youngest son's son
In 2021, dates and ages were revised to reflect new information - in particular, ship passenger lists, census data, and naturalization records found on Ancestry.com. But even these documents have required skepticism and triangulation to assemble a coherent chronology.
Gung Gung was vague about his age when he came to the US. In 1998, he mentioned both 11 and 13, and other accounts suggest as late as age 15. What is now known for sure is that he and his father sailed into San Francisco on July 2, 1910, on the SS Manchuria from Hong Kong. His birth date was recorded as May 8, 1900 (though later records say May 24, 1901), and his age was given as 10. That age may not be exact, but it tallies well with this photo, which most likely was taken at the time or pretty soon afterwards. (Please also note that by traditional reckoning birthdays were not that important, and a child was considered a year old at birth, and age 2 by the following lunar new year. So if truly born around May 1900, regardless whether that "month" truly refers to the Gregorian calendar or lunar 5th month, in 1910 he could well have considered himself 12 years old by the system he had grown up with.)
Albert with his brother Frank and father Leon (Kwok-Shuen).
He attended high school in San Diego for about two years, went on to University of Southern California (see Photos from the 1920s), returned to China upon his graduation in 1928, married our grandmother, Lily Ho, that year or the next year, and returned to the U.S. He worked to restore his uncle's business for six and a half years, finally moving to Los Angeles to really set up on his own in 1937.
Gung Gung came from Hoiping County (開平 Kaiping), part of the Sai Yip (四邑 Siyi) sub-dialectical area of Guandong Province (precise village information here). The area was agricultural. His grandfather was a peasant. The area was good for farming, but pressed to the limit by a growing population that strained its resources. His grandfather diversified from farming into selling farm equipment to peasants, who as a rule did not own their own equipment, and finally set up a business near Guangzhou that painted porcelain from Changsha, Hunan Province and Jiangxi Province for China's export market. The pieces were sold to Portugal and other places. This grandfather had five sons -- Gung Gung’s father was the youngest of the five -- some of whom as a result of the family's business dealings with foreigners had learned a smattering of English.
Gung Gung’s fourth uncle (Kwok San, called Mane), was hired by a German agent for an American railway company to serve as interpreter for the other coolies, and so arrived in the States. The German's name was John Spreckels (Gung Gung gave his first name as "Walter"). Spreckels eventually ended up in San Diego, where he opened the Hotel del Coronado.
Anticipating the tourist trade that would grow up along with the hotel, this uncle settled in San Diego too, setting up a shop "merchandising Chinese giftwares" (in close connection with the family business in Guangzhou?). The company was called Quon Mane.
Gung Gung's father also came to the States (presumably also to work on the railways, given the next paragraph) and eventually went to San Diego (around 1921-22?; by logic this dating must have been at least ten years earlier) to help with his brother's store, bringing with him the older of his two sons, Frank and Gung Gung (it seems Frank must have come separately, possibly as early as 1907; when did the youngest, Nathan, come to the US?). Gung Gung noted that his mother came from a better family than his father and that his maternal grandfather, remarking on Gung Gung’s promise, questioned the decision to take him to the US, where in his opinion the boy could become rich but would always be a “foreign coolie” rather than leave him in China to try his hand at the examinations.
Gung Gung's father fell ill in the States and returned to China. Gung Gung never saw him again. The standard explanation for his death was that after years of working on the railroads, riding with one's head stuck out the window to catch the breeze, it was inevitable that a piece of flying debris would one day do some damage. In Gung Gung's father's case, it's thought that a piece of coal that had blown into his ear eventually worked its way into his brain.
With hindsight, Gung Gung has surmised that his father in fact succumbed to lead poisoning. Gung Gung says this is a theory that only came to him late in life after reading an article about lead poisoning. Gung Gung remembered that back in China his father loved to eat game birds, which were brought around for sale by a hunter's daughter. She would bring around braces of pheasant, doves, stork, shot with an old-fashioned rifle which fired a mixture of gunpowder and lead bits that were tamped into the barrel. Gung Gung remembers the birds were always filled with lead shot, which he, as a boy, would spit out -- but which his father would insist were fine to just chew up and swallow.
