by Paul R. Spitzzeri
As several posts here have noted, the Chinatown of Los Angeles expanded significantly from the confines of the Calle de los Negros, a street named for dark-skinned Latinos in the Mexican era, to a district east of the Plaza including where Union Station is today. Much of the media coverage of the community during the late 19th and early 20th centuries focused on the vice (gambling, opium dens, prostitution) as well as the exotic element highlighted for the rapidly expanding tourist trade.
The result was that the lives of the vast majority of Chinese residents of the Angel City were overlooked and overshadowed by the sensationalized accounts appearing in the newspapers and other forms of media. This post features, from the Museum’s holdings, a real photo postcard including a photograph of a section of Chinatown, likely in the Union Station area, as well as a message in Chinese characters, or Hánzi.
If cards were professionally published, they usually contained the name of the issuer, but there are no such indications on this one, suggesting that the image was taken by the sender, only identified as “Charlie.” Moreover, the characters, an inscription states, were added to the card and Charlie wrote that, “these characters mean A Happy New from Los A. Cal. I had a Chinese fortune teller write them.” (Thanks to Larry Lin, however, for observing that the characters are actually translated to “the scene of the Lantern Festival in Los Angeles” and noting that, in 1909, the Chinese New Year began on 21 January and the festival was celebrated on 5 February.)
While it may be thought that this was something done by a tourist, the message on the reverse, though partially covered by a pair of postmarks dated the 28th, though the message is from nine days earlier, it appears that Charlie was a resident as he mentioned working in the city. Otherwise, the inscription is personal and makes no other mention of Chinatown or the Angel City’s population. What we can do, however, is share some newspaper references from that month and there are some especially interesting and instructive ones.
This includes a remarkable essay in the 1 August issue of the Los Angeles Times penned by Fook Chong Wong, identified in a byline as “A Chinese Graduate of the Los Angeles High School,” and under the title of “Suggestions to Visitors of Chinatown.” The piece began with the recognition of the attraction of tourists to places of beauty and pleasure, while a great many visitors came to this region from the eastern part of the United States because of the climate, as well.
The writer added that “many tourists take advantage to visit the Chinatowns of California to see the habitations of the subjects of the Celestial kingdom,” but noted that “it is rather a pity that they do not see the real life of the better class rather than what their guides present to them.” One post on this blog discussed an example of an “Official Trip to Chinatown” guide from a couple of years prior.
The concern was that such excursions focused on “what the Americans call ‘freak show,’ made up by a few of the low-down Chinese, under the direction of the guides and maintained indirectly by them.” Such examples “represents only the lowest class of Chinese . . . who betray their country’s name for a few dollars.” It was lamented that “worthy visitors . . . representing the most respectable class of American citizens” were all too “willing to visit the dirtiest places, where there are packs of fleas, lice, and possibly numerous disease germs.”
Not only that but such tourist “are willing to visit houses of ill fame, the hellish opium dens and places of immorality” and were such locales that “the respectable Chinese themselves never even dare to go near.” Besides the health risks, there could be no real pleasure for tourists in such visitations and nothing was gained “except the false representations that are imposed upon you for your money.”
As to tales of what Chinatown comprised, it was asserted that “such stories are not wholly true and concocted for tourists and the earnings of the guides and the author decided to join one such group and continued,
To my surprise the guide led them into the slum enclosure, just behind Chinatown. The crowd followed him through alleys and ruins as if to ramble in a horrible dungeon. Then he cleared his grafting voice, and explained the nature of its surroundings, and so forth. To my astonishment I heard it said that all Chinese women in Chinatown are slave girls, all Chinese beds and rooms are like those of the opium dens and the slum enclosure. This is certainly a white lie. The false stories increased as the tour went on. Finally, this smirching of the name of the Chinese as a whole with immorality went too far, and I contradicted his tales right on the spot. Of course, he had to take his medicine.
