Voices from the Railroad
Stories by Descendants of Chinese Railroad Workers

Edited by Sue Lee and Connie Young Yu
2019  95 pages large format

When the Heirloom first approached the subject of the Chinese railroad workers (see Chinese RR Workers parts I-IV in the June-September ’16 Heirlooms as well as in other articles listed in our article index) one of our researchers’ sources was Stanford University’s Chinese Railroad Workers project (http://web.stanford.edu/group/chineserailtroad/cgi-bin/wordpress/). From them we learned, as we noted in our 2016 series (Part IV, pg 5 September, ’16), that researching Chinese railroad workers is hard due to a dearth of information. Workers were mostly illiterate. Even those who wrote letters home were sending letters home to an area in revolution which probably destroyed much. Racism played a role too. Why memorialize these foreigners?  The railroad didn’t even know the names of many of its many Chinese workers most having been signed on in groups with only their leaders’ names appearing on payroll lists.  It seemed that  “Chinese workers weren’t worthy of having their names remembered and indeed were not even considered as individuals by the railroad.  More likely they were hired in groups with their names lost to history.”

Researching the Chinese workers is hard but there’s been a small opening with the arrival of Voices from the Railroad.  The book is divided into nine parts, each about one Chinese railroad worker, each written by a family member.  Rather than continuing in complete anonymity these nin, as the back cover says are, “no longer nameless, faceless workers lost to history.” We now have a window we didn’t have before into those “Heroes of the Transcontinental Railroad.” (see the “Brochure” page on our website for that brochure).

The book is supposed to be about t now identified builders of the transcontinental railroad heretofore shrouded in anonymity so that readers starts with high expectations to learn about these nine representatives of the ten thousand or so of their countrymen.

Because the nine stories are written by family members who are not professional writers the writing is a bit uneven.   For example, the first story, about Moy Jin Mun, does not tell us much about the title character but rather focuses on the great grandson who lived in San Francisco, spoke Cantonese,  had boxes of artifacts, liked World War II history, and ate Chinese food. That’s nice, but what was in the boxes besides the pictures of four shown artifacts?  What did his great grandfather do?  What are the details?  If they don’t exist that should be noted.

Other articles include more about railroad worker ancestors. We can imagine the excitement when grandchildren come across ancestors’ names in Central Pacific payroll lists. There is a tangible connection to the past. For the reader who is an aficionado of Donner Summit it’s interesting to see payroll lists for Summit Camp.

The nine main stories also tell little stories and provide details, for example, discrimination even into the modern era and the Chinese Exclusionary Act for a look at historic discrimination.  The King family, minus the patriarch, could all go back to visit China to visit relatives and be assured of re-entering the U.S. Because Jim King’s papers said “laborer” he would have been prevented from re-entering the United States.  Chinese could not buy property or attend public schools.  In the modern era it was difficult for Chinese to get work, “We can’t hire you when we have white boys who are out of work.”  Then there was the Secretary of Labor speaking at the hundredth anniversary of the Golden Spike and could not bring himself to recognize the Chinese contribution.  A Chinese speaker was also removed from the speaking list so that John Wayne could have some speaking time.

There are details about how railroad workers were organized and how they came. “The immigrants came to California by paying their own way or borrowed the necessary funding under the credit ticket system, which covered the cost of transportation and then paid off the load, plus interest, out of their earning.”

Why the Chinese came to America is important, “This was during a time when many young men were desperate to leave southern China, with civil war raging and the constant threat of famine There was no way for a young man to make a living. Going to America meant a chance of survival, not only of himself but for his relatives in China to whom he would send part of his wages.”

Another of the nine stories explains, “They were young and strong, lured by the promise of ‘good wages in Gum San,’ daily meals and enough money to send home. The future looked bleak in the village for the youthful men, and by leaving, it mean hope for the whole clans.

The book is available from the Chinese Historical Society of America 965 Clay St. San Francisco  CHSA.org  415-391-1188