Chinese Fishermen/Merchants in Santa Barbara

[chinesefishermen]

Hello,
I am helping a family in Los Angeles find their father Lem Ong.  He had a stall in City Market in the 1950s.  The family found his  WWIi registration card, and it appears that his certificate of identity is listed on the card. Can this information help us learn more about Lem Ong?  I have attached the registration card here.  

[Henry]

Chinesefisherman,

I suggest try contacting NARA in San Bruno, CA - I believe they may be able to trace him via his certificate of identity number.

www.archives.gov/san-francisco

Henry

[chinesefishermen]

Thank you Henry! I will contact NARA in San Bruno right away.

[chinesefishermen]

Good evening,
I am continuing my research pertaining to Chinese fishermen in Santa Barbara and the Channel Islands.   There were at least four businesses that were engaged in harvesting, processing and exporting abalone from Santa Barbara's Chinatown.   They are Sun Lung & Co. (Partners were from Zhongshan and were mostly from Soon clans), Tim Kee & Company, You Kee (proprietor was Lee Tong) and Sing Chung & Company (Partners were Gins from Toishan).  I am having a hard time finding the name of the proprietor of Sing Chung & Company as he always signed his name "Sing Chung" on immigration files, newspaper accounts, census, coroner reports  and tax records.   I have found a few immigration files for this company and the partners were Gins. In fact this board helped me identify one of the men, Gin Gop.   Do you have any advice as to how to find the name of the proprietor of Sing Chung and Company?

My second question, would merchants from different districts do business together?  It looks like I have evidence of the proprietor of Sing Chung & Company (Toishan)  and Sun Lung & Company (Zhongshan)  forming a partnership to farm land in Santa Barbara in the 1890s.  

Thank you for your help with these questions.  I am happy to provide research materials (newspaper, census, immigration files, etc.)

Linda

[Henry]

Hi Linda,

Please email directly at [e-mail] and I will reply with the following 2 files:

California Chinese Business Houses 1882 (PDF)

Partnership Files (xlsx) This is an inventory of the NARA cases files

Henry

[gckimm]

Hi Linda:

In regard to your question about partnerships between people from different districts, I would say that such a partnership would be unusual during the 1890s. Based on what I have learned about Chinese American communities at that time, there was still some division, and sometimes outright animosity, between people from different areas in Guangdong Province. This was especially true between Sam Yup ("Three Counties") and Sze Yup ("Four Counties") people. In some communities, for example, my hometown of Bakersfield, this division led to the creation of separate Chinatowns, each largely inhabited by people from one or the other region. As time went on and Chinese communities became smaller and more Americanized, with more young people born in the U.S., these divisions were forgotten.

Note, however, that Zhongshan/Chungshan County is not a Sam Yup or Sze Yup county. Historically, although there were some Chinese communities with a larger concentration of Chungshan people (Hawaii would be #1 here), this left Chungshan people in other communities sort of in the middle, where they might have felt the need to align themselves with one group or the other. It's also possible that the community in Santa Barbara was so small that no one really cared if Toishan people and Chungshan people worked together, but, as I said, I think that would be somewhat unusual. In the 1890s, in other places, there were still some actually violent conflicts between Chinese of different regions.

Greg

[chinesefishermen]

Hi Greg,
Thank you very much for this information.  I think your suggestion that Santa Barbara was so small, rivalries between people from different districts may have not been as fierce as we see in large  Chinese communities.  I will let you know when I learn more. 

Thank you!
Linda