2018 Newsletter
HAWAII CHINESE HISTORY CENTER
111 N. King Street #307, Hon. Hawaii 96817
Phone 808-521-5948 ----- Hours: Wed. 10 – 12 noon
The Hawaii Chinese History Center, a 501 C3 non-profit organization was founded in 1970. Its goals are:
to stimulate interest & research among the Chinese in their own history, experiences and family genealogies in Hawaii.
to assist and guide them to make their experiences available to the larger community through research, writing and publishing
to inventory, collect, record and preserve historical materials, documents and photographs related to the Chinese in Hawaii.
Throughout our forty-eight years, the HCHC has been a leader in the United Sates for 1) producing numerous publications on the Chinese in Hawaii and 2) guiding individuals and organizations in their efforts to research, write and publish their histories.
HCHC OFFICERS
President: Douglas D.L. Chong
Vice President: Lorene T. Leong
Secretary: Allynne Tom
Treasurer: Leonard Look
Directors:
Noma Au Lum, Wing Tek Lum, Diane Mark,
Robert W.C. Wong, Sherman Wong and Paul Yuen
NEWSLETTER June 2018
ANNUAL MEETING AND GENEALOGY COURSE - ALL MEMBERS AND GUESTS ARE INVITED TO ATTEND June 30 Saturday, 1:30 PM to 3:30 PM, at the See Dai Doo Society Hall, 1300 Pali Hwy. Street parking available and municipal parking lot right across the street.
The meeting will be followed by an Advanced Genealogy Course, the second of three courses offered to members and guests free by the Hawaii Chinese History Center. Three years ago, the introduction course was met with a huge success. This advanced session will center on compiling and writing up family history based on previous research material and oral histories obtained following the introduction course.
The Hawaii Chinese History Center (HCHC) is alive and flourishing as we continue to serve the community through lectures, displays and assisting individuals, families and organizations in researching, documenting and publishing their colorful history and rich heritage.
HCHC has been deeply involved with the United Chinese Society by assisting In the Ching Ming program and ceremonies as well as lecturing to their performing youth group guests. The Chinese Chamber of Commerce has also been on our list of community service organizations by providing history and culture classes to their Narcissus Festival contestants annually.
We have had a steady stream of guests, researchers and old friends who have kept us very busy. Many fourth and fifth generation Hawaii Chinese who have moved to the mainland are now returning to seek their roots and top our list of visitors. This is followed by local Chinese, academic scholars from China, and kama’aina families who have come to seek information and have donated family heirlooms like an abacus used by a grandfather in his herb shop and photographed by On Char in 1915. The photo appeared in the Chinese bicentennial publication Sailing for The Sun and the glass negative plate is housed at the Bishop Museum in On Char’s Collection.
Success stories abound with us finally figuring out the ancestral villages of local 5th-6th Chinese-Hawaiian descendants gleaned from faded obscured gravestones buried in the rural areas of the outside islands. Many other finds are a work-in-progress for these diligent family members for whom we have deciphered their REAL surnames since their ancestors changed their surnames to those like Awong, Akina, Akaka and Apo starting nearly a century and a half ago.
One of the new features of our website is the addition of over a dozen podcasts in the Marvels of China - Pathways to the Pacific Rim, dealing with historical aspects of the Chinese in Hawaii. Graciously included by the program coordinator, Jeff Mead, we have been included in these weekly radio broadcasts on Chinese history, experiences, educational programs, economic affairs and social concerns about the Chinese in America. Get online to our website and listen carefully to the podcasts.
HCHC’s president was invited as a guest lecturer by the University of Hawaii’s religion department to detail the history of Chinese religious practices in early Hawaii. We were also included by KHON TV in celebrating the lunar Chinese New Year festival and also to assist in the upcoming China Week feature.