Fook went on to exhort “you worthy tourists and citizens of Los Angeles” to ask themselves, “is there not a law to prohibit a person from entering a den or laying on a bed who himself is not a smoker?” Further, “is there not a law to prohibit any person from conducting the public to visit any such places? Obviously, the last query was why these strictures were not enforced.
The young man concluded by telling the reader “there are many good places to visit and you will enjoy seeing the real things, that is, provided you conduct yourselves as ladies and gentlemen.” It was observed that merchants “are very particular” in the operation of their stores, while it was advised that visitors to Chinatown “ask your guides to show you some of the studious boys in the missions of faithful Christians in the various chapels, which abound in the better China-town, where are the Christian homes, etc.” Fook hoped that “these few words may warn you from being misled in visiting China-town.”
The 17 August edition of the Los Angeles Herald contained a lengthy discursion on the diminishment of vice in that section and cited the courage of attorney Frank F. Pratt, who “last night invaded Chinatown and studied the life and habits of the men who have sought his life and condemned him to death,” adding that he defied these unnamed individuals and demonstrated that “‘the white man of law’ has no fear of Oriental foes.'”
The article commented that,
The old Chinatown, the old bugaboo, and battling ground of reformers, is now dead. It is thoroughly reformed, so much so, in fact, that from a city [Chinese community] of 3000 there are not more than 600 Chinese dwellers within the district at present. Opium dens are now but sepulchral storerooms, fantan tables, bong lo and gambling boards of all types now hold nothing more wicked than Chinese dominoes or an occasional bowl of duck sub gum, egg foo yung du or a chop suey. An occasional clandestine Chinese lottery still exists, but there is not much more vice than one could find in a town in Posey county, Indiana [a sparsely populated area of the southwest portion of the Hoosier State adjoining Illinois and Kentucky].
It was stated that despite some dark mutterings, Pratt encountered no issues and “every secret society, lodging house and gathering place of the almond-eyed aliens was examined carefully.” The threats emanated from a case filed by federal officials to get a pair of Chinese children under ten years of age and “who were found in immoral settings” to a place “under the supervision of officers of the juvenile court. The children soon vanished and a woman, identified as Wong Shee, was investigated for deportation “on the ground that she came to this country for immoral purposes.”
This led to death threats, including by phone, and, reportedly, a Chinese man was seen lurking around the San Fernando Building, where Pratt’s firm was situated. The “informal” visit to Chinatown included Garfield Gillis, “a well known frequenter of the Chinese quarter,” and a deputy constable, while the reporter mentioned that “Sergeant Sebastian, detective from central police station and in charge of the Chinese quarter, joined the party and acted as host and his familiarity with the inhabitants of the district made the trip highly instructive.” Sebastian rose to be Chief of Police and Los Angeles mayor, though he resigned amid scandal, as a previous post here discussed.
The account recorded the lurking through “dark and reeking alleyways” as well as “mysterious and winding passages” and then “into weird and mysterious rooms of the old time opium joints.” It was added that, occasionally, “a stupefied Chinese rolled from his mat couch to hide his ‘hop pipe’ and here and there a few scurried to hiding.” Purported carelessness in maintaining fires was also reported, though Gillis, described in a 1900 Herald article as “a young loafer” and a “bum,” offered that no issues from these were often observed, while Sebastian concurred, adding that he’d heard of no uncontrolled fires in ten years among the Chinese.
It was recorded that “a real ‘Chink’ smoked real opium for the visitors in one place and was glad to be allowed to do so,” though for what purpose was left unsaid, while others were said to have been inhaling “Yen Shee,” said to be the ashes from pipes. In another location, a “fishy-eyed Oriental” was said to have “a beatific expression” on his face and eyes half closed amid “a drug induced doze” with Sebastian remarking that, despite police vigilance, “the Chinese always manage to get a little of the insidious drug to smoke.” Moreover, the price of opium skyrocketed recently (see part two) amid federal pressure, but “even the poorest classes of the Chinese will spend 50 cents or $1 for a puff or two of the soporific ‘joy pill.'”
