A Historical Survey of Organizations of the Left Among the Chinese in America

by H. M. Lai (1972)

Introduction
The history of the left among the Chinese in America is a neglected chapter in the history of the Chinese community. This is a preliminary survey of the left movements until the end of the 1950's; most of the emphasis in the present essay is on activities in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is the author's hope that this initial sketch, superficial as it may be, will inspire others to probe to greater depths into this little investigated but significant phase in the history of the Chinese in this country.
There were two factors entering into the causation of left-wing activities among the Chinese in America—one, from China, was inspired by national salvation and national revolution, while the other, arising from the exploitation and discrimination in America, was motivated by a desire for betterment of their own lot. These two factors were present throughout the history of the left among the Chinese In America, although one or the other predominated at times.

The Introduction of Socialist Doctrines to the Chinese
The latter half of the 19th Century was a time of travail for the Chinese people. After the bayonets and cannons of the West had battered down China's wall of isolation, the ancient empire found herself unable to cope with the aggressive Westerners as her traditional social structure and self-sufficient economy crumbled before their thrusts, and territories and concessions were yielded to the pugnacious occidentals. Toward the end of the century, partitioning of China by the powers and submittal to colonial status appeared inevitable.
This was a time of peril for the nation. Concerned Chinese began quests for ways toward national salvation. Among these were a number of intellectuals who examined and accepted socialism as the goal toward eventual regeneration of the Chinese nation.
At the turn of the century, China was greatly dependent upon Japanese sources for information on Western culture, and the introduction of socialism was no exception.1 It was through Japanese writings that Chinese students and intellectuals were first exposed to the doctrines of Marx, Engels, and others. Beginning in 1903, books, pamphlets and articles on socialism also were published in Chinese. Many articles on this subject appeared in the newspapers and periodicals established at the time by both the Chinese Empire Reform Association (Zhongguo Weixinhui) led by Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, and the revolutionary Zhongguo Tongmenghui, led by Sun Vat-sen. Drawing much of their support from the overseas Chinese, both organization's publications had broad reading audiences in the overseas Chinese communities, and as a result had wide circulation abroad. Certainly, in an age when most Chinese readers were not familiar with Western languages, these publications were important sources for those Chinese interested in socialist doctrines.
Initially the brand of socialism from the West espoused by the Chinese writers was generally that advocated by social-democrats of the Second International. Ideological limitations of most of these intellectual socialists, derived as they were mainly from the gentry classes, led to great hostility toward violent revolutionary methods. Paralleling this development, however, was a growing interest in anarchism and nihilism among some of the younger revolutionaries.2
By mid-decade, articles advocating anarchism as the guide for revolution began to predominate in Chinese socialist writings. The doctrines of Proudhon, Bakunin and Kropotkin became the fad in Chinese revolutionary circles. Many young, impatient, romantic petit bourgious intellectuals became attracted to the simple solution of committing individual heroic acts of terrorism to pull down and destroy the old order as represented by the Manchu dynasty.
The Russian Revolution of 1905 gave further impetus to the growth of popularity of anarchism, and by 1907 anarchist groups formed among students in Japan and France. Within a short time the doctrine spread to China and to the overseas Chinese.3

The American Milieu and Development of the Left among the Chinese in America
Chinese peasants emigrating to America had hoped to find a better life. Instead, in the land of liberty they found not freedom and prosperity, but discrimination and intolerance, and finally suffered the dubious distinction of being the first ethnic group to be singled out for exclusion from the u.s. in 1882. The great majority of Chinese who lived and worked in America were exploited by employers, merchants and labor contractors both within and without their own community. Although Chinese labor had been characterized as being docile and tractable, the not so infrequent strikes and sometimes violent reactions of Chinese labor to exploitation showed that they did not take their miserable lot as passively and fatalistically as some Western historians had put it. Contemporary accounts show that they fought back when given the proper leadership and organization.4 It was expected that the socialist doctrines as the way toward that better world would strike sympathetic chords among at least some of the Chinese in America.
At this time, many members of the American working class were strongly influenced by the socialist doctrines. Worker solidarity was one of the basic tenets of socialism, whether Marxist or Anarchist. However, during the early years of the 20th Century, this was a myth as far as Chinese workers are concerned, because the American labor movement in general was extremely hostile to Chinese labor. Even the so-called Marxist Socialists, in spite of their professed belief in the brotherhood of the working man, supported the "unconditional exculsion of Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, and Hindus...." from this country.5 Only the anarcho-syndicalist Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) held true to the belief that fraternal bonds existed among all wage earners regardless of racial lines, and set about to enroll Asian workers, including Chinese, into the unions on an equal basis with workers of other racial groups. The I.W.W. was never too successful in their recruiting campaign. But at least some Asians were won over to their cause, for during this period at least two Chinese were translating I.W.W. literature into Chinese in San Francisco.6
At this time, the Chinese in America were excluded from large scale modern industries, thus they lacked the discipline that workers in large industries qcquired. Moreover, stimulated on the one hand by anarchist writings from China, and on the other by the fraternal hand extended to them by the I.W.W. it was natural for some early Chinese radicals to lean toward syndicalist ideas.
By 1914, a small group of socialists had formed a Chinese Socialist Club in San Francisco.7 With the coming of the post-World War I depression and the steady deterioration of the Chinese worker's economic position, anarcho-syndicalists became increasingly active among the workers and in 1919 the Sanfanshi Gongyi Tongmeng Zonghui (Workers' League of San Francisco) was formed.8
The League aimed its first action at Chinese shirt manufacturing factories in San Francisco and Oakland. On May 18, 1919, the new workers' organization presented nine demands to factory owners.9 After strike threats and several negotiating sessions at the Young Wo Association in San Francisco, they finally signed agreements with 32 factories.
Following this initial success the league soon created two additional departments: one for agriculture and one for miscellaneous occupations. In September 1919 a branch was established among Chinese agricultural workers in Suisun, California. The League then changed its name to Meizhou Gongyi Tongmeng Zonghui (Unionist Guild of America, UGA) to suit the new situation.
In the meantime, the owners had organized to counter-attack. During the next few years, by presenting a united front against the workers. the employers defeated several strikes led by the UGA. The WLA's fortunes declined as they were unabie to rally worker support and it disappeared from the Chinatown scene around 1927.
At its height the UGA claimed a nominal membership of about a thousand. It was the high point of anarcho-syndicalist activity among Chinese workers in America. This peak was never to be approached again. The demise of the UGA, however, demonstrated the difficulty Chinese workers would have in achieving lasting gains in a situation where they were going it alone without much fraternal support from workers in the larger society.
