Genthe's Photographs of San Francisco's Old Chinatown

by Arnold Genthe, John Kuo Wei Tchen

Overview

In 1895, a cultured, well-educated young German named Arnold Genthe arrived in San Francisco as a tutor to the son of an aristocratic family. Almost immediately, Genthe was attracted by Chinatown, or "Tangrenbu" — a teeming ten-block area of crowded buildings, narrow streets, and exotic sights and sounds in the shadow of Nob Hill.
Fascinated by a living culture totally foreign to his experience, Genthe began to photograph Tangrenbu and its inhabitants. Today, these photographs (over 200 are known to exist) are the best visual documentary record of Chinatown at the turn of the century, offering priceless glimpses of the rich street life of the district before it was leveled by the great earthquake and fire of 1906.
Rediscover the lost world of old Chinatown in serene and enduring images of cobbled streets and bustling shops, street vendors and merchants, fish and vegetable markets, Devil's Kitchen, the Street of the Gamblers, Portsmouth Square and more. But most of all, enjoy distinctive candid portraits of the people of old Chinatown: a pipe-bowl member, a paper gatherer, itinerant peddlers, toy merchants, boys playing shuttlecock, a fortune-teller, a sword dancer, women and children in ornate holiday finery, an aged opium smoker and many other unaffected and revealing images.
Rich in detail and atmosphere, the photographs are complemented by historian John Tchen's informative and well-researched text, which outlines the turbulent history of Chinese-Americans in California, dispels numerous myths about Chinatown and its residents, and illuminates the role of Genthe's photographs in capturing the subtle flavor and texture of everyday life in the district before 1906.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780486140698
Publisher:	Dover Publications
Publication date:	12/20/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	144
File size:	25 MB
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Read an Excerpt

Genthe's Photographs of San Francisco's Old Chinatown

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By John Kuo Wei Tchen

Dover Publications, Inc.

Copyright © 1984 John Kuo Wei Tchen
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-486-14069-8

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CHAPTER 1

STREET LIFE

The streets of Tangrenbu were vibrant with a curious and colorful mix of Chinese and non-Chinese. Stores that served the residents were interspersed with those that depended on tourists. The fish and poultry markets radiating aromatic and pungent smells, curio-shop bazaars, itinerant peddlers, huge flowered lanterns, gold-red-and-black signs, and so much more—all this served as the interface between the white world that visited and the Chinese world whose home this was. It was on this public turf, the streets, that Arnold Genthe took his photographs. Despite Genthe's often idealized and romantic notions of the Chinese community his images, while they show us this interface, at the same time manage to carry us beyond the superficial impression of a monolithic Chinese people in a monolithic Chinatown. When these photographs are printed full-frame without retouching, we begin to see the tremendous richness, the variety the nuances of the life of the quarter. Instead of reconfirming what we feel we already know about American Chinatowns, these images challenge us to reconsider stereotypical notions. With the aid of informed historical commentary the photographs come alive, teaching us a lesson in the largely forgotten visual history of Tangrenbu.

For the occasional non-Chinese visitor, the streets of Chinatown were an exotic adventure full of the mystery of the unknown, promising surprises and thrills. The colors, the smells, the language, and the customs seemed so totally foreign to Western sensibilities. Would they see an opium den? What exactly was in the food they were eating? What interesting gifts could they buy for their loved ones? To a large degree the Chinatown that tourists came to see was not the real, everyday quarter, but the quarter as it was fervently imagined by non-Chinese writers, journalists, missionaries, and concerned individuals on both sides of the "Chinese Question." Tangrenbu was characterized as simultaneously a romantic, melodramatic, wicked, and dangerous place, full of decadence, evil, and disease. Paid guides offered to take the curious to the darkest spots of the quarter. For outsiders, Chinatown was perceived as an escape from the humdrum. It was a quick vacation.

