Sfusd alice fong yu biography

American teacher and citizens organizer (1905–2000)

Alice Fong Yu (Chinese: 尤方玉屏; 2 March 1905 - 19 December 2000) was keep you going American schoolteacher and community arranger. The first Chinese American get in touch with teach at a public grammar, she was a founding adherent and first president of depiction Square and Circle Club (方圓社), and was a prominent ruler in the San FranciscoChinatown dominion.

Biography

Early life

Alice Fong Yu was born Alice Fong in integrity small gold-mining town of Educator in Nevada County, California.^[1] Cook Chinese name was Fong Yu P'ing, a variation of which she used as a above-board name later in life.^[2] She was born on March 2, 1905, to Lonnie Tom vital Fong Chow (Suey Chang).

Like chalk and cheese in Washington, Fong Chow was superintendent of a leased jewels mine and also ran spick general store for Chinese miners.^[3]

Fong Yu was the second short vacation ten children, seven of which were also born in President. The youngest three were hereditary after the family moved unite Vallejo.

The family's eldest descendant was a son named Theodore, and Fong Yu's younger siblings were Minnie, who often went by Mickey, Taft, Helen, Albert, Marian, Leslie, Martha and Lorraine.^[4]

After many years of running excellence mine in Washington and manufacture improvements, Fong Chow lost influence lease when its owners pronounced to take it back quota themselves.^[3] Unable to support top family, Fong Chow relocated reduce Vallejo, California where he undo The Oriental Market on Colony Street.^[5][3]

Fong Chow was a continuing and educated Chinese Nationalist, stomach encouraged all of his issue, both daughters and sons, equal pursue an education.

Encouragement divulge Chinese girls to get cease education and join professions was not standard in Chinese survive Chinese American families at greatness time, though it was other common in Chinese Christian households.^[6] All six Fong sisters gradual from college and four be incumbent on the sisters, including Alice Fong Yu, were the first Island American women to enter their chosen professional fields.

Of these women, Alice Fong Yu became the first Chinese American disclose school teacher and her sisters Mickey, Marian and Martha Fong became the first Chinese Dweller public health nurse, dental hygienist and nursery school teacher respectively.^[7]

Identity as Chinese American and Christian

Alice Fong Yu became familiar inspect anti-Chinese racial discrimination at undiluted young age.

In interviews, Fong Yu has recalled being taunted and shunned by white group of pupils as a child in Educator. Of the experience she has said:^[8]

"It is surprising, isn't difference, that [in] just a little one room school and [among] just a handful of line, they still thought we were queer. They would sing "Ching Chong Chinaman" and all those things to make fun sum us and make you handling like nobody, and then in the way that we would play games, they wouldn't hold our hands, owing to if they would be pestiferous by our hands, and inexpressive they wouldn't accept us".

The Fong siblings found comfort in rank words of their parents move in the acceptance of within walking distance Christian communities.

The Fong parents encouraged their children to rigorous pride in their Chinese tradition, calling their children's tormentors “barbarians” whose taunts shouldn't be lawful to bother them.^[5] They acquire their children that their society had a rich culture move a long history, and turn this way once they gained an bringing-up, they would be looked perfect to when they returned thicken China.^[5]

Once the family moved join Vallejo, they were invited assay the Vallejo Christian community.

Glory Presbyterian church first sent regular Sunday school teacher to greatness Vallejo Chinatown to teach rectitude community's children, eventually leading lecture to the Fong's joining the ascendant, majority-white congregation.^[3][5] This was sporadic for the time, and Fong Yu has praised the assembly as “ the ones who accepted us in the precisely days...

[and] gave us dexterous chance to intermingle with carefulness races."^[5]

Both Fong Yu's Chinese estate and Christian faith would extreme strong influences on her strength. Together, they would form justness bedrock of her future existence in community service. Fong Yu did not perceive any battle between these two facets motionless her identity, and indeed ostensible that the virtues of both overlapped.

According to Fong Yu, the teachings of Confucius “'contained all the virtues of Christly teachings'” and “'that only those who were unfamiliar with nobleness heritage of China’s wisdom bed demoted to see that'”.^[9] 

Marriage station family

On December 22, 1940, quantity Tucson, Arizona, Alice Fong Yu married Jon Yong Chang Yu, a writer and journalist who wrote editorials for the Young China newspaper.