Following the disappearance of the UGA, the anarchist movement in San Francisco's Chinese community was sustained by the Ping Sheh (Equality Society), a political club. Occasional police harassmentlO and lack of community support made it difficult for this small group to accomplish much except to publish pamphlets and a monthly magazine Pingdeng (Equality) from 1926 to around 1931,11 and infrequently to distribute leaflets in support of workers' struggles in Chinatown.12 In 1934 another group of anarchists organized the Wuzhengfu Gongchanzhuyizhe Lianmeng (Alliance of Anarcho-Communists) and issued another monthly publication, the Wuzhengfu Gongcban Yuekan (Anarcho-Communist Monthly). 13 But this, however, represented the efforts of only a few zealots without much mass following.
Times continued to be difficult for the anarchists in the midst of the Great Depression of the 1930's. By this time Marxism had become dominant in the socialist movement. However, the Equality Society managed to survive until the eve of World War II.
The Chinese anarcho-syndicalist movement of the 1920's and 1930's was not limited only to the San Francisco Bay Area. The Chinese Labor Association (Huaren Gonghui), founded in Vancouver, B.C., during the mid-1920's to struggle against labor contractors, had an anarchist leadership.14 And during the 1930's a Jue She (Awaken Society) was organized in New York City.15 By the end of the 1930's, however, the anarchist movement had run its course. The cause of its decline among the Chinese in America was directly connected with its decline in America as a whole. The growth of mass unions and large, complex industries was contradictory to anarcho-syndicalist decentralization and anti-leadership concepts. Bigness engendered a need for disciplined mass action which was contrary to the syndicalists' ideas of spontaneity. Their extreme left wing tactics, such as standing aloof from conservative trade unions, isolated them from the mass of workers. Moreover, following the Russian Revolution, the better-organized Marxist communists attracted many elements from the syndicalist organizations, thus sounding their death knell.16 As syndicalism withered to a mere splinter on the left anarchists tended to become anti-capitalist, anti-soviet and anti-communist (Marxist).
The anarcho-syndicalists formed one of the earliest radical socialist organizations among the Chinese in America. Bur just as the Neanderthal Man was an early branch-off from the main line of development leading to homo sapiens, the anarchIst movement in Chinatown was an early development of the Chinese left which led into a blind alley. Today its effects upon the Chinese community can hardly be detected.

The Communist-Kuomintang Alliance in China and its Effects
It is not known when the Chinese in America first became interested in Marxism. Undoubtedly there were already some who received a smattering of the socialist doctrines during the 1900's. The October Revolution was the stimulus spurring more Chinese in China as well as Chinese in this country to study the Marxist doctrines. For instance, in Dec. 1919 there was already a group calling themselves Xin Shehui (New Society) formed in San Jose, California, "to study capitalism and communism and the radical politics of the New Russia."17 However Marxism was not influential among the Chinese left in America until after the Canton Revolutionary Government led by Sun Yat-sen made an alliance with the USSR and admitted Communists to the Kuomintang. Because of this alliance, Marxists among the Chinese in America were very active in support of the Chinese Revolution. They were found in many Kuomintang organizations.
Given the discriminatory conditions under which the Chinese in America lived, and the hope for the creation of a strong independent China by the successful completion of the Chinese Revolution led by the Revolutionary Government of Sun Yat-sen, it was not surprising that Marxism augmented its influence in the Chinese community at this time. This period saw the first political involvement of many who were to continue to participate in activities of the Chinese left in America during the next three decades. And it was probably during these years that the first Chinese in the U.S. joined the America Communist Party. A Chinatown Branch of the party had been established in San Francisco by the late 1920's, where it was active until around the beginning of the Korean War.18 However, it was the popularly-based organizations of the left which had the greatest effect on the Chinese community. And in these organizations, Marxists, liberals, nationalists and others worked together to carry into effect certain economic and political programs as reflected by the needs of the times.
One of the earliest such organizations, established among Chinese workers in San Francisco during the mid-1920's, was the Huaqiao Gonghui (Chinese Workers' Club), which aided and educated Chinese workers and especially gave aid to the Chinese Revolution. This organization, alleged to be one of the first to fly the Kuomintang's national flag in San Francisco's Chinatown, lasted only a few years and disappeared around 1930, its demise hastened no doubt by the Kuomintang-Communist split in China during the late 1920's,19 which caused political repercussions in Chinese communities allover the world.
Another organization supporting the Chinese Revolution during this period of the Kuomintang-Communist Alliance was the Chinese Students Club (Zhongguo Xueshenghui), composed of Chinese students of various political beliefs all over the U.S. interested in the building of a China free from foreign domination. In the San Francisco Bay Area the group included university and high school students, mostly from China but also included some American-born. Following Chiang Kai-shek's coup in Shanghai in 1927, when the more conservative students in the Chinese Students Club turned their backs on the Revolution, student supporters of the Chinese Revolution in the San Francisco Bay Area regrouped to form the Sanfanshi Zhongguo Xueshenghui (San Francisco Chinese Students Club). In the same period, revolutionary working class elements formed another group, the Zhongguo Gong-Nong Geming Datongmeng (Grand Revolutionary Alliance of Chinese Workers and Peasants, ACWP) to oppose the KMT right in San Francisco's Chinatown. The ACWP also published a weekly newspaper, Xianfeng Zhoukan (The Vanguard) to air their support of the Chinese Revolution.20 In the community feelings ran high as the left and right denounced each other. Political street meetings frequently broke up as hecklers from the opposition engaged in fights with the participants.21
On the Eastern seaboard, left elements opposing the Kuomintang right wing also were active as early as their compatriots on the Pacific Coast. A branch of the ACWP also existed in Philadelphia as early as 1928. By 1930 the Chinese Anti-Imperialist Alliance of America (Meizhou Huaqiao Fandi Datongmeng), which appeared to be a successor organization to the ACWP, established the Chinese Vanguard (Xianfeng Bao), as a monthly in Philadelphia.22 Later it was moved to New York City and published as a weekly. After its demise during the mid-1930's, another weekly of similar editorial views, National Salvation (Jiuguo Shibao)" was transferred from Paris to commence publication in New York City.23 However, the masses in Chinatown then were not in a revolutionary mood and the circulations of these papers remained small; their effects on the Chinese community were limited. However, these publications marked the beginnings of the press of the Marxist left among the Chinese in America.
Besides hostility from the right in the Chinese community, the left also received much harassment from the police. For example in 1929 the San Francisco police, perhaps egged on by the KMT right-wing, raided the headquarters of the San Francisco Chinese Students club and closed it for alleged communist activities.24 - 25
By the end of the decade, overt activities in support of the Chinese Revolution had ebbed among the Chinese in America. The Kuomintang right, in collaboration with the police and supported by the conservative merchants, gained control in the community.
