4. Guangzhou

For much of the history of the Guangdong Province, the city of Guangzhou (廣州) has been the center of activity. Located in the Pearl River Delta less than 100 miles northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou has always been an important trading center and bustling port, given its ready access to the extensive network of inland waterways in Guangdong as well as the coast of Guangdong. Originally called Panyu (番禺), there is evidence that a city has been at this strategic site since 214 BCE. Under the Han Dynasty, Panyu became the seat of the Guang prefecture, and slowly the prefecture name Guangzhou came to supplant Panyu as the city's commonly used name.(a) The Pearl River Delta (dark green) links Guangzhou and the interior of Guangdong province with Hong Kong and Macau (adapted from MIT Foshan Planning Workshop); (b) the city of Canton (Guangzhou) (circa 1864, adapted from The Chinese American Album).

Guangzhou has long been a major point of access between China and the rest of the world. In 1711, the British East India Company established a trading post in Guangzhou which would soon become known internationally as Canton (from the French transliteration). Guangzhou’s natural predilection for commerce was further strengthened in 1760 when the Qing government designated the city as China’s sole port for international trade. All foreign warehouses and factories in China were restricted to a section of Guangzhou under the "Canton system." This monopoly on trade lasted until the end of the first Opium War and the Treaty of Nanking in 1842 when Great Britain forced China to open other ports for trade.

Today, “The City of Five Goats” (a name taken from an ancient myth telling of five gods riding five goats who first brought grain to Guangzhou) is similar in size to Chicago with a population of nearly 9.94 million people. Like much of the region, Guangzhou is currently undergoing staggering growth and development. It is the most populous city in Guangdong province and the fifth largest city in China.
The San Francisco Bay Area has traditionally had very strong ties to Guangzhou and the Pearl River delta surrounding it. Thus, many of the local names and customs are familiar to us. This isn’t surprising when you consider that eighty percent of the Chinese in the Bay Area can trace their ancestry to Guangdong’s Pearl River Delta region. Historically, this region is divided into eight districts: three Sam Yup districts (Shunde, Nanhai, and Panyu); four Tse Yup districts (Sun Ning, Toyshan, Hoy Ping, and Yin Ping); and the district of Zhongshan.


Links:
"San Francisco's streets echo the sounds and sights of Guangzhou" by David Armstrong (SFGate.com, Feb. 26, 2006)
"Cradle of Chinese American culture - Historical impact meets mdern verve in Gunagzhou" by David Armstrong (SFGate.com, Feb. 26, 2006)
Guangzhou (wikipedia.org)
Pearl River Delta tourism
The Chinese American Album by Dorothy & Thomas Hoobler

3. Guangdong

China is a big country. In terms of land area, it is the fourth largest country in the world and is the world's most populated country boasting a population in excess of 1.3 billion people. Now that's big.

The problem of governing such a large and disparate place has long been an important challenge for Chinese rulers. In 221 BCE, the Qin Dynasty was the first to impose an hierarchical organizational structure by dividing the country into commanderies and xiàn counties or districts. The Han Dynasty later added zhou (the modern precursor to prefectures but translated as "provinces") to the organizational pool. Finally the Yuan Dynasty further divided the country into provinces. This regional breakdown would have been very familiar to the Chinese emigrants of the late 1800's and early 1900's.

This system of organization would remain largely intact until 1949 when the newly formed communist government of the People's Republic of China readapted the system. The current organizational hierarchy is illustrated below with an example of how it currently applies to our family's ancestral home. China is divided into 22 provinces, not unlike the states of the US. These provinces are subdivided at the prefecture level, which are further divided at the county level. Below the county level is the township level and villages.
The use of the term "city" is often confusing in this system of nomenclature. As described in the Wikipedia article on the political division of China, both prefecture-level and county-level cities "are not 'cities' in the strictest sense of the term, but instead an administrative unit comprising, typically, both an urban core (a city in the strict sense) and surrounding rural or less-urbanized areas usually many times the size of the central, built-up core." This is probably crudely analogous to the relationship between counties and cities in the US (think Alameda county made up of cities and towns such as Oakland and Berkeley).

Of the 22 provinces, the one that most concerns our family (as well as a majority of SF Bay Area Chinese) is Guangdong. About the size of the state of Washington, the province of Guangdong is located in southern China along the South China Sea. Far removed from the center of ancient Chinese civilization, the region was given the name "Guang" meaning "expanse" or "vast" and "dong" meaning "east." Paired with the neighboring province of Guanxi ("xi" meaning "west"), the two Guangs were the "expanse east" and "expanse west." The province is divided into 21 prefecture-level "cities" including Foshan. The "city" of Foshan (佛山) administers five county level divisions including our family's ancestral home district Shunde (顺德区).
(a) The province of modern Guangdong; (b) map of Quantung (Guangdong) published in 1655 by the Jesuit priest Father Martino Martini (CSU Hayward Library).

