from her children. Some of the boys were young. There were six and four, you know, two of the brothers and. And so, to make a long story short, there was one appeal that was turned down. And then a second appeal, her case went to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. And finally she was released after 15 and a half months.

And during that time, the lawyer said, you know, this, she she was treated for the ailment and she was completely cured, saying this is a curable, this is not an incurable disease. It's just, you know, you know, it can be treated. It's an ailment. So anyway, she was finally released, but it was a traumatic experience and my mother never forgot it. She visiting her mother, you know, taking the ferry and bringing food with and seeing her mother for a few minutes in the in the administration building, which no longer exists. And then when they walked back to the dock, she and her sisters, they'd see the mother. The mother said, "Look for me on the second floor, I'll be waving to you from the window," you know. So that's the image that my mother had and gave to me. And it became part of the reason why I was so passionate about being involved with the, you know, the the the saving of the barracks.

First of all, you know, with Asia, the Asian, uh, what was it, the Angel Island Immigration Station Advisory Committee. That was our first group, and it was organized by Christopher Chow, a journalist who was what, 27 at the time. And maybe he was 23. Very, very young. I'm just saying the activists and I was young then, too, you know.

Systems & Power Timeframe 10:24 >> 17:50

(Interviewer) Did your grandmother ever talk about her experience?

No, she never did. She just look very sad. Didn't want to talk about she didn't even talk about the earthquake. You see, my grandmother experienced so much and heard so many stories, but she told them to my mother. Who told them to me. So I grandmother lived through the earthquake and that was a devastating and just the quick incident that goes back to establishing our citizenship. My grandfather, his big thing about being able to travel was that he had an American passport, he had American papers and they're they're huge. He has so much documentation. I have them. That he was born in the United States and that and yet he was questioned and stopped every time being Chinese. And the Haas brothers would always have to write letters saying, "No, yes, he's our agent and he's, you know, let him go." You know, and so so during the earthquake, my grandfather, when they were fleeing with my grandmother, who had a little baby that was my aunt was born in yeah, 1906. She was a month old. And she said, "Well, they're holding a month old baby." And and and her father-in-law, who is a railroad worker who took shepherded the family, my grandfather realized he left his papers, the birth certificate and everything in the store, and he runs back to the store to get it. He runs back and and he tells the family, go ahead. Go ahead. You know, And of course, they they make it somehow to the fair. I don't how my grandmother could walk with her bound feet, but. So my grandfather goes and goes toward the store and and gets his papers and and meanwhile, part of San Francisco was burning, but there was a militia out. So the soldier sees my grandfather and thinks he's a looter and bayonets him. So my grandfather falls over. He's holding his side and he pretends he's dead. And I knew this story ever since I was a kid and never told it until the centennial celebration of the earthquake in 2006.

And when I told it was for a panel in which there was somebody from Katrina, you know, we were talking about disaster. This was sort of a people symposium. It was at Commodore Stockton School, which was a community center then. So, and I just, when I said and the soldier saw my grandfather and he bayoneted him, and then the audience goes, "Ohhh!" like that there's a collective gasp. And I'm just like, and then the the woman next to me from Katrina, she was talking she was talking about how looters were apprehended and threatened with, you know, being shot during the Katrina. And they were trying to get water, you know, And so anyway, I made a connection, but it was really... So all of these stories in these documents, luckily, my parents saved them. And on my father's side, which I'll mention, you know, give evidence to this, like I have the birth certificate of my grandfather and a letter of introduction dated 1904, which is saved in this little pack. And he put in his “meen naap” [wool in Cantonese] jacket. You know, you know this, this is proof that it happened because these stories were never-- nobody would listen to it. And the-- you know, when they talk about the earthquake, they say the numbers are very small. It's like 500 and something that died in in the devastating 8.1 earthquake in San Francisco and fire? That's... they didn't count the people that died in Chinatown and the women that were in these cages or brothels in there. And the only reason why I know about that part, about the women, the trapped women, is because my mother told me, and she didn't know. I mean, she heard it from her mother because women talk to each other, you know, that there were women trapped. And nobody knows this, when I mentioned it again, you know, I just wanted to say, well, I was talking to another group about prostituted women. This was in Oakland. One of my friends, Dr. Melissa Farley, is the head of prostitution education, and she asked me to introduce her at a talk. And it was after a lot of police had found, you know, brothels, you know, women trapped. We're talking about what, 2010 or two, around that time, found, you know, what do you call it, you know, slave rings. And women-- and so that was a topic, not that these women were killed, but they were rescued. They were, you know, but I was making a connection again, and again when I mentioned that I'm laughing, I shouldn't be laughing when I mentioned that about these women being trapped and the fire and that, you know, they were they were lost, gone. There was this cold gasp. And I thought, "Oh, I guess I'm telling you something that people don't know about." Yeah. So that's my my kind of... activism, I guess, connection using history and bringing it to contemporary times, because it's not something that's going to be just in an archive.

Okay, So on my father's. Oh, you have a question? I love answering questions rather than my going off her.

(Interviewer) How old is your mother when she was separated from her grandmother when they took her.

She was 15.

(Interviewer) And during the earthquake?

And my mother wasn't born yet. She was born in 2008 [sic 1908]. Yeah. So she was separated for a long time. Yeah.

(Interviewer) To clarify, is that so your your grandfather was going to be? With your mother in China getting her education, and then your grandmother was with her where was traveling?

No, she was with her. The women did not travel with the husband. Oh no. And every time a woman would be interrogated, they always suspected her of being a slave girl or prostitute or for immoral purposes. And so my great grandfather was so lucky to be able to bring over his wife. And I guess before the Page Act [1875], and she was, this is oral history. She told my mother she was one of three women on that warship and there were all these men, but she had a special-- they were cabin. The women just bonded. They were terrified. And so these are, I mean, I'm just so fortunate, but I didn't know, involve these stories until I had to do something with them like with Angel Island and, of course, Hienlenville, you know, because, and the railroad, then they are, you bring all these stories like we have to give evidence, we have to give experiences. We have to give character and humanity to the people who endured these things. So, yeah, thank you for asking.

Narrative & Identity Timeframe 17:50 >> 26:34

So on my father's side, I'm third generation because and I've documented this in the book Chinatown, San Jose, USA. I put everything, every story. I think I could in there. My parents really wanted me to know this story, and they were so, um about my grandfather in particular, because this is why you're here. And so when I moved here and I'll tell you the story of why I'm here, I-- I've been in this house since 1970s, since September, and before that I'd be going to visit my parents from Santa Clara. You know, we lived there three years, you know, once a week. And my parents always wanted to tell me stories. They just had this feeling that I would be the one who'd carry on this history.

And they thought, well, they have to pass this on. They're not going to. Who knows when they'd be gone. And so and and also my mother was afraid she'd lose these memories. So and she heard these memories, stories, about San Jose because her mother her mother in law lived with her for 12 years. You know, we had a three-generation family which is just kind of wonderful. I mean, for me. So my my parents would come once a week and it was on a Wednesday when we lived here and they bring chow mein. And they said, "We're going to tell you the story," you know, And I have it in a notebook, you know, every chapter and and beginning with the names in Chinese. And we just have a wonderful time. And my father was, you know, he was a leader of Chinatown and, you know, part of Kan’s and and as you know, restaurants and head of well, the company Wing Nien Enterprise. And we had a branch called U.S. Enterprise which is development of certain buildings in San Francisco. So he was very busy. But this was starting his retirement. He just felt he had time to do this and he really wanted to. So I got the story beginning with how my grandfather came to San Jose.

So he came at the age of 11. Now, this story I heard ever since I was a kid because even from my grandfather, you know, when I was your age, I would do this. And, you know, when I was your age, I was getting ready to come to America. He came at the age of 11. And my father was the one when I was growing up who said, See, I was very fortunate, I guess fortunate I had this burden very early. I knew about the Chinese exclusion law because my father would say, "You're so lucky your father came. My father came at the age of 11. If he waited at the age of 12, the Chinese Exclusion Act would be passed and you wouldn't be here.” So my grandfather came as a laborer, but he wasn't from. This was later. This was 1881. It was. It was different. There are a lot more Chinese and there was already agitation against Chinese laborers.

