“The Unreasonable Prejudice and Unwarranted Ill-Feeling Entertained By the White People Toward These Strangers are the Natural Products of Ignorance”: Ng Poon Chew’s “The Chinese of Los Angeles,” The Land of Sunshine, October 1894

by Paul R. Spitzzeri

On the evening of 24 October 1871, a mob of several hundred Anglo and Latino men stormed the Chinese enclave of Los Angeles on the Calle de los Negros and lynched eighteen men and a teenage boy in an orgy of violence that was beyond even what the City of the Angeles experienced during a largely lawless 1850s.

In early 2023, the City’s Department of Cultural Affairs and El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument selected a finalist team of artist Sze Tsung Nicolás Leong and Judy Chui-Hua Chung to create a memorial located near the site of the Massacre and close to the Chinese-American Museum on the 400 block of North Los Angeles Street. No completion date has yet been announced.

This post highlights an article on the October 1894 issue of The Land of Sunshine, a Los Angeles magazine launched several months prior and carrying on momentum from the region’s promotion at the World’s Fair in Chicago the prior year, titled “The Chinese in Los Angeles” and penned by Ng Poon Chew (1866-1931), a native of the Chinese province of Guangdong who immigrated to the United States as a teen.

Working in household and ranch labor and experiencing racism in northern California, Ng converted to Christianity and was ordained a Presbyterian minister at San Francisco in 1892. He came to Los Angeles earlier in 1894 to be the minister of the church’s Chinese mission, so was not long a resident of the city when he wrote his article.

After observing that there was a Chinese community in every major city and town on the West Coast and that “Los Angeles has her full share,” Ng added that,

There are between three and four thousands of these strange, little brown men residing in this city and vicinity. They are employed mostly on fruit orchards, vegetable gardens, in private families [as household workers] and in the laundries.

It was with truck farming, the narrative went on, with which the Chinese “are unexcelled and indispensable” as “nearly all vegetables consumed in this town are supplied by the Chinese,” whose “natural thriftiness and economy” meant that they were “able to cultivate every piece of ground to a profit.”

When it came to “the charge of ‘cheap labor'” against them, though, Ng commented that this was “circulated and proclaimed with a political purpose in view” and the Chinese were paid from $20 to $50 monthly including room and board and that “as a rule they are paid with fairly good wages.”

As for the Los Angeles Chinatown, it was noted that “there are three or four hundred small houses, closely built and occupied exclusively by the Chinese near the business portion” and added that “it has every indication of a town” as “there are family residences, business houses, gambling dens, restaurants, temples, [a] theatre, and Christian missions.”

Some business enterprises had an American as well as Chinese clientele, while Ng remarked that “the restaurants are comparatively clean and spacious, and meals may be had from twenty-five cents up to several dollars.” Business owners and “clubs,” by which was likely meant the tongs “usually spend a large sum of money in frequent banqueting here during festival and social seasons.” Cooks earned good pay “and all delicacies are prepared and seasoned according to the best Chinese culinary science.

While the theater “is built after the American plan,” the writer opined that it “is most wretchedly furnished, being totally deprived of appropriate scenery and artistic ornaments.” Attendees were there nightly, as the venue “is liberally patronized by the pleasure-seeking Chinese,” and what was considered a “redeeming feature” was “there is insinuation of immorality or indecency, either in acts or dress.” Generally, performances were romances based on history and could often take days to perform.

Ng then observed that

The Chinese, as a race, are intensely religious. Wherever they go they carry with them the faith of their fathers, and the shrines of their favorite and patron gods, and no matter how temporary their abode may be, they would immediately set up an altar for the object of their faith.

There were a pair of temples in Chinatown “built by popular subscription and maintained by voluntary offerings” and, though there were no scheduled services, “their votaries arrange their own time for paying homage to the sacred shrines,” while “the josses are nothing more than deified men who, while living, had rendered great service to their country’s cause.”

As a Christian convert, Ng followed a brief statement about the propensity for gambling among the Chinese, by dedicating the rest of his essay to his religion, declaring that “the church people are very active for the spiritual welfare of these despised strangers in their midst” with eight missions found in Chinatown, these “under the supervision and fostering care of different evangelical churches.

Evening schools were staffed by “a corps of thoroughly consecrated teachers [who] are always ready to give lessons of various subjects to all who are willing to learn.” The Presbyterian minister added that “to lead thee benighted ones to the true God,” open their minds “with the light of the truth of the Gospel,” and to provide them the means to a better life through Christian teaching, were the goals. He further noted that,

No matter how dark you may paint Chinatown, and how sinful you may characterize its inhabitants, there are bright and holy spots within its border, through the reflected rays of these Christian missions.

