An incredible connection between Hawaii and Chinese history.
Recognized on the 100 year anniversary of Sun Yat-Sen's revolution by Chinese all over the world that Hawaii was the birthplace of the Chinese revolution. Learn more about the core stories of Modern China and how Hawaii played a central role in a free documentary film screening of "Finding Sandalwood Mountain" on Sunday, June 24, 2018, from 3-5 PM at 21 Pell Street in Chinatown, NY.
"Finding Sandalwood Mountain" is a documentary digital feature film shot in Hawaii and China. Five years in the making, it is the only film to date that chronicles the complete unabridged and untold story of the Chinese migrants who came to Hawaii. This film portrays the legacy, providence, history, and accomplishments made by Hawaii's Chinese Families.
The film profiles the lives of many people that you may have heard about in Hawaii history. The film reveals the unique aspects of Hawaii's Chinese population and how they literally changed both Hawaii and China forever.
Dr. Sun Yat Sen, the father of the Chinese Revolution.
Sun Yat Sen was born in 1866. He came to Hawaii at age of 12 to study English. He later became a Christian.
He came to Hawaii to study. He returned to Hawaii multiple times. He loved learning and education. But his true calling was to save China.
The more he learned in Hawaii, the more revolutionary he became. He wanted to establish a new Chinese republic.
The Qing dynasty ended in 1911 by a revolution that was headed by Sun Yat-Sen. He is the founding father of Modern China.
Hawaii has contributed to the birth of Modern China. It was recognized on the 100 year anniversary of Sun Yat Sen revolution. It was recognized by Chinese all over the world that Hawaii was the birthplace of the Chinese revolution.
In Hawai`i, he began his search for a model of government to suit his beloved homeland, China.
He completed his studies at the Hong Kong Medical College in 1895. In Nov 1894, Dr. Sun and his friends then formed the Revive China Society (Xing Zhong Hui). He returned to Hawaii to begin his work of raising contributions to fund his revolutionary activities, to bring down the Imperial regime and establish a Republic in China. His efforts were finally rewarded with the success of the Revolution of 1911, which heralded the foundation of the Republic of China. He planned the Chinese revolution in Hawaii across the street from St. Andrews Cathedral on Emmy street.
He went to 5 different schools in Hawaii. He is considered as a Son of Hawaii. He always considered Hawaii as his second home because he grew up there and his family lives on Maui. He brought is Children here. His son was born and raised here. His grandsons were raised in Hawaii and married Hawaiian women as well as his great-grandsons. Hawaiians regard Sun Yat Sen as a part of their life. At any Chinese clubhouse or school, his portrait in on the wall.
Roots of Guo Ming Dang started in Hawaii.
Xin Zhong Hui was founded in Hawaii and was the beginning of his revolution. Xin Zhong Hui is the roots of Guo Ming Dang in China. Sun Yat Sen's campaign took off from Xin Zhong Hui in Hawaii. He got all the Chinese in Hawaii to contribute to the cause. Average Chinese laborer in Hawaii only made $3 per month at that time. People contributed to his cause using pennies, nickels, and dimes. In 1904, Sun Yat Sen became a member of Chinese Masons and could travel to SFO and CHI as a Free Mason brother and travel to different lodges in order to raise funds for the Chinese revolution.
Hong men is a secret organization from the end of Ming Dynasty and beginning of Ching dynasty. The Hong men organization still exists in Hawaii.
Influential Hawaiian Chinese
Chun Ah Fong, the first Chinese Millionaire in America
The merchant prince started bringing in a lot of them.Chun Ah Fong started importing a lot of people from Zhongshan.
He originally arrived as a cabin boy and started a store his own business.
Chun Ah Fong business started long before the sugar plantations.
Small and extremely bright guy.
He married a minor princess of an elite Hawaiian royal family.
Worked his way up to becoming an advisor to Hawaiian king to help bring in people from China.
He and his partner Ching Chuk started his own sugar plantation totally run and operated by the Chinese.
Without Chun Ah Fong, Chinese would not have been in Hawaii.