For Chinese residents, however, Tangrenbu, composed of ten blocks of buildings, streets, and narrow alleyways, was at once a living community and a ghetto prison. Chinatown was a home base, a safe place to rest. The rhythm, sounds, colors, and space were comfortable. The streets were full of life where old friends and familiar enemies could be found. The streets offered news, entertainment, gossip, and solace. It was a place to hang out, a place to work, a place to demonstrate deep-felt convictions. Male "bachelor" workers dominated the streets. On special occasions, a wealthy merchant with his family could be seen, and even more rarely the quarter's few women could be spotted outdoors getting a break from their confined existence behind closed doors. But to venture too far beyond the boundaries of Tangrenbu without official business was to invite harassment and possible injury Wei Bat Liu, an "old-timer" interviewed by Victor and Brett de Bary Nee in their classic oral history of San Francisco's Chinatown, Longtime Californ', recalled:

"In those days, the boundaries were from Kearny to Powell, and from California to Broadway. If you ever passed them and went out there, the white kids would throw stones at you.... One time I remember going out and one boy started running after me, then a whole gang of others rushed out, too."

Gim Chang also remembered these childhood fears:

"I myself rarely left Chinatown, only when I had to buy American things downtown. The area around Union Square was a dangerous place for us, you see, especially at nighttime before the quake. Chinese were often attacked by thugs there and all of us had to have a police whistle with us all the time. I was attacked there once on a Sunday night, I think it was about eight P.M. A big thug about six feet tall knocked me down. I remember, I didn't know what to do to defend myself, because usually the policeman didn't notice when we blew the whistle. But once we were inside Chinatown, the thugs didn't bother US."

The militant, often violent anti-Chinese movement was still strong at this time. Samuel Gompers, the first president of the American Federation of Labor, spearheaded much of the movement to have Chinese permanently excluded from immigrating to the United States, a movement culminating in the law passed by Congress in 1904. He made fiery speeches claiming the "yellow peril" was still a threat to white working men and women. A pamphlet he coauthored, Some Reasons for Chinese Exclusion: Meat us. Rice; American Manhood Against Asiatic Coolieism, Which Shall Survive?, published in 1902, was widely circulated throughout the country The violence committed against Chinese who ventured outside the borders of Chinatown was not simply the mischievous pranks of misguided "hoodlums" but, far more significantly, one of the several ways in which the dominant powers of the San Francisco community kept the Chinese "in their place."

The brick Italianate buildings and wooden structures that lined the streets of Tangrenbu were inherited from the San Francisco building boom of the 1850s and 1860s. The Chinese, as they came to dominate the area, brought their own sense of space, design, and aesthetics by modifying the buildings and open areas, thereby claiming the quarter as their own. Balconies painted with greens and yellows were added and bedecked with potted plants. Metal and canvas canopies jutted out from storefronts, and lanterns of various shapes and sizes hung everywhere. Within the strictly imposed boundaries space was at a premium. Buildings were constantly modified to make more room. Previously unused basements became stores and residences. Closed wooden constructions projecting from window frames were connected by outdoor stairways and ladders. The rooftops, hung with laundry were here and there divided by picket fences to serve as protection from raiding police or neighborhood feuds.

In the early morning fog, the markets bristled with activity. Fresh fruits and vegetables were being brought to the produce and other food markets on Dupont and other streets. Fish and poultry were being sold in "Fish Alley." The many itinerant peddlers in the quarter would be setting up on their favorite doorstep or street corner. Throughout the day, dry goods would be unloaded from the docks and carted up by dollies and horse-drawn wagons along Washington and Clay Streets to their destinations in the general merchandise stores and warehouses on Dupont, Sacramento, Clay, and Commercial Streets. All day long, along the roomier edges of Tangrenbu around lower Clay, Pacific, and Stockton Streets, workers could be seen hunched over their benches in basements and storefront factories making shoes and boots, sewing garments, and assembling brooms. Retired "old-timers" would sit on Portsmouth Square and watch the children with their nannies and mothers. Along Dupont Street, tourists visited the growing number of curio shops that displayed items ranging in price from a few pennies to thousands of dollars. During mealtimes, basement restaurants would be filled with workers having rice and noodle dishes and other inexpensive fare, while merchants would be dining on the floors above.

When darkness came, the clacking of mahjong tiles could be heard behind closed doors, and the alleys were filled with those seeking entertainment and relief from the long day's work. Ross Alley buzzed with gamblers. Sullivan's and Bartlett Alleys were busy with lonely men seeking singsong girls and prostitutes. And the theaters on lower Jackson Street and Washington Street off Waverly Place were filled with noisy spectators checking out the development of plays that went on for several nights. Each street had its own special character, different at different times of the day and night.