The new alignment of forces in Chinatown saw increased contacts between the Chinese and American left. It was undoubtedly through such collaborative efforts that resulted in a delegate of the militant Chinese Laundry Workers Union (Xifutang) being asked to attend a San Francisco Labor Council meeting in 1929 to report on their victory in a week long strike against Chinese laundries in the San Francisco Bay Area. 26 This was the first time a Chinese organization was invited and marked the small beginnings which led to fuller participation of Chinese workers in the American labor movement. (Earlier in 1925 the WLA had appealed to American labor unions for donations and support for Chinese striking in protest against Japanese and British brutality in Shanghai; however, this was not followed up by further efforts at closer collaboration.)27

The Chinese Workers Mutual Aid Association
The 1930's were hard times for the American working class, as industry stagnated during the Great Depression. The labor-management struggle in American became acute as labor fought for better working conditions. In Chinatown the Chinese left worked actively with the American Marxist left. Early in the decade a group of Chinese leftists formed an unemployment council in San Francisco's Chinatown and led unemployed Chinese on a march to the Chinese Six Companies,28 the nominal spokesman for the Chinese in America, to ask for relief. The Chinatown marchers later joined a demonstration of the unemployed on Market St. to mark one of the earliest instance of American Chinese participating in such action outside the Chinese community.29 Soon afterward the same group organized the Chinese Workers Center (Huagong Zhongxin, CWC) to help Chinese workers find employment, and call upon them to unite and to support the Chinese Revolution. However, after a brief career, the headquarters of the CWC was demolished by the San Francisco Police around the time of the San Francisco General Strike of 1934.30
The following years saw increasing collaboration between the Chinese left and left-wing elements in the American labor movement. The experience gained by these Chinese militants led to an increasing awareness among Chinese that cooperation with groups outside the Chinese community was essential to help effect changes in Chinatown and to improve workers' conditions.
In the mid-1930's, in cooperation with American progressive elements, the Chinese left in San Francisco undertook an abortive attempt to unionize the garment industry by establishing an independent Chinese Lady Garment Workers Union. (The more conservative, well-established, and wealthier Ladies Garment Workers Union was more successful in their rival attempt.)31
In another try, which was more successful, Chinese left elements worked with American labor to attack the notorious Chinese contract system existing in the Alaskan salmon canneries and to demand collective bargaining rights. In 1936, picket lines were set up at the docks to halt loading of ships of Alaskan Packers Association. (However, because of intimidation and threats by the Chinese contractors, the Chinese only worked behind the scene and did not appear on the picket lines.) The association capitulated and the workers, which included many racial groups, gained the right to unionize, and the contract system was finally abolished.32 As an aftermath of the victory, a group of Chinese workers on a ship returning from a canning season in Alaska developed the idea of forming a Chinese workers' association. 33 The Chinese Workers' Mutual Aid Association (CWMAA, Huagong Hezuohui) was officially established in September 1937. Its aim was to unite Chinese workers and through the cooperation and exchange of experiences, raise the status of Chinese workers in the labor unions and improve their working conditions.34 Its formation was a manifestation of a more mature stage in the development of the Chinese left movement as it profited from experience.
Starting as a center for channeling information on employment in the canneries and as a gathering place for returned cannery workers, the CWMAA went on to broaden the scope of its functions to encourage Chinese workers to join the trade unions and to recognize the value of working collectively to better the working man's condition. The CWMAA filled a need in the community, for soon after its formation there were 400 to 500 members on its membership rolls.35
The CWMAA was the first Chinese workers' organization to work actively with people in the American labor movement to achieve a common goal. Their many links with CIO and AF of L unions such as the International Longshoremen's Union, the Cannery Workers' Union and Miscellaneous Workers Union, etc., were extremely useful in introducing Chinese to employment in the larger society. However, it was true that contacts of the CWMAA with the larger community were hampered somewhat by the fact that many members lacked facility in the use of English. But the basic philosophy of identity of interests among the members of the working class regardless of ethnic background was accepted. Much of the association's strength and success was based on the demonstration of this concept.

The Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance36
There was no catalyst leading toward the formation of a Chinese workers' association in New York City, because of the greater dispersal of Chinese workers in the Eastern part of the country. Instead, the great number of laundries, many with common problems and grievances, served as the nucleus for the formation of a popularly based organization of the left.
By the 1930's, Chinese exclusion had been in effect half a century. Those "fortunate"enough to be able to reside in the land of liberty accepted discrimination as part of daily life. Economically the Chinese were systematically excluded from many industries and relegated to the least sought after areas of occupations, such as the laundry business. But even in these areas generally despised by most whites, the ugly head of racist discrimination reared itself.
A systematic campaign was directed against Chinese laundrymen in the eastern U.S. In 1933 an ordinance was proposed in N.Y.C. to charge a license fee of $25 per year on all public laundries plus a security bond of $1,000. This was designed to discriminate against small laundries, many of which were run with marginal profits by Chinese who could ill afford exorbitant fees. The traditional Chinese organi-zations, especially the Chinese Benevolent Association (Zhonghua Gongso),37 handled the issue ineptly. As a result, a coalition of dissatisfied radical and liberal Chinese, with the support of the Chinese Journal, a New York City paper, organized the Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance (Huaqiao Yiguan Lianhehui, CHLA) in 1933 to oppose the bill. After much maneuvering the ordinance was passed, but the license fee was reduced to $10 and the security bond to $100. The CHLA received the major credit for these reductions.
After this initial success the Alliance won a large following. New York City laundrymen who joined were organized into districts each with their own representatives to the CHLA council. It raised small amounts of revenue by serving as witness to the sale of laundries, a function which formerly was the prerogative claimed by the Chinese Benevolent Association, the nominal leader of the New York Chinese community. It also provided help for its members to fill out tax forms and license applications. It became the first successful Chinese organization to work outside the framework of the traditional Chinese establishment.
The CHLA's outlook on Chinese relations with the greater community was far more progressive than most other Chinese groups. During the depths of the depression, for example, more than 500 Chinese laundrymen from the Alliance marched in the NRA (National Recovery Act) parade. This was a high water mark for the participation of a Chinese organization in the East in American national affairs. The traditional Chinese power structure was unwilling to let the Alliance's challenge to their authority go by without reaction. One year after the formation of the CHLA, a conservative faction within it was induced to split away and form the Chinese Hand Laundry Association (Huaqiao Yiguan Tongye Zonghui). Most of the members remained loyal to the CHLA, however, and in 1934 it still enjoyed an active membership of over 3,200.
The CHLA considered itself a new type of Chinese organization. It put itself on record against what it considered to be outmoded ideas and feudal customs in Chinese society. Many members had little to do with traditional Chinese organizations.38 Some members of this organization helped to found and support the first daily paper of the left among Chinese in America—the Chinese Daily News, which succeeded the National Salvation Weekly in 1940.39
The CHLA was never more than an alliance of small proprietors. Its importance lay in the demonstration of the value of collective strength. For years it was a staunch supporter of the Chinese Revolution within the New York Chinese Community, the largest in the eastern part of America.

