Original Art by Joan Jue Yen

My aunt, Joan Jue Yen, has recently created some wonderful new artwork that I would like to share. Please click on each picture to enlarge. Each artwork includes Chinese poetry. Auntie Joan has provided the translation of the poetry which I have included below each piece.

"Thinking of my Little Sons"

The first is called "Thinking of my Little Sons", and is a tribute to Jue Joe, San You and San Tong. After making his fortune in America , my great grandfather Jue Joe returns to China , marries Leong Shee and fathers his two sons, San You, and San Tong. His plan is to remain in China and farm and raise his family. Unfortunately, he must return to America to remake his fortune . He leaves China when his boys are just babies and does not see them or his wife again for 12 years. They are finally reunited in 1918.



Pony Boy, It's a Spring and we're still parted.
The orioles sing, as if to warm away our troubles.
Parted from you: suprised as your birthday passes.
Not a one to brag to of the clever things you do.
Water falls, there, by the empty mountain road.
By bramble gate, at Ancient trees, the village where
You dwell.
I think of you, and sleep's the only antidote for grief.
I toast my back, bent, bowed,
Beneath the smiling sunlight on the porch.
---Tu Fu (712-770) Tang Dynasty


"Gaze to the West"

Auntie Joan's second piece is a tribute to Leong Shee. Leong Shee marries Jue Joe, a returning "Gold Mountain Man" in an arranged marriage in China when she is only 17 and he is 42. She has two boys , San You and San Tong but soon after SanTong is born , her husband leaves once again for America. She is left a "Gold Mountain widow" and has to raise her sons herself for 12 years until she is finally reunited with her husband. America, however, is a very strange and lonely place for her at first and she dreams of China, her home.



Po K'e,
A night of meditation,
streams and valleys,
frozen fish and dragons,
sweeping past the river bank,
all swell and billow,
though heaven has loaned me it's bright moon,
flying above the jade clouds,
still I cannot see my home,
broken hearted ,
turn my gaze to the west .
---Li Po (701-762) Tang Dynasty

Jue Family at the Van Nuys Ranch- A Video Edit

My grandfather San Tong loved home movies. He loved making them and starring in them . The movies he made have been preserved by our family . Many thanks to my Auntie Soo-Jan for converting many of these home movies into digital format . I have edited some of these clips into a video of our family during the Van Nuys Ranch years (late 1930's to 1950's). In this video family members of all our generations will recognize fathers, and mothers, brothers and sisters , grandfathers and grandmothers , and great grandfathers and great grand mothers , and some of you will see yourselves. It is a time when our clan was whole . There are shots of my grandfather with his sisters, Dorothy and Corrine on a trip to Catalina , to make a movie at USC with his sister in law , and playing badminton on the lawn with a family friend . There are shots of Mama and Papa Kurihara , the beloved housekeeper and gardener on the ranch . My great grandmother, Leong Shee , Jue Joe's wife, is at the dinner table . There are pictures of my grandfather San Tong and his children on the ranch and the family frolicking in the huge swimming pool . There is my Uncle Guy as a young boy playing peek a boo, Auntie Soo -Jan making big bubbles with her bubble gum and earlier in a high chair,Auntie Soo-Yin on a tricycle and Auntie Pingeleen with a ribbon in her hair and a pretty dress. There are my father and mother and my Auntie Joan looking like movie stars. Later there are the grandchildren of San Tong including my brother and sisters and cousins climbing in a fallen tree on the ranch . The video ends with San Tong and Ping embracing in front of the camera. Thank you grandfather for this gift across the years for the generations to come . Your family has prospered . The memories you have given to us are timeless. We will all remember , our children will remember, and our children's children will remember ......

Jue and Yen Family Plaques at the Angel Island Immigration Station

Yesterday , on July 23rd , 2011 , The Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation dedicated the Immigrant Heritage Wall on Angel Island . "For generations to come, this wall will serve as a reminder of the perseverance of our immigrant ancestors and the contributions they made to building a better America. The Immigrant Heritage Wall was created through the donations of over 600 individuals, and over 350 immigrants are honored on the plaques. Many of the Chinese and Asian immigrants were among thousands detained at the Angel Island Immigration Station between 1910 and 1940 during the era of racially discriminatory immigration laws." More information about the Angel Island immigration foundation and it's work can be found here.
My wife Liz, son Jordan, cousin Eric , his wife Karen, their son Elliott, Auntie-Soo Yin and Uncle Ed, Auntie Estelle and Uncle Miles attended the dedication.
(Click on pictures below to enlarge.)