They knew it'd be tough, but they they just felt they could keep on coming. And it was for Gum San [Gold Mountain in Cantonese] still. It was no longer, you know, for gold, actually, during the railroad time. It wasn't for gold, too. But there are still gold mining going on. There was silver mining. There was still a chance that you might be able to get riches from the soil. But he ended up working on the railroad. But that's the recruiting was specifically for the railroad. There were recruiters out there saying, "We need just groups of you, lots of you." So, you know, when people talk about Chinese as being, you know, in any labor situation as acting on their own or or.... they they always acted as a group; they always came with kinsmen. They so that's why when they organized they were together and then of course there were factions. But, you know, you have family units, you'd have cousin units, you'd have a clan unit, you know. So when my grandfather at the age of 11 came, he didn't come by himself. He came with an uncle who already had connections. And it wasn't a direct uncle it would be like a cousin uncle who said, I have a chance to bring, you know, somebody over because, you know, and and your son and of course, my grandfather wanted to come so badly. He had heard stories, see, from another relative who came to San Jose. See, San Jose was a huge draw for for workers because of agriculture. And there was a Chinatown established in the 1860s.

As we know, there were China camps all over Santa Clara Valley. So and my father. Well, there's okay, I have to tell you this, while I was doing this research with the second edition of my Chinatown book, I was working with Leslie Matsunaga again because we said, "We've got to update the the intro. We're going to talk about how the valleys are being taken over like by what it, was by... Intel." It was going to take over Coyote. I don't know if they've done it, but and that's Coyote was owned by Hienlen, but we were going to update it and she said, "Did you know there's a there is an oral history tape of your father from the Chinese historic site and is at De Anza College at the California History Center?" And she said, "I will get a copy made for you." She said, "It is amazing." And so I have the copy and we've--. And then, of course, the original is at the California History Center. And when I told it was taped by Phil Choi, the interview by Phil Choi, a team like you guys, Phil Choi, it was not filmed, Phil Choi, Mark Lai, H. Mark Lai, and Thomas Chin, who's the head of the Chinese Historical Site, they interviewed my father in San Francisco in 1968. And he begins by talking about San Jose and how my grandfather came, you know, but also he said, "There are ranches, there are huge ranches." And then he named the people own the ranches.

He says they're just huge. And then, you know, this shows you how nobody knows about this history. Mark Lai goes, "Oh, you mean were they flower growers?" He said, "No, you know, flower growers were 20th century. Said, though, this was, you know, not the 1800s, you know, when the Chinese came over early and they were workers on these farms." And some of them well, I don't know if he mentions Elisa's and he and he mentions he gives a story of John Heinlen and he actually said the story of how, you know, how he came back, how he was born in Hienlenville and he goes and how Heinlenville ended. And he said, he said, he said Heinlen loved the Chinese and the kids love the Chinese. He use the word love. And which kind of really surprised me. I hadn't this was in 2006 when I was doing the digging to Chinatown, you know, story. And I'm just sitting there trying to define. People always ask, "What's the motivation?" And they don't understand. They don't understand till you realize.

(Interviewer) So this tape is housed with the California history?

It's in the archives. And I have I have the cassette. It's reel to reel and CHSA said, like Sue Lee said, "How did they have it? Why did it end up there?" And I said, "I have no idea. I wasn't involved in that time."

(Interviewer) But now it's in your possession?

I have the copy copy, and I could play it on a cassette. And he said, he said and Hienlen's children love the Chinese too, but they weren't very good business people, you know. Of course. I mean, it was during the Depression and it's probably because he didn't they weren't able to collect rents and they weren't going to put the squeeze on the Chinese, you know. So and of course, there's no money.

Narrative & Identity Timeframe 26:31 >> 36:46

But okay, back to the history. So I'm third generation from my grandfather coming here at the age of 11 after the burning of Main Street Chinatown. He goes to San Francisco. He lives there for a while and he's able to come back to San [Jose]-- Hienlenville was starting to be established and it took him so long to be to save up enough money to be a partner in the store. He ended up buying out the other partner, so he was the sole proprietor of the store on Cleveland Avenue and as the sole proprietor of the store. He's a merchant. He's able to and there's a big you know, there's a system, he goes has to register the store and register himself as a merchant. He's in a different category for immigration, you know, and he's able to go back. But he and, he... to get my, my bring my grandmother back. But here's the other part of the story. He came a year before the Chinese Exclusion Act, and he was able to get, besides that, that's another certificate saying he was a laborer who came before the Exclusion Act. He had a reentry permit. So when he was in San Francisco, he had promised his father he'd come back after ten years to China. And he could not. He couldn't save up enough money. He was in San Francisco and, but he found out, he got a letter from his, written by his mother, by letter writer that he that his father had died. And he was so stricken; he just felt he was the worst son. And he he he said he wore sackcloth or his old clothes. He would not go to the opera anymore. And he mourned and he said he would come back. He would come back and his mother said, "You come back and I would I will find a wife for you." So he came back to China and he was, I guess, young twenties. And he, and they set him up with a woman, set him up.

It was an arranged marriage with my wonderful grandmother named Gum Gee, which means Golden Branch. And he had told my his mother, "Do not, do not engage me to a woman with bound feet because I want to bring her back to America," and which was just such a great dream. In America, women have to walk. They work. And he was very political at the time. And this is another part of the story that people should understand. The Chinese were not like, apolitical. You know. Just what do you call, worker bees? You know, they had ideals and aspirations. And most of the workers I met, all of them believed in that a revolution to overthrow the Qing Dynasty imperial rule, where they had to wear pigtails, you know.

So my my grandfather at that time was in a secret society supporting Dr. Sun Yat Sen who came to America to raise money. And, you know, so, so he had these ideals. And he, he was very he liked the woman that I guess he didn't meet her till they got married, but he trusted his mother. His mother was very unusual. She was a vegetarian. She's an which is she? When my grandfather came back from eating meat, she said, you just sleep outside tonight, you know? Yeah, She was a Buddhist. That's what she was. I shouldn't say, you know, she was a Buddhist. I'm sure they believed in eating fish. She because, you know, but so she the family was unusual, and they weren't super poor. She came from not from Toisan an area called Zhongsan, Heungsan, which later became Zhongshan in honor of Sun Yat Sen [Mandarin], Suen Zhong San [Cantonese]. So it was Huengsan, and it was closer to Macao, and it had a lot of of interchange with the West because they're closer to to Macao and Hong Kong. So they got a lot of news.

You know, it was just not like the total village. So okay. Anyway, so he married her, but he could not bring her back because she was an alien. There's all these restrictions. He could not bring her back. He and he lived there for two years. His wife, his mother goes, "Well, you're going to stay here and you're going to she's going to have a baby and you'll be sure to come back." But no children for two years. And he was so restless he had to come back to San Jose, and he came back. And when he came back, it was to Hienlenville to Chinatown.

(Interviewer) And he was still a laborer, right?

Yeah. He still had that status because he didn't buy into the store yet, and so he figured that was his plan. And so because of Hienlenville, Because of Hienlen, we were able to, and that's my roots. That's, you know, that became part of my sensibility, you know, understanding this history. Because which was so rooted in San Francisco, you know, that how important, you know, my roots are in my father's side of the family in San Jose and became sort of my, I would say, [laughs] my vocation or mission. A mission is to tell this history and how important because if it weren't for Hienlenville, my grandmother would not be able to come over here and my father would not be born. They would not be able to have a family because my grandfather was able to have a store, to be a merchant.

And, and the mailman. Here's another connection. The only other white person they see besides the night watchman was Frank Brown, the mailman who would deliver the letters. That's why the letter is so important in the back of my book to show that there was, you can just say Chinatown, San Jose, and the letter would get there. And so it took 14 years before my grandfather could come bring my grandmother over. It was so much red tape, so much trouble. And to make sure that he could bring, he was a merchant. And so yeah. And so.

(Interviewer) Saved money?

Well, he saved money and.

(Interviewer) Became, became a proprietor?

Yeah. Proprietor. Yeah. Sole proprietor, he bought, he bought out the other partner who went back to China, and he became the sole owner of the store, and but it was 14 years they were separated and my grandmother was in her thirties when she could. The papers came and her, even her mother-in-law said, "You're not going to have children. That's a big deal. Don't ruin his life. You know, you can, you know, get a divorce or something. You know, he can he can get a divorce and marry somebody in America and they could have children and we can keep our life." And my grandfather is a very loyal person, like, "Are you kidding?" You know? And another thing is, her clan was here, too. There'd be pressure. You know, there were was the Leung, Leung family. Not that they were rich or anything, but, you know, there's relatives. You don't act alone. The family unit is so important. That's why people do not understand that the Chinese community was had a culture and a society and, and a great bond. And as I said, there are factions and there are wars. But we're talking about the family unit and the belief, the Confucian unit, that you everything you do reflects on your family name. So anyway, my grandmother comes over and everyone's like, says she's not going to have children like she's 36-- nowadays, [laughter]. You know that. I know that my like my kids, you know.