The War Against Fascism
The CWMAA and the CHLA were both born in a time of troubles for the peoples of the world. Beside the economic disaster of the Great Depression, the 1930 's saw the marching armies of the axis powers—Germany, Japan and Italy, menacing the world. By the end of the decade, internal contradictions such as that existing between labor and capital had to be temporarily shelved as both turned to concentrate upon defeating the common enemy. In the Chinese community this had added meaning as the motherland, China, was fighting for survival against Japanese aggression. One of the major programs of the CWMAA was to rally support among Chinese workers to oppose the Japanese aggression in China. At this time, the Communists and the Kuomintang had effected a truce in China, similarly both left and right in the Chinese community called a temporary halt to their quarrels to unite against Japanese militarism, and the Association became very active in the United China War Relief Society (Lu Mei Huaqiao Tongyi Yijuan Jiuguozonghui), the overall organization coordinating war relief fund drives and other activities in the U.S. Chinese community.
Before the Pearl Harbor attack, some profit-hungry American businessmen were still selling material to the Japanese war machine. However, an increasing sector of U.S. public opinion, in which the left and the liberals figured prominently, opposed this short-sighted policy. Among the most visible targets for the protesters was the sale of scrap iron to Japan, and during the closing years of the decade, picket lines were often seen at various U.S. ports to protest against loading scrap iron on ships headed for the Land of the Rising Run.
In San Francisco, this protest was expressed particularly vehemently in December 1938 when the Greek freighter Spyros began loading scrap iron destined for Japan. The CWMAA received news of the intended shipment from friends in the American labor movement. While its members manned hastily thrown up picket lines at the pier, the organization called on the rest of the community to join them. A few days later students, workers, merchants, housewives and others from Chinatown, as well as many sympathizers, converged upon the waterfront to register their disapproval. The longshoremen refused to cross the picket lines. By the time the action ended, the number of pickets had swelled to 3,000. Even though the freighter finally did load its holds with the scrap metal, this dramatic exhibition of unity by the Chinese impressed many Americans and led to renewed calls to ban the sale of scrap iron to Japan. During the suc<:eeding months the CWMAA continued to play a prominent role in picketing actions involving other ships loading scrap iron.
The CWMAA also held weekly public meetings at which guest speakers representing different political opinions were invited to air their views on subjects ranging from support for the war effort to union activities.40 However, the new left-right alliance among the Chinese was built on shaky grounds and lasted only a few years. When the New 4th Army Incident of 1940 disrupted the Communist-Kuomintang truce in China,41 the CWMAA withdrew from further active participation in the Kuomintang-dominated United China War Relief Society in San Francisco's Chinatown.
In the Eastern part of the country the CHLA also took part in similar war activities as the CWMAA. These two organizations raised large sums of money to support China's war effort. But it was the youth organizations, however, who were most active and conspicuous in the cultural aspects of propaganda work required to further this effort. The rise of such organizations can be attribued to the Japanese invasion of China.
During the late 1930's many Chinese refugees of the Sino-Japanese War emigrated to the U.S. They included a number of young people and intellectuals who had been exposed to two decades of new ideas and changes in China and whose style and thinking differed significantly from that of established Chinese groups in the U.S. Their ideologies included nationalism, liberalism, and socialism. Many had partici pated in anti-Japanese war propaganda work in China. It was natural for these young people of kindred interest to seek each other out in the new environment. Youth clubs supporting the Chinese war effort developed in many of the larger Chinese communities. One of the earliest was the Niuyue Huaqiao Qingnian Jiuguotuan (familiarly known as Qing-Jiu, Chinese Youth Club) founded in New York City in 1938. The club not only participated in anti-Japanese war work within the community but was also active in the U.S. youth movement generally participating in such events as May First Labor Day parades.42
In San Francisco, the Chick Char Musical Club was established in 1937 with the encouragement of Chinese educator Tao Xingzhi.43 This club had a generally liberal outlook and often took part in cultural programs at war rallies. By 1941, however, it had lost much of its initial momentum and another group, the New Chinese Alphabetized Language Study Society (NCALSS, Sanfanshi Xinwenzi Yanjiuhui), arose to playa more prominent role.
The NCALSS was originally organized to push the alphabetic spelling of Chinese words and doing away with Chinese characters, as a means of eradicating illiteracy. It grew out of a mass movement in China during the 1930's which had similar aims.44 By 1936 news of the movement had spread to the Chinese in Hawaii,45 and in 1940 the Society was formed in San Francisco.46 In addition to language reform, younger members of the society began to organize activities such as harmonica playing, choral singing, drama, etc. Within 3 months the activities of the organization were vastly expanded, and the membership increased to approximately 30, most of whom were recent immigrants in their late teens and early twenties, all fired with the enthusiasm and idealism of youth. The club rented a headquarters in a basement at 812 Stockton Street a few buildings from the headquarters of the local KMT. For almost 20 years this was to be the center of progressive youth activities in San Francisco's Chinatown. The NCALSS soon became the most active youth group in the community.47
In 1942, a coalition called the Lianhe Jiuguo Suanchuan Tuan (United National Salvation Propaganda League) comprising the NCALSS and two other local Chinese youth clubs, presented a drama, whose proceeds went toward the purchase of gifts for Chinese serving in the U.S. armed forces. This organizational structure proved to be unsuitable for recruiting new members, however, and early in 1943, the Propaganda League was reorganized as the Jiasheng Huaqiao Qingnian Jiuguotuan (familiarly known as Qing-Jiu, Chinese Youth League). Cultural activities were diversified and vastly expanded. Funds were raised to buy gifts for servicemen and to send them publications and letters. This organization, because of its superior organization and esprit de corps, remained throughout the war the most active among Chinatown youth groups. Excellent liaison was maintained with other Chinatown youth clubs and with left and liberal groups outside the Chinese community.48
Maximum CYL membership was about a hundred, but their programs, including music and drama of modern China, reached a public many times this number. Like the CWMAA, the Chinese Youth League is also significant as a pioneer Chinese group in reaching out to groups outside the Chinese community.

Between Hot and Cold Wars
During the years immediately following the end of World War II, the Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance (CHLA) in the East and the Chinese Workers Mutual Aid Association (CWMAA) and the Chinese Youth League (CYL) in the West all were particularly strong vocally in support for the Chinese Revolution. In New York City the China Daily News continued to speak out as the news organ of the left among Chinese in America. As civil war between the KMT and the Communists seemed increasingly likely, several members of the CWMAA in San Francisfo had organized the Co-operative Publishers (Hezuo Chubanshe) for the purpose of printing, in Chinese, several classics of Chinese communism, thus for the first time offering to U.S. Chinese the opportunity to acquaint themselves with the program of the Chinese Revolution.49
The period during and immediately after the war had seen some erosion in the mass base of the left organizations in the Chinese community. On the Pacific Coast the Alaska Packers' Association moved its headquarters to Seattle upon the outbreak of hostilities between the U.S. and Japan and no longer recruited workers in San Francisco. As a result, membership of the CWMAA, a large number of which had been cannery workers, began to dwindle.50 The end of the war saw the wilting of the Chinatown youth movement. Many erstwhile youths acquired family responsibilities; others lost the idealism and fire of youth. There no longer appeared to be any urgent task to unify youths. The Chinese Youth League was one group that survived although with reduced membership rolls. It established links with groups outside the Chinese community such as the American Youth for Democracy (AYD). In 1946 it changed its name to Chinese American Democratic Youth League of San Francisco (CADYL, Sanfanshi Minzhu Qingniantuan, familiarly known as Min-Qing).51
The CADYL was active politically, giving support to candidates of the Progressive Party in local and national election campaigns. However its effectiveness among the generally politically apathetic Chinese community was limited.
