Charlie Chin will be performing "Chinatown is Burning" at San Mateo's 6th Annual Asian Pacific American Heritage Celebration on May 20th and at the Oakland Museum on Sun. May 7 at 3pm. "Chinatown is Burning" is about the experiences of Hugh Liang, a 1906 Chinese American Earthquake survivor.

Please describe for the readers of this interview a little bit about your performance.

The presentation is in a Chautauqua format. This is used by presenters who do "history alive." The idea comes from a popular form of educational entertainment in the north east and mid-west of the United States from 1890 until about 1930/1940. A figure from history is researched by the presenter and then a presentation takes place. (For instance, George Washington or Caesar Augustus) The Chautauqua Presentation has the following format.
A. The character in costume talks to the audience about his/her life and the events that took place.
B. The character answers questions from the audience about the events or personal experiences.
C. The presenter steps out of Character and speaks about the historical person objectively.

This means there is a monologue, followed by questions from the audience about anything that might think of (this is the fun part for me as I must be prepared to answer any question based on my research and memorization of the person and their times). And lastly, the presenter speaks about things out of Character that the character could not have answered, like when did you die? What happened after you died? Where are your descendants? and so forth.

Tell us about the