And and so she has a son. This is my I guess when she was 34, my my uncle Ming Young, wonderful young man. And and a year later, like a year and a half later. But my father's born, so she has two sons and it's just like such a such a thrill in the village. They were all excited, very happy they were many pic-. That's why there's so many pictures. You send pictures back and then they would send some pictures, too. You know, it's just like it was just so that's that's how my family, my father got established. And the unfortunate the sad story is, you know, Uncle Ming was killed in 1937. He he went to China. He was helping China start the the Air force, the Chinese Air force, and born in the United States. Yeah. And so, so my father was the only surviving son and his story is he went to Stanford, and that was before it was hard to get into Stanford. A Chinese could get in, you know, I mean, and then it was a big story. They couldn't live in the dorms. That's another story.

Systems & Power Timeframe 36:46 >> 39:49

Everything I have talks of-- involves social justice in the struggle against social and, social injustice and racism in this society. And it connects, connects with and we keep making connections with other communities. Like, well, my father had Japanese American colleagues, friends and growing up in San Jose and that was the biggest irony that during camp, during camp, during the Executive Order 9066 you know, here suddenly my father and his friends were considered, you know, heroes. You know, I mean, there there's allies and then their classmates who looked the same, the same, you know, were sent off to.

Well, first they were they were, what were they, in in a holding area where some of their friends would go to try to throw food over the-- them and throw things to them and then sent to Heart Mountain? I mean, it was a big and then where is my father, you know, he's an but okay I think well during the executive order oh he was already, my father was already commissioned as an officer and he was going to... he was sent overseas, you know.

Oh he's already in. Yeah, was already on active duty. But I'm just saying symbolically, you know, that their families, the children, my father's younger classmates knew the kids were little kids that would be going, you know, so. So there was those stories and I had one of them in my book, Lani Quan, her brother, who was a teenager at the time, my father was already older with family and two kids, and we were in L.A., in Whittier.

But so here the scene is in Japantown where, you know, Lani Kwan's family is still lived. And she said her her brother's best friend was being taken off, taken to an area. It was at the stadium. They were all held. There was a fence, an area he ran with a big bag of cha siu bao. They probably got from Ken Yin Low and ran and and walked all the way and to try to throw it to his friend across a fence. And he got them, I mean, they they met, I guess somehow and because they were best friends I mean the separation Chinese and Japanese that this you know, these are these are stories. Anyway. Okay. That's that's the generation. And then I was born, you know.

Transformation & Change Timeframe 39:49 >> 46:18

Well, nowadays, the Chinese, they feel okay, we have an identity and we have assertive and we have economic power. So you have this thing about suddenly the Chinese are in a privileged class and they want every single stigma, you know, eliminated from their privilege and their their status. You know, it's just like they want to they just want to be seen as as Americans, you know, and Americans mean white. It really does, you know, because see white people don't think of themselves as identified as white. They think of themselves as people. You know, they just say and the Chinese for the longest time, I mean, my father's generation and some of my generation, they talk about themselves as being Chinese and a white people as being American. And my father would say, well, there'd be an American.

"Oh, he's an American that came by." And my father is the one who's who's with Chinese CACA and has been an advocate for all of these, you know, but it's just it just comes in. It's just part of the the language. So there's that. And I'm not quite sure about this whole thing with affirmative action. I know that there's been a real struggle, like when we talk about in San Francisco, Lowell High School, and the fact that the Chinese go this discrimination against us because, you know, again, that's it's a tough one because like CACA, which I'm, I'm sorry, Chinese for Affirmative Action, we're for affirmative action. We believe in affirmative action. And a lot of Chinese say we don't want affirmative action. We don't need it anymore. And that's kind of bad, right? You know, so so I guess the culture that we want to establish is that we're part of the struggle. And that's that's why I think of myself as an AAPI activist rather than, you know, a Chinese American activist.

You know, I do Chinese American history because that's my specialty. And I think all the roots of of this institutionalized discrimination goes back to Chinese, you know. So, yes, really, it's really unpleasant and it's very upsetting. It makes people like me very angry when I'm in certain situations with with Chinese. They just don't you know, this lack of... they just don't get it, you know. So anyway, this has sort of connect. I did get into the law cases. Yeah. Mhm.

(Interviewer) Do you think it's it's it's a lack of knowing your history here?

It is lack of knowing and also feeling it. Yeah. Yeah. I think that the difference that I have is emotionally I'm very involved because of my parents telling me these stories and, and they're very emotionally involved because their parents suffered so much and told them the story and wanted them never to forget. But I have so many friends in high school, you know, so many friends who came from actually working class. Like I went to Washington High and and I want to say, like, I have my friends and we'd be wearing they'd be wearing jade from their families to to school. You know, the little heart jade- I've talking about the 50s, you know, because their parents wanted them to be protected and they're, be the daughter of a laundry owner. And she and then when we talked about things, she'd be totally silent about, about anything with immigration, anything struggle. And then it turns out one of my friends she said, well, I'm actually a paper, you know, I'm a paper daughter, you know, And my family is not really, you know, say I won't even say Chinese names because there's a... so-and-so. I'm really a so-and-so. You know? And in fact, just just last week I had a reunion in my class with one of my a small mini reunion with my classmates from the Class of 59 at Washington High. And I can tell you, because he told me, Ken Jew, who is president of our class. You know, I asked him to write the Ju name and he wrote down his Chinese name. I go, That's pretty good. You can write your name. And then he goes, and here's my family name. He wrote down a different name. You know.

And so so I think that there's a lot of of and that has a lot to do with this this this sense of the perpetual alien. The Chinese feel it, and therefore they they don't want to talk about some of their struggles because if they do, they'll have to admit. And the thing is we say it's over now. It's over now. You know, you don't you can, there's a confession program. You can get back. You know, you can say this, you know, and and think of the people who came from Europe. They all have Ellis Island names. I had, the Greek names were shortened, You know, I know a friend of mine who was her last name was Janis, J-A-N-I-S. And she goes, it was really Janisopolis, you know. But when we came through Angel and they gave us a different name, so.

So we have to make these connections, you know, we're not So.. anyway that Chinese were discriminated against, but, but institutionalized. And we have a paper trail. So the, the paper son thing is, you know, you have these papers under false identity, but we always say it wasn't, you know, like Chris Chow when we did an article on Angel Island and he had a big chapter, it's called "Circumventing Unjust Laws." That's how they circumvented these laws were so unjust against Chinese. So they use this. They use the name of their cousin, their last name, but it was always somebody from their area. It wasn't like it was another country. It was, you know, it was. And they always, when they came, they'd have a connection to the job or something.

Narrative & Identity Timeframe 46:18 >> 49:36

What I want to say about even a recent connection. So after I talked about, you know, my grandfather being looted, being bayoneted, it was I think the I was awakened by the person on the panel next to me who was, she was coming. She was from New Orleans. She's African American. She's from New Orleans. And see so it was a it was a pan of the panel about disasters and what we do and was sort of in not in opposition, but to show, there was there were so many celebrations for the 2006. You know, Gavin Newsom was a mayor and they had, but they had this big they had big banquets. They had big ticket banquets. And they also had a meeting where everybody would meet at a certain time and at a Lotis Fountain, you know, it was and they had TV screens. In other words, there was a gala atmosphere and this community group and I just got called I get called to do these things. And this was really exciting to me because it was a community because I was invited. I think I told you to a grand thing where, you know, I was the top of the Wells Fargo build-- But this one, it was a asked if I would give be on a panel and give a presentation you know, just some and the theme was “Race, Ruin, and Rubble. Race, Ruin and Rubble.” And they're inviting representatives from the community to be on a panel to talk about disasters and how they affect how our communities are linked. Not my community here, but the idea of symbolically the race. You know how they're less human when it comes to disasters, you know. And so they invited a woman from Katrina because she was here anyway, a fleeing hero. And she was great. She was a young woman who-- and she talked about the looting, the fact that everybody accused…And I think that's when I brought it up. It wasn't the opposite. It was her bringing it being on, because I was she was they had I was third in line, you know, you know how you go down the panel and I go, well, this brings up a memory, you know, a that's when I happened.

And tell you that I grew up with this all the time because my cousins and I this is so funny. When my grandmother told the story to my mother, who told us and the thing is, it wasn't supposed to be told to other people because people would say, well your grandfather been it because he probably was stealing like Chinese would steal. You know, that's what there's this paranoia. The Chinese, that's why maybe when they talk about Chinese being silent, they were not silent. They were silenced. You know, we talked about that. To tell their stories. And so but my my cousins and I, when we heard the story, we would run around and pretend that we were being they being that we fall over and play dead. Now, how do you like that? But we didn't go around telling our white friends that what we were doing.