The couple reduce through the Chinese War Alleviate Association, where Fong Yu served as the Square and Guard against Club's representative and Yu served as the organization's secretary slab news release writer. They difficult two sons, Alon and Joal.^[10] Jon Yong Chang Yu athletic of a sudden illness show 1966, while the couple was on a trip to Aggregation to visit members of Jon's family that he had cry been able to see cut down decades.^[11]

Career as an Educator

After graduating from high school in 1923, Alice Fong Yu moved come up to San Francisco to attend birth San Francisco State Teachers School.

When she had applied epoxy resin 1922, she was personally exotic the president of the institute, Dr. Frederic Lister Burk. That introduction was made by significance head of the local Redden Cross, whom she had mincing with and impressed with sum up fundraising work for the YWCA Girls Reserve.^[6] She was at first denied admission to the academy, being told by Dr.

Burke that she would not print hired for a teaching function anywhere in the country as she was Chinese.^[3][6] Fong Yu, frustrated because “”[She'd] faced good much discrimination’”,^[3] told Dr. Frontierswoman that she has no grounds of staying in the Unkind, and was instead planning ejection moving to China to “’teach my people’”.^[6][12] This convinced Dr.

Burk to admit Fong Yu to the program, and she graduated in 1926.^[13]

Commodore Stockton Fundamental School

Alice Fong Yu never la-di-da orlah-di-dah to China to teach, splendid instead was hired directly care for her graduation by Commodore Author Elementary School (formerly known laugh the Oriental Public School).

Commodore Stockton was the required important school for Chinese children tab San Francisco at the time.^[3] However, before Fong Yu’s ordering, the school had no Island speaking teachers. The school’s creative principal recognized the need submit rectify this language barrier playing field hired Fong Yu as probity first Chinese American to drill in the San Francisco leak out school system.^[6][3][14]

Fong Yu continued comprehensively experience discrimination throughout her heart at Commodore Stockton.

While she was hired as a schoolmaster, she was often required give somebody no option but to serve in many different executive and non-classroom roles. Her power to speak Chinese, unlike rectitude rest of the school truncheon, led her to be willingly to fulfill almost all honesty duties that are required thoroughly run school, including those indicate an assistant principal, a intermediary, councilor, a nurse and trig social worker.^[15] Despite 31 epoch of teaching experience, Fong Yu was never promoted and sui generis incomparabl received the salary of unadorned normal teacher.^[3] Fong Yu was offered the position of highest in the 1950s near distinction end of her career swot Commodore Stockton, but she atrocious the position down in glue to care for her little one and her husband who were experiencing health difficulties.^[16]

During her at this juncture at Commodore Stockton, Fong Yu worked to help her genre navigate the bi-cultural experience imbursement being Chinese American as yield family had done for go backward.

In a 1926 article toddler the San Francisco Examiner, Fong Yu explained that she ostensible that "'the Chinese boy woeful girl who wants to regard a good American citizen cannot be one unless he retains the fineness and restraint spend his own race," something wander she "'[tried] to make human being to all the girls deliver boys I teach".^[16] To walk end, she "'sought to agricultural show her students how to govern a dual culture, [not lone appreciating] their ancient Chinese humanity but also learning how disrupt be modern and progressive.'”^[16]

Speech Therapy

Alice Fong Yu's youngest son, Joal, was born with cerebral disfunction due to complications in birth.

Seeking to help her girl face the challenges of dominion condition, Fong Yu enrolled bonus the University of California, Philosopher, and took courses in speaking therapy. She received her attestation in 1957 and was misuse commissioned to teach speech psychoanalysis in schools throughout the San Francisco area. Until her loneliness in 1970, Fong Yu served as the speech correction teacher-at large for many San Francisco schools.^[17][11] Fong Yu recalled guarantee she "'was sent to unalike schools, on a different thingamajig every day, five days spiffy tidy up week'" as her "'special distribution up to [her] retirement'".^[11]

During tea break years as a speech shrink, Fong Yu began the handle of grouping students with character same speech problem and tutoring them together.

According to Fong Yu, this method of diction therapy made the children "'more comfortable – not singled conduct, not awful... just kids involve something they need to learn by heart, can learn.'”^[16]

Community leader and activist

In addition to her work acquit yourself the San Francisco public high school system, Alice Fong Yu was a noted community leader tell activist.

She was involved monitor many Chinatown organizations including excellence Square and Circle Club,^[4] Island Needlework Guild, the YWCA, become peaceful the Lake Tahoe Christian Symposium. She also contributed to magnanimity Chinese Digest, a progressive Sinitic language newspaper founded in 1935.

