Angel Island Voices: John HONG Hock How

The Angel Island Immigration Station, often called the 'Ellis Island of the West,' was a major entry point for immigrants from Asia between 1910 and 1940. But unlike Ellis Island, Angel Island was designed not just as an entry point but as a gatekeeper to enforce restrictive immigration laws like the Chinese Exclusion Act. It was primarily used to examine, interrogate and detain undesirable Asian immigrants barred from the U.S. by law.

Three of my four grandparents were detained at the Angel Island Immigration Station in 1912, 1915, and 1937. They were held there for a few weeks to several months.

Inspired by the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation (AIISF) Immigrant Voices project, I created this video to share the Angel Island story of my paternal grandfather, John Hong Hock How. Because of the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882-1943), his immigration story became part of a multi-generational journey stretching from his father to his children.

This video is also posted on the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation website here: https://www.immigrant-voices.aiisf.org/angel-island-voices-john-hong-hock-how/

A Chin Family Gravestone

Updated: May 21, 2026

I've been visiting this gravesite at the Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California, for as long as I can remember, well over fifty years, once or twice a year when I was younger for Ching Ming and other occasions, less as I've gotten older. So, I know this tombstone, but I never really read it until my Aunt Millie asked me to help translate the Chinese words.

I know the names of my Uncles and Aunts etched here in granite, in both English and Chinese. If I had bothered, I would have seen the name of our family village in Chinese (Toisan, Luk Chun, Char Jew Village) and that they were members of the 25th generation (to live in Luk Chun). I had completely overlooked the poetic couplet between their English and Chinese names or perhaps ignored them as indecipherable. Yet a poem like this is rare on both Chinese and English gravestones. 

A rough poetic translation might be:

Precious bones tragically remain in the ancient earth for a thousand years  寶骨悲留千古地
The family's sadness hangs over the grave for ten thousand years               家身慘掛萬年墳

Here is the word by word translation with the Hoisanese pronunciation/Mandarin Pinyin in parentheses:

寶 (bo/bao) - treasure, precious 骨 (goot/gu) - bones 悲 (bi/bei) - sorrow, sadness 留 (lau/liu) - to leave behind, remain 千 (tein/qian) - thousand 古 (gu/gu)- ancient times 地 (ee/di) - earth, land 家 (gaa/jia) - family, home 身 (seen/shen) - body 慘 (taam/can) - tragic 掛 (kaa/gua) - to hang, suspend 萬 (maan/wan) - ten thousand 年 (nein/nian) - year 墳 (foon/fen) - grave

A more literary translation might be:

     Precious bones tragically linger in the ground for a thousand years
     The living family mourns at the grave for ten thousand years

This couplet was almost certainly written for Jimmy, probably by his father Pak Yick Chin, as the first character of each line are taken from the characters of Jimmy’s name "Bo Gar". Though the twin brothers’ deaths shorty after birth also haunt the family story, the poem’s emotional center is Jimmy’s sudden, violent death. It expresses the sorrow at his untimely deaths with his physical remains staying in the earth, and the family’s grief lingering for an eternity. The contrast of "thousand years" and "ten thousand years" poetically expresses that eternity.

Chin Pak Yick and his son Jimmy Bo-Gar Chin
1950, Oakland, CA (Colorized)

Jack Lan Hong (1933 - 2013)

Jack Lan Hong - 1953

Jack Lan Hong 曾連卓 was born in China, Guangdong Province, Toishan County, Ong On Village 中國廣東省台山縣東安村, on October 15, 1933, and pass away a month after his 80th birthday, on November 20, 2013 in Redwood City, California. He was the second son of John Hong Hock How, a Stanford-trained electrical engineer, educator, and business man, and Tui Goon Chu Hong.

Shortly after he was born, Jack, his parents and older brother Larry moved to Guangzhou, where his brother Paul and sister Lily were born. During China’s war with Japan, the family moved frequently and ended up in Kunming, China. There Jack's youngest sister, Mary, was born and Jack acquired his taste for spicy food. After the war, the family moved to Rangoon, Burma, where the children attended the Wah Sha School.

In Jack's Own Words

On September 7, 2009, a few weeks before his 76th birthday, Jack recorded his memories of the past 75 years, including:

Growing up in Kunming, China, and Rangoon, Burma

"My earliest memory is in Kunming because that’s where I grew up. I had a classmate who owned a restaurant. Oh maybe, they were Muslim. They didn’t eat pork. When I would show up at their restaurant, they would give me nong. You know the [rice] crust from the big pot. So they also served me beef. I never knew if it was horse meat, because in Kunming they ate a lot of horse meat too.