Here is a picture of the crowd gathered for the ceremony on Angel Island

Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey whose district includes Angel Island and who has been instrumental in getting federal funding for Angel Island restoration spoke at the ceremony. Here is a transcript of her speech .
I have included some of her remarks below.

"The story of Angel Island is a story of America’s contradictions – the soaring idealism of our founding principles colliding with the sometimes-cruel reality of our conduct.

Imagine leaving the only home you’ve ever known and coming to a place where you don’t know the language or the culture or the way of life. All you know is that America is a different, special kind of place where things will hopefully be better. And after an arduous journey of several weeks, you reach this place you’ve heard so much about…only to face interrogation, humiliation and in many cases deportation.

Angel Island Immigration Station is a monument to the struggle and the dignity of these brave people. But I also see this place as a symbol of hope that America is self-correcting, that we can live up to our ideals; that we can deliver on the promise of equality, freedom and opportunity for everyone.

We haven’t completed that journey yet. We know that. We’re still grappling with the divisive, emotional issue of racism, and immigration remains an open wound in our society and our politics. But I do know that we’re closer than ever to realizing our nation’s promise, to living up to the creed e pluribus unum – “out of many, one.” America in 2011 embraces inclusion and diversity more than at any other moment in our history. Whatever the current differences over our immigration laws, we can be certain that anything as cruel as the Chinese Exclusion Act will never be repeated.

Let’s all work together to continue this path of progress toward moral justice. Let’s look to the past to shape a more decent future. Inspired by the stories etched into these walls, let’s create a country worthy of the people who came to Angel Island looking for the American Dream. "


Here is picture of the Immigration Station Museum Building


Here is a picture of the Immigrant Heritage Wall

Here are Soo-Yin , Eric and Elliott at the wall. The Jue family plaque is just to the right of Elliott's hand and the Yen Plaque is two plaques to the right .
My Auntie Joan ,San Tong Jue's eldest daughter, married Richard Yen , whose father was Harry Yen. The Yen family sponsored the plaque honoring Harry Yen and his wife Soo Hoo Shee Yen . The Jue family sponsored the plaque honoring San Tong Jue , Jue Joe, Leong Shee , and San You Jue , whose stories are the subject of this blog .

Here is the Jue Family Plaque


Here is the Yen family plaque


The Yens settled in Phoenix Arizona. Here is my cousin Bob Yen speaking about his paternal grandfather during a local television interview about Arizona's Chinese pioneers :
"The first person on my father's side of the family was his father. So my grandfather, his name was Harry Yen. His Chinese name, I think is Ong Hep Lo. And you can tell already that the family name is different. He had a family name of "Ong." we are actually Ongs. Unfortunately, my grandfather's father was not in the United States . My grandfather therefore took the name of a distant family member, a Mr. Yuen, Y-U-E-N, took those papers, these false papers, came to the United Sates as the son of this merchant, Mr. Yuen. He came here when he was 17 years old in 1915, just three years after Arizona Statehood. And the story that he told me about his migration was that he got on a sailing ship, it was a 30-day journey at the time to come here. And he landed in San Francisco , at Angel Island . He joined his brother -- we always called him Uncle Sing -- who lived in Glendale at the time and who had a grocery store there. He said that Phoenix in 1915 was a different place than what we know now. There were no air conditioning units, no evaporative coolers, and his first impression of Phoenix on stepping off the train was this was like hell! LOL "

The extended Yen/Ong family also sponsored a plaque for my uncle Richard Yen's brother Cobb Ong and Cobb's wife Ying.


Here is a view of the restored detention barracks and immigration station museum


Here is a picture of boys getting physical exams at the station. My grandfather, San Tong was 13 years old at the time he , his mother and brother were detained here on Angel Island . They remained on the island for 3 months while Jue Joe worked to secure their release .

Speakers at the dedication as well as the museum exhibits themselves served to educate the public about the harsh and discriminatory nature of immigration laws and practices that targeted Chinese immigrants and led to a much different reception for immigrants arriving here then those arriving at Ellis Island on the East Coast. Part of the work of the Angel Island Immigration Foundation is to celebrate the lives of those immigrants who perservered despite these racial descriminatory practices to make a life here in America for themselves and their families and for the generations to come. A new online "Immigrant Voices" section of the Foundation website gives voice to the stories of these immigrant pioneers. I have submitted a story about Jue Joe that hopefully will soon be posted on the web page.

The island is beautiful but for many immigrants like my grandfather it was also a prison and their fervent hope was to leave the island and begin their lives in the new world beyond it's shores as soon as possible.



