This is Wong Chin Foo. His name is now forgotten to the US mainstream, but his recorded legacy of br
This is Wong Chin Foo. His name is now forgotten to the US mainstream, but his recorded legacy of brash, outspoken, irreverant pro-Chinese activism, in an era of unbridled anti-Chinese racism, stands as a monument of resistance. He was a 19th-century agitator who is believed to have coined the phrase “Chinese American” when he boldly emblazened those words across the banner of New York’s first Chinese newspaper which he founded in 1883.Born in China in 1851, Wong Chin Foo came to the US in 1864 to study English. Because he arrived as a minor and lived in the US for more than 5 years, he was able to obtain naturalization papers in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1874, becoming one of the first people of Chinese descent to become a US citizen. He traveled across the US giving lectures on Chinese civilization, in which he proudly declared himself a heathen and suggested that Westerners should learn about religion themselves before sending missionaries to China. He called Jesus a “Johnny Come Lately” in contrast to the more ancient teachings of Confucius. He said, “I never knew that rats and puppies were good to eat until I was told by American people.”Wong repeatedly showed up to heckle speeches by the anti-Chinese organizer Dennis Kearney, whose slogan “The Chinese must go!” was used to incite lynch mobs. Wong went so far as to challenge Kearney to a duel, offering to give the Irishman the choice of weapons: chopsticks, potatoes, or pistols. Kearney declined.In 1893, Wong appeared before a US House Committee hearing to urge Congress to repeal the Chinese Exclusion Act (to no avail). He founded the Chinese Equal Rights League to demand the right to vote and to organize against Chinese Exclusion. Wong encouraged his fellow Chinese to refuse to carry the apartheid-like IDs which were required of them. In 1894, he organized a civil disobedience action in front of the Federal Building in Manhattan, resulting in the arrest of League member Fong Yue Ting. Like many other legal challenges to Chinese Exclusion, the case made it all the way to the Supreme Court, where Chinese Exclusion was upheld.In the early 20th century, Wong supported the revolution in China and the overthrow of the Qing dynasty led by Sun Yat-Sen. After that, there is no more record of him. He disappeared, and nobody knows what became of him. -- source link