The Heavy Weight of a Trip to the National Archives

by Kenneth Hong
July 16, 2023

As I wind my way up Interstate 280, I take in the golden hills of California and glimpses of the Bay through the cool fog of an ordinary San Francisco summer morning. Exiting the highway, I drive by the rows of regimented white tombstones of the Golden Gate National Cemetery and up to the gray concrete bunker that is the National Archives. The usual feelings of anticipation build, a mixture of excitement and dread--excitement that I might find something new and dread that I end up with empty folders.

Entrance to the National Archives in San Bruno, CA
July 3, 2023

The Angel Island Files: Mysteries Solved and Found

By Kenneth Hong
July 16, 2023

Over the last 4th of July week, I spent a day and a half at the U.S. National Archives in San Bruno, CA, where many of the Chinese Exclusion Era immigration files from the Angel Island Immigration Station are kept. The archivist had located the files for my maternal grandfather (Chin Pak Yick), his father (Chin Gay Bin), his wives (Lee Moon Yee and Tso Mee Shew), and his prominent first cousin (Chin Lain).

   

Lee Moon Yee, 1918
An "entirely respectable Chinese woman"

   

Chin Pak Yick, 1918
"Well-dressed in American Clothes"

I had previously written about all five of these relatives. All but my grandmother Tso Mee Shew had died long before I was born, and in the case of my great-grandfather, Lee Moon Yee, and Chin Lain, before my mother was born. When I asked her or other relatives, "What do you know about your grandfather, father, or his first wife?" I would get only vague recollections about their father, and nothing about the other two.

I Owe My Life to Wong Kim Ark

By Kenneth Hong
May 30, 2023

The threads of history are woven together in unexpected ways. My family's story is inextricably linked to that of a man who fought for his rights as a U.S. citizen. A man whose name I had never heard of until a few years ago. I owe my very existence to that man named Wong Kim Ark.

Wong was born on Sacramento Street in San Francisco in 1870. My great-grandfather, HONG Yin Ming was born a few blocks away on Washington Street that same year.* We don't know whether or not they ever met, but they lived almost identical lives.

Identification Photo of Wong Kim Ark
 on 1904 Immigration Affidavit
(National Archives)

Identification Photo of Hong Yin Ming
 on 1899 Immigration Affidavit
(National Archives)

Official Map of San Francisco Chinatown 1885, with
Sacramento and Washington Streets Highlighted

Keep reading to learn more about Wong's legacy and how it affected Hong Yin Ming and his descendants.

Remembering Fred Chin (1943 - 2022)

Fred CHIN Bo Hing 陳寶興 was born in Oakland, California, on August 17, 1943 to CHIN Pak Yick and TSO Mee Shew, the sixteenth of his father Pak Yick's seventeen children, and the fifth of Mee Shew's six. Fred passed away on Tuesday, December 27, 2022 at age 79 at his home in Danville, California where he lived with his partner Lee Chen.

Fred Chin and Lee Chen, December 23, 2022

Fred grew-up in the family's home on 7th Street in Oakland Chinatown. Although his family did not have a lot of money, their home was filled with a lot of love and the Chin’s all worked together to get through lean times. Throughout his school years, Fred enjoyed playing basketball, football, and many other sports.

Fred (Center) in 1945 
with siblings (L-R) Rose, Dennis, Mabel and Allen

Looking back, his brother Dennis recalls that Fred was a good student, getting all A’s and B’s, especially in Math and Science. Freddie wanted to take a Chemistry class, but it was full so he ended up having to take a laboratory tech class instead.

Fred (bottom 2nd from left)
Lincoln Junior High School
6th Grade Photo

William S. Chin (1931 - ) Memories of Growing Up in Oakland, California

William S. Chin, 1959

My maternal uncle William Bo Shang Chin 陳寶瑺 was born in the Oakland, California on January 5, 1931, to Chin Pak Yick 陳伯釴 and Lee Moon Yee 李滿意. He was the youngest of their 11 children. Moon Yee died in 1933 a month before William's 3rd birthday. Pak Yick re-married in 1936, and William has two half-sisters (including my mother) and four half-brothers from that marriage.

Uncle Bill made the following submission for a project called "Memories of Growing Up in Oakland, California: Lincoln School Alumni". The project, published on September 24, 2010, encapsulates both family and school photos, individual memories, newspaper clippings and more covering 1370 pages. William's brothers Morris and Allen and sister-in-law Diane Lee (Chin) also had individual submissions.

* The Lincoln School is one of the oldest schools in the Oakland Unified School District. The first Lincoln School was created in 1874 when the Harrison Primary School at 10th and Alice Streets was renamed. It was the main primary school for generations of students from Oakland Chinatown and the surrounding area. It has had several incarnations and occupied different buildings. It was a 1-8th grade school during the time William's father attended in the 1910's and a K-9th grade school by the time William attended in the 1930s and 40s. The current Lincoln Elementary School teaches kindergarten through 5th grade students, and is located at 225 11th Street in Oakland, California.