That Gentleman From China Playwright's Notes Many years ago when researching for Chinese In Massachusetts, Their Experiences and Contributions (published in 1987) I came across some materials about a Chinese tea merchant in Boston in the 1850s. He immediately caught my attention and aroused my interest,. His name was Oong Ar-Showe or Charles Ar-Showe. (His last name was Oong, by the way.) By piecing together this very scanty data which were also very difficult to come by I learned that Oong had opened up a tea and coffee store on Union Street where the Citizen's Bank is located now. He married an Irish girl, Louisa Hentz, of South Boston in 1852, had his first son, William in 1853. In April of that year he and his baby were both baptized. In 1860 he was naturalized to be a U. S. citizen. In 1866 he moved to Malden, then a gentry town. He had two daughters, Lizzie and Louisa, and another son who died in his infancy. Oong's tea business was very flourishing. His investments in real estate and carriage service were highly profitable. He was a successful, wealthy and generous man. He funded the entire Centennial celebration in Malden including such events as float, parade, firework displays and banquet. His wife died in early 1878. Some Chinese from western Massachusetts came to the funeral. In the fall of the same year, he went back to China. Before he left a large farewell party was thrown in his honor. And in the following day, a group of gentlemen from Malden accompanied him to New York to see him off. He was the first Chinese to ever marry an American woman, to become a U.S. citizen, and to become a member of the Free Mason in Boston. At that time, when Chinese workers helping to build America's west in the Pacific coast were beaten, despised, insulted and murdered, Oong's social status was blatant contrast. The historical data do not tell us why Oong suddenly went back to China. Nor do they give us any hint about Oong's inner self. I, however, suspect that he must have suffered a great deal of pain. The Chinese people of a hundred and more years ago, if they were somewhat educated, they must have had a strong sense of what an upright person should be. Loyalty, filial piety, integrity and righteousness were moral codes with which to abide. Oong must have felt that he had betrayed all of those. He married not a native girl from his hometown but an American girl. As if that was not bad enough, he never brought her or their children back to meet his parents. In fact he never even visited them during all those years he was in Boston. (Nothing in the historical materials indicated that he had, in fact, had gone home for visits.) These made him an unfilial son. He was naturalized. That might have required his relinquishing his Chinese citizenship. To the gentry class Chinese of that age, this was almost treason. He was not loyal to his country or his Emperor. He was proselytized to Christianity perhaps in order to fit in the American society. In that case he has compromised his integrity. I suspect that he did not willingly accept Christianity for specific reasons: The first attempt of Christianity to enter the Chinese soil was during the late Ming dynasty when Matteo Ricci and other Jesuit priests came from Italy. For a hundred years the Jesuits met strong cultural resistance and was unsuccessful in their religious mission. They, however, made remarkable contributions as cultural ambassadors. They enlightened Europe on China and informed China about Europe. In the 19th century when Christian missionary entered China their aggressive way of preaching, patronizing attitude, and irrational attack on the foundation of the Chinese civilization, tradition and morality infuriated the educated gentry. The Christian missionary described China as "a country without a history and philosophy without substance" (Jeffrey Paul Chan, Frank Chin and others, ed. The Big Alleeee, New York, Penquin, n.d.) They portrayed the Chinese as being ignorant and cruel. The Confucian scholars, on the other hand, characterized Christianity as being ignorant, superstitious and seditious. The name of a Christian convert would be removed from the family register and he would be ostracized by the entire society. (Dun J. Li, The Ageless Chinese, a History, 2nd ed. New York, Scribners, 1971) Although Oong was merely the son of a merchant which was not a respected class in China, he might very well be educated and shared the resentment of the scholar gentry class toward that foreign, aggressive religion. The tragic experiences of the Chinese in the Pacific coast was a sharp contrast to Oong's privileged social status in Boston. Did he not feel guilty and useless because he could not do anything for his suffering compatriots? If we think the treatment of immigrants and ethnic minorities in the United States is inequitable today, just imagine how it was over a hundred years ago! Oong must have felt he should not stay in this foreign land for too long. He was over fifty years old and his wife already passed away. It was time for him to return home, like a falling leaf returning to its roots. His children were all grown. The oldest son, William, was twenty-four. The youngest daughter, Lizzie, was eighteen. He did not have to worry about them any more as long as he left all his fortune to them. Take them to China with him? How would they adjust to the new environment with the language barrier, with their appearances of neither Chinese