By Susie Ling, Editor
“If we stand tall, it is because we stand on the backs of those who came before us.” – African proverb
Hotspots
The baby boomer generation was quite a force. Despite being raised in an era of McCarthyism and Cold War pressures, they redefined American social values especially in race relations, gender roles, and even music, art, and technology. The power of grassroots collective action became a norm.
A critical milestone of the 1960-70s Asian American Movement was when Yuji Ichioka (1936-2002) and Emma Gee (1939-2023) established the Asian American Political Alliance (AAPA) in May of 1968 at UC Berkeley. AAPA would spread to Los Angeles, New York, Hawaii, and elsewhere. “Asian American” was then a new term stressing pan-ethnicity – and a rejection of the archaic Eurocentric concepts of “Oriental” and “Far East.”
In the Fall of 1968, Professor Ichioka taught the first “Orientals in America” class at UCLA, then offered through the “Oriental” Languages Department. In April of 1969, the first issue of Gidra was published at UCLA and became the voice of the Asian American Movement in Southern California. Five dedicated student activists each pledged $100 to start this Movement newsmagazine named after a three-headed Japanese monster.[1] By the Fall of 1969, the UCLA Asian American Studies Center in Campbell Hall was established.[2] In 1971, Asian American Studies published Roots: An Asian American Reader – edited by Amy Uyematsu Tachiki with Eddie Wong, Franklin Odo, and Buck Wong.*
This fire spread quickly in Southern California. Occidental College, Cal State Long Beach, UC San Diego, USC, Cal State Los Angeles, Pasadena City College, and even Pasadena’s Muir High School are some campuses that established their own Asian American studies courses and programs. Ron Hirano and Kenyon Chan would team together at the Asian American Studies Central office – near Crenshaw and Jefferson Blvd. – to make available curriculum and resources for the fast-growing field. Gidra and Visual Communications (VC) were next door to Asian American Studies Central. First a Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) subcommittee, VC used Asian American Studies Central’s nonprofit status to become its own entity by 1970. The VC founders were Duane Kubo, Robert Nakamura, Alan Ohashi, and Eddie Wong.
Another project established in 1969 was the Asian American Tutorial Project (AATP).* May Chen, Pat Li, and Stewart Kwoh organized college students from campuses such as UCLA, USC, Cal State LA and Occidental College to tutor students at Castelar Elementary in Chinatown. This “Saturday program” continued over fifty years until the COVID-19 pandemic.
A community hotspot for the Asian Movement was JACS-AI (Japanese American Community Services – Asian Involvement), housed in the Sun Building in Little Tokyo. JACS was a social service agency established in 1963 with funds from the sale of the Shonien orphanage, founded in 1914 by Rokuichi Kusumoto. JACS recruited onto their Board two Sanseis, Alan Nishio and Merilynne Hamano (Quon). They encouraged the development of this “information and referral center” under the administration of Miya Iwataki and Ray Tasaki. Tasaki was with Asian American Hardcore. Iwataki had previously worked for Dr. William J. Williams’ USC Center for Social Action. She also had experience with the Brown Berets and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). Miya’s next position would be as director of the Asian Women’s Center. Miya said about JACS-AI, “I wanted to use “AI” in our name because ‘ai愛’ means love in Japanese and Chinese languages. Our office welcomed all kinds of people coming in and out. In those days, it seemed like there was a demonstration or protest every day.” As this was an era of collectivizing salaries, Miya added, “I remember making $20 per week. Thankfully on Fridays, Tokyo Garden had a special on chasiu and siumais. Yum (laughs).”[3]
By the mid 1970s, there were many other social services agencies and Asian-focused organizations including East West Players (1965), Yellow Brotherhood (1969), Chinatown Service Center (1971), Asian American Drug Abuse Program (1972), Friends of Chinatown Library (early 1970s), Agbayani Village (1974), Southern California Chinese Lawyers Association (1975) – and the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California, now in our 50th year.
