Ep. 325 | Chin Gee Hee
With the Taiwan series now behind us, it's onwards and upwards. This time I wanted to select one of the many great Chinese American heroes of his day, Chin Gee Hee. Chin was another Toisan native who came to the American west coast, not to the usual haunts of San Francisco and Los Angeles, but to Seattle. He arrived in the 1860s and stayed till 1904. Following a career in labor contracting and other entrepreneurial ventures that made him quite wealthy, he returned to his native Toisan where, together with a partner, he built the Sun Ning Railway 新宁铁路.
The Sun Ning was one of the very few rail projects funded entirely by Chinese investors. During his decades living in the Washington Territory Chin Gee Hee faced the worst racism and anti-Chinese violence the future state would ever see. And when he returned to China during the final years of the Qing Dynasty to build his railroad, his best intentions encountered a different set of challenges and disappointments.
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Terms in Episode
| Pinyin/Term | Chinese | English/Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Chin Gee Hee (Chén Yíxǐ) | 陈宜禧 | 1844-1929, Toi San born merchant, labor contractor, and railway entrepreneur, who made his fortune in Seattle, Washington before returning to Toi San where he built the Sun Ning Eailway |
| Toi San (Táishān) | 台山 | Formerly known as Xinning or Sunning (新寧),Toi San (Taishan) is a county-level city in the southwest of Guangdong province, China, administered as part of the prefecture-level city of Jiangmen. Taishan calls itself the "First Home of the Overseas Chinese". An estimated half a million Chinese Americans are of Taishanese descent. |
| Dòushān | 斗山镇 | A town located in the Taishan area |
| Jiāngmén | 江门 | A prefecture-level city in the Guangdong Pearl River Delta region that is the ancestral homeland of approximately 4 million overseas Chinese. |
| Dàoguāng | 道光帝 | The seventh emperor of the Qing dynasty, reigning from 1820 to 1850 |
| Qiánlóng | 乾隆帝 | Qing emperor who reigned from 1735-1796 |
| Chin Chun Hok (Chéng Chéngxué) | 陈程学 | Also known as Chin Ching Hok. Called Seattle’s first Chinese. Founded Wa Chong 华昌, a dry goods store. It’s called the first Chinese-owned company in Seattle. He took in Chin Gee Hee as a junior partner in Wa Chong |
| Chén Lín | 陈霖 | Son of Chin Gee Hee, first known Chinese born in the Washington Territory |
| Vincent Chin | 陈果仁 | May 18, 1955 – June 23, 1982, was a Chinese American who was killed in a racially motivated assault by two white men, Chrysler plant supervisor Ronald Ebens and his stepson, laid-off autoworker Michael Nitz. Ebens and Nitz assailed Chin following a brawl that took place at a strip club in Highland Park, Michigan, where Chin had been celebrating his bachelor party with friends in advance of his upcoming wedding. |
| Ruǎn Qià (Goon Dip) | 阮洽 | 1862-1933, a visionary and wealthy entrepreneur, public servant, philanthropist, and the most influential Chinese in the Pacific Coast during the early years of the twentieth century |
| Quong Tuck | 广德公司 | The name of Chin Gee Hee's new company after he broke with Wa Chong |
| Xīnníng Tiělù | 新宁铁路 | The Sun Ning Railway |
| Yú Zhuó (Yu Chuek) | 余灼 | Chin Gee Hee's main partner in building the Sun Ning Railway |
| Qīng Dynasty | 清朝 | China's final imperial dynasty 1644-1912 |
| Yuán Shìkǎi | 袁世凯 | 1859-1916, Chinese military and government official who rose to power during the late Qing dynasty and eventually ended the Qing dynasty rule of China in 1912. Upon his death in 1916, it ushered in the Warlord Era in China |
| Fóshān | 佛山 | A prefecture-level city in central Guangdong |
| Guǎngzhōu | 广州 | Capital city of Guangdong Province and historic trading port |
| Zhànjiāng | 湛江 | Prefecture-level city in easternmost Guangdong that administers the whole of Leizhou Peninsula that faces Haikou city of Hainan across the Qiongzhou Strait. |
| Léizhōu | 雷州 | The third largest peninsula in China with an area of c. 8,500 square kilometers (3,300 sq mi) located on the southwestern end of Zhanjiang with the Gulf of Tonkin to the west and the 30 km wide Qiongzhou Strait to the south, separating the peninsula from Hainan Island. |
| Dòushān Lángměi | 斗山朗美村 | The Village of Langmei in Doushan Town in Taishan, birthpace of Chin Gee Hee |
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Although all kinds of tension brewed beneath the surface, the mid to late 19th Century saw a continued bonanza for Singapore.