Sept. 26, 2009 addition: Lil says that Gung Gung thought his father may have died of a thyroid problem as he remembers him having a goiter.
When Gung Gung's brother, Frank, was about eighteen or nineteen, he was betrothed to marry a baker's daughter back home. It was hoped the wedding might cheer up their father whose health was declining rapidly. But nothing could save him and he died soon after the marriage. (Frank eventually took a second wife after his first wife bore him six children, all girls?? or was this Gung Gung's uncle's wife?)
Sept. 29, 2009 note - no, this was Frank, as corroborated by Lil's recent comments.
2021 note: Since Frank's oldest child, Jennie, is believed to have been born in 1915, we guess he was married no later than then, and that their father died around that time.
Gung Gung came from Hoiping County (開平 Kaiping), part of the Sai Yip (四邑 Siyi) sub-dialectical area of Guandong Province (precise village information here). The area was agricultural. His grandfather was a peasant. The area was good for farming, but pressed to the limit by a growing population that strained its resources. His grandfather diversified from farming into selling farm equipment to peasants, who as a rule did not own their own equipment, and finally set up a business near Guangzhou that painted porcelain from Changsha, Hunan Province and Jiangxi Province for China's export market. The pieces were sold to Portugal and other places. This grandfather had five sons -- Gung Gung’s father was the youngest of the five -- some of whom as a result of the family's business dealings with foreigners had learned a smattering of English.
Gung Gung’s fourth uncle (Kwok San, called Mane), was hired by a German agent for an American railway company to serve as interpreter for the other coolies, and so arrived in the States. The German's name was John Spreckels (Gung Gung gave his first name as "Walter"). Spreckels eventually ended up in San Diego, where he opened the Hotel del Coronado.
Anticipating the tourist trade that would grow up along with the hotel, this uncle settled in San Diego too, setting up a shop "merchandising Chinese giftwares" (in close connection with the family business in Guangzhou?). The company was called Quon Mane.
Gung Gung's father also came to the States (presumably also to work on the railways, given the next paragraph) and eventually went to San Diego (around 1921-22?; by logic this dating must have been at least ten years earlier) to help with his brother's store, bringing with him the older of his two sons, Frank and Gung Gung (it seems Frank must have come separately, possibly as early as 1907; when did the youngest, Nathan, come to the US?). Gung Gung noted that his mother came from a better family than his father and that his maternal grandfather, remarking on Gung Gung’s promise, questioned the decision to take him to the US, where in his opinion the boy could become rich but would always be a “foreign coolie” rather than leave him in China to try his hand at the examinations.
Gung Gung's father fell ill in the States and returned to China. Gung Gung never saw him again. The standard explanation for his death was that after years of working on the railroads, riding with one's head stuck out the window to catch the breeze, it was inevitable that a piece of flying debris would one day do some damage. In Gung Gung's father's case, it's thought that a piece of coal that had blown into his ear eventually worked its way into his brain.
With hindsight, Gung Gung has surmised that his father in fact succumbed to lead poisoning. Gung Gung says this is a theory that only came to him late in life after reading an article about lead poisoning. Gung Gung remembered that back in China his father loved to eat game birds, which were brought around for sale by a hunter's daughter. She would bring around braces of pheasant, doves, stork, shot with an old-fashioned rifle which fired a mixture of gunpowder and lead bits that were tamped into the barrel. Gung Gung remembers the birds were always filled with lead shot, which he, as a boy, would spit out -- but which his father would insist were fine to just chew up and swallow.
Sept. 26, 2009 addition: Lil says that Gung Gung thought his father may have died of a thyroid problem as he remembers him having a goiter.
When Gung Gung's brother, Frank, was about eighteen or nineteen, he was betrothed to marry a baker's daughter back home. It was hoped the wedding might cheer up their father whose health was declining rapidly. But nothing could save him and he died soon after the marriage. (Frank eventually took a second wife after his first wife bore him six children, all girls?? or was this Gung Gung's uncle's wife?)
Sept. 29, 2009 note - no, this was Frank, as corroborated by Lil's recent comments.
2021 note: Since Frank's oldest child, Jennie, is believed to have been born in 1915, we guess he was married no later than then, and that their father died around that time.