Chun Ah Fong returned to China in 1890. When he went to Macau and could not stay at a hotel, he bought the hotel. He tried to get into the best hotel in Macau. But they had a sign saying "No dogs or Chinese allowed in the hotel." The next day he bought the hotel and it became his residence.
It was only one of his mansions in China. All of his people went back to China. He had 13 daughters and 3 sons with a Hawaiian woman.
Sugar plantation Chinese contact labor made $3 a month. After their contract, Chinese They became friends with all Hawaiians, who were too ill or died of diseases. Chinese refurbished lands, taro farms. fish farms, rice farming. Exporting rice to the mainland. Many of them told their relatives in China to come directly to Hawaii. After labor contract ended, they immediately left the sugar plantation to grow, rice plantation. They also opened small country stores at first using a shoulder pole with baskets.
They made more money as a rice farmer. Chinese would grow taro, harvest, cook and pounded.
Peddlers were all Chinese. Pucked all the hula from trees. dried, cured, stripped the thorns.
Sold vast quantities to Hawaiian. They harvested the fish farms and sold them in Chinatown.
As the Chinese escaped the sugar plantation, there was always a need for more labor to become rice plantation.
Only a few men could get married because the Hawaiian kingdom enacted a law to collect $500 to bring back wife. As a result, the Chinese became friendly with Hawaiians. In 1888, the law changed, now only cost $5 to bring back a wife. The concentration of Chinese Hawaiian became a threat to white Hawaiians. As a result during 1888 - 1898, Chinese Families grew.
Kam Fong, the actor who played Chinn Ho in Hawaii Five-O
Kam Fong screen name is similar to the real-life Chinn Ho. Dubbed the “Chinese Rockefeller” or the “Chinese Horatio Alger,” Ho was a symbol of the American Dream and was a successful immigrant who gave back to the community through his philanthropic efforts.
Ho himself never graduated from college but gave funds to help his high school classmate and friend, Hiram Fong, attend Harvard Law School in the 1930s. Fong would later become the first Chinese and Asian American U.S. Senator.The balcony of the hotel used in the original trailer is a Chinn Ho property.
At a time when whites dominated corporate boardrooms and prestigious clubs, Ho broke racial barriers with his success. He was the first Asian head of the Honolulu Stock Exchange, the first Asian president of a Triple-A professional baseball team, the Hawaii Islanders, the first Asian trustee of a landed estate, and the first Asian director of Theo H. Davies & Co., a company of the influential “Big Five” group of former sugar cane plantations that exercised great political power in Hawaii.
After World War II, Ho served as the patron of Daniel K. Inouye, then a young Japanese American soldier who had lost his arm during the war who eventually became a U.S. Senator for Hawaii. In 1961, he purchased the Honolulu Star-Bulletin publication, previously owned solely by whites, becoming the first Asian board chairman and major sole owner of a major Honolulu daily newspaper. As the head of many businesses, Ho used his influence to ensure the staff and board was multiethnic instead of exclusively Caucasian.
FREE Bonus Video Interviews
Watch interviews with the filmmaker of "Finding Sandalwood Mountain" and the director of the Hawaiin Chinese History Center. You will receive links that include three sixty minute video interviews. Additional links to Chinese American Attractions in Hawaii. It is Free.
Topics covered in the interviews.
- How many Chinese are in Hawaii?
- How did Chinese first get to Hawaii?
- Wher do most Chinese Hawaiians come from?
- When did Chinese first come here?
- After America annexes Hawaii and the enforcement of the Chinese exclusion act.
- Why the Hawaiian government put a high tax on the importation of Chinese brides.
- Why the Chinese became very friendly with Hawaiians.
- South East Asian Chinese immigration to Hawaii during and after Vietnam war.
- Taiwanese Immigration to Hawaii.
- Mainland Chinese immigration to Hawaii.
- The social separation between Bundi and Hakka people before WW2.
- Unification between Bundi and Hakka people after WW2.
- The fate of the numerous Chinese bachelors who never got married.
- And Much more.