Narrative & Identity Timeframe 49:36 >> 55:40

How I got involved with activism in Santa Clara County and-- begins by moving here. Oh, you know, I got married right out of college to my husband, Dr. John Ku Ping Yu. And we met, gosh, just before I started Mills, and when I was just graduated from high school. And I thought, here is this cool guy, he was a medical student and he had given some speech about, you know, this Chinese American contest. You know, there are collegiate there's a collegiate organization of Chinese, and they had to have things like this, you know, social things as Chinese universities and colleges in California. So it's called CSIO. And they had an oratorical contest. Well, he was so spectacular. He won. He's a medical student at Stanford, and he came from the Philippines. So so I learned another culture. And I you know. He was born in Shanghai and immigrated to, his family emigrated to Philippines, was there during the war. And he actually remembers the bombing of Manila. So so, you know, I get a bigger picture of humanity, you know, people's experiences in my own family. And so, and I love his parents. And he has a a brother who's now a retired-- who went to Stanford, retired pediatrician.

John's a retired oncologist. His his middle brother is a... an, an architect and real estate development in New York. And his wife's an artist who did this [points to art]. You know, she's a her name is Marlene Sang Yu, she's a, this is my sister in law. Great artist. Well, so anyway, I of course, when I met John, I was oh, gosh, I was 18 and he was just going to be 21.

So we're three years apart and started dating throughout college, really. And he's had a lot of interests and we didn't talk about medicine. It was all about social issues, but it was very conservative because this is, you know, this is during the Red China days. It was really, really hard identifying as a Chinese because you're not you don't identify with Taiwan, which is the Republic of China.

And then red China you can't really talk about because it's communist; it's our enemy. So we went through all that and we got married in San Francisco, his- was China. Our reception was that the Four Seas Chinese American, you know, big banquet, you know, really my father was very involved with the Chinatown of Commerce and and politics, too, but mainly the commerce and working with the city on the New York parade. So you can imagine all the people that came to the wedding. And and on my husband's side, there were just very few people. But, you know, his father was a head of an insurance company in Manila, his mother who ran a restaurant also called Ming's and just a very wonderful family. They were I guess they're very different from a lot of, you know, what you'd expect of that you know, uh, background. When they became to the United States, they wanted to register to vote and they registered as Democrats because at that time I was a McGovern delegate. You know, that was my big entry into politics because and it was because of the war [Vietnam]. I got very-- so back to my husband and I, and we we were in San Francisco for about a year, and then we moved just to New York, where he got a job as a third year, oh, no, fourth year residency at Montefiore Hospital. And then he had a fellowship at Sloan-Kettering. He became a cancer specialist, Sloan-Kettering-- famous, you know, Sloan-Kettering Memorial Hospital. And he, changed-- He was a research and... I shouldn't say, he was a fellow and and he practiced worked with some famous oncologists and decided he would be an oncologist. And then we had two children, Jessica-- Jennifer, born in New York in '64, '66, Jessica was born.

And then I and I, we lived in New York and I could not really identify with the New York Chinatown. However, we had relatives, you know, the Chinese, a branch of our railroad family. The Lees went back east and established their businesses. Lee family insurance in on Pell Street in Chinatown. And we became, they they were so wonderful to us, you know, the my aunts and uncles taking care of us while we were in New York, you know, Chinese New York banquets and all the celebration. And, you know, you just feel like you need relatives, you know, and and this is the wonderful thing about the Chinatowns that were established, you know, you could always go and find some relation in a Chinatown.

Systems & Power Timeframe 55:40 >> 1:04:41

So anyway, back to, uh. So we moved back and my parents, of course, they wanted us to come back. They were, my father was very, very involved with different things and I was a during this time he asked me to write the articles for the Chamber of Commerce publication. I wrote the one on Mark Twain when I was there and another one on, later on San Francisco in the earthquake and and celebrating Chinatown, Chinese New Year in the Old West. So anyway, we come back and he [Dr. Yu] gets a job at Santa Clara Kaiser. And at that time in sixties, '67, Kaiser was not it was considered kind of a socialist entity, and people were saying, well, you know, we had neighbors who wouldn't go near a Kaiser. They thought it was socialized medicine, you know. So anyway, I was very happy that he was that because he liked it. He loved that system. And the doctor at that time, Kaiser doctors were a little bit different. They were a little bit considered kind of outside the box. He was the Chief of Oncology, the department of one, and he tells people now, you know, many, many years later, the oncology department has just, what, 20 or whatever, and half of them are women. He said at the time there are no women doctors, maybe one woman doctor. She was a surgeon. So, you know, we were witnessing all this change. I mean, we were there during that time. We knew that some things were happening.

And and then after, and then my brother-in-law, a young guy, of course, he came over when he was 18 or 19, he got accepted to Stanford. So he came and he lived with us in Santa Clara for a couple of years and was really, we felt, you know, extended family. The house was very small. And then anyway, he graduated from Stanford and went to medical school elsewhere outside of the state. And then we decided we wanted a bigger house. I wanted to have animals. We have three children.

Oh, Marty was born in 68, born in Santa Clara, and which is big excitement. The son. Because I grew up in the family, I was the second daughter. And I remember my sister and I, we had to pray when my mother when my father came back from the war and my mother was expecting we had to pray that that she'd have a boy. So I always knew that, you know, this whole Chinese thing. And my grandfather was that way, even though he's very progressive, you know, you have to have a son. You have to have, you know, my mother felt this incredible pressure. I didn't feel this pressure. And luckily, my mother-in-law, when I told her, I hoped, you know, you know, when I was visiting her, we went to visit the Philippines just before he was born. Because it was the 90th birthday of John's grandfather, who's in Philippines at the time. So I told my grandmother and my grandma, my mother in law, I said, "Well, I hope it's a boy." And then she she was just kind of blinking back tears. She was so moved, she goes, "Oh, no, you mustn't think that way. A girl is wonderful. We would be so happy.” And I thought, what a wonderful family. Just like my I'm so fortunate. Anyway, Marty was born and he was born in '68 and it was the most tumultuous year, I remember. He was born in September. The Martin Luther King was killed in April. And I was just, you know, and then Robert Kennedy was shot in June. I remember cry and cry and cry. I hope this baby is going to make it, you know, just being so it was horrendous. And then when Marty was born, I didn't in those days, we didn't know if was going to be a boy or girl. We had a name for a girl. It's going to be Jocelyn or something, some another J and if it was a boy, I said, "It's going to be Martin after Martin Luther King." So I said, "He's going to and his name Chinese name would be Peace." Run Ping. It was benevolent peace, you know, And we were at that point, we were mainly involved with candidates in the war that was the big thing.

And and then we moved to when in 1970, in September, we moved here, we found a house. I said, I want to just go to a place where I can have animals and, you know, just a bigger place. And so we've-- we're so lucky we got this place. I have to tell everybody, $67,500. And 500 in those days, the houses, you know, and it was kind of a stretch for us, but we thought we sold our other house, and we could do it. And John had a good salary at Kaiser, and it was just doable in those days. And our neighbors was, they were yonder. We didn't have so many neighbors. But that's this is typical in those days in this area, the husband would be an engineer, the mother a teacher. And that's exactly the way, you know, in those days. And then, ah, we actually chose this place because of the Palo Alto School district.

It was the only one we could afford actually by the freeway. But because we had two families, Christopher-- Dr. Christopher Chow, who became chief of medicine at Kaiser, he moved to the hills before us and he, and they had farming and they kept saying, "You know, you know, can you imagine an acre in Chinatown? We have an acre and we're going to grow bok choy and you know, they're great, Rowena and Chris." And they showed us how you can live in the hills that our other neighbor was Doctor Bok Dong and Wanda Bok Dong, and Wanda is a teacher or a librarian. And she goes, If you move here, move to a good school district, the Palo Alto school districts. So we chose, that's how we chose this house. But we had, there were Chinese living in the hills.

And then when I was working on a book later, the Stanford area Chinese club. There were Chinese in the area. I interviewed people about living in the Peninsula and found out that there was redlining in Palo Alto. It was you know; there were several people I interviewed. Bernardine Chuck Fong's father, Frank Chuck. She even told me that she said when they moved to Palo Alto, they somebody threw some rocks at their house. So I was I did all these interviews and found out, my God, you know, there's prejudice here. And I was involved as soon as we moved in, I joined the Peace Center, a Peace Center in Palo Alto. That's how I became very activist in the peace movement. And and I started making connections with the Third World. Remember, was Third World Strike and that kind of thing.

That was I was later that. And so if people thought I was kind of strange when I went to Stanford and the Asian American groups, they were you're kind of you're here, you're this housewife and you're you're helping us make signs and you're, you know, building all these we did guerrilla theater. So but back to the the redlining. And then I interviewed people like this was much later just doing history.

