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Jo1906

Pre-quakeDemographics

ByAnnaNaruta&JamilleTeer

TheCity

he1900censusnamedSanFranciscotheninthmostpopulouscityinthenation,witharecordedcountof342,782residents.AfullthirdofSanFrancisco'spopulationthenhadbeenbornoutsidetheUnitedStates.ChineseandChineseAmericanscomprisedatleastfourpercentofthepopulation,beingrecordedat13,954persons.TheChineseExclusionlawshadbeenineffectsince1882,andthisfigurerepresentsnearlyafiftypercentdeclinefromthe1890censusofChineseSanFranciscans.WhileforallcensuscategorygroupsinCalifornia,menoutnumberedwomen,discriminatorymeasuresthatseverelylimitedimmigrationofwomenofChinesedescentledtoa1910recordedpopulationratioamongChineseSanFranciscansoften-to-one.RestrictionshadnotyetbeenimposedonJapaneseimmigration,andrecordednumber

JapaneseSanFranciscansincreasedfrom590inthepreviouscensusto1,781,orhalfapercentofthetotalcity's1900population.AfricanAmericanswererecordedtohavecomprisedasimilarproportionofthepopulation,at1,654persons,suggestingadeclineofnearly200sincethe1890census.The1900censusenumeratedonlyfifteenNativeAmericansinthecity.OfimmigrantsinSanFranciscothelargestnumberwereGermans,whowererecordedtocomprisethirtypercentofthepopulationbornoutsidetheU.S.,followedbyIrish,recordedatfourteenpercent.Thefirstcensusaftertheearthquakeshowedthatat416,912,SanFranciscowasstillCalifornia'slargestcity,althoughitsgrowthratewasthelowest.(Comparedwithatwenty-twopercentincrease,Oaklandexpanded124percent,andBerkeley206percentoverthesameperiod.)Amongpeoplethe1910censusclassifiedaswhite,afullfortypercenthadatleastoneparentwhowasanimmigrant,thehighestratioamongCaliforniacounties.TheeffectsofChineseExclusionandrelateddiscriminatorylegislationcontinuedtobefeltinalowerrecordedpopulationofSanFranciscansof

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Chinesedescent:10,582persons,orabouttwoandahalfpercentofthecity'spopulation.RecordsofChinesebusinessesandmanufacturiesshowmanyChineseSanFranciscanslivedandworkedoutsideofChinatown,andChinatown'scommercialandlightindustrialdistrictextendedalongtheareaofCommercialStreetallthewaydowntotheBay.CHINATOWNwithdiversifiedpopulationWhileportionsofthewhitepopulationagitatedforresidentialsegregationinSanFrancisco,SanFrancisco'sChinatownitselfhostedpeopleofmanyethnicitiesandnationalorigins.Block-by-blockenumerationinthe1900censusshowshowChinatownwashometoethnicallymixedneighborhoodsofChinese,Mexican,Irish,French,Chilean,Swedish,andSanFranciscansofotherbackgrounds,aswellcoupleswhomarriedacross"racial"boundariesandtheirfamilies.

Chinese-languagenewspaperspublishinginChinatownin1905,MongHingYatBo(ChineseDailyWorld),TaiTungYatBo(ChineseFreePress),andChungSaiYatPo(Chinese-WesternDaily),werejoinedbyothercommunity-servingmedia.TheofficesoftheJapaneseAmericanIsseinewspaper,ShinSekai,orTheNewWorld,(1894-1942),theAfricanAmericannewspaper,theSanFranciscoVindicator(ca.1884-1906),andforatime,theAfricanAmericannewspaperTheElevator(1865-1915),alloperatedfromChinatown,intheblockthattodayisthesiteoftheGordon

LauElementarySchool,acrossClayStreetfromtheChineseHistoricalSocietyofAmerica.

MastheadoftheJapanese"TheNewWorldNewspaper".

SFPubliclibrary

1900CensusDatafromSanFranciscoChinatown,showingmixedneighborhoods.Excerptfrom800blockofPacificAvenue.

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Mastheadofthe"TheVindicatorNewspaper".

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~ma,Eiichiro,ShinSekai,InEngdopediaofJopantStAmericanHutory,UpdatedEdition,AnA-to-ZR£jtmltefrom1868tothePresent,BrianNifya,Editor,JapaneseAmericanNationalMlISl!llm,NewYork:CheckmarkBooks.

AZ"ma,Eikhiro,ThePoliticsofTransnationalHutoryMaking:JopantStImmigrantsontheWestern'Frontier,'

1927-1941,

JournalofAmericanHutory,

89(4),

Marrh2003.

Beas~,Deliah

TheNtgraTrailBlazmofCalifornia;acompilationofrecordsfromtheCaliforniaarrhivesintheBancroftlibraryattheUniversiryofCalifornia,inBerke~;andfromthediams,oldpapers,andconvmation.rofoldpionemintheStateofCalifornia,NewYork:TimesMirrorPrintingandBindingHouse,1919.

Dicker,LaverneMau.

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TheChineseinSanFranmco:APidorialHistory.NewYork:DoverPublications,Inc.