With the Tropic of Cancer running through, the region enjoys a mild, warm climate as well as plentiful precipitation. Thus, farmers in the region have traditionally enjoyed multiple harvesting seasons for crops such as grains and natural silk. Guangdong has nearly 2700 miles of coastline, allowing ready access to transportation and commerce. Since the 16th century Guangdong has had extensive trade links with the rest of the world and is often referred to as China’s Southern Gate. Despite the favorable climate and access to trade, Guangdong of the more modern era remained an economic backwater.

However, through the implementation of economic reforms starting in the late 1970's, the last 30 years has stood this "backwater" conceit on its ear. Guangdong is currently experiencing truly explosive growth with a population nearing 80 million people as well being home to three of China's four "Special Economic Zones." And the seat of this emerging state is the provincial capital Guangzhou.

Links:
"Land of Opportunity: China's Guangdong Province is Emerging as an Export Hotspot," SF Chronicle, January 22, 2006
Overview of political division of China
Guangdong (wikipedia.org)
Guangdong (Chinese government)

2. Origins

China and the Evolution of the Dong Clan

China and Chinese culture dates back over 4000 years. China was among the most advanced cultures in the world, developing sophisticated technology as well as highly evolved religious and social institutions. However, China was not immune from social and political upheaval. The collapse of the Han Dynasty in 220 AD led to a nearly 400 year period characterized by civil war and the rule of warlords, initiating the era of the Three Kingdoms (Wei, Shu (Han), Wu) 221 – 265 AD.

During this period of political instability, weaker dukedoms formed alliances through pacts or blood brother bindings in common defense against the more powerful dukedoms. In Henan, the dukedoms of Dong (鄧), Yep, Sam, and Buck united under such a blood brother alliance. Consequently, people living under each dukedom and their descendents assumed their lord’s name, and thus the surname Dong was born.

A thousand years later, China found herself subject to foreign invasion by the Mongols. Led by Kublai Khan (1215-1294), grandson of Ghengis Khan, the Mongols overthrew the ruling Song Dynasty (420 – 479 AD) leading to the first alien rule of China by the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368 AD). To avoid Mongolian subjugation, the Dongs moved south in a mass migration to Hunan Province. Eventually our branch of the Dong clan settled further south in Guangdong Province in the Pearl River Delta at the confluence of the North River with the East and West rivers. These three rivers collectively make up the Pearl River.

Migration of the Dong Clan from Henan to Hunan and finally to Guangdong province (figure adapted from wikipedia.org).

Links:
Overview of Chinese history
List of common Chinese surnames

1. Prologue

Where did we come from?

Dong Hin (February 4, 1890).

How did we come to be where we are?

(l-r, back) Geoff, Cheryl, Brandon, Aaron, Ryan, Trevor, Derek, Leigh, (l-r, front) Scott, Mark, Nicolas, Kiana (September 17, 2005, T. Avila).

I've often wondered how our family became Americans, how a Chinese teenager can cross the wide expanse of the Pacific Ocean to start a new life and family in a new country. But America is a culture that often looks forward but rarely backwards. So as the generations pass and the pull of assimilation into our adopted home continues to tug at us, we begin to lose touch with the people who pioneered the way for us and their stories.

(a, l-r) Paul, Mok Shee, and Richard; (b) Ron and friend Lawrence Chan (approx. 1937); (c, l-r, back) Joe, Harry, (l-r, front) Paul, and Richard.

Yet as the years go by, the answers to these questions become increasingly important as we seek to understand our identity and place in society. We didn’t just show up and fit it. Like so many immigrants to America, our family today is the result of the countless struggles and ceaseless efforts of those who went before us.

This is a modest attempt to begin to tell the story of the Dong Family in America. And like any good story, we need to start from the beginning...

0. Welcome...

...to the Dong Family History Blog!

Over the years, we've been gathering the story of our family's arrival and establishment in America. It's a story that now spans four generations and touches, in its own way, the history and growth of San Francisco and the United States over the last 125 years.

With this innaugural post, we begin a project to tell the story of the Dong Family, from our patriarch Dong Hin's humble arrival in San Francisco in 1881, through the tumult of the 1906 earthquake and personal tragedy, to the raising of a new generation in a new country.

For those not familiar with the format of a blog, it's sort of like an online journal. We'll regularly update the site with new chapters of the story. It's all a bit of an experiment, so its hard to say how it'll all turn out. But in the end, we hope it sparks your imagination and draws us all closer to those who pioneered the way.

Enjoy!

The Dong Clan (September 17, 2005, T. Avila).