The 1960-70s Asian American Movement stressed political commonalities amongst Asian ethnic groups. Chinese Americans and Japanese Americans worked together along with a few Filipinos, Koreans, Vietnamese, and Desi Americans. Interesting to note that in 1970, Los Angeles County had a population that was 104,078 Japanese American, or 1.5% of the total county. Chinese Americans were 40,798 or 0.6%, while Filipinos were at 33,459 or less than 0.5%. In comparison, the 2022 Los Angeles County census show Chinese are now 469,200 or 4.9% of the total county. Filipinos are 3.5% of the county, Koreans are 2.1% of the county, and Vietnamese and Japanese each make another 1.0% of the county.
FIVE INTERVIEWS
In this 2025 issue of Gum Saan Journal, we present the personal experiences of five Chinese American activists of the 1960-70s.[4] Yes, they were of this hopeful generation influenced by the proliferation of African American movements, anti-Vietnam War movements, etc. But in all these oral histories, we also see the influence of their Chinese parents and cultural heritage.
Steve Louie is the eldest son of our Chinese Historical Society (CHSSC) founder and Gum Saan Journal’s editor, Paul and Emma Louie. Steve became active in Marxist-Leninist Asian American groups by the 1970s. In his piece, Steve analyzes his conflicts with his parents – as well as their commonalities:
My parents got their first TV in the 1950s and we watched the Civil Rights Movement unfold. We always talked about the events around the dinner table. They said, “This is important. This is important for you as Chinese Americans. What do you think?” My younger siblings were probably not getting it, but I remember these conversations…
My father said to me, “You cannot do things to bring shame to the Chinese American community.” But I didn’t want to bear that cross. That was too much for one person to represent an entire race.
Eddie Wong co-edited Roots: An Asian American Reader (1971) and co-founded Visual Communications (1970). His older sister, Suzi Wong, was on the steering committee that established the UCLA Asian American Studies Center. Eddie said about their growing up at a laundry in the Fairfax area:
We had a bifurcated life. In high school, there were probably only three Chinese families. One owned a restaurant, and the other owned another laundry. Most of the students were of Jewish descent, children of refugees from World War II – including my friend, Michael. I remember at one back-to-school night, Michael’s father had numbers on his forearm.
The students at Fairfax were politically astute and quite liberal. We were doing a lot of readings about American imperialism. We read William Appleman Williams, Gabriel Kolko, Frances Fitzgerald’s Fire in the Lake. At UCLA, we had teach-ins with Daniel Ellsberg. The L.A. Free Press was around. I was a member of our high school’s SDS [Students for a Democratic Society] chapter. In 1967, my first demonstration was to support the UFW [United Farm Workers] grape boycott. I worked on the Eugene McCarthy anti-war campaign. In a graduation speech, I got booed for speaking against the war. I was president of the Boys Honor Society. I was really looking forward to being a lawyer – until I got arrested (laughs).
Chancellor Kenyon Chan, formerly of Asian American Studies Central, grew up in his parent’s grocery store in El Sobrante of Contra Costa County:
My parents encouraged us to see a wider world. They wanted us to get out of town. They wanted us to have a better life and not have to work as hard as they had to…
That summer, I called my father from D.C. In those days, long distance calls were quite expensive. My father said, “Hey, I think we saw you on TV. You were getting arrested!” I told them I was alright. They were actually quite supportive. They were proud that I was part of this national movement [Martin Luther King’s Poor People’s Campaign].
Dr. Sam Chan was one of the few biracial activists in the Asian American Movement. His father fell in love at first sight at a Sacramento bowling alley. Sam’s mother was a White woman. His parents married just after the 1948 Perez v. Sharp case allowed interracial marriage in California.
In the 1950-60s, there was a lot of social stigma against interracial couples. We got plenty of stares as a biracial family. Sometimes, these were hostile stares especially as [my half-sister] Patty was a White girl amidst darker mixed-race boys. One time, I asked Mom why we were always stared at. My mom thought for a minute and said, “Sammy, it is because we are such a good-looking family.” My dad had another tactic. When I started kindergarten, a few kids made fun of me with slurs like “Ching Chong Chinaman” and “Charlie Chan.” I later told my dad about the incident, and he put his hands on my shoulders and looked me straight in the eye. He said, “Sammy, the next time someone calls you a ‘Chinaman,’ you kick his ass” (laughs). He was like that. He stood up for a lot of other Chinese; Dad got into physical fights and confrontations with White racists. He wanted us to be very proud of our ethnic heritage.