The post-war period also saw the formation of other short-lived organizations of the left among the Chinese in America. The Overseas Chinese League for Peace and Democracy in China (Lu Mei Zhongguo Heping Minzhu Lianmeng, OCLPDC) was founded in New York City in November 1947 by Gen. Feng Yuxiang who at that time was in exile in the U.S. The proclaimed aim of the organization, which had chapters in New York, Washington, D.C., Minnesota and San Francisco, was to urge a stop to American interference in Chinese internal affairs, especially in the civil war. Members of the group, which at its height totalled more than 200, were mostly businessmen and intellectuals. 52 Later as the Chinese Revolution drew to a successful conclusion, organizations also appeared among Chinese university students which advocated returning to the homeland to join in the construction of a new China.53 Among these was the nation-wide Alliance of Chinese Scientific and Technical Workers (Liu Mei Kexue Gongzuozhe Xiehui).
This was indeed a most favorable period for the left in the Chinese community. And on May 4, 1949 the China Weekly (Jinmen QiaD Bao), some of whose backers were members of the CWMAA, began publishing in San Francisco, joining the China Daily News as news organs in the U.S. Chinese community supporting the New China. It would seem that slowly but surely, the forces supporting the Chinese Revolution were gaining ground among the Chinese in America. Fate was to prove treacherous, however.
On the evening of Oct. 9, 1949, at the 12th anniversary celebration of the Chinese Workers Mutual Aid Association held at Chinese American Citizens' Alliance Hall in San Francisco's Chinatown, a celebration of the recent founding of the People's Republic of. China was in progress. The five-starred red flag of China was prominently displayed. The meeting had hardly commenced when KMT-hired hoodlums invaded the premises, seized the flag, beat up some participants and dashed blue dye all over clothing of members of the audience. The next day, KMT elements passed out leaflets marking 15 individuals for eradica:ion .from the Chinese community.54 This show of the mailed fist by the KMT was a blunt warning to U.S. Chinese not to display their sympathy for the Chinese Revolution too openly.
For a time, however, the forces supportmg New China appeared to have recovered. The China Weekly and the China Daily News continued to publish. Later in 1949 another group of businessmen, some of whom were members of the OCPDC, purchased the right-wing Chung Sai Yat Po and changed to a editorial policy favorable to People's China. However, the Korean War soon brought an end to this era.

The Right-wing Reaction
The 1950's signaled hard times for the left in the U.S. as the forces of reaction launched a full-scale attack upon them. Left organizations either dissolved or suffered drastic declines in membership. The Chinese organizations were no different; in fact, they suffered attacks from both the American right and the KMT.
The cold war had already begun as the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. confronted each other in Europe. In June 1950, war broke out in Korea. Later that year, when Gen. MacArthur's armies threatened China's frontier, Chinese troops crossed the Yalu River. Many Chinese in this country became fearful that they would be put in concentration camps just as the Japanese were during World War II. Increased activity by F.B.1. agents and immigration officials in the Chinese community added to this apprehension and succeeded in intimidating many. The first victim among the left Chinese newspapers was the China Weekly. It ceased publication when the Chinese firm printing the paper refused to service it after Chinese troops entered the Korean War. Next was the Chung Sai Yat Po which folded in Jan. 1951 due to declining circulation as frightened readers cancelled their subscriptions. In 1955 the U.S. government moved against the China Daily News, accusing it of traffic with the enemy because of its advertisements for the Bank of China. The paper was found guilty, fined and its manager jailed.55 The paper's circulation dropped precipitously due to harassment of subscribers. Today it struggles along, publishing twice weekly with a small circulation of about 800, and exists by relying on donations from its few remaining loyal supporters.
Among the left-wing Chinese organizations, membership declined during the 1950's as apprehensive Chinese ceased to attend meetings and stayed away from social functions. In San Francisco, the CWMAA finally closed its doors in 1954 after the membership dwindled to about 20. In New York. the Chinese Youth Club also was dissolved at about the same time.
The Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance nearly suffered the same fate. When Chinese armed forces entered the Korean War the CHLA refused to join the anti-communist campaign launched by the Chinese Benevolent Association (CBA) of New York City. For this heresy the CHLA was expelled from the CBA.56 During the 1950's, immigration authorities and F.B.I. agents continually harassed CHLA members, and its membership declined sharply. Today the organization exists only as a pale shadow of its former self.
The only group which managed to maintain a fairly extensive program during this era was the Chinese-Amencan Democratic Youth League of San Francisco (the name was later changed to Chinese Youth Club, but it was still known familiarly in Chinese as Min-Qing). During the late 1940's, many members had dropped out because of family or business responsibilities, and it looked as if Min-Qing was a dying institution. However, in 1949 and for a few years afterward, a number of newly arrived young immigrants from China joined the club and infused new life. In spite of this revitalization, the cold war, the Korean War, and the assault against liberals and the left during the McCarthy era, all severely curbed the club's scope of activities. There began a period of harassment of individual members by governmental investigation agents. Practically every member was questioned by the F.B.I. as the federal agents sought a non-existant link with the Chinese People's Republic. Members who were in the armed forces were barred from sensitive positions, and attempts were made to give several of them undesirable discharges. However, in this the government was unsuccessful as they were unable to establish their charges of subversion. In spite of these unfavorable circumstances Min-Qing managed to keep a fairly constant membership of about 40 for almost a decade, and was the most active independent youth group in Chinatown.
During this difficult period the club concentrated heavily on educational and social activities. A counseling, tutorial and remedial program was initiated in 1952 for the benefit of members and friends, most of them new immigrants. Members were encouraged to learn some skills in order to become more useful members of society. The club presented cultural programs at its headquarters at 812 Stockton St. two to three times per year. The performances included plays, songs and other representative aspects of the new Chinese culture. Min-Qing was one of the first organizations in the San Francisco Chinese community to present Chinese folk dances as well as the famous Yellow River Cantata (Huanghe Dahechang) of Xian Xinghai. In addition to this a biweekly mimeographed publication in the Chinese language, Min-Qing, gave friends and members opportunity to express their views. It is worth noting that thiS publicatIOn was probably the first in this country to use the simplified characters promulgated by the Chinese government in 1956. The club also pioneered the use of the Hanzi Pinyin spelling to teach Mandarin to members and friends. The club provided a social gathering place for members and friends. Through emphasis on mutual aid, group guidance and wholesome collective activities, Min-Qing was able to achieve for its members things which each individual could not have done.
