CHIN Pun Ock, Later Known As Arthur Fong Was Born on March 12, 1926 in a Small Village

CHIN Pun Ock, later known as Arthur Fong was born on March 12, 1926 in a small village 1/2 day’s walk from Sun Cheung in Toison, South China. His mother LOK Bik Kuen had been purchased at a young age to be a maidservant for CHIN Tun and his extended family. After his first wife died and his second wife failed to conceive, CHIN Tun took LOK Bik Kuen as his third wife. Arthur Fong remembers the second wife ("my second mother") as a very kind woman. She later died of tuberculosis. CHIN Tun ultimately had 6 children by LOK Bik Kuen, CHIN Pun Ock (Arthur Fong) being the eldest. As is the custom in China, families of several generations often lived together or in adjacent buildings, which made up a “compound”. This was no different for his family. His relatives who lived in the village grew rice and kept chickens and some livestock. CHIN Tun had also been a sojourner in the U.S. to which he had gained entrance with purchased citizenship papers.

In Revere, MA he operated a laundry where he accumulated enough money to even buy some property. He also enjoyed prosperity when he returned to China. (Most immigrants never did prosper or return.) He owned a bank as well as a hardware store and fertilizer business in Sun Cheung, Southern China. As a child, CHIN Pun Ock lived mostly with his father in Sun Cheung. Most evenings Chin Tun played mah jong with other businessmen until midnight. Afterwards, they would go out for a late night meal at a favorite riverfront restaurant. This unnecessary meal was considered a luxury.

In 1938 with increasing conflict and the advance of the Japanese, CHIN Tun sent CHIN Pun Ock to the United States to live and be educated. All Chinese dreamed of going to the "gold mountain" to seek their fortune. Eventually he and his brother passed through Canton, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Japan, Vancouver, and Seattle on a series of boat rides that took nearly a month. In Seattle it took 7 more days for CHIN Pun Ock, now Arthur Fong (new American name) to be cleared by immigration and health authorities. Immigration conducted lengthy interrogations to be satisfied that an individual was who he claimed to be. The Chinese first entered the country by buying birth papers of real citizens. Then those who gained entry by this method claimed entry for their children as "offspring of citizens." Arthur studied many details pertaining to the Fong family of whom he was supposed to be a member of. Even so some necessary answers were written on the inside of a banana peel that was smuggled into him. After they were approved for entry, the two brothers boarded a train for a cross-country trip to Providence, RI to live at 2 Pocasset Street and work at Woo Lee's (uncle) laundry on Plainfield Street.

CCRI Student, Jeffrey Fong