Another man confessed to be an opium addict “and upon urgent request the police officer finally allowed the lawyer to set up a smoke of ‘hop.'” The account, which can be compared to a postcard from 1906 previously featured in this blog, went on,
With glistening eyes the drug fiend, who was long past salvation, disappeared in the darkness for a short time and then returned with his precious purchase in a small globule. First adjusting his glasses to his eyes, the gloating yellow man settled back on his wooden couch and toasted the opium over a lamp filled with peanut oil.
Peanut oil is used because it makes a clear, steady and odorless flame. While the pill sputtered and swelled in the heat of the lamp, the smoker eyed it with fond longing and when it had become hard and brittle he packed it into a small bowled pipe and settled back. Every breath of the deadly drug was sucked deep into his lungs. And when it was suggested, “Blime by, all gettee dopee like fool,” the other Chinese present nodded an envious aquiescense [sic] and then went on with their chatter.
Addressed next were visits to Joss houses, or temples and, while it was observed that these contained “untold wealth in gold foil, ivory, bronze and rare china,” the account stated that “only a few sleepy keepers loitered in the sacred places and scowled upon the intruders,” though that may have been over suspicion over the motives for the visitors, which, again, included a pair of police officials.
Not only that, but a third officer showed up, accompanied by “a couple of women who begged to be shown Chinatown” and this conspicuous group further stood out so “that it was impossible to visit private families any longer and the more pretentious places known to tourists were examined.”
This included more sensationalistic accounts of “sinister bullet holes in wood” and “indentations in brick walls” cited by the officers “as relics of the various ‘tong’ wars” or indicative of “where bloody deeds in the old days marked the battles of clan against clan and all together against the police.” Windows with more bars than the jail and thick doors with massive hinges, heavy bolts and thick bars were cited as “places which were so fortified unless the owners permitted.” A Chinese freemasonry lodge was seen, where “a fat and jolly keeper” proudly showed the order’s treasures.
It was sometimes observed that Chinese music could be heard by visitors and, invariably, had a similar reaction from Western hearers. In this case,
a musician sat playing on his two-stringed violin [the erhu] and the woeful inharmonies and jarring screeches of the peculiar instrument of torture reminded one of the scraping of a coal shovel on a rough cement floor. The player on the instrument was well pleased with his performance and explained that it was a love song.
It was asserted that “all that a white man is ever permitted to see was seen” including further “oddities,” such as “old lotteries, abandoned opium dens, neglected gambling houses and rooms,” while those locales “where once fighting factions met to plan deeds of bloodshed, now they gather to read the Chinese newspaper or play dominos.”
The first years of the 20th century brought a concerted effort by reformers in the nascent era of Progressivism to combat gambling, reduce if not ban alcohol sales and public consumption, limit prostitution and much more. We’ll see in part two that a trial involving a former police chief was part of the “house cleaning” that these activists undertook and that Chinatown played a role in that proceeding.
This remarkable feature concluded with the blunt claim and striking summarization that,
With the victory of the white man’s mandates of law and order and the forcing of the conqueror’s code upon them, the yellow men have sunk into cowed and slinking subjection and all the glitter and wealth which was known to be a part of the district is now gone and a sordid bestiality rules all without a trace of the glamor and glitter of old.
Fan-tan is supposed to be more wicked than poker, rice wine more vicious than whisky, lotteries are more terrible than stock markets, and the pure opium smoke once a day is considered worse than fifty smokes pre day of cigarettes which contain 2 1/2 per cent opium. So the Oriental is reformed and likewise subdued, but also Los Angeles has [a] lot more than three-fourths of her yellow men who, having felt swindled by the slogan “land of the free” have sought other abiding places where it is a little freer.
We’ll return with part two, so be sure to check back for that.