The success of Min-Qing from start to finish was limited by the difficulty of instilling and maintaining a truly collective spirit within a larger society which encourages individualism. As long as the club held together with an active, going program the basic guiding principles of collectivism worked well. But whenever activities declined or when the organization was temporarily broken up, members tended to become more concerned with personal career and family. Youth organizations are notoriously ephemeral in nature. Min-Qing through its various metamorphases from the New Chinese Alphabetized Language Study Society to the Chinese Youth Club survived almost two decades wherein it witnessed the rise and fall of many other short-lived youth clubs. Few independent youth organizations in the Chinese commmunity of America can match this longevity record.
In 1959 Min-Qing lost its headquarters and disbanded. Some members attempted to form another organization called the Haiyan Club, but this club never regained the momentum of Min-Qing. However, even if the club had not disbanded, it probably would have been drastically affected by the immigration investigations during the late 1950's, for during the Chinese exclusion era, many Chinese, including some of those who subsequently became active on the left, had entered this country by fraudulent claims of citizenship. The immigration authorities were well aware of this, and by threats, coaxing, and other means they induced or forced many Chinese to confess their fraudulent citizenship status. Members of the left were special targets as they and their relatives were systematically harassed. Many, including most of the members of Min-Qing, were stripped of their "citizenships." Some were prosecuted for defrauding the government so as to warn others to be more cooperative. Others were not given the right of permanent residence in this country, thus having the threat of deportation hovering over their heads indefinitely. In this manner the left and their sympathizers were put on the defensive and their effectiveness in the community was curbed drastically.

Some Concluding Words
For almost half a century from the eve of World War I to the dying years of the McCarthy era, there was nearly always some organization representing some ty'pe of socialism within the Chinese community in America. In the past these groups were always a minority in the community, but in spite of this they made a significant impact. This was especially true of the groups springing up after the late 1930's.
The Chinese left faced many obstacles. They were often subjected to acts of harassment by government officials. Raids by the San Francisco Police upon the Ping Sheh and the Sanfanshi Zhongguo Xueshenghui in the late 1920's were clear examples of this. Moreover, the Chinese exclusion acts over the years had led to numerous illegal and fraudulent entries among Chinese immigrants. Thus many Chinese have questionable immigration status. American authorities were not oblivious to this and for years they have used this as a weapon to crack down on politically active Chinese. Thus the threat of deportation and prosecution on criminal charges was always hanging over the heads of these political non-conformists. For example, Xie Cang, one of the activists in the Sanfanshi Zhongguo Xueshenghui, was deported.57 Even during the 1960's, deportation was still the favorite weapon of the U.S. government against the Chinese left. As late as 1965 an official of the Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance, Louie Pon, was charged with fraudulent entry, and threatened with deportation by the Justice Department. One of the counts against him was that he was affiliated with the China Daily News. 58 Another weapon often resorted to by the authorities was to prosecute members of the left for fraudulent entry, as was the fate of four members of Min-Qing during the late 1950's and early 1960's.59 The effect of actions such as these has generally been to cow the Chinese population into silence, and to intimidate Chinese with sympathies for the left.
For the most part of the first half of this century China was convulsed in struggle as the Chinese people sought the road to national rebirth while at the same time fighting for national survival against Japanese aggression. Since most members of the Chinese left in America at this time were China-born, it was natural that they reacted strongly to events across the Pacific, and concern for support of the Chinese revolution and for resistance to Japanese aggression dominated their activities. In this area they were able to render valuable service by informing and educating the larger society as well as the U.S. Chinese community.
The organizations of the left also were interested in effecting certain domestic programs aiming toward change in the community. In this regard they encountered obstacles which were difficult to surmount. Successful implementation of their programs of course ultimately rested upon the support of the people within the Chinese community; however, since the Chinese were but a small minority in this country, radical change in the Chinese community could not be fully effected independently of the situation in the larger society. The anarchists of the 1920's were at first successful in bringing some improvement to workers' conditions in the Chinese community, but ultimately failed because the conservative forces in the Chinese community were too strong for them to tackle alone without some support from the larger society. The Marxists of the late 1930's and 1940's were able to achieve a somewhat greater degree of success because they could draw upon the backing of friendly American progressive forces. On the negative side, when the anti-communist hysteria swept the larger society during the 1950's, the Chinese left in America was among its victims.
The popular organizations formed by Marxists in alliance with liberals during the 1930's displayed some promise of growth into strong organizations counter-acting the conservative Chinatown establishment and providing leadership for the forces desiring a change from the status quo, for the groups were originally organized around popular economic issues which had great appeal. However, after a promising start, the coming of World War II curbed their development as the American people were asked to make sacrifices in order to win the war against Fascism. Other objective factors such as wartime "prosperity," as well as the factors previously mentioned, all worked to prevent the Chinese left from maintaining and augmenting its popular base in the community, thus hampering the carrying out and expanding of any programs for change. After the hot war, the cold war hysteria put the brakes on the resumption of such activities. Thus even though the situation in Chinatown called for drastic change, the KMT conservative merchant coalition, in collaboration with U.S. governmental authorities, was able to sustain an atmosphere discouraging any challenge to the established order.
In view of their limited mass support, their continual harassment and other handicaps, it is surprising that these groups have been able to accomplish as much as they have. They have for years brought idealism, zeal, and a sense of direction into Chinatown's atmosphere of materialist mediocrity and political apathy. They have been the vanguard presenting new ideas and concepts and representative samples of the new Chinese culture. They have been pioneers in recognizing that the Chinese in America must work across racial lines in order to achieve change. More than a decade has elapsed since the last of the "old" left organizations of Chinatown has faded into the past. Other groups representing the "new" left have appeared in the Chinese community, their ideologies varying from left-liberal to Marxist. Again in conjunction with the larger society, much of the new movement has taken off from the momentum generated by the civil rights, Black power, and the Third World movements of the 1960's, and was reinforced by identification with the positive image generated by a victorious Revolutionary New China.
The ties between the "new" and "old" left groups are few since the decade that elapsed between disappearance of the one and appearance of the other was an effective divide. However the "old" and the "new" left share common goals in striving for a better community and a better world.
Three significant characteristics distinguish the "new" left from the "old" left: First, the new activists are predominantly native-born; their appearance represents a new stage in the historical development of the Chinese community, a stage in which the Chinese of America have completed the transformation from sojourners to permanent residents. Second, the "new" left consists largely of students, professionals and intellectuals; so far few workers have participated in the movement. Third, although the "new" left organizations are still interested in the Chinese Revolution, the movement exhibits much greater concern in community problems such as housing, employment, racism, etc., and participates to a greater extent in the politics of the larger society.
