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O n Being the Church Craig Wong Discovering God on out, the immigration authorities received a letter, accompanied by a Angel Island check, which read: “Sir, I respect- fully request that hospital treatment In the fall of 1916, my grandmother, be granted in the case of Wong Wong Shee Fong, boarded the S.S. Shee…A deposit of $300 is hereby Tenyo Maru and set sail for America, made to cover such treatment.” having been separated from her husband This letter was signed and delivered for over five years. Alone and in her early by Ms. Donaldina Cameron, a Christian 20s, she was eager to leave a fractured minister of the Presbyterian Chinese and struggling China, a country left in the Mission in San Francisco’s Chinatown. In hands of competing warlords after the this gracious appeal for mercy on behalf failed monarchy of self-proclaimed of my grandmother, she was not alone. emperor Yuan Shikai. Furthermore, she Along with Ms. Cameron were Ms. Ethel was fleeing the tyranny of a harsh and Higgins, Mr. J. H. Laughlin, and other heavy-handed mother-in-law. Despite the saints from the Presbyterian Mission pain of having to leave her young son who, for months, advocated for my behind, she looked to the hope of reunion grandmother’s release from the island. with her spouse and the chance for a Documents drawn from the National better life in Jiu Jin Shan, or the Old Archives bear witness to the voluminous Gold Mountain that was San Francisco. correspondence between the church and Indeed, the Gold Mountain had bet- where one is deported unless proven eli- the US immigration authorities, an amaz- tered the life of a few, particularly the gible. The painstaking process is exempli- ing labor of love that blessed the lives of successful speculators in the early stages fied in this small excerpt from one of my my ancestors–and so many others. of the rush. For most, however, the grandmother’s interrogation transcripts: I share this account with great delight, promises of wealth did not deliver, and for in studying my grandmother’s ordeal the Chinese were among the first to be Q: “You stated before that there in the Angel Island Immigration Station, I scapegoated and economically marginal- were eight houses in your village, and discovered the great works of the Lord in, ized. Harassment and forced segregation four rows. Now, with the paper clips and through, his people. Discovering were accompanied by laws, such as the you have used, you have arranged God’s gracious hand upon my family Foreign Miner’s Tax designed to force the village in six rows. Which is cor- nearly a century ago, I am filled with “coolies” out of the mineral fields and rect?” gratitude for the men and women who local ordinances that prohibited Chinese A: “The first three rows there is only served in his name. As our nation’s dark cultural practices like the use of shoulder- one house in each row. No second immigration history repeats itself, I pray slung “yeo-ho” poles. More importantly, a house.” that we might serve likewise. series of laws was passed to make Q: Do you mean there are really six Chinese immigration as difficult as pos- rows instead of four?“ sible, culminating in the 1882 Chinese A: Yes. Exclusion Act which declared all but Q: “Why do you have your village Great are the works of the Lord, certain classes of Chinese (i.e. economi- different from the way you told us it studied by all who delight in Him. Psalm 111:2 cally beneficial merchants and students) was arranged when we had the other barred from the country, the original interpreter?” “illegal aliens” of federal regulatory code. A. “I did not arrange them. The For more stories, visit GUM.org/ Thus, the America that Wong Shee other interpreter arranged them him- AngelIsland and download a copy of Congregational Ministry and Advocacy: experienced upon arrival was a hot, self. I did not know what he meant...” The Angel Island Immigration Station crowded, and locked barrack, for she And so on. Era, 1910-40, a publication co-edited by found herself booked into the nation’s Grace Urban Ministries, a congregation- based nonprofit serving children, youth, first major immigration detention facility, Aside from the stressful gauntlet and families in San Francisco. located on Angel Island just off the coast of interrogations, Wong Shee also of San Francisco. Unlike the European had to combat prolonged disease in immigrants who typically passed through a jail with unsanitary conditions and Craig Wong is the execu- Ellis Island within a few hours, my grand- inadequate medical care. One dis- tive director of Grace mother remained in detention for nearly ease in particular was trachoma, a Urban Ministries. He six months, enduring multiple interroga- serious eye infection that had just invites your feedback at tions, health inspections, and the long been classified as a basis for depor- onbeingthechurch@gum. wait for reference checks in a system tation. However, with time running org. 39