We were honored by the U.S Postal Service to take part in the unveiling of the First Day of Issue for the Year of the Dog Commemorative Stamp. Together with the stamp’s artist, Kam Mak, we pulled the curtain open to reveal the beautiful stamp on January 11, 2018 at 11 AM at the Chinese Cultural Plaza. As a part of the ceremony we presented the deep cultural significance of the Chinese artwork and subject matter and were thrilled by hundreds of stamp collectors who sought the rare first day stamp, covers and programs. Due to our large Asian population and Chinese history here, Honolulu was selected as the only city in America to host this most auspicious occasion.
For the Chinese New Year celebration, Bob Sigall of the Honolulu Star Advertiser, helped our HCHC president feature a brief history of the Chinese in Hawaii from migration as sugar laborers, to the rice industry and Chinese Hawaiian blending, to the Chinese Exclusion Act, to Sun Yat Sen, WW II and the long trek in preserving our Chinese history, culture and heritage. We appreciate Bob’s coverage, which produced many positive comments of the public’s learning experience. Read the fascinating article in total on our website.
HCHC president, Douglas Chong, was honored last year as United Chinese Society’s Model Chinese Father of the Year and also received the Kahu ‘Ikena Award from the Hawaiian Historical Society for a half century of documenting Hawaii’s Chinese history. The Chinese Chamber of Commerce also named him the Outstanding Volunteer of the Year 2018 for instructing the contestants in Chinese history and culture for twenty-five years.
Hawaii mourns the loss of our oldest Chinese resident in Hawaii, Mrs. Ethel Leong Lung who recently passed away shortly before her 110th birthday. She was born in 1908 in the rice fields of Wailuku, Maui, to Leong Fong Sin and Chong Shee, two of the last Wong Leong Doo sugar laborers brought to Hawaii in the ending years of the Hawaiian Kingdom. A Chung Shan Living Treasure, Mrs. Lung, struggled from humble beginnings to become a successful business woman, mother, and community leader. Her extreme longevity, typical of our huge Chung Shan population in Hawaii, begins another project in documenting our Chinese genetic blessing in the Hawaiian Islands!
We cannot function without our volunteers and those who have supported us with donations, supplies, artifacts, materials and necessary office equipment. We thank the See Dai Doo Society for their very generous contribution to HCHC recently in the amount of $5,000 for us to continue our mission in serving our local community, and also Dennis Yee, an old-time volunteer from forty years ago for generously gifting us with a much needed projector for our lectures. Mahalo also to Luther Chong for maintaining our comprehensive website https://sites.google.com/site/hawaiichinesehistorycenter/, and to Michele Choy and the Chinese Chamber of Commerce for giving us copies of the well sought-after Narcissus annuals. Without the help of our hard-working volunteers Lorene Leong, Leonard Look, Constance Mark and La Verne Tam we would not be able to function and service ourresearchers. We welcome our youngest volunteer Sarah Tamashiro who comes to us with a great deal of knowledge, enthusiasm and the appreciation of our Chinese history to help us carry forth our mission into the future.
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MAHALO TO OUR GENEROUS DONORS
See Dai Doo Society
Mr. Joe Lee, Hilo
In Memory of Mr. Frank Bolas
Siu Society
Mrs. Edith Chang Won
Yee Hop Realty
Mr. Adam Wong
Mr. Colin Leong & Alaska Airlines
Kam Society
Louise & Y.T Lum Foundation
Mr. Ronald Chun, CA.
Mrs. Michelle Ching Choy
In Memory of Mr. Francisco Talino
Mr. & Mrs. Douglas D.L. Chong
Pat & Ron Rollins, Minnesota
Mr. & Mrs. Norman Jong
Mr. Vincent Comer, Seattle
Kung Sheong Doo Society
Waipahu Tsoong Nyee Society
Chinese Catholic Club
Mr. & Mrs. Harold Aloiau
Mr. & Mrs. Theodore Chong
Mr. Ronald Lim
Tsung Tsin Association