The Presbyterian Church for kindergarten children in the community was considered “the most interesting and unique place in Chinatown.” While it was “in a quiet nook, away from the bustling portion” of the community, “it is tastefully furnished and arranged, and in every respect it is the most pleasant and healthy place.”

About a dozen or more students, called “healthy and active urchins in their quaint dresses,” attended the school, some with clean attire and others “covered with dust and dirt by playing on the way.” In addition to learning English, “some of them sing surprisingly well,” to the point that they “can put many American tots of their own age to shame.” It was added, of course, that most were from Christian families and “present a marked distinction between those that come from heathen surroundings.”

Each Sabbath “there is a preaching service on a street in Chinatown, where all the different missions cooperate, and comprising of prayer, preaching and singing and this done “in the Oriental tongue.” Ng added that “the Chinese seem to listen well throughout the service, and seldom any bad is aroused.”

Ng concluded with two questions apparently posed to him: “Do the Chinese accept Christianity readily” as well as “And when they have accepted it, do they show any of true inward conversion?” The pastor replied that “many prejudiced persons” didn’t bother to take the time to look into the matter and determined these questions in the negative “for they often assert that the ‘make up’ of John Chinaman is such that he cannot be a Christian and yet remain a Chinaman.”

It was felt that “the two are antagonistic individuals” and that, after a short time, the conversion faded and the Chinese quality won out over Christianity, but the minister argued against this idea asserting that “a goodly number of these little brown men have already been weaned from their deep rooted superstitious beliefs through a comparatively short period of Christian activity among them.”

This certainly was the case with Ng and, before ending with the statement that “visitors to Chinatown are always welcome and kindly treated,” he offered this conclusion:

The unreasonable prejudice and unwarranted ill-feeling entertained by the white people toward these strangers are the natural products of ignorance. If people will look upon them in the true light they will find, in spite of what they have heard and read, many noble qualities and even redeeming virtues in these “heathen Chinee” [this phrase an old one in California].

The accompanying photos are very interesting and include a view of an opium den that has been highlighted here in a prior post; a view of young women hiding from the intruding photographer and which is also in the Homestead’s collection; a portrait that may be Ng’s wife; an “underground passage” which fed into fascination with Chinatown’s tunnels; and two photos of the Presbyterian mission run by Ng, one showing a quintet of men, one in Western dress and the others in traditional Chinese clothing.

While it was nearly a quarter century since the Chinese Massacre and overt violence against them significantly diminished, the perceived threats felt by others was gradually modified after the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 which all but ended migration to the United States. By the mid-Nineties, the Chinese of Los Angeles were generally considered more as exotic novelties and usually seen parading with the massive paper dragon during the city’s spring Fiesta.

Increasingly, tourists were directed to visit, individually or in group tours and, while newspapers often reported on the vices of gambling and opium, along with violence usually conducted within the Chinese community, the next community to face to opprobrium of the dominant white population were the Japanese, whose numbers grew significantly by the first years of the 20th century, leading to legislation limiting their migration and land ownership.

Chinatown, meanwhile, was targeted for removal with the long-gestating Union Station railroad terminal plan, which was finally completed in 1939, though a new Chinatown was established just to the northwest and remains there today. From the 1980s especially, a renewed migration of Chinese to the area brought a major transformation of many areas, principally in the San Gabriel Valley and not without backlash and controversy.

As for Ng, a fire, apparently the work of an arsonist, consumed his mission building in 1898 and he turned his work towards journalism and, notably, learned the trade with a Japanese newspaper before launching Hua Mei Sun Bo. After a year, he returned to San Francisco and started the Chung Sai Yat Po, which both encouraged adopting American ways while fighting for civil rights for the Chinese.

The paper became the largest of four Chinese-language sheets in the city and Ng’s stature grew in the early 20th century, including advocating to Congress and President Theodore Roosevelt for the better treatment of the Chinese. He served as adviser to the Chinese consulate at San Francisco and then for nearly two decades was vice-consul, while his wit earned him the sobriquet of “the Chinese Mark Twain.” PBS’ American Experience has recently featured him in a digital short, while some of you might be able to get a free look at this article on Ng in Forbes Magazine. Lastly, the University of California Television Program has this offering on YouTube.

While another Chinese resident of Los Angeles in the mid-1890s might characterize the community differently that Ng as a Christian convert, it is certainly interesting to read this essay, especially as The Land of Sunshine was a booster publication. It could well be, however, that had Ng not been a Christian pastor, an article like this might not have been published at all.