I interviewed Paul Howe, he's an artist. And he said that he moved to Los Altos because he could buy a house, he could buy two acres in the Los Altos town because there was prejudice in Palo Alto. And later for the the, the interviewing for Stanford. The every time you interview people you find these stories with every single person that I interviewed for a project like for the railroad, I interviewed descendants of Chinese railroad workers. I interviewed Wally Leung in Palo Alto, and he told us how he ended up living in Palo Alto. That when he first, he and his wife came and they talked to a realtor, and the realtor took them to East Palo Alto, where that was a large African American community, they said, "Oh, you'll be happier here." And they said, "Well, we really want to live, you know, near the schools there." And they ended up just because somebody had to sell their house really fast and they have the cash. So I'm hearing stories about where you live and how you fight to live where you. It just changes whole generations.

Timeframe 1:04:41 >> 1:13:21

So I ended up living here in after I joined the Peace Center and I got involved with a lot of Palo Alto people. I met Allen Seid. That's how he knew about me, and he saw me in the peace, you know, marches and, and then he had this meeting. I just got a phone call, and we were meeting at a restaurant. And I often say sometimes we would meet in parking lots. We didn't even have a place to meet, but most of the meetings were at his living room. But the first meeting, a formal meeting, was in a restaurant. And there was there was I met Jeanette Arakawa, that Eimi Okano. I met a couple of people who aren't on the board anymore, but, uh, but I met Paul later. Paul Sakamoto. But Paul Fong was involved because he lives around here. And so we all talked about a possible organization, and it just-- not possible, Allan had it planned.

It was an advocacy organization, and so it was all the stories and feelings and anecdotes I've collected. Yeah. Yeah. Advocacy. Yes! And his first. So he started establishing this club or organization, and it was strictly advocacy and Asian Americans for Community Involvement (AACI). And he used the word term Asian-Americans and Paul Sakamoto, many years later, he just said, Well, one thing about Allen, he said, "We owe him this much. He was the first to use the term Asian Americans with an organization in this Valley. The first.” And I would say in the Bay Area. I mean, I didn't know of an Asian American group because I was involved with CAA, which also branched out to Asians and reached out to other communities saying we're Chinese for Affirmative Action. But as we are fighting discrimination and injustice toward all people of color and so and coalitions with with Jewish groups as well. But it's all about civil rights. So but to specifically say that it was just was very exciting because but it went with what the themes that I was thinking of because with the antiwar movement, we used the term Asian Americans, and then the broader term was the Third World, Third World Coalition, which I felt didn't work out as well because we had a lot of meetings, mainly with Asian groups.

And we were and we were connecting with Vietnamese people and that was, and Cambodian people. And so that was, you know, we'd have meetings with representatives, and I don't know, we used the term Asian Americans, but to have it in an organization, let's say an established nonprofit organization, because we have all these ad hoc groups, you know.

(Interviewer) I was going to say, I think when you started with Allen, didn't they have Bob Kemp there?

Well, Bob Kim, yeah. These were the early people. Very early. Yeah. Well, should I mention that the early group. So at the luncheon I did do remember meeting Jeanette of course. And Jeanette and Emi and, and Nilo Sarmiento. Yeah. Sarmiento was there. And so of course there's Asian American. And Ed Kawazowe. And then locally, of course, we have Helen Tao. And Helen Tao. We were friends, you know, from we have the Stanford Area Italian Club, and she's the most wonderful person. Oh, and see she's, she had a Southern accent. She was from Arkansas, wasn't it? And I kept saying how-- you're from the South. How did you get this way?

You know, because for the Chinese, you know, to succeed, you didn't want to go to the segregated school. You wanted to you wanted to go to the white school. You have to identify. And she goes, "Well, my family was different. You see you. This is how people rise. People can rise, you know, out of these environments." And she said that we always had that empathy with with the with people, humanity and people of color. You know, we went through the same struggles. So she she it was just great. You know, we were just we able to do this. Now, what could her role was this? We all had roles. I'm on the media. Yeah I think-- sorry I'm getting... and the cat's listening very intently. She's saying this part she hasn't heard before about Helen. I don't get the chance to talk about Helen very often.

So I interviewed her after her interview, and that's when I found out. How did she get this way? Because we always talk about how did you get the sensibility that's different from other people in your in your environment. But and her husband, again, her husband, George, was very, of course, part of the same sensibility and encouragement, and I think very kind people. Very kind. Like my husband, very empathetic with the he never got involved with these politics. I was supposed to because you're supposed to focus on your work, what you do best. And so what I was supposed to do best is, I guess, advocate and take notes and hopefully write something. And so Helen said, "Well, you're on the media committee then," because when I was involved with CAA and this is out of friendship with Kathy Fong, who's the first director of CAA, first unpaid direct.

She's great. She she and I, you know, we do these things and we got involved with a program. The thing is, you you apply for things you try to get your-- before they'd have like a one-minute spot. Any community could apply for a one-minute spot because it's by law, you know, they're not going to do it for... And so we'd apply for a one minute spot talking about some event. And finally we got a program on KPFA, and CAA got a program, and I named it. It's a 15-minute program. It's community program. It's called Du Pont Guy and Du Pont Guy is Grand Avenue. And we formed a group called the Du Pont Guy Collective, and in the collective was Chris Chow. I have a poster of us, you know, on Grand Avenue with the Du Pont Guy Street. And then Doug Chan, you know, and Chris Chow, Doug Chan, Kathy Fong, Curtis Choi and a couple of other people, a number of people who are probably running their own stations now, but so we had this program. I wrote some satires and and we have community announcement, but. So I was involved with that for a number of years.

But I have to go to San Francisco. And then gradually, you know, my part ended. I said, "I'm going to..." You know, and I was the oldest person there, you know, every with a family, everybody's a single radical people. Yeah, I was the only. So AACI was a good fit for me being here. And it's official, you know, we were a nonprofit group.

Transformation & Change Timeframe 1:13:21 >> 1:18:29

We had legitimacy. Who would be the head but a Chinese American psychiatrist? You know, who had political ambitions? And we didn't see it at that time. So he said, okay, I'm on the media committee, people on the you know, a lot of on the advocacy committee. The first case we took was the Bob Cam case, who was, as you know, suing the Veterans Administration. You know, for for loss of his job because they said he wasn't assertive enough or he wasn't right for the-- it was racism. So that was a very exciting thing to be behind. And... and we could see it so clearly, a case right here in the neighborhood, you know. And then as far as media committee, I make announcements and also have a campaign against advertisement.

For instance, it's hard to believe this could actually happen, but there was a huge billboard on Bayshore or 101 Freeway that had a Plymouth car, and it said “Deport the Imports”, you know, So, you know, buy American, buy American so deport imports. And so we wrote you know, we organized a campaign against that get that sign off And when Everil Younger, the attorney general, issued a public report it was called the Triads...The Triads of, The Chinese Triads? I mean, some some very salacious the headline, you know, title of his report. And it was distributed to, I guess, to all these civic organizations to watch out for Chinese organizations. And CAA, of course, led the protests and so many other groups got behind it. But of course, AACI had to jump in. And, you know, and I gave a statement asking the Human Rights Commission to to issue a statement in protest. And of course, they did. So what AACI did was to get people on commissions, and that is what Alan's agenda. He said, you know, "We can't just be voices of agitation. We have to get inside, we have to get on these board, sit on these."

And so I guess Helen Tao was the first Human Relations Commission. She was a human relations. And I guess it was hard to believe the 1970s. You know, you have the first Chinese American, the first Asian American woman on the Human Relations Commission in Palo Alto. So that was the beginning. So and then the other committee I was on, actually the media committee wasn't that important because it was just set in motion…Things just. What was important was being on the textbook committee. And that's a that was really the legal compliance. And what AACI did was advocate to have AACI members on the the State Board of Legal Compliance. And I was appointed one of the many, many people who would be reading books, you know, and these were really very cumbersome in those days.

A stack of books would arrive at my door and I'm supposed to go through them and make notes, you know, can you imagine now everything just like it was really very tough. And these are huge. I mean, and think of the kids carrying them in their bags, you know? But so every single book, not a single book, history book on the middle school and high school level had any inclusion that was acceptable of women, minorities. And also the other thing was bullying. You know, you know, for instance. So it's not just about race. It's about, yeah. It's about social behavior. You know, you have pictures that were very anti-women, you know, in these textbooks. And then you have, you know, like even for the children, an alphabet, you know, you'd have different words. And the word for hit would be somebody hitting somebody. And then they say, "Why don't you say hit a ball?" And then we'd have these meetings, you know, in Sacramento saying, well, and the the meetings would be with the publishers. It was very exciting for me. A lot of work, you know. So I was. Yeah.

