Christal Yu DB 1

* What do you learn from Bahadur’s process of researching her great-grandmother’s history? What were the limits of the archive and how did she address these limits? If you were to construct an archive of your own family history, what types of data might you review or search for?

Bahadur’s search for her great grandmother’s history spoke to the silencing of WOC in history and the hidden horrors of white supremacy, colonization, and the quest for capitalism. She noticed that all mentions of Indian women enslaved to Guyana were by another party, as viewed through the racist eyes of the white man. Only altercations or highly factual instances were recorded. Official sources barely spoke of these women, so Bahadur worked to uncover more traditional methods: oral records like folk songs, stories as told by people, photographs and tattoos on the arms of elderly women.

In searching for records of my own family history, I have looked at family photo albums and questioned family members to no end for stories of immigration, hardship, and family. There have always been detailed stories from my more talkative family members, but often time specifics are confused or half forgotten. Photographs are plentiful in my family, they seemed very fond of recording things, for which I am grateful now. Upon thinking more, I might look at more official sources like immigration records, perhaps housing records, work records?

* What did you learn from the oral history that you studied? Tell us a little bit about the person who was interviewed. How does this oral history challenge or confirm ideas and information you already have about Asian Americans? What surprises you? What is missing in this history- what else would you want to know?

William Sing Mock is spirited man, very engaged in and proud of his history. He speaks a combination of Cantonese and Toisan (Taishanese) dialects of Chinese, as well as some English. I was extremely interested in his depiction of his family’s immigration and first experiences in America. His grandfather worked to build the railroad around 1890, but returned to China to be with family after a short period of time. The story William weaves is an intergenerational one spanning from his grandfather’s work as a laborer, to his flattering depiction of who I believe is Leland Stanford (?), the beginnings of a local rice paddy, and his own difficult immigration decades later to Hawaii.

This oral history retelling was thought provoking on many levels. For one, William spoke a mixture of Cantonese, Toisan/Taishanese, and English throughout the interview. I’m not really fluent in Cantonese and can barely understand simple sentences in Toisan, whereas William’s English is similarly unsure. It was the main reason I picked his interview out of the other fluent English speakers, because the language difficulties made me focus just that much harder. Despite watching several times and even enlisting my mom for help translating, the story was still somewhat difficult to follow, due to our language differences as well as William’s natural story telling style. Every time I hear a “Coming to America” story, I always feel instantly humbled, reminded of my size compared to how large the world and other experiences are. While I experience difficulties, I cannot imagine the frustration of adapting to a new country, forcing yourself to learn a new language, and battling intense racism and poverty all the while. William describes intense xenophobia, with white Americans pushing for the expulsion of Chinese people and that racists even assaulted and brutalized them. He states that “Chinese people weren’t allowed in the courthouses… it was like that. It was really like that” with such intense, slighted fervor in his voice that resonates with you how excluded and angry his ancestors felt.

Upon doing some quick google searches, I’m confused about the dates William provided. The Transcontinental Railroad wrapped up in the late 1860’s, but William cited his grandfather’s immigration to work on the railroad as the 1890’s, with a return to China in 1905. I believe that William said his grandfather, or someone his grandfather knew, knew Leland Stanford. He refers to him only as Stanford, however, the interview is at Stanford University and Leland Stanford had no children. This leads me to believe William may have his decades confused. He says his grandfather/family friend (I am unsure) was either gifted/or gifted a gold watch to Leland Stanford. Stanford died in the late 1880’s, another time line that doesn’t quite match up.

I am surprised to hear William’s view on Leland Stanford. If we are referring to the same Stanford, William said that Stanford was a good person, who defended Chinese people from white Americans who wanted to send them all back to China, and reminded people that Chinese workers built the railroads. Google reveals that Stanford was an outright racist, specifically toward Chinese people as well. He declared that “the settlement among us of an inferior race is to be discouraged by every legitimate means. Asia, with her numberless millions, sends to our shores the dregs of her population… [which] exercise a deleterious influence upon the superior race, and to a certain extent, repel desirable immigration.” This is… a pretty huge discrepancy. This confirms ideas I have about Chinese-Americans as I know them today.

William seems to know only part of the story, which is the part where Leland Stanford hired Chinese immigrants, bringing them to America to work grueling jobs that no white man wanted to risk his life doing. However, the other side of the coin is that Leland Stanford had made the above racist statements prior to mass recruiting Chinese immigrants and was later called a hypocrite for bringing in the very people he demonized and spoke of as a dirty horde from which white America must be protected. It saddens me to some extent, that William views Stanford as a savior, a protector, and a “good person” as he repeats. His knowledge seems to be that Stanford paid and brought people to America, but overlooks the facts that Stanford recruited Chinese people for life threatening positions, publicly demonized them for political gain as well as personal belief. This to me, echoes some of the lack of knowledge some Chinese people have regarding politics, questioning authority, and honoring white men. I can’t say that this is true for all Chinese Americans, even in that time period, for William is merely the grandson of one railroad worker. I cannot help but feel the echo of my own grandfather declaring Trump a great businessman, approaching the polls ready, while Trump whines on every major network about “what he’s going to do about THE Chinese”

I am curious about the rice paddies William mentioned his grandfather being involved in. I’m unclear if his grandfather owned the paddy or if a family friend did, but I wonder how they started it and what the family’s background prior to coming to America was, and what it has evolved to today. I’m interested in hearing more about William’s experience in Hawaii, the place where he first was introduced to America, as well as his experience in California. Both places have a huge Asian-American population, so much so that they are a majority. It differs extremely from my own experience in NYC, where Chinese-Americans are plentiful but are still a “”minority””