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Photograph courtesy of William Mock
William and Kay Mock and their children stand in front of the 100-acre farm in Sunnyvale where they grew vegetables and flowers. Standing in the front, from left, are Lixia, Stewart, May and Arlene. Behind them are Kay, Henry and William.
Forgotten Pioneers: Book tells story of Chinese contributions
By Mary Gottschalk
Lillian Gong-Guy calls the story of the Chinese pioneers in Santa Clara Valley "very important and very forgotten.
"People are unaware of the Chinese contributions in this valley and this community."
Those contributions include toiling in the agricultural fields and on the ranches of Santa Clara Valley from the 1880s through the 1940s, working in the New Almaden Quicksilver Mines in the 1850s through the turn of the century, and building the road on Mount Hamilton for the Lick Observatory in the 1870s.
Gong-Guy, along with Gerrye Wong, has been working for more than two decades to increase awareness of the role Chinese immigrants played in the development of the Valley of Heart's Delight and its transition to Silicon Valley.
The two women co-founded the Chinese Historical and Cultural Project in 1987, which spearheaded the building and dedication of the Ng Shing Gung Museum at History San Jose in 1991.
Chinese in San Jose and the Santa Clara Valley, part of Arcadia Publishing's Images of America series of books, is the latest tool in their arsenal.
Wong says she feels the book is important.
"When I was growing up in San Jose, I never read anything about the story of the Chinese pioneers and their contributions and their struggles, so I feel this book is meaningful," Wong says.
"Sixty years later there still isn't much material about the Chinese contributions in the Valley. Both Lillian and I feel this is truly an untold story."
While the book cover lists Gong-Guy and Wong as the authors, Gong-Guy is quick to say, "This is neither Gerrye's or Lillian's book, it's a CHCP project."
It's also a book, she says, that is very pictorial.
The 128-page book contains more than 200 photos that were collected by Gong-Guy, Wong and others.
The book is divided into six chapters, covering the history of Chinese in the valley from the 1850s through today.
Perhaps most fascinating is the first chapter, "San Jose's Five Chinatowns: 1850s-1930s."
While most everyone is aware of San Francisco's historic Chinatown, which survives today, knowledge of the ones in San Jose is scarce, and they remain only in photos and memories.
It is not a proud part of San Jose history, revealing the prejudice and ostracism suffered by the Chinese who came here to work. The first four Chinatowns were burned down and at least one of those fires was identified as arson. The others are most often described as "mysterious."
The final Chinatown was called Heinlenville, where today's Japan- town is located. It was named after John Heinlen, who leased land to the Chinese to give them a home in 1887 after an arson fire destroyed the Market Street Chinatown.
Heinlen was reviled, but he was steadfast and "that is why a Chinatown did survive for 44 years in San Jose, because of this man," says Connie Young Yu with admiration.
Yu, a historian and active board member of the CHCP who worked with Gong-Guy and Wong on the book, has direct ties to Heinlenville.
"My grandfather had a store in Heinlenville, and my father was born in Heinlenville," she says.
A comprehensive look at Heinlenville and the four Chinatowns that preceded it can be found in Yu's book, Chinatown, San Jose, USA, funded in part by CHCP and published by History San Jose.
Yu says she was pleased to work on "Chinese in San Jose and the Santa Clara Valley."
"There has been so much that has been obscured in local history about the contributions of the Chinese and their role in building California and certainly Silicon Valley," she says.
"This books documents the presence and the works and the contributions of Chinese Americans from the mid-1800s on, giving a history and a sensibility that wasn't there before.
"Silicon Valley is such a fast moving place. Things are out of date within a short period of time when you think of the development of technology.
"I think it's important that the whole community sit back and take a look at how the valley came to be and the Chinese who played a huge role in it."
Subsequent chapters deal with the development of the Santa Clara Valley as the Chinese, who were excluded from owning property, bought land in the names of their American-born children and farmed it.
This same land eventually became too valuable to grow strawberries, chrysanthemums and other crops on. As technology replaced agriculture, most of the land was sold for development and the children of farmers turned toward new professions.