Joy & Cultural Resistence Timeframe 1:18:29 >> 1:24:46

(Interviewer) So how did you manage everything with home life? We have three kids.

Yeah, Yeah, three kids. Yeah, it was really. But nothing is done very well in the house. Very messy. And carpools, we have, you know, big collectors and I have a busy calendar. Yeah, but it was workable. You'd make it work, and that's all part time. That's the thing. I didn't have to. These. These were. And writing could be at home. That's why everyone said, "You're so lucky that you're a writer." And actually, I didn't get things published, but I'd be writing things down, you know, and making reports. And when I worked on the Du Pont Guy Collective, I did this is I always wanted to be a writer, a playwright, a novelist, creative writer. But because of activism, I became, you know, of course, it's, is expository writing. It's essays, it's leaflets, it's fliers, you know, hit home hard, you know. But I had a lot of fun writing little sketches.

And I did little playlets. The Little Hovel - The Little Hovel in the Ghetto is a play on Little House on the Prairie and and Curtis Choi collected all the scripts. It's, we had fun doing it and everybody played roles, you know, like, you know and there's one scene with they're driven out of another town. This is a is the DARE family. D.A.R.E. So I had this this family and that little girl's MeiMei is mother, father and little girl named MeiMei. And they're always fleeing from town to town. And finally they say they go, We've got to go back to DaiFo, big city [San Francisco]. And she goes, "DaiFo, why is it always have to go to DaiFo?" you know, So anyway, that gives you a hint about it.

(Interviewer) Somebody did somebody archive this?

Yeah, I have the scripts. Yeah. Curtis you know, Curtis did a, he sent me a big stack and then as far as the tapes, I know we had a lot of fun doing them and every, every run and collected played and MeiMei was played by Kathy Fung and, and I didn't play And then I had a satire with This is not very nice, you know, Donald Madino Cameron played, she rescued slave girls you know and I have one scene where she's trying to rescue MeiMei and then she goes, “Get away from me.” And she's fighting Donald on camera. And then then I have somebody off of camera saying, a guy's voicing, you know, "Five years on the Cameron House basketball team is not going to let me stand for this. I'm leaving this collective." You get it. You know, I made fun of Donald, you know, Cameron, who's sacred, irreverent. So that's the end of my residency. It is, too, you know, so I stopped doing that. But I did that for a couple of you know, it was really fun. We'd have a little episode every time, like 5 minutes, and then a lot of, or 10 minutes, a lot of announcements for the community.

This was during Oh, yeah, 73, 76 I think I stopped or 75 around there. Yeah. Janet Yanehiro. You know Janet she was the one who she was a producer or she was a keep KPFA, no, KFRC, KFRC. So before that, I was on KPFA at the radical station in and we were taken off the air for something, and that's. Yeah, I know. Yeah, yeah. That's because of they cut a lot of program. And it's so funny. So we'd be in our this was it was called Chinese Youth Voice. They said we don't want any more Chinese language programs same thing. And then we were in a coalition with the Gay Sunshine Collective, which had their program too. So I got, you know, this is how I get involved with coalitions, is really, it was really fun.

Yeah, that was '72, '71, '72.

(Interviewer) I want everybody to know that KPFA was perhaps one of the most underground radical radio stations in the entire Bay Area. So the fact that...

Yeah, yeah, I was on there. Yeah. And actually we were suspended for a very good reason. Curtis Choi read a poem that was full of expletives, and we got we got taken off the air and suspended. And then afterwards they decided maybe we don't want those guys back anymore. That's when we did our protest. And then they were going to cut some of the, I guess, gay programing, because there's too-- there's no excuse for any cuts.

You know, this is the air. And so they got we all got together. It was really kind of fun. But and then we decided we don't use was probably was on but I decided I wasn't the one to do that anymore. I want to do something. KPFA We had a bigger audience and we did. But KPFA is great. You know, they were.

(Interviewer) So you went from KPFA to KFRC

KPRC is AM and FM or is KPFA, you have to subscribe practically. You don't always get it. So. So that's where I got my reputation of being in the media. But then I realize, you know, I want to do other things, you know, write things and, and then. But before that, I already had a reputation for writing about history with the Chinese, you know, railroad workers for the centennial. I think I told you all about that.

Transformation & Change Timeframe 1:24:46 >> 1:31:18

So and then how I met Shawn Wong and how I it was it was for the Concerned Asian Scholars. It's all part of the the peace movement was galvanizing. And then another thing that and this was a very big thing at the time. I was involved with the McGovern campaign and somehow got elected to be a delegate. And that's no small thing. You have to go to the congressional meeting, you know, I guess the district meeting, the 10th District and John Vasconcelos was there. This is in 1971. And I just went to the meeting and they just said, we need to elect delegates and we like and he said, we have a chance to do-- they have the new rules now delegates can be…He said, "I think we should have delegates... women, people of color and people under 30." I fit the category. And and when I put my name down, there was a whole list and he goes, "Here's who I'm voting for." He made it and he checked the 18-year-old. They checked somebody else, I guess Latino. And he checked me, you know, Asian American woman under 30. You know, I actually, I was exactly 30. So I fit and and I got elected out of this big group. I couldn't believe it. And I was going to the Democratic Convention. And that's considered a big deal because somebody goes, you're a delegate? You know, my my father was in that same union, that same area, and he represents you. That was, you know, years ago. And that's considered a big thing when you represent your district, you get a vote. So I went to the convention. I was very it was very exciting. We actually thought we could win. What a laugh. You know, that was, oh, gosh, I remember when they played when I got word of, you know, Gladys Knight songs, you know, about "we're coming together."

It was really exciting. And there's George McGovern and I met I met Willie Brown. I met him at caucuses. I that's how I met a lot of people. I met Norman Mineta, who was not a McGovern delegate, but he was, you know, there. And we sat together. It was it was really fun because I had interviewed him for, you know, our KPFA program. You know, I did. Yeah. No, for our KFRC program when he was mayor of San Jose. And that's when he told me about Camp, about how he he said, I saw my my father cry for the first time, you know. And so anyway, I met all these people and it was very exciting. And in my out of 300 and something people for the California delegation, six Asians. George Takei was one of them. Another was Ying Kelly of Berkeley. There was me, six, I mean, and then there was a strong Chicano. They called him, they said, "We're the Chicano coalition." And so I had nowhere to go but the join my friends in the Chicano. There were six of us. So we all joined their coalition, which was big. So we had caucuses.

This was in Miami. So I was there for a number of days. And then then afterwards I'd go and give, you know, every you know, you just go to your caucus, you go to neighborhoods and talk, you know, as a delegate to to rally support for McGovern, register voters. So that was my big and everybody thought, "Oh, you're going to run for office." Are you kidding? This is-- I'm an outside agitator who got in and I'm going to stay that way! So and meeting politicians with a few them was very discouraging. I had no idea when I met certain politicians that they were so vain.

McGovern was different, but I for some reason, I thought they'd be like Martin Luther King. You know, [giggles] what a laugh. But these were Democratic. And but Willie, Willie Brown was a showman. Okay? That's another thing. He was really good. He could change his accents from if he talked to people from his power. So that was a real surprise. I don't know. You had to be an actor to be. I was so naive in that way. You know, that's the thing about activists. You realize that being a politician you have to make it's not just making compromises. You have to have the personality of of a of a showman or show person. You have to be... you had to do makeovers. You had to just you know, But so anyway, but I liked all of them.

I'm just saying. And the person that was just fantastic who who helped me and supported me, who encouraged me was George Takei. I just stuck with him like this [motions fingers together]. He was I mean, he didn't talk about acting at all. And he talked back to people who, you know, who were, in a nice way, who had a who would say something about the Latinos or something, and he'd just just stand up. He was just, "okay, that's wonderful." So I had that great experience and I never saw him afterwards. Or maybe briefly when he came for ALA, Asian Law Alliance, one of the I talked to him. But that impression I had that he truly was he was using everything he could as an actor, as a person for advocacy and activism and, you know, standing up for justice, everything, you know, it's just great being with him. So, so we were both with the Latino. It was called the Chicano Coalition. We were with them because there were so few of us. And Ying Kelly, she passed away. She's a she was on the board of the City Council of Berkeley, and we thought she was amazing to have a Chinese woman. It's hard to believe. This is '72.