Lai,

Him

Marie.1986.

AHiJIory&claimed:AnAnnotatedBibliograpf?yfChineseLanguageMaterialsontheChineseofAmerica,etis.fumeDLeongandJeanPangYip.LosAngeles:Re.rOUrrtandDevelopmentPublication.r,ArianAmericanStudiesCenter,UniversiryofCalifornia.

Lorlie,Franm

N.,

SanFranmco'sBlackCommuniry,1870-1890:Dilemmasinthes!nlggleforequaliry,'athtiU,Reproducedl!}Rand

Re.rearrhAssociates,

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McClain,Charles].

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InSearrhofEqualiry:TheChineseS!niggleAgainstDucriminationinNineteenth-CenturyAmerica.Berke~:UniversiryofCaliforniaPress.

Merriam,William

DirectoroftheCenmsBureau,TlllelfthCt1ISIISftheUnitedStates,TakenintheYear1900,Ct1ISIIS&portsVoINmeI,PopulationPartI,PreparedundertheSlIjJervisionofWilliam

Hunt,ChiefStatisticianforPopulation,Washington:UnitedStatesCen.rusOjJice,1901.SanFrancir&oCit1DirectomsoftheNineteenthandTwentiethCentums,SanFranmcoPubliclibrary.

UnitedStatesBureau'oftheCenSllS,ManllScriptCensusEnumerationSheets,1900and1910.UnitedStatesDepartmentofCommerre,BureauoftheCtnSHS,ThirteenthCt1ISIISoftheUnitedStatesTakenintheYear1910,VoINmeII,Population1910,PreparedundertheSlIjJervisionofWilliam

Hunt,ChiefStatisticianforPopulation,Washington:GovernmentPrintingOjJice,1913.

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TheUnshakable-RebirthofS.F.Chinatownin1906

Preface

Onehundredyearsisquitealongtime.Ingeneral,peoplerarelythinkaboutwhathappenedahundredyearsago.Lastyear,theChineseHistoricalSocietyofAmericacontactedSingTaotodiscussthecentennialofthe1906SanFranciscoearthquake.Giventhehistoricalsignificanceofthisevent,SingTao,asanewsagency,ispleasedtoparticipateincommemoratingtheevent.Itisnotonlybecauseofthiswholenumberof"100"isspecial;itisalsobecausetheChinatowntodaycannotbeseparatedfromthehardworkandeffortsofourancestors.Astheproverbsays,"onegenerationplantsthetreesunderwhoseshadeanothergenerationrests",themoreweunderstandthehistoryoftheearthquake,themorewewillcherishtaday'sChinatown.Withthis

historicalperspectiveinmind,wewillhavemoreinsightwhenwewalkdownStocktonStreetorGrantAvenuetoday.Wecallthisspecialsupplement"TheUnshakable."Peoplehaveasked:Wasn'tSanFranciscoChinatownleveledtogroundbytheearthquakeandthebigfire?HowcanwesayChinatownwasunshakable?ThetidereferstothedeterminationoftheChinesetoprotecttheirrights,aswellastoChinatownitself,whichwasbuiltwithbloodandsweat.ItisoftensaidthattheChinesearepeoplewithoutcohesion.ButtheChinesesupportedeachotherduringthecrisisandtheirstrongoppositiontorelocatingChinatownaftertheearthquakedemonstratesthestrongunityamongtheChinese.TheChinesedidnotdependonrelief.Thosewhowerecapablemadeeveryefforttofindwork;andthosewhowereweakandcouldnolongerwork,wentbacktothehomecountry.Theydidnotwanttobecomeaburdentothesociety,ortodisgracethereputationoftheChinese.ThisexcellentChinesetraditionofself-relianceshouldbehonoredandtaught.PeopleshouldnotalwayslinktheoldChinatownnegativelywithopiumandindecency.

TheeditorsofSingTaohavecompiledthissupplementfromthemanyhistoricalmaterialsabouttheChineseduringthe1906earthquake.Wehave,particularly,reviewedtheChungSaiYatPao,theonlyChineselanguagenewspaperpublishedatthattime.Inaddition,weinterviewedcommunitymembersandexploredissuesofthefutureofChinatownandChinesecivilrights.Sincethissupplementcoversmanyaspectsofahugesubject,ourhopeisthatourreaderswilllearnhoweventhebiggesteventsdevelopfromsmallcluesandthatwewillcontinuetoacknowledgethecontributionsofourancestors,aswellascontinuingtotreasuretheChinatownoftoday.WewouldliketodedicatethissupplementtotheChinesevictimsofthe1906SanFranciscoearthquake,aswellasthepioneerswhohelpedtorebuildChinatown.SingTaoEditorialDepartment

--------

EditorinChief:Editor:ContentEditor:CopyEditor:ArtDirector:CoverDesign:Layout:Reporter:

llIiIS.