Today these groups still have only limited support in the Chinese community and they are split into several factions. Most of the Chinese in America are still barely affected by their activities. However, the rise of these groups after 2 decades of total domination of the Chinese community by the KMT, is a sign that the forces for change are again stirring. Judging by their activities, a new stage has been reached in the development of the Chinese left in America, and with proper implementation of programs administering to the aspirations of the people of the Chinese community, this "new" Chinese left can grow to become a significant force. However, the full story of this "new" Chinese left is outside the scope of this essay and will have to be the subject of another paper.

NOTES
1. An account of the introduction of the socialist doctrines into China may be found in "The Triumph of Anarchism over Marxism, 1906-1907," by Martin Bernal in China in Revolution: The First Phase 1900-1913, edited by M.C. Wright (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968), pp. 97-142.
The organs of the Chinese Empire Reform Association were the first to introduce socialist writings to China. In 1903, the Guangzhi Shuju (Broadening of Knowledge Book Co.), founded in Shanghai in 1902 by reformist Liang Qichao and his supporters, published three surveys on socialism translated from the Japanese. That same year two other books on socialism were issued by other publishers in Shanghai. Also, from 1903 on many articles on socialism appeared in Xinmin Congbao (New People's Miscellany) a Yokohoma periodical also founded by Liang's supporters in 1902.
Sun Yat-sen and some members of the revolutionary Tongmenghui were also influenced by western socialism.
2. An account of the development of anarchism in China may be found in The Chinese Anarchist Movement, by Robert A. Scalapino and George T. Yu (Berkeley: Center for Chinese Studies, 1961).
3. One of the first to bring the anarchist doctrines to Chinese soil was a student revolutionary, Liu Sifu, better known as Liu Shifu, a native of Xiangshan (now Zhongshan) district in the Pearl River delta near Canton. The relation of Liu Shifu to the anarchist movement among the Chinese in America is not clear at present but it is worthy of note that his native district of Xiangshan was the region of origin for many Chinese in America. And certainly, at least in the San Francisco Bay Area, Xiangshan (Zhongshan) people were prominent in the anarchist movement. According to Wending, "The Biography of Mr. Shifu," in The Collected Works of Sbifu (Shanghai, 1928), Liu Shifu went to study in Japan in 1904. In the following year he took an active role in the formation of the Tongmenghui in Tokyo. Liu left Japan in 1906 and for the next few years engaged in revolutionary activities in the Hong Kong area. After the revolution he and his followers founded the Huiming Xueshe (Society of Cocks Crowing in the Dark) in Canton in 1912. The object was to propagate anarchism to the masses. In 1913 reflecting his disgust at his former comrades of the Tongmenghui who now seemed to be concerned only to advance their personal interests, Liu helped to organize the Xin She (Heart Society) which was intended to be a preliminary to a nation-wide anarchist movement. However, Liu died in 1915 of tuberculosis. He was only 31 at the time.
4. Chinese strikes for better working conditions were not rare. The first recorded instance occurred on June 8, 1852 when Chinese construction labor working on the Parrott building in San Francisco went on strike for more wages (Chinese Historical Society Bulletin, San Francisco, Vol 2 No.5, May 1967). Other instances occurred among the railroad workers, the most famous strike being the one on June 1867 when some 2,000 Chinese in the Sierra Nevadas walked off their jobs on the construction site of the Central Pacific (Sacramento Union, July 1, July 3, 1867).
Violence also accompanied some of the Chinese labor disputes. For instance the San Francisco Call, Aug. 17, 1896 reported attempted arson by members of the Garment Workers Guild against a factory owner who was reluctant to come to terms with the guild.
5. Isabella Black, "American Labour and Chinese Immigration" Past and Present, No. 25 (July 1963), pp. 59-76, quoting from The International Socialist Review, Vol. 10 (1910), p. 1121.
6. Philip S. Foner, History of tbe Labor Movement in tbe U.S. (New York: International Publishers, 1947), Vol. 4, p. 82.
7. A pamphlet, China and the Social Revolution, was published by Kiang Kang·hu, care of the Chinese Socialist Club, 1045 Stockton St., San Francisco, Calif. The preface of this pamphlet, written by Kiang himself in California, was dated June 25, 1914. The club may have been the Pingmin Shu-Baoshe formed by Kiang Kang-hu (See Feng Ziyou Shebuizhuyi yu Zbongguo [Hong K9ng, 1920J).
8. Kung Sing, No.1 (Mar. 1, 1924) and No.2 (Apr. 1, 1924), included a detailed account ot the history of the Workers League of America up to 1924. The publication is the monthly magazine issued by the WLA.
9. The 9 demands were as follows:
  1. The work day is to be limited to 9 hours.
  2. The employers are to guarantee that in the future wages are to increase and not decrease.
  3. Time and a half is to be paid for work over 9 hours.
  4. Double time is to be paid for Sunday work.
  5. Paid time off is to be given for American holidays
  6. The employers are to pay medical bills for injuries incurred during performance of work on the factory's premises.
  7. The term of apprenticeship shall be set at two months, during which time the apprentice is to be allowed weekly expense money of $1.00.
  8. In case of a fire if a worker lives on the premises of his employer, the employer shall recompense him $50.00 to pay for losses incurred.
  9. Workers not obeying the above regulations are subject to discharge by the League.
All but the 9th demand were eventually accepted by the factory owners.
10. Chung Sai Vat Po (San Francisco), April 14, 1928 gave an account of a raid by San Francisco plain-clothes police officers on the Ping Sheh, where two members were arrested for preaching anarchism. This was typical of the general police attitude toward radical groups in the 1920's.
11. The Ping Sheh advertised free copies of various pamphlets in Chung Sai Vat Po, Nov. 29, 1926. The first issue of Equality was published July 1, 1927, according to an advertisement in Chung Sai Vat Po, June 24, 1927.
12. The author possesses copies of leaflets issued by the Ping Sheh in support of the Laundry Workers' strike of 1929 and the garment workers' strike against the Chinatown factory of the National Dollar Stores in 1938.
13. The first issue was published June 1, 1934. Communications were to be addressed to Ray Jones' (Liu Zhongshi).
14. Ping Sheh, May Day Special Issue, May I, 1927.
15. Wuzhengfu Gongchan Yuekan combined Nos. 5,6 (Oct., Nov. 1934).
16. William Z. Foster, Outline Political History of the Americas (New York: International Publishers, 1951), pp. 391-2.
17. Chung Sai Vat Po, Dec. 4,1919.
18. Interview with former member of the San Francisco Chinese Students Club.
19. Ibid.
20. Minutes of the Second Convention ofthe Kuomintang in San Francisco (Zhongguo Guomindang Zhu Sanfanshi Zongzhibu Di'erci Daibiao Dahui Shimoji), 1928, p. 163. The Xianfeng (Vanguard) may have been the precurser of the publication of the same name published in Philadelphia in 1930.
