Gregory Crouch's Blog, page 44

The power of the crowd

I posted the link to yesterday's post on my facebook page, along with a question asking if anybody could help us read the "crib sheets" from Donald Chan's grandfather, and within  24 hours an answer came back from Rebecca Lem's grandmother. Here's what she said:

"Hi Becky: You are correct in saying it is a crib sheet for paper sons to come to the U.S. One is the description of the village and houses where he lived . The other are answers to events of interest to clarify that he is connected . Your grandfather has a booklet like this too. They call it the "How Gong" which means supplied information. I will translate these for you when I have time. I am expecting company this week , so will be busy. Grandma"

And then the following from Rebecca: "So that's what she has so far. My grandmother at 90 still has a very active social life, so I guess we'll have to wait for a lull in the party to get the rest ;-)

My grandmother, Rose Lem, is an amazing woman. She escaped across China at age 14, fleeing the Japanese, with her younger siblings in tow (no parents). She came to the US, and later married my grandfather who is a "paper son". My grandmother's younger sister is Betty Lee Sung, one of the leading scholars on the Chinese in the U.S. (Bio: http://www.committee100.or​g/aboutus/member_bio.php?m​ember_id=76 ). My grandfather, Arthur Lem, actually spent a year in Federal prison in the 60′s for allegedly helping to bring over his relatives. (http://174.123.24.242/leag​le/xmlResult.aspx?xmldoc=1​9611013193FSupp820_1853.xm​l&docbase=CSLWAR1-1950-198​5) See also "The Investigation and Prosecution of Chinese Immigration Broker Arthur Lem:, Work-in-Progress Session, 13th Conference of Asian Pacific American Law Faculty William Mitchell College of Law, Saint Paul, MN. Apr. 28, 2007. Anyway, it is interesting to be part of such a fascinating history.

Bio

www.committee100.org

Crib sheets for a "paper son"

Continuing on with Donald Chan's grandfather's documents I posted yesterday, Donald also sent up these handwritten papers which he thinks are crib sheets for a "paper son" — information to help a paper son pass INS interrogation and gain approval as an American citizen.

I explained the "paper sons" situation in one of the earlier posts about Moon Chin. Here's the link: Moon Chin languishes in an INS jail.

Note, since neither of us reads Chinese, we might not have their purpose correct. We'd be delighted to discover their content from somebody running across this page who reads Chinese. (And I also suspect I've got them oriented incorrectly — I'd be happy to learn how to fix that, too.)

Alien tax receipts and other sundry documentation…

The series of posts I made about Moon Chin and his immigration to the United States this past February inspired a side discussion between me and Donald Chan, one of my high school classmates.

(For those of you who missed that series, here's a link to the oldest of that sequence. You can pick up the Moon Chin thread by working your way forward from there. He's a fascinating man.)

Donald is a scion of Chinese immigrants who came to the United States in circumstances similar to Moon Chin and his father, and Donald has a slew of family documents pertaining to their transpacific sailings. Donald was kind enough to scan them and share them with me. Here they are. Particularly fascinating — and disturbing — is the "Alien Tax Receipt."

U.S. Immigration apparently required $8 U.S. Gold from every Chinese entering the United States — presumably with the intent of discouraging their entrance.

Here are the documents:

Looks to me like Mr. Leu was traveling in "Asian Steerage" the President Line's lowest class of travel… San Francisco to Hong Kong, 1928

San Francisco to Hong Kong, March, 1928

And here's Mr. Leu's "Alien Tax Receipt" from his return to the United States in 1929

1929 Alien Tax Receipt

Note Leu Soon Hay's status as "domiciled alien," a term I find particularly offensive… I hope it's one we've outgrown.

Hong Kong to the United States, October 1931 (front)

Hong Kong to the United States, October 1931

And here's the back of his "Alien Tax Receipt" from that voyage….

"Alien Tax Receipt" back

Next come some crib sheets for a "paper son!" (also from Donald)