Waverly Place, for instance, was a two-block-long street nestled in the heart of Tangrenbu. Its Chinese name was Tianhoumiaojie (Tin Hau Miu Gaai), after the Goddess of Heaven, Tianhou, protector of fishermen, travelers, sailors, actors and prostitutes; her temple was erected at 33 Waverly Place (see Plate 12). The street was also given the nickname of "Fifteen Cent Street," referring to the numerous Chinese barbershops lining the two blocks. The barbershops were open for business when they put out a wash pan placed on a wooden rack outside their door (such a rack is seen next to the two onlookers in Plate 9). The queues the men wore were imposed upon the Chinese during the rule of the foreign Manchu Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Chinese men regularly went to these barbers to have their foreheads shaved, their hair cleaned, braided, and oiled, and their ears scraped clean. In China not to wear a queue was a sign of defiance to the Manchus, punishable by severe penalties. A well-kept queue was very important as long as the man wanted to keep the option of visiting or returning to China. Wearing the queue, therefore, was not simply a matter of appearances but had important social and political implications. The constant flow of residents coming to Waverly Place and its seclusion from the main thoroughfares made it an ideal location for peddlers to hawk their wares. Political rallies were often held in this area for the same reason. Prohibited from involvement in the American political process, Tangrenbu residents were deeply involved with political developments in China. From the late 1890s up to 1911, China's reformist and revolutionary parties competed for the sympathies of San Francisco overseas Chinese.

Tangrenbu also had seasonal rhythms created by the ebb and flow of migrant workers. The vast orchards, farms, and ranchos of the surrounding valleys laid off up to three-quarters of their workers from September to November, and again from February through April. The late-winter appearance of thousands of these men was always a signal that the Lunar New Year was approaching. This was the major holiday of the year, at which time stores and residences had to be cleaned and all accumulated debts paid. Sometimes Tangrenbu was so overfilled with the unemployed that the bunks in the family halls were used in shifts.

Although Tangrenbu residents did not own the entire area, according to various estimates from one-twelfth to one-third was actually Chinese property The ten-block grid was unlike any other section of the city It was a distinct community, neither traditionally Chinese nor simply American. Its special character was born of an impassioned conflict between stubborn white-racist hostility and the tenacious desire of the Chinese to survive and remain in the United States. As the photographs richly reveal, the street life that Arnold Genthe photographed bore the birthmarks of this odd conflictual relationship.

CHAPTER 2

MERCHANTS AND FAMILIES

The Chinese merchants and traders who first came to California in the later 1840s and the 1850s were primarily from the Sanyi (Saam Yap), or Three Districts, and the Zhongshan area immediately surrounding Canton. Nanhai (Namhoi) and Panyu (Punyu) were the wealthiest districts in all of Guangdong Province. Economic activities varied from farming rich agricultural lands, raising silkworms, and breeding fish, to manufacturing silk textiles, making ceramics for internal and export markets, and other types of commerce. Sanyi and Zhongshan merchants and craftspeople spoke what was considered a more refined city dialect than their poorer, peasant Siyi (Sei Yap), or Four Districts, neighbors, from which over 80 percent of the Chinese immigrants in North America originate. A number of these Sanyi merchants were among the rising class of compradores, Chinese who acted in business matters on behalf of Western trading companies. The California Sanyi merchants, therefore, had experience in dealing with Western businessmen and came to California to pursue further this kind of lucrative contact.

In China, official Confucian ideology established many restrictions upon the merchant class, founded on the belief that a class devoted to unfettered pursuit of material profit would upset the social stability of the state. Merchants were supposed to be kept under strict regulations by the civil-service administrators of the state. However, as the British and other Western imperialist powers penetrated China's major ports, merchants dealing with Western trading companies gained unprecedented prestige and power. Outside of China, Chinese merchants and traders found much more freedom to trade and turn large profits without worrying about state-imposed sanctions. These merchants quickly assimilated the necessary language and business skills to pursue their material interests successfully. They established trading posts at key ports throughout the Pacific Ocean. The pioneer San Francisco merchants displayed a shrewd business sense. Led by Zhongshan native Norman As-Sing, they held a meeting in December 1849 at the Canton Restaurant in the Chinese Quarter, as it was then called, and hired Selim E. Woodsworth, a respected San Francisco lawyer, to represent them. These merchants quickly learned English and American ways, became skilled at American-style business transactions, and developed strategies for public relations with the general San Francisco population. The "China Boys," as they were dubbed by the press, made it a point to participate in the first celebration of the admission of California into the Union, and of Washington's Birthday, Independence Day, and other American holidays. This type of behavior helped establish positive relations with the San Francisco public. The California Courier expressed a sentiment common among "respectable" whites when it stated: "We have never seen a finer-looking body of men collected together in San Francisco. In fact, this portion of our population is a pattern for sobriety, order and obedience to laws, not only to other foreign residents, but to Americans themselves." Cornelius B. S. Gibbs, a marine-insurance adjuster, echoed the high praise Chinese merchants enjoyed among white business circles in 1877:

