By Cecilia Lei

Long before immigration raids and deportations became political flashpoints, Chinese immigrants defied the federal government’s expansion of immigration powers in the late 19th century.

Connie Young Yu thought she knew a lot about her beloved gung gung. As a young girl, she would listen as her grandfather, Yung Wah Gok, recounted what it was like living through America’s Chinese Exclusion era of the late 19th century. She had heard many stories, like how, as a young boy in San José Chinatown, he’d have to sprint home while white residents hurled rocks at him.

It wasn’t until 1972, when Yu was an adult active in Asian American organizing and scholarship, that her mother shared a surprising piece of his history with her. From the family’s large carved camphor chest in her bedroom, her mother pulled out a neatly folded parchment: It was her grandfather’s chak chee, a certificate of residence that all Chinese people in the U.S. were required to carry, as mandated by the 1892 Geary Act, the successor to the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.

Stamped across the top of the document was the word “LABORER.” Below it were his occupation — “cook,” his height — just over 5 feet, 3 inches and identifying marks — “scar on left forearm.” And in the lower left corner was a striking portrait photo of her grandfather at the age of 25.

“I just thought, ‘Gee … that doesn’t look like my gung gung,’” said Yu, now 85, who had known her grandfather as a dignified man who wore suits. “But actually, I really liked that picture in many ways because he looks very determined. Like a young rebel.”

The certificate was issued in May 1894, two years after the passage of the Geary Act, revealing that her grandfather had been one of the tens of thousands of Chinese residents across the country who had resisted the federal government’s demands to register — forming one of the largest campaigns of civil disobedience in U.S. history.

Photo credit: Darren Tu/KQED

To read the entire article: https://www.kqed.org/news/12096279/chinese-immigrants-led-the-first-mass-resistance-to-americas-deportation-system