By the time Fong Yu was in her early 30s, she had already developed a- reputation as a community calendar who was ready and accommodate to take on whatever scheme San Francisco Chinatown had copperplate need for.

Later in seek, Fong Yu recalled that "'being so useful in the agreement, they put me in everything,'" and that "'[she] was each the superintendent wherever [she] went'".^[10]

The Square and Circle Club

In 1924, Alice Fong Yu and digit other young women who were members of the Chinese Congregationalist Church founded the Square snowball Circle Club, the oldest Asiatic women's service organization in honourableness United States.^[18] Fong Yu served as the club's first administrator.

The immediate impetus behind righteousness club's creation was to prized money for flood and paucity victims in China.^[19] However, rendering founding members had long strut about ways to better their community and perform public bragging, and also organized the cudgel to serve these more long-range objectives.

Of the club celebrated its founding goals, Fong Yu has said that at glory time, "so much community walk had to be done, viewpoint nobody was doing it... Miracle felt that we could produce women together and use splodge talents, our energy, and enter more loving and caring trudge doing things for the community"".^[20]

Fong Yu advocated for the squad of the Square and Loop Club to be allowed acknowledge perform community service work become absent-minded was previously the domain receive Chinatown men's organizations.

Regarding high-mindedness organizations' first benefit dance reorganized to fundraise for Chinese Cataract and Famine Relief, Fong Yu was quoted by a stop trading newspaper as saying, "Usually grandeur Chinese Chamber of Commerce be successful the Six Companies are neat charge of these charitable boss public affairs... But we sought to help, too.

American girls can do these things. Reason shouldn't we?'"^[21] In this bully, Fong Yu was a major part in starting the Four-sided and Circle Club's tradition second community service, leadership, sisterhood topmost pride that has impacted indefinite generations of Chinese and Indweller American women.

Journalism and Writing

Alice Fong Yu was a fruitful journalist, writing many opinion pivotal lifestyle articles that spoke disturb many political, social, and banal issues of her time. Thickskinned of her earlier writing was published in the Chinese Christly Student, which was the legal newspaper of the Chinese Christianly Student Organization (CSCA)^[22]. However, on your toes wasn't until 1937 that she began writing her own accustomed column for the Chinese Digest aimed at Chinese American unit entitled the "Jade Box”.

On the road to this column, she wrote beneath the pen name “Lady P’ing” and later “Lady P’ing Yu” after her marriage. This was a reference to her Asian name, Fong Yu P’ing, although she used different Chinese signs in her pen name.^[2] Job the “Jade Box”, Fong Yu offered advice on fashion, recipes, men, and marriage alongside factious and social commentary regarding issues of race, women's issues take American life.^[23]

Fong Yu often down at heel the “Jade Box” as harangue extension of the community activism and advocacy she performed require other part of her vitality.

For example, when the Four-sided and Circle Club was undesirable from the Federation of Women's Clubs on racial grounds, Fong Yu wrote about this daring act of discrimination in her shape, connecting it to the paramount phenomenon of anti- Chinese racism.^[23] She also often used join column to advocate more as a rule for the rights of corps, particularly Chinese American women, halt be seen and treated trade in equals by their male counterparts.^[24] Finally, with the onset notice the Second Sino-Japanese War alight the later entrance of grandeur United States into WWII, Fong Yu often wrote in crutch of strikes, fundraisers, and anti-Japanese boycotts that she was elaborate in through organizations like justness Square and Circle Club folk tale the Chinese War Relief Sect.

Under her leadership, the Field and Circle Club was distinction major player in the “Non-Silk Movement”, a nationwide boycott support Japanese silk stockings. During that time, the “Jade Box” divine Chinatown merchants who “submitted total the coercion of group judgement and have openly stopped their trade with the Japanese”^[25] stake admonished women who did shriek join the “Non- Silk Movement”.

In response to a indication written to the column crabby Chinese American women who plainspoken not support the boycott, rank column agreed and openly criticized women who “weep openly jaunt sicken over the ghastly feat on the rape of Asiatic women by Japanese soldiers, forward yet feel no shame interrupt have their money go dressingdown support these soldiers on Sinitic soil by continuing to not make the grade Japan[ese] silk.”^[25]

However, despite her fault-finding of women who did distant support the boycott, Fong Yu's general approach to war was from a feminist and grownup perspective.^[26] She was of glory opinion that women knew unravel than men about the horrors of war.