Included in the book are photos of many local accomplished men and women of Chinese heritage, including Robert Lee who co-invented the electro-explosive de-icing device used in aviation for NASA Ames Research Center; David Sen-Len Lee who developed the daisy wheel used in typewriters and word processors; Steven Chu who won a Nobel Prize in physics in 1997; Jessica Yu who won an Academy Award in 1997 for her Breathing Lessons documentary; and the founders of companies such as Qume, DCL and Lam Research.
There is also recognition of pioneers in the restaurant and grocery industries as well as developers.
Additionally, there are several "firsts," including Dr. James Chan, the first Chinese American dentist in San Jose; Dr. Peter Yee, the first Chinese American anesthesiologist; Helen Chew, the first Asian American president of Peninsula Volunteers; and Debbie Gong-Guy, the first Chinese American woman to chair a Junior League of San Jose fashion show.
Also spotlighted are the many social, business and fraternal groups that worked to provide protection, livelihood and a social outlet, as well as their evolution from primarily Chinese American to all-inclusive Asian groups.
Gong-Guy says she visualizes people using the book much as they would a family album.
"You can look at pictures of buildings and people and history and share their stories," she says.
Wong says she has already sat down with her grandchildren to show them photos of life in the past and talk to them about how Chinese Americans struggled to open businesses.
"It's eye-opening to these little kids," Wong says. "I'm hoping teachers and librarians will want to use it as well."
The launch of Chinese in San Jose and Santa Clara Valley takes place on Sept. 9 when Gong-Guy and Wong will be honored at the Fairmont Hotel.
The site is particularly appropriate, as it was the excavation for the building of the Fairmont in 1985 that led to the organization of the CHCP.
Archeologist Bill Roop, who was doing the excavation of the former site of the Market Street Chinatown burned by an arsonist in 1887, was also a patient of Gong-Guy's late husband, Dr. Ernest Gong-Guy. He was one of the first Chinese American family physicians in Willow Glen and later Almaden.
Roop called Lillian Gong-Guy and told her they were collecting artifacts from the site and suggested the Chinese American community might want to do something with the artifacts, which added up to 475 boxes.
Gong-Guy called leaders of the community and they formed an ad hoc task force.
She also called Wong asking for help with publicity, as Wong is a columnist with Asian Week newspaper.
There was discussion about buying land and building a museum, but the most logical course of action seemed to be the construction of a reproduction of the Ng Shing Gung temple that once stood in Heinlenville at History San Jose.
The original gilded altar with five deities had been saved, but the rest of the temple was lost.
After two years of meetings with little progress, Gong-Guy and Wong decided to form the nonprofit CHCP.
From her work with Valle Monte League and the San Jose Symphony Showcase Houses, Gong-Guy felt confident she could help raise the $300,000 they estimated they would need for a museum.
Wong was equally confident in her abilities as a fundraiser with her extensive knowledge of and contacts with the Bay Area Chinese American community.
In September of 1987 the CHCP was formed with 10 board members.
In September of 1991, Gong-Guy and Wong were seated on the dignitaries' platform for the dedication of the new Ng Shing Gung with the restored altar on the second floor and a museum on the first floor at History San Jose.
In the end, it cost $600,000, twice their original estimate.
The CHCP has continued to "educate, preserve and promote Chinese and Chinese American history and culture in the Santa Clara Valley."
The organization underwrote the development of a curriculum for grades K-12; a documentary video by Jessica Yu on Heinlenville; the printing of Connie Young Yu's Chinatown, San Jose, USA; a traveling exhibit; and now the publication of Chinese in San Jose and the Santa Clara Valley.
Their work will continue as the site of Heinlenville, at the corner of Sixth and Jackson streets, has been sold for redevelopment. It will soon be excavated and CHCP is hoping more artifacts and knowledge of their heritage will be unearthed.
Chinese in San Jose and the Santa Clara Valley is $19.99 and available at History San Jose, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Amazon and from www.arcadiapublishing.com.
