Made in Chinese America
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San Jose: Irish Chang Park
The park's designer, Richard Deutsch, said he read a memoir - The Woman Who Could Not Forget - penned by Chang’s mother to better understand the person he was honoring.
He tried to give the park an aesthetic that would honor Chang’s memory as an activist, placing some of her most well-known quotes throughout the walking area.
"Somebody who was born in this country who visited China would later face difficulty getting back in to the USA. We have to keep in mind that the struggles of the Chinese against these exclusion laws really laid down the foundations of civil rights law. " - Iris Chang (1968 - 2004)
Culture of Fear and the Chinese-American Immigrant Experience
Oakland: Maggie Gee International Airport
Margaret "Maggie" Gee (Gee Mei Gue) was born on August 5, 1923 in Berkeley, California. Her parents moved to California from a village in Guangzhou, China, in the 1870s. Her grandfather, Jung Sun Choy, settled on the Monterey Peninsula south of San Francisco and became a pioneer in the abalone business.
She, along with Hazel Ying Lee, was one of two Chinese American women to serve in the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) in World War II.
As a WASP pilot, she helped male pilots train for combat, as female pilots were not allowed to serve in combat at that time. She also ferried military aircraft.
“She was that generation of Chinese-American women who broke out of the confines of isolation in the community,” said Harvey Dong, a lecturer in Asian-American and Asian diaspora studies at Berkeley.
From Berkeley Physics to WWII Pilot
Chinaman's Chance 🛩️
Born in Honolulu, Wah Kau Kong (江華九 1919 - 1944) chose to volunteer for the United States Army Air Forces after the Attack on Pearl Harbor. He recorded the highest national score in his entrance examination and was accepted into the aviation cadet training program. Kong graduated from flight school in May 1943, becoming the first Chinese American fighter pilot.
He was assigned to fly a new and powerful aircraft, the P-51B Mustang, which he named "Chinaman's Chance" on one side and "No Tickee No Washee" on the other. 😆
Five Cents a Can: Making the Invisible Visible
Hunched Canner is my favorite painting of New York City-based artist Siyan Wong’s oil paintings of people who collect cans to survive.
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Eight Immortal Flavors
Johnny Kan (1906 - 1972) was one of the early pioneers to promote authentic, Cantonese haute cuisine, both in San Francisco's Chinatown and throughout America-at-large. Kan's lifelong campaign to extricate chop suey from Chinese cuisine and initiate American palates to refined, high-end Cantonese gastronomy is well-documented in San Francisco's annals.
Through the décor and the dining rituals of his establishments, Kan also crafted a visual, experiential, and taste aesthetic that was a significant departure from the plate-slamming, indifferent post-World War II chop suey joints of his day. Kan was rightfully Chinatown's first and inimitable culinary ambassador.
University of California