Written by William Gow Eleanor Soo Hoo, the youngest sister of Peter Soo Hoo Sr., was born in a house on Apablasa Street in Old Chinatown. Her mother was a Chinese American who grew up in Santa Barbara. Her father came to the United States as a boy of about 11 from Hoiping, China. He […]

Written by Andrew Jung Trying to find a better life for his family, Ruby’s adventurous father traveled to Seattle, then to Chicago and finally settled in Los Angeles. An industrious entrepreneur, Ruby’s father participated in the World’s Fair in various cities. Ruby Ling Louie was born on April 11th, 1931 in Chicago, Illinois. Traveling seems […]

Written by  Annie Luong John Young was born in Los Angeles’ Old Chinatown in 1923. His father was born in Canton, China and immigrated to the United States in 1870 and was president of the Hop Sing Tong for 13 years. In 1906 he went back to San Francisco to marry Young’s mother who was […]

Written by Annie Luong Marie Louie was born on Hill Street in downtown Los Angeles on April 6th, 1927. Her mother was born in Ventura in a place called “China Alley�? and moved to Los Angeles when she was nine. Her father came to the states from Hoi Ping, China in 1905, having studied medicine […]

Written by Mary Chang Albert Lew was born in 1924 in Los Angeles’ Old Chinatown, on Alameda Street, across from what is now Union Station. Albert was the first in his family to be born in the United States. However, due to the Great Depression, Albert’s parents decided to move their family back to China […]

Written by Annie Luong, Jenny Huynh & Sidney Vu Around 1910, David Fon Lee’s parents immigrated to the United States. From the same origins as Sun Yat-sen, David’s parents were from Jung San, Canton. His grandfather, who immigrated to the United States in the days of the transcontinental railroad, opened a restaurant on 7th Street, Central […]

Written by Annie Luong Irvin Lai was born in 1927 on a farm in the outskirts of Locke, California. His mother was born in San Francisco in 1904 and his father was the son of an American citizen, but was born in China and lived there until his twenties. Irvin remembers Locke being a small […]

Coming Soon

Written by Annie Luong Esther Lee Johnson was born in 1930 during the Great Depression. In 1936, her family moved to Los Angeles’s old Chinatown and they would later on move into China City, where she would become one of the first Chinese Americans to participate in the film industry. One among four girls in […]

Written by Annie Luong Ben Fong was born in December 1921 in Sacramento, California. There, his father was a partner in a wholesale and retail meat market on the main city business street, Kay Street. His father had a skin allergy in 1936, and the family moved to the East Adams area in Los Angeles. […]