nor American? Why make them suffer the pain of being a stranger in foreign land and to be discriminated against? If we think the treatment of immigrants and ethnic minorities in the United States is inequitable today, just imagine how it was over a hundred years ago! Oong must have felt he should not stay in this foreign land for too long. He was over fifty years old and his wife already passed away. It was time for him to return home, like a falling leaf returning to its roots. His children were all grown. The oldest son, William, was twenty-four. The youngest daughter, Lizzie, was eighteen. He did not have to worry about them any more as long as he left all his fortune to them. Take them to China with him? How would they adjust to the new environment with the language barrier, with their appearances of neither Chinese nor American? Why make them suffer the pain of being a stranger in foreign land and to be discriminated against? Based on these thoughts I created the character of Oong Ar-Showe in That Gentleman from China. I also suspected that Oong must not be oblivious of the misery of Chinese laborers in the West coast because the newspapers and magazines often printed cartoons and disdainful stories about them. A person with feelings and conscience, I suppose he was one. Would be deeply affected by those stories. In the play, I wove the contrasting stories of Oong and those of the other Chinese in California into one. While enjoying prosperity and prestige, Oong could not help but felt sad. In the play he said: "Every time when I read about how much they were hated, despised, how much they were unwanted, I felt guilty." In the end he determinedly left America. When questioned by his son, William, he sad: "Because China is my country. China is where my home used to be." He felt that had not accomplished anything: "All my life what have I accomplished? Nothing. I made a lot of money. That's all. To the Chinese, a merchant is not a respected class. I gave much money to benefit the public. But I was not able to do anything for my own compatriots." Leaving his children behind also was a very difficult decision: "I am a Chinese living in America. I left my parents behind and never went home. To a Chinese this is most unfilial. I have neglected my duty as a son. Now, as a father, I am about to leave my children behind and go to China. To an American, this is most unfatherly. I have failed to be a good son and I am failing to be a good father." He said to his son: "China is not a place for you. You are a half American. You will not be accepted there." There were only 54 Chinese workers in California in 1849 and 450 in 1850 the year Oong came to Boston. By 1860 there were 34,933 Chinese in the United States. In the beginning some of them were drawn by the glimmer of gold (Gold was discovered in 1848 at John Sutter's Sawmill, north of San Francisco.) But more of them were brought to the U.S. to meet the great need for manpower to develop the American West. They were warmly welcome in the beginning. Their hard work, frugality, and willingness to undertake any kind of work deeply impressed the employers. Many writers described them as industrious, persevering, resourceful and adaptable. They were paid much less than the white workers and worked from sunrise to sun set in the field, orchards, fisheries, industry and the mine. They assembled pre-fabricated timber and stone houses imported from China and reclaimed the swamp-land. Most of all, they were the major working force building the transcontinental railroad. The qualities of the Chinese laborers that pleased the employers were the very reasons that generated jealousy and antagonism among white workers. In 1852 the governor of California began to make anti-Chinese racist outburst which stirred up violence against the Chinese from one end of California to the other. In the following decades, the Chinese workers were blamed for economic downturns and the white workers' unemployment. Racism and paranoia over Chinese performance in their jobs resulted in massacres of Chinese laborers and laws. Contemptuous names such as "yellow peril" "coolie slaves" and "chinks" were labeled on the Chinese who were also classified as "inferior race… incapable of progress or intellectual development…" by the white. It was the latter's ignorance of the history and civilization of others that was responsible for their assuming a sense of superiority. Before 1859 the Manchu imperial court (ruler of China then) forbade expatriation and imposed severe punishment for emigration from imperial China. Even after the law was relaxed, the government never encouraged its people to go abroad. China did not confer protection to its people in other countries unless they were sent there. Although Oong Ar-Showe did not suffer the sere racist hostility himself, he was, nevertheless, disheartened by what he saw. He felt that no matter how much he did for the community, he did not belong to this country because it did not want him here. Two years after his wife died he left with a broken heart. The intention of the play is not blame or complain. It is to re-examine what happened in the past. Most people today, including the Chinese Americans, have little knowledge about that chapter in American history. We wish to use past experience as a mirror for us.                                                                                                                              Doris Chu