As men of business, I consider that the Chinese merchants are fully equal to our merchants. As men of integrity I have never met a more honorable, high-minded, correct, and truthful set of men than the Chinese merchants of our city I am drawn in contact with people from all nations, all the merchants of our city, in our adjustments. I have never had a case where the Chinese have attempted to undervalue their goods or bring fictitious claims into the adjustments.

The stores and offices that these merchants opened soon became the basis of real and symbolic power in the growing regional community of Chinese living in the American West.

As the number of Chinese immigrants increased, the businesses catering to their needs expanded and diversified. A hierarchy of businesses developed along economic and district-of-origin lines. Wealthier Sanyi tended to control the larger, commercially successful companies, such as import-export firms. Nanhai District people monopolized the men's clothing and tailoring trade, in addition to butcher shops. Neighboring Shunde District folk controlled the overalls and workers' clothing factories. Chinese hailing from the Zhongshan District, the second largest population of Chinese in California, controlled the fish businesses and fruit-orchard work, and predominated in the woman's garment, shirt, and underwear sewing factories. The Siyi, or Four District people, by far the largest and poorest group of Chinese, controlled the low end of the business pecking order in occupations such as laundries, small retail shops, and restaurants. Up until World War II, class affiliations within Tangrenbu were largely predetermined by district of origin. Sanyi not only had an affinity for larger-scale businesses, but they consolidated their economic base in the more lucrative industries within the community, In sharp contrast, Siyi came from a poorer region of Guangdong Province and could not enter the Sanyi-dominated industries. They went into low-capital small businesses which could be more easily set up but made relatively little money.

The dream of finding "golden mountains" was shared by merchants and workers alike. The ways, however, in which their dreams could be realized were totally different. Chinese laborers found jobs wherever they could, and if they were lucky they made good and steady money. In sharp contrast, established merchants acquired small fortunes. They sold supplies and provided needed services to workers; they collaborated with American companies in contracting labor for emerging Western industries; and they catered to the desire of the city's rising social elite for luxury goods imported from China. As anti-Chinese hostilities grew and workers were forced into the residential enclaves surrounding Chinese stores, the merchants gained more and more power over the growing Tangrenbu community. The possibility of Chinese workers' being accepted as equals by white workers faded in the 1870s and vanished in the 1880s. Chinese workers came to depend more and more on the merchants who were adept at dealing with Americans and could speak and write English. As Chinatown grew, the power of the wealthy businessmen extended from brokeraging jobs to providing food and supplies, and to building district associations that provided shelter and social activities for the unemployed and recent arrivals.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Genthe's Photographs of San Francisco's Old Chinatown by John Kuo Wei Tchen. Copyright © 1984 John Kuo Wei Tchen. Excerpted by permission of Dover Publications, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Contents

DOVER PHOTOGRAPHY COLLECTIONS,
Title Page,
Dedication,
Copyright Page,
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS,
A NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION,
LIST OF PLATES - THE TITLES IN QUOTATION MARKS ARE GENTHE'S.,
INTRODUCTION - TANGRENBU—THE STREET LIFE OF SAN FRANCISCO'S CHINATOWN, 1895–1906,
1 STREET LIFE,
2 MERCHANTS AND FAMILIES,
3 WORKERS AND BACHELOR SOCIETY,
4 THE RISING SPIRIT,
5 WOMEN AND CHILDREN,
6 EARTHQUAKE, FIRE, AND THE NEW CHINATOWN,
BIBLIOGRAPHY,