After the dedication we and other families gathered at Four Seas restaurant in San Francisco's Chinatown . Auntie Soo-Yin was kind enough to host our family's table. The food was delicious !


To thank Eric for his efforts in getting the Jue Family Plaque placed on Angel Island , Auntie Soo Yin presented him with a framed piece of Chinese calligraphy that contains the three historical sonnets of the Sung (Zhao, Jue)dynasty with the new generation's names added . This was truly a special day for all of us !

Additional Pictures of "Posie"-Leong Shee

"Posie"(Leong Shee) was Jue Joe's wife , mother to Corrine, grandmother to Soo-Jan, mother-in-law to Ping and my great-grandmother.
We have discussed her life in this previous post and in this post which explores her time in China as a "Gold Mountain Wife ".
Here are some additional photos of "Posie" with Corrine, Ping and Soo-Jan from Auntie Soo-Yin's collection

My Auntie Soo-Jan and "Posie".


Ping,Posie, and Corrine


Here is a picture from Auntie Joan's collection ..
Posie with her grandchildren Jack Sr . and Soo-Yin

Mama and Papa Kurihara

Mama and Papa Kurihara with the Jue girls, Soo-Jan, Pingeleen, and Soo-Yin



Papa Kurihara adjusting the sprinkler head


(thanks for the great photos from your scrapbook, Auntie Joan !)

Mama Kurihara being camera shy!


After Pearl Harbor, Mama and Papa Kurihara were incarcerated at Heart Mountain, Wyoming, from 1942 to 1945. The conditions were harsh for them, being Issei (immigrants). The camp had 468 bldgs. divided into 20 blocks with each block having 2 communal toilets. They lived in a 16'x20' tarpapered clapboard cabin. When war ended, they were released and given $25 and train tickets. They had lost everything and were too old to start over. Hearing of their destitution San Tong gave them Jue Joe's cabin to live in--rent free. The childless couple became part of our extended family. - Auntie Soo-Yin.



(Footnote- there is an inaccuracy in the above video concerning the word "Issei". As Auntie Soo-Yin points out, Mama and Papa Kurihara were Issei. "Issei (一世, first generation) is a Japanese language term used in countries in North America, South America and Australia to specify the Japanese people first to immigrate. Their children born in the new country are referred to as Nisei (second generation), and their grandchildren are Sansei (third generation). All of them come from the numbers "one, two, three" in the Japanese language, as Japanese numerals are "ichi, ni, san.")




Arrival at Heart Mountain, Wy: After Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941, Mama and Papa Kurihara (not sure of spelling) were sent to Heart Mountain Relocation Camp in Wyoming, according to Auntie Joan. They were Issei, meaning that they had emigrated from Japan. They were an elderly couple who had no children. The living conditions were primitive and the weather was harsh in Winter, recalled the couple. But Mama and Papa Kurihara survived, and when the war was over, the elderly couple returned to Los Angeles only to find that all their possessions had been taken away. Penniless, the couple turned to San Tong for help, a friend had asked San Tong if he could help them. And San Tong gave the elderly couple Jue Joe's former cabin rent-free to live in. By this time Jue Joe's cabin had acquired a wooden floor and many amenities.




Heart Mountain Barrack: According to Mamoru Inouye, a former internee, "...the evacuation was just a culmination of what had been going on for 40 years on the West Coast, beginning with alien land law and the Chinese exclusion act...." Photographers Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel worked for Life magazine. Mieth now lives in Santa Rosa, California. Hagel died in 1974.


From "Legend of Zhao" by Soo-Yin Jue

I see Mama and Papa Kurihara sobbing aboard the "Star of Yokohama". From their deck amid bright-colored streamers they're waving white hankies to us as we stand on the concrete deck below. At the Port of Los Angeles we had elbowed through its enormous crowds. How peculiar for me to watch this old , childless couple surrender to their fusillade of feelings as I've never seen them do before. From the moment of my existence they'd been in my life.

Thursdays and I would hear the fish man roar his green truck onto our gravel driveway. The fish man knew to toss Bingo ,our dog , a squid while Mother and Mama examined a rock cod. And I knew I would soon taste delectable pearls from the sea at suppertime. To the fish man who spoke to me in single syllables, I was a prattler intensely off-key, for I gave him Japanese quite messed up. But Mama would intervene on my behalf correcting my gibberish and laughing hard. She sang folk songs and shuffled pigeon-toed on our kitchen floor in a dance that told me of far away places. Mama was our housekeeper who brought to us Japan as in a doll's house.