IllnIIIIL'

JosephLeungWmgChanJoyceChenBenChanJieSheJieSheAngieZhangShirleyChou,PearlLiang,KenHu,JaneXiao,AlanLiu,MichaelSzeDannyLone,KaiLui,BrendaHuangContentConsultant:AnnaNaruta

Headquarter:5000MarinaBlvd.,3rdFloor,Brisbane,CA94005Tel:650-808-8800Fax:650-808-8801E-mail:editor@singtaousa.comWebsite:http://www.singtaousa.com

ThesupplementispublishedbySingTaoNewspapers(S.F.)Ud.Nopartsmaybereproducedwithoutthewrittenpermissionofthepublisher.lili'ltili1J"I'i8!imff;'m;U

-m!Translator:

Contents

APeacefulandEnergeticChinatown03Preface04Pre-quakeDemographics05TheFuryandFirethatShockedChinatown06Survivors'Stories...14LewHlng:AKinsmantotheRescue21PlanforRelocationofChinatownRejected22ScenesfromtheQuake26TrueHeroeswhoStoodupforChinatown30ChinatowntosatisfytheWestemImagination36TheSpeedyRebuildingofChinatownFamilyAssociations38ChineseChamberofCommerce-fromCommercialInteresttoCivilRights42TheBigOneandtheDevelopmentofSatelliteChinatowns44

Chinatown

ConservationandDevelopement46TheLongandWindingRoad50

...-

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Naruta and Teer 2006 -- Pre Quake Demographics -- San Franciso Chinatown

Anna Naruta and Jamille Teer, “Pre-quake Demographics,” a report on San Francisco Chinatown composition in 1900, and the Chinese, Japanese, and African American newspapers then ... (More) Anna Naruta and Jamille Teer, “Pre-quake Demographics,” a report on San Francisco Chinatown composition in 1900, and the Chinese, Japanese, and African American newspapers then operating there. In Unshakable: Rebirth of S.F. Chinatown in 1906, Sing Tao Daily Commemorative Supplement, April 15, 2006. (Anna Naruta, content consultant)

Oakland Public Library:
Main Library Oakland History Room - Local History Room
979.461 UNSHAKABL

Demographics
(Anna Naruta and Jamille Teer)

THE CITY
The 1900 census named San Francisco the ninth most populous city in the nation, with a recorded count of 342,782 residents. A full third of San Francisco’s population then had been born outside the United States. Chinese and Chinese Americans comprised at least four percent of the population, being recorded at 13,954 persons. The Chinese Exclusion laws had been in effect since 1882, and this figure represents nearly a fifty percent decline from the 1890 census of Chinese San Franciscans. While for all census category groups in California, men outnumbered women, discriminatory measures that severely limited immigration of women of Chinese descent led to a 1910 recorded population ratio among Chinese San Franciscans of ten-to-one.

Restrictions had not yet been imposed on Japanese immigration, and recorded number of Japanese San Franciscans increased from 590 in the previous census to 1,781, or half a percent of the total city’s 1900 population. African Americans were recorded to have comprised a similar proportion of the population, at 1,654 persons, suggesting a decline of nearly 200 since the 1890 census. The 1900 census enumerated only fifteen Native Americans in the city. Of immigrants in San Francisco the largest number were Germans, who were recorded to comprise thirty percent of the population born outside the U.S., followed by Irish, recorded at fourteen percent.

The first census after the earthquake showed that at 416,912, San Francisco was still California’s largest city, although its growth rate was the lowest. (Compared with a twenty-two percent increase, Oakland expanded 124 percent, and Berkeley 206 percent over the same period.) Among people the 1910 census classified as white, a full forty percent had at least one parent who was an immigrant, the highest ratio among California counties.

The effects of Chinese Exclusion and related discriminatory legislation continued to be felt in a lower recorded population of San Franciscans of Chinese descent: 10,582 persons, or about two and a half percent of the city’s population. Records of Chinese businesses and manufacturies show many Chinese San Franciscans lived and worked outside of Chinatown, and Chinatown’s commercial and light industrial district extended along the area of Commercial Street all the way down to the Bay.

CHINATOWN
While portions of the white population agitated for residential segregation in San Francisco, San Francisco’s Chinatown itself hosted people of many ethnicities and national origins. Block-by-block enumeration in the 1900 census shows how Chinatown was home to ethnically mixed neighborhoods of Chinese, Mexican, Irish, French, Chilean, Swedish, and San Franciscans of other backgrounds, as well couples who married across “racial” boundaries and their families.

Chinese-language newspapers publishing in Chinatown in 1905, Mong Hing Yat Bo (Chinese Daily World), Tai Tung Yat Bo (Chinese Free Press), and Chung Sai Yat Po (Chinese-Western Daily), were joined by other community-serving media. The offices of the Japanese American Issei newspaper, Shin Sekai, or The New World, (1894-1942), the African American newspaper, the San Francisco Vindicator (ca. 1884-1906), and for a time, the African American newspaper The Elevator (1865-1915), all operated from Chinatown, in the block that today is the site of the Gordon J. Lau Elementary School, across Clay Street from the Chinese Historical Society of America.

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Upload Date:	01/18/2009
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Tags:	journalism Chinese American history california history san francisco history (more tags) journalism Chinese American history california history san francisco history african american history japanese american history published research (fewer)