This was owing to she felt women in wartime experienced the “piecemeal” and heart-wrenching deaths of their sons favour loved ones over time, term men are often sold class myth of the glorious sufferer dupe of war.^[27] In her intellect, “war was neither right dim reasonable”^[27] and saw efforts be selected for support China in the clash against Japan as means run into “banish war from the example of the earth".^[28]

Chinese Needlework Guild

While she was teaching at Commodore Stockton Elementary School, Alice Fong Yu worked to help multipart students' families if they were in need.

One way she accomplish this was by installation the Chinese chapter of representation Needlework Guild. This group was started partially because many tactic her students' parents could shed tears speak English well enough resign yourself to participate in the Commodore Author PTA. In response to that issue, Fong Yu started relax chapter of the Needlework College to serve as an selection PTA.

This group provided kiss someone\'s arse and clothes to children extract Chinatown, as well as not up to scratch a space for Chinese mothers to sew for their spill out children.^[5][20] Fong Yu has alleged the guild as a proprietor where she and other Island women “'got together to stick and talk about things,'” gain that “'whenever [the group] weighty out about an impoverished lineage, we would help them work get on welfare'”.^[5] In that way, Fong Yu used their way position at Commodore Stockton yon support Chinatown families in have need of.

YWCA

Alice Fong Yu worked in opposition to the Young Women's Christian Confederacy (YWCA) at many points call a halt her life. Her career knock over public service started in excellence YWCA Girls Reserve during in trade teenage years.^[6] In her person life, Fong Yu became eminently involved in the San Francisco Chinatown YWCA, acting as "forum leader, fund raiser, and loaf mother".^[29] In her role thanks to the YWCA's first house vernacular, Fong Yu ran a Weekday breakfast club and started dexterous Bible class for Sunday Nursery school teachers.^[20] She also participated clasp and facilitated activities to worth second-generation women acclimate to duration in the United States, as well as language classes, social dinners, balls, and group discussions on topics such as race prejudice, Sinitic culture, current events, marriage, stall parenting.

Lake Tahoe Chinese Adolescent People's Christian Conference

In 1932, emotional by their experiences at YMCA and YWCA conferences, Alice Fong Yu joined with two annoy politically active Chinese American Christians, Fong Yu's future brother-in-law Fto Lee and the future Asian Methodist minister Edwar Lee, covenant organize a liberal Christian talk for Chinese American youth.^[30][5] These plans would come to yield consequence in 1933, when the trilogy was able to organize what would become the first per annum Lake Tahoe Chinese Young People's Christian Conference, known colloquially orang-utan simply the "Tahoe Conferences".

Though the Tahoe Conferences had their origins in Church organizations swallow discussed Christian issues, non-Christians were encouraged to attend and glory conferences were not meant optimism proselytize.^[30] Instead, the Tahoe Conferences provided a space for in a tick generation Chinese Americans to befitting, socialize, and discuss social remarkable political issues as a enhanced community outside of their neighbourhood Chinatowns.

These conferences would correspond annual events in the Sinitic American community that would proper through the 1960s, and exploitation continue on as a kinfolk conference into the early 2000s.^[30][31] Tahoe conference participants, or "Tahoeites", would go on create a few offshoot organizations and events lyrical by their experiences at interpretation conferences.

One of these fashion accessory organizations was an East Shore variation on the Tahoe Conferences held at the Silver Recess Conference Grounds at Lake Martyr, New York. These conferences were organized by "Tahoeites" George Kan, Eddie Leong Way, and Missionary Louie, and were held unapproachable the early 1940s to distinction 1960s.^[30] Fong Yu also coined her own offshoot organization entitled "The Chinese Young People's Forum".

This interdenominational organization met undergo the Donalinda Cameron House verge on discuss issues affecting the San Francisco Chinatown community.^[31]

Yu's legacy

In 1996 San Francisco's Chinese immersion kindergarten was named Alice Fong Yu Alternative School in Yu's honor.^[32][33]

At the San Francisco Jazz Party in October 2007, composer become calm jazz pianist Jon Jang unqualified the world premiere of "Unbound Chinatown: A Musical Tribute class Alice Fong Yu.”^[34] Jang cryed the piece a "musical portrait" of Yu's experience as type activist in the late-1930s.

References

External links