Transformation & Change Timeframe 1:31:18 >> 1:51:11

Oh. Okay. So back to AACI. And so I came to AACI and a year later, with all of this background, and Alan, he always thought I had to be kind of controlled or in the background or, or, or because of my radicalism, because I was pretty, you know. Yeah, I was outside, really, even though I was a McGovern delegate. I mean, we were, we were agitated. There were 18-year-olds who were delegates who were and and the more conservative people did not go for for McGovern. There was there was this other there were several other people, you know, who were candidates. You remember Tunney, last name, Tunney. He was one. But anyway, back to to Allan. So but he wanted me to do all this. And then when it came, yeah, I could say this. When it came to speaking, making a speech on... before the, I guess it would be this the Human Relations Council, it was about Eveil Younger. Yes

He asked Alan Chin to make the presentation and he after, after Allan Seid, Alan Chin was on the agenda to speak, you know, Chin. You know? Yeah. He's a very established, great guy. I interviewed him for the, you know, profiles and he had an engineer, a high-tech company. He developed things like, you know, eradicating food. It was really a cool guy, but he had a reputation of, you know, being, let's say, a pillar of the community, I guess the Chinese community. So. So his name was I go, Allan says, I want you to speak on this case. And then I go, "I'll see you on the agenda to speak." There's Al Chin. I go, Oh, and then Al said, "I'll yield my time to-" So Alan Chin goes up there and he goes, "Yes. Now I'd like to yield my time to Connie Young." You like? And then I had my thing. Then I gave my speech and you know, everything I know from CAA about how this is such a racist, you know, such a target. Chinese are being targeted and and it's a great injustice and it violates civil rights. And so and then afterwards, of course, they vote. And then when I'm walking to my car and this is in the, I guess, a parking lot in the city hall or whatever with Allan Seid comes up to me and goes, "Oh, I just want to confess something to you. I had, you know, Al speak first and his name on the agenda because of your, you know, your connection with the the peace union and the peace movement." And I thought, you know, this would look better. And I thought, you dirty, you telling me this, you could at least keep it kept quiet. I, I thought, well, that's kind of fine. I'm I like Al, you know, so. So I didn't think very well of that. I didn't feel very good after that.

And another time this was when Nixon was the impeachment for Nixon. There was a big rally at Lytton Plaza. And who would be invited to speak but Allan Sied. And he was. And, you know, they had this Palo Alto very liberal. They're going to speak for impeachment. And then Alan calls me, goes," Connie, would you write the speech for me?" I said, "No, I'm not going to." And he goes, "Oh, come on." And then he said, "I'm not good." And, you know, I kind of want to be a joke about it. And I said, And he goes, "Oh," and he said something like, "You dirty rat." But he didn't say in a bad way. And I thought, you know what? I'm going to do it because I want I want AACI to look good. And I did it. And I said I had some really dramatic things that didn't sound like Alan at all. I said something like being on, being at the barricades. I said, we've been at the barricades. And I thought, He's never been no barricades. No, but but symbolically, yes. And I mentioned Barrios, you know, things that I did for the McGovern campaign about people, you know. And that's why the McGovern campaign failed because we couldn't relate to white people, maybe not our group, but, you know, and also because he was of a peace and he didn't have the money, corporate funding behind him. And you have David Packard, who's, who became the undersecretary of defense, you know, in this area.

So anyway, back to Alan. But Alan and I always had good cordial relations until, uh, I guess in 19, 1981, when the the this was during the influx of, of refugees and partly largely from Cambodia and so and Vietnam. But everybody always thought of the influx would be of Vietnamese. It turned out to be a huge group came to San Jose. But anyway we had a mental health grant was given to the Santa Clara County. It was Doctor Kenneth Meinheart was was the head of, you know, the department or whatever you call it, you know, and and then one of the psychiatrists that worked for the county was Dr. Sauling Tom, you know, Chinese American, a psychiatrist. You know, I hadn't met him till this. And they decided we what we need is to have a needs assessment. So a needs assessment study. And we need to have an office operations manager. We have to have an organization that sets up the the survey. The survey. Oh, and for some reason, and maybe because Sauling got my name from somewhere. I got called and I'm a writer. I mean, I never had any experience. Oh, yeah, I did, with Chinatown. I was involved with a health study in Chinatown as a writer. And so he he interviewed me, and I don't know who else he interviewed. I got the job in a day. He just said, "You have the job. You're going to be operations manager for this health..." It's called the Asian Asian Health Needs Assessment Study. Ellina [Interviewer], you know the title. You know, so and and so I became the first thing we had to do, Sauling said, hired a psychologist who's really wonderful, Phillip Sei, and said, "What we need to do is to figure out how to do the survey." And Phillip had had some experience and I did as a writer, help with the Chinatown Health and Needs survey. And and there was a book, you know, written about that and I was, you know, the writer giving they I have to, they have to have history. So I wrote the history of Chinatown, and I wrote the history of Chinatown for this health study in San Francisco. And so I got associated with the psychologist Charles Lu, and we both presented a paper together. I mean, you know, because and I had no-- I didn't even know the terminology for psychology, and I still didn't. But because of that experience and I was just anyway, Sauling said, "you're hired." So I got hired and I work with Phillip. And what we did was we figured out the groups that would be would be surveyed for this health study too, for this ment-- It's mental health, it's a mental health grant for Asians. And we decided the groups would be Vietnamese and Cambodians, and they-- every single Cambodian that came to the area was a refugee.

So we had a group. And then we had, we decided we learned that the Chinese group, if you just surveyed all the Chinese, like the Chinese who owned property, the the Chinese flower growers, they were so super healthy, you know, just like the-- we'd have to do...I don't even know the terminology, but they, they took out the groups that were with the boat people that came in in 1980. It was that this group that just came, they came to the Valley. So so it was it was 17, 1700 people, 1785. And I'm looking at Ellina because I gave her the list. Uh, I found my papers, gave her the the report…And so, well, we were doing this. Alan got wind of it, and he just came and he called Sauling. And so he told me, he said, Allan's really mad because he's not involved. AACI's not involved, and this is sort of not written down, but I mean, they might as well know. I mean, and Sauling said, "Well, we got the grant." You know, and Alan was really, really upset. And he just said using the clout as representing the Asian Americans to say that they're, you know, we have a right to be involved. And and he actually I mean, you heard Allan talk about Ken. Somehow he got involved. And I remember we had a phone call where Sauling was going to respond to him. And so he called me into his office. This was in the county. We had a small little office. And he said, "I want you to hear this. I want you to hear what I'm going to say to Alan." And of course, he just said, "This is you know; this was our assignment from the county and it's run by Dr. Ken Meinheart." And they're not going to use me. I'm on the board, but I'm not. You know, anyway, and we have, you know, this we have we are doing the interviews for the people. And and Allan's saying that he has the background, the knowledge, and he should be doing this. And and then and that. Connie is a member of AACI and. I immediately disassociated myself. I'm working as a professional. I mean, this is a paid you know, this is not this is not an advocacy thing. And so anyway, and he came to our press conference suddenly with his clout, he got involved with this. He got involved not with our study. We completed our study, but he would be in charge of the grant he would be in charge of. So that's how it happened. And and from his point of view, it's like AACI already for this and they knew this was going to happen. But when you think of the the actual progression of this, AACI was not involved with this in the beginning. And when I was asked to do, I had no connection with AACI because by that time I was not really involved. There was not something I could do, you know, I felt, you know, and I was on to other things.

What was I on to. Fencing? I became very involved with fencing. You know, I was raising teenagers. That's what I was doing. And what I was most involved with as far as... it was Angel Island. I was involved with Angel Island, and that was very, very, very, very involving. And and my kids would come to me with me all the time on these trips, because by then, you know, the after school or something, they were teenagers. They were involved with that first commemoration. When we saved the barracks, we had the monument and yeah, well, that's another story. But I was always involved with Angel Island in the, right after, after it was discovered, you know, after the save. And we actually so that was really important. So I guess I was involved. Maybe that's how I got the job because everyone said, "How did that happen so fast? You just get interviewed and what do you what do you really do?" You know, professionally, I never I don't get paid for the other jobs, but this one was totally professional. And I and I, I just feel that Sauling must have known that I was the right person for it. And and I'd have people to help me, you know? So I was very glad. It was the most exciting thing. Oh, gosh, it was so deep. It was really I felt I really was into another understanding, other people's lives and struggles. It was different from history. I think this was it, you know.

(Interviewer) Do you think that your past participation, you use the word emotional experience, that somebody has the feelings? And then there's that connection. Do you think you you brought that to the table, too?