21. See Note 18.
22. Leong Gor Yun, Chinatown Inside Out (New York: Barrows, 1936),pp. 143, 154, 156.
23. Interview with former worker at the China Daily News (New York).
24. Chung Sai Vat Po, Apr. 8, 13, 1927.
25. See Note 18.
26. Chung Sai Vat Po, Jan 14, 28, 30, 1929.
27. Philip Taft, Labor Politics A merican Style, The California State Federation of Labor (Cambridge: . Harvard Univ. Press, 1968), p. 175, quoting from the Proceedings of the 34th Annual Convention of the California Federation ofLabor, 1929, p. 29.
28, Chung Sai Vat Po, 1925, June 10, 11; July 1, 6,10,13,15, 16,20,22,24; August 17, 1930. The occasion was the celebrated "May 30th Incident" in Shanghai.
29. The Chinese Six Companies or the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association of the U.S.A. is the organization claiming to be the spokesman for all the Chinese in America. It is at the apex of the pyramid formed by Chinese organizations in the community and is formed by the seven major district associations in San Francisco: Ning Yung, Sam Yup, Kong Chow, YoungWo, Shew Hing, Hop Wo and Yan Wo Associations.
30. Interview with former member of CWMAA.
31. See Note 30.
32. L.W. Casaday, Labor Unrest and the Labor Movement in the Salmon Industry of the Pacific Coast (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of Calif. Berkeley), pp. 387-97. Also see "Yushiye Jianshi" ("Alaska Cannery Workers"), Getting Together (Tuanjie Bao), (San Francisco), Mar. 18-21, 1972.
In the Chinese contract system the cannery owner makes agreement with contractors to can the salmon at certain fixed price per case during the canning season. The contractor then hires the workers. During the 19th Century practically all the labor at the canneries were Chinese. Later Chinese, Filipinos, Japanese, Mexicans, etc. were hired. Under this system, the workers were under the control of the contractors. They were frequently provided poor food, charged exorbitant prices for goods, and provided inadequate and unsanitary quarters. Thus it became one of the most hated features of cannery work.
33. Interview with Willie Fong, one of the founders of the CWMAA. Two Chinese most active in the founding were Willie Fong and Sam Young.
34. Jianfu, "Shi'ernianlai di Gongzuo Guocheng ji Jinhou di Renwu" ("A Review of Work of the Past 12 Years and the Task for Now and the Future"), China Weekly, Oct. 8, 1949. Lin Jianfu (Happy Lin) was secretary of the CWMAA, also one of the founders of the NCALSS.
35. See Note 32.
36. Leong Gor Yun, Op. Cit. Chapter 5 gives a good account of the early history of the Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance.
37. The Chinese Benevolent Association or Zhonghua Gongso of New York City is an organization similar to the Chinese Six Companies (See Note 30), and claims to speak for the Chinese in New York City.
38. Virginia Heyer, Patterns of Social Organization in New York City's Chinatown (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Columbia University), Chapter 8.
39. Liu Boqi, "Meiguo Huaqiao Baoye Fanzhanshilue" ("Brief History of the Development of Newspapers of the Chinese in America") in Wenyi Fuxing Yuekan (Literary Renaissance Monthly) (Taiwan) No. 19, pp. 49-56. Also verified by verbal information from former worker at China Daily News.
40. For example there were meeting announcements in the Chung Sai Yat Po, Mar. 4,12,1938, May 15, 22, 1938, etc.
41. During the Sino-Japanese War the Communist New 4th Army was operating in the lower Yangtze Valley near Shanghai. The Nationalists felt it to be a threat to what they considered to be their territory, even though at that time it was held by the Japanese. In 1940 the KMT government ordered the New 4th Army to withdraw north of the Yangtze. While the army was withdrawing, protesting to the KMT government, in the meanwhile the Nationalists attacked the New 4th Army Headquarters Unit and accompanying rear guard and inflicted several thousand casualties. Many overseas Chinese protested this action, pointing out that the most important task should be to unite to fight the common enemy, Japan.
42. The Chinese Youth (Huaqiao Qingnian), published by ,he Chinese Youth Club, N.Y.C. Special Issue, No.3 (Oct. 1940) pp. 7-11.
43. Interview with former member of the NCALSS.
44. Ni Haishu, Zhongguo Pinyinwenziyundong Shi Jianbian (Shanghai, 1948), Chapter 6.
45. Chen Qiao, "Guanyu Yatgo Gaoyuk Daijong Muntai ge Hinyi" ("On a Proposal with Regards to the Problem of mass Education") in 25th Anniversary Commemorative Album of the Mun LunSchool, Honolulu (1936).
46. Yuwen Yanjiu (Ymen Ingau) (Lauguage Study) published by the New Chinese Alphabetized Language Study Society (Apr. 1942).
47. See Note 46.
48. Rucong, "Xiaoxiao Shinian" ("A Brief History of 10 Years") in Min-Qing Tuanbao, New Series No. I, (Dec. I, 1949). This is a mimeographed publication issued biweekly by the Chinese-American Democratic Youth League. The development and activities during the period 1940 to 1949 is covered in this article. Zhu Rucong (James Young) was one of the founders of the NCALSS.
49. The publications were:
  1. New Democracy, by Mao Tse-tung
  2. The Truth about the Liberated Areas, by Dong Biwu
  3. On Coalition Government, by Mao Tse-tung
  4. Critique of "China's Destiny, " by Chen Boda

50. See Note 33.
51. The aims of the CADYL as stated in its constitution were as follows:
  1. To unite Chinese and American youths to study and work together for the interest of young people.
  2. In cooperation with all Chinese here and abroad to fight for the establishment of a free, peace-loving, democratic, united, independ.ent, wealthy and strong new China.
  3. In cooperation with Chinese and non-Chinese liberals and progressives to work toward freedom and equality for all mankind and world peace.
  4. In cooperation with other progressive organizations, to undertake educational programs, protect the public interest, and establish a democratic way of life.
  5. Through collective strength, to advocate ways of serving society, to strengthen the membership's belief in service to society, and to increase the usefulness of the membership in serving society.
52. James E. Sheridan, Chinese Warlord, The Career of Feng Yu-hsiang (Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 1966), pp. 279-280. Also, Feng Yuxiang Jiangjun Ji'niance (Album in Memory of Gen. Feng Yuxiang) (Hong Kong: 1948), pp. 114-115.
53. LiuMei Xuesheng Tongxin, Nov. 26, 1949; Jan 21, Feb. 4, 1950.
54. San Francisco Chronicle, Oct. 10, 1949.
55. China Daily News, editorial July 4, 1970.
56. Heyer, op. cited, p. 94.
57. See Note 18.
58. Annual Report of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1965, p. 11.
59. These were the cases of Jackson Chan, Maurice Chuck, Kai Dere and Wing Joe.


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