While attending Manual Arts High School in the South Los Angeles area, Diane Tan’s father insisted she use her superior typing skills to work as a legal secretary for Hiram Kwan, a Chinatown attorney.[5] She became an attorney and was active with several bar associations.
The Asian American Movement in the 1960-70s did effectuate positive changes and make a difference. However, more needs to be done to perpetuate or improve on those changes. What I have learned is that it is important to learn and understand the past to improve the present and the future. It also is important for multiethnic and multi-generations of persons to work together to make a difference. Discrimination, systemic racism, gentrification, inequities and disparities in health care, lack of affordable housing, and climate change are just a few of the problems that continue to exist and need to be addressed. Be selective and get involved to make a difference too.
Judge Diane Tan (ret.) is active with the Chinatown Community for Equitable Development (CCED) and Chinatown Community Coalition-Los Angeles (CCC-LA).
We are indebted to these – and so many other – Asian American Movement leaders who helped build our consciousness. We are indebted to these five for their generosity in sharing their stories with this issue of Gum Saan Journal.
*Addendum (added 17 January 2025):
Recently found in George Nakano’s library is UCLA’s “A Reader on Asians in America, Volume 1” dated October 1970 for “CED 103: Asians in America”. The reader is the predecessor to Roots: An Asian American Reader (1971). The cover image of this reader – on the left – was done by Donna Wong, Suzi and Eddie Wong’s younger sister. The cover image on the right is for a reader compiled by UC Davis’ Asian American Concern and entitled “Asian Experience in America”, dated 4 May 1969. The Chinese characters can be translated to mean “The world is for all people”.
Also from George Nakano’s library is Cal State Long Beach’s Asian American Students Association’s “Asian American Community Handbook”, circa 1973 or 1974. This has two pages which documents two chapters of the Asian American Tutorial Project at Cal State LA and at Cal State Long Beach. It also documents that there was additional tutoring at Cambria Adult School, Warner Street Elementary (West L.A.) and Nora Sterry Elementary (West L.A.), as well as Castelar Elementary (Chinatown).
[1] These five students that began Gidra were Dinora Gil, Laura Ho, Tracy Okida, Colin Watanabe, and Mike Murase. The newsmagazine was published until 1974, and now available online at Densho Digital Depository.
[2] According to a 2023 study by the Association of Asian American Studies, 52 colleges and universities in the United States have an Asian American studies program.
[3] Susie Ling’s personal conversation with Miya Iwataki on 30 August 2024 in Monrovia.
[4] When UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center celebrated their 50th anniversary, they interviewed thirty movers and shakers that were there in the beginning. Aside from Kenyon Chan and Eddie Wong, this list includes Chinese Americans including May Chen, Rockwell Chin, Deborah Ching, Judy Chu, Morgan and Helen Chu, Lowell Chun-Hoon, Mike Eng, Laura Ho, Stewart Kwoh, and Buck Wong. This is such a rich collection: https://www.aasc.ucla.edu/aasc50/default.aspx.
[5] For a biography of Hiram Kwan and other pioneering Chinese American attorneys, see Gum Saan Journal, Volume 38, 2016, at gumsaanjournal.com.
Editors for GSJ 2025: Susan Dickson, Susie LIng, Dr. Don Loo, Eric Wat, William Wong, J.D., Arthur Yin. Design and Production: Icy Smith, Jennifer Thomas.
2025 CHSSC Board of Directors: President Eugene Moy, Vice President Robert Chong, Secretary Susan Dickson, Treasurer Steve Tom, Members at Large Linda Bentz, David Castro, Isaac Chu, Gordon Hom, Laureen Hom, Angela Lancaster, Susie Ling, Albert Lowe.