Yeah, I did. I did it as far as, mainly in how we did things because the the Cambodian, the first of all, the surveys were, you know, people could fill them out on the phone, they were done by phone. And for the Cambodians, both Sauling and I decided that it's got to be face to face. We've got to see them. First of all, they don't have phones. They don't have personal phones. We have to do it. And then it was so exciting to actually see them, meet them and then to to to have two Cambodian translators. One was Rotanda Kas, K-A-S, and the other one was, Oh, well, his last name is Kang, and he was later, he later he worked for AACI because AACI was the only... and and he and later, when I called him several years later to to talk to him, they said, "We're very sorry." And they passed me the phone to another supervisor, and they said he passed away of a sudden heart attack. Oh god, you know. But what the, face to face interviews with the Cambodians and was the 300, 300 and they had to be over 18. And I keep looking to you [Ellina] because you're reading you understand, you know what I'm talking about. And then and my daughter, who's in high school. I guess she was junior or senior, been junior in high school. Yeah, Junior. And she hears me talk. It's Jessica. She's hearing me talk. And I said, this is going to be really tough because I know what they've been through. I just know from from, you know, being the anti-war activists, knowing what happened in Cambodia. And then she said she said, "Why don't you, you're getting paid. Why don't you pay them?" She said, "Why don't you give money to everybody that's interviewed?" And and I go, "Gee, Jessica, we'll try it." So I went to Sauling, you know, so and he went to the supervisor. I said I said, "We decided everybody would be interviewed. They get $3." Okay. This is in 1980, 1981, $3. She can go to the movies, you know. Well, matinee maybe, But and we just felt really good doing it.

I think oral history is the truest means to get human experience because documents of course supplement and you know things have written but the oral history to get the feelings and the expressions of the person who experienced it. You know even second hand you get the memory. So it is key to because what we were trying to do when we do history, I say we collectively, is we want to know the true human experience and the impact that that all these-- we were talking about racism, everything that happens to people, how it affected them and how it. And it's sort of like what was it, Maya Angelou said, "You can remember things about a person. You can remember what they say, what they do, but it's how they make you feel that you remember the rest of your life." So that's really true with this this history. You know, you it's like when you hear about your your parents’ experience and, you know, being in the barracks and that kind of the. It's just. How do-- I always think, how did you live through this pain? How did you get through this? So back to the the Cambodian interviews. I mean, I had a hard time. Okay, I'm not that professional as far as when I'm interviewing and I'm hearing the translations when I'm writing a report, I don't go to data, I want to do stories. And so Sauling goes, "We can't use this. Everything you write is anecdotal." But I said, "That's life. That's the way we think. So we can't do it. Connie, Can't." And I said, "That's why we have to write a supplementary paper." You know, we just don't do data. You have to do stories. You have to do. So that's why we get into more of the the stories as examples and most reports do have that, of course. But I'm just saying when we're submitting this for a grant, you know, we we we have to do this. I mean, of course. And so that's why this is important in.

Transformation & Change Timeframe 1:51:11 >> 1:57:28

And even with the interviewing for descendants of the Chinese railroad workers, when Gordon Chang invited me to his office saying, "Here's what I'd like you to do--I'd like you to do interviews of descendants." And I go, "Gordon, I don't see how we're going to get anything that comes close to the story of building the railroad in 1869." You know. What? Five generations removed? And he goes, "We may not get much. We may not get anything, but we're going to get something. We're going to get something of the essence of the people."

And he's absolutely right. And we actually got closer than we thought. Not oh, so anyway, but I love hearing people tell stories. They just and it's funny, when you interview people, like when I interviewed them for the Profiles in Excellence, I you--I interviewed a guy named Henry Gee. who was head of the Chamber of Commerce, I guess in Mountain View.

And, you know, really cool guy. And he he actually had a Chinese restaurant in Arizona, and he said, you know, the details of things. He said, oh, you know, "Chinese restaurants were so small in those days and we didn't do very much business. But one time there was a movie crew. They came here and and they, you know, came in, you know, ate at our restaurant for a couple of weeks." We did great. Like, "What's the name of the movie?" And he goes, "What do you want to know that for?" You know it's just like that's not important to him to want to talk about the and I said and it turned out to be Bombardiers and John Wayne when he was in and out of all these, you know, So you you know, you you have to show your interest and also to go to evoke their memory.So I just realized that, you know, there are techniques in getting stories. But so oral histories, as far as going back to the railroad, the we find the descendants, you'll always find some person in one family that carries and keeps everything. And we'd find that person, for instance, we interviewed, oh, this is amazing. It's just like this woman who who she's like fourth generation, but she has a cup, silver cup and a silver plate and silver, a silver set engraved to her great grandfather. And it was a gift by Jane Lathrup Stanford, an 18th. Oh, no, it was the turn of the century, and it was for her grandfather's christening party. And she told me that her grandfather used this going through immigration. Can you imagine as proof that he was born here? There's Jane Lathrup's name. You know, stories like that. It's that incredible.

And then from from interviewing this guy who's 100 years old, William Mok, is he passed away at 103. William Sing Mok, he's a flower grower. It turned out his grandfather, not great grandfather, worked on the railroad. And it wasn't known until, you know, you just about it because he was detained on Angel Island. I go, Well, you're stuck on Angel Island and for a year. He he's interviewed a lot about Angel. But he said well, you know, in those days the Chinese would go back and then have a son or, you know, then they'd come back and then the son would come over, you know, because then they'd have to, you know, get false papers to come over and and then he got stuck on Angel Island, I guess, with his, you know, being so you get stories like that. You learn connections and it's very is especially the story of immigration because when we're interviewing, say, a young person like this, this person with the you know, we hear a lot about immigration stories and Angel Island, every single generation here because they have the connection with China, they would be stuck on Angel Island or they'd go through, you know, yeah. We had every single story in Voices from the Railroad. There's a story about being stuck in immigration. And you go, How come? Because of the Transpacific, you know, the separation of families and the fact that that you do have ancestors who came very early, but because of deportation and or, you know, whatever, you know, and going back to see your family and then coming back and having all that, that's also why we have a paper trail.

But I love oral history. I think it's great. I just hearing your stories, you know, a recent story of Sarah, you know, about her parents who came in 1990. You know, these are dramatic stories. And every immigrant I meet goes through so much. It's one of the most traumatic things. You know, there was a paper, a psychology paper at one of the conferences I went to for the Chinatown Group. And one person was talking about how moving from one place to another is the most traumatic person in a thing or situation in a person's life. It has severe, severe psychological effect. And can you imagine countries under warfare or under, you know, under exclusion laws? And you know what, that how that impacts a person's personality? And so and as far as Asians for generations because how many Japanese Americans today that do not know about the camp that their grandparents were in they do. They do and it affected them.

Transformation & Change Timeframe 1:57:28 >> 2:01:59

Activism is, is a process of work in making change, in making change, challenging the status quo, And the work which I have learned from my own experience, is not just being out there in the street with a sign or or organizing. It could be in in all different processes. Like for me, for a long time it was just writing.

I didn't go out and even talk to people before I even did oral history. It began with with activism and writing and and activism is in the a lot of the work that people volunteer for. You know, activism is what some of the people have been doing for anti-Asian hate is escorting people to saying, I'm going to go out there, and I'm going to find somebody, I'm going to help them, I'm going to walk them across the street, you know, So it's in all different ways.

As and of course, activism is political as well, and legislators are activists. Nancy Pelosi is the one of the greatest stateswoman activists in modern history. So that kind of thing. So.

(Interviewer) And do you have any tips for young people who are like, well, you know, my studies are just so difficult. I just have a lot of family obligations and I have to work and all of that. And just you did all of that in addition to your activism. Do you have any tips?

Yeah, I think that everybody has time they could find because it's amazing the amount of time. And I work with young people with fencing and oh they have to they can't fence because they have violin lessons, a piano, they have this. And and then yet they want to do a volunteer thing to make it look good on their transcript. You know, they're always going to be a way they can find. So you have to have priorities, and it's a priority of what you can do that would be effective and everybody can find some time. They can that would be part of their their work, that can be part of the of their. And for some people, I think that they have this intuitive feeling that they have a mission in life, you know, intuitive.

And it comes through in their work and their choices. And it's amazing what they do, you know, So with young people will say a person was a young person's an artist, they can they can join, send their work to what, “Growing up as Asian”. So growing up Asian, the essay contest you know the the art contests but you're talking about a lot of young people say in college you know who can yeah well I think that they all have to decide what they want to do for the rest of their life. The message is, “Everybody has to resist this. Everybody. This is so huge, so pervasive. And it’s so, historically, it didn’t just spring out. It was always there. All these incidences of anti-Asian hate have happened before. And when you think of a, you know, Chinatowns being burned down. People going to camp. I mean this is a, um, uh, and, and, the uprooting of people. The destruction of neighbors, and what happened in Tulsa, where a whole African American community was destroyed and bombed from the air before they even had real bombs, they just dropped dynamite to destroy this town. I mean, all of this history comes up now because we go, oh, it's deep. It's not just on the surface. You're not going to get rid of it by having police patrols. It's it's changing society. So my message is change has to happen. Active, everybody has to be an activist. Everybody, you know, save, save, support and protect one another.