Papa was our gardener. Suddenly, white gardenias bloomed to perfume the grace of our broad front porch; irises drew their purple swords to guard our walkways of red brick; bushes of roses and hyacinths and camellias, columns of cypress tress, the curving green fur that licked along our grounds- they all grew up with the poetry of Papa.

When World War II ended the old Japanese couple came to stay with us , having no way to restart their lives. Mama and Papa dreamed of returning to Japan; to their old life. "I want to see Japan before the sun grows dark on us, " said Papa. I begged him not to leave, but he explained to me, "We are old and can only think of the passings of soft seasons."

Last week, before they left, they pressed into my hand a tea cup chipped in places along the brim. Mama turned that chipped tea cup clockwise and I tasted her green brew delicate as the Meiji's moon. They made a gift to me of this hand-thrown artifact, which was the only treasure that the couple owned. With reverence, Papa then produced a bowl of sticky, red-beaned rice. "The color red means good luck", he said.

I can no longer see the "Star of Yokohama". The dock stands empty and the Santa Ana winds begin to clap.

San Tong's Ford Roadster

Ford Model T Roadster, 1926
Smithsonian Institution, Photo by Jeff Tinsley, Negative #: 2003-32651

"When San Tong became a young man in the 1920s, and before he married Rose, he wanted what all young American men dreamed of having. A sportscar! He saved every penny and bought himself a Ford Roadster. He was so proud of it. (I remember seeing a photo of him waving his hand from out the car's window.) But later he couldn't make a monthly payment of $50. So he asked his father Jue Joe for the $50. "My father wanted to teach me a lesson," recalled San Tong to me with a smile, "he wanted me to learn to live within my means, so Pa said to me, 'NO!" Just like that. What could I do? I hid the car every night on different streets so it wouldn't get repossessed. Finally, I got so tired of doing this that I just left my car where it was and let it be repossessed." Jue Joe had many lessons to teach San Tong. After San You died, Jue Joe began training San Tong to be a marketman. "I was scared," recalls San Tong to me, "I didn't know how to negotiate and buy additional produce to add to ours at the Produce Exchange on San Pedro Street. So I would buy, for example, carrots and pay too high a price for them and then my father would chew me out. That was his way of teaching me. Throw me into a pool and let me sink or swim. He was a cranky guy. When I learned to do well he never said so. When I made a mistake, wow, he let me have it." Auntie Soo-Yin.

Here is nice video history of Henry Ford's Model T.

Jue Joe's Pierce Arrow Car

(Click on picture to enlarge )

Jue Joe was all his life a simple man who was humble and avoided most luxuries even when he could afford them . He lived until his death in a one room cabin with a dirt floor . He did allow himself one special treat however:

"One day my father, San Tong, told me about Jue Joe's Pierce Arrow car. This was the only luxury that Jue Joe ever bought for himself. The 1932 or '33 Pierce Arrow towncar was black with chrome detailing. Its interior upholstery was red-tufted velvet and had a chauffer's seat separated by a glass window. There was a phone inlaid with Mother of Pearl that connected the chauffer to the passenger seat in the rear. And the Pierce Arrow model had two chrystal lamps on each side of the exterior front. Jue Joe was a pragmatist: With the Pierce Arrow's 125-horse power engine, he ripped out its backseat, he tied ropes to its back fender, and he used the car to uproot trees in order to clear his fields for cultivation- Auntie Soo Yin"

My Dad remembers that Jue Joe did not drive himself and was always chauffered. His chauffer was his grand nephew Chan Lum (Loon) who he had helped emigrate from China and who lived at the ranch .
More details on the Pierce- Arrow : (Thanks Uncle Ed , for the fine research and picture)
1932 Pierce-Arrow: "The name Pierce Arrow was one of the most recognized and respected names in the automobile industry. For 38 years the Pierce Arrow Motor Company of Buffalo, New York crafted some of the world's finest automobiles. In their time, Pierce Arrows could be found anywhere the rich and famous worked and played. For twenty years, Pierce Arrow was the official White House Presidential car. The company also supplied cars to the royal families of Japan, Persia, Saudi Arabia, Greece, and Belgium. Scores of congressmen, ambassadors, governors, entertainers and corporate executives chose Pierce Arrows." (Swope's Museum.)

Jue Joe's Pierce-Arrow Town Car was a A V12 4-door 7-passenger limousine. A divider window separated the chauffer's seat from the passenger's cab. The Pierce-Arrow's mascot was the famous Archer, and crystal headlamps were mounted atop the front fenders.