The Chronicles of Chow King Leong & His Family

by Delores Ann Leong Williams
Last Edit: September 2006
Photos and Captions added by David Alan Leong 2012

This is the chronicle of Chow King Leong and his family. Chow is the surname of the man. At birth, he was given the name King-Yung, but was always called King. The last name, Leong, came about when Chow King first applied for admission to the United States, The Chinese Exclusion Act; a law aimed at limiting the number of Chinese entering this country, passed in 1882. Thereafter, it was next to impossible to immigrate to these shores. However, several classes of Chinese were exempted from exclusion; including merchants, their lawful wives and minor children. These were for the most part, educated men; men of means, who launched the early trades and mercantile establishments. To get around the exclusion law, the few legitimate merchants already in the United States, their status well secured with the Immigration Bureau,

This is an example of partnership list from H. William. Chinese bussinesses were required to submit this to immigration, if any one of their partners wanted to claim merchant status Click to view larger

adopted ways, whereby more of their countrymen could be admitted legally. Almost all the import-export firms were controlled by a clan of people from the Sam Yup District. These business houses would insert as many as twenty or thirty slots on their business licenses, enabling many more prospective so-called partners to petition for entry. The additions were known as “paper names” – fictitious partners. The transaction would be arranged by brokers located in Hong Kong.
In 1895, Chow King did just that – applying for admission to the United States as a merchant – a partner of an import-export firm. Because there were no more Chow surnames remaining on the list of bogus partners, he did the next best thing. He chose from the list, the name of Leong Moon. Leong, the surname phonetically stands for goodness, excellence. Moon meant completion; pride; abundance. The name was beautiful. Yet, in spite of that, Chow King was unhappy losing his true identity. Filling out his entry application, he took a chance and added on his real surname of Chow to Leong Moon. To his dismay, the Chinese interpreter, a staff member of the American Consulate in Hong Kong, rejected his application, saying disdainfully, “Whoever heard of a person with two surnames?” Disappointed, his hopes dashed, he returned to his village. After months of brooding over his foolish pride, not only jeopardizing his chances for admission, but wasting a perfectly good “paper name” as Chow King considered his act, he applied again. This time he left well enough alone and used the original phantom name. The immigration of Chow King to the New World was finally a success. However, it did leave his family forever saddled with the immigration surname of Leong. This deception did not bother Chow King nor does it, to this day, his children. In the early years, most Chinese in America bore two surnames; the real one limited to usage among Chinese and in Chinese affairs, while the paper surname is confined to legal matters and within non-Chinese circles.

This is part of a document from the National Archives documenting the investigation of Chow King Leong, who was supposed to be Leong Moon, but known throughout Chinatown as Chow King Click to view larger

An extraordinary event occurred in the summer of 1930 arousing apprehension and raising fear on this very subject. Chow King’s wife, Lau Yung, the mother of his seven children, was terribly homesick having left her family more than twenty years ago. This was to be her first return trip and to no extent would she agree to go without her husband and children. At the Immigrant Station, on Angel Island, the entire family of nine had successfully completed the interrogation, relative to their departure to China. Fascinated by the sight of seven inquisitive kids babbling and all agog, the examiner turned to the Chinese interpreter who had just come into the room and remarked: “Isn’t it fantastic that the Leong family can all make the journey together to the Motherland?” The interpreter, no stranger to Chow King, replied in a matter of fact fashion: “Oh no, this is not the Leong family. This is the Chow family.” The examiner looked surprised and immediately the interpreter realized he had made a blunder. Hurriedly, he tried to correct the faux pas by saying he had misidentified the two families. The harm had been done, nevertheless. The few months before departure, the Chow King family lived in fear, fearful of being discovered living under a false names and possibly being deported. Immigration agents questioned neighbors and circulated photos of the Chow children at school yards and in playgrounds. In all instances, they received satisfactory replies, the photos shown to them, according to the children asked, were pictures of their schoolmates, the Leong kids. From that time on, Chow King affixed the Chinese character “Leong” to the rest of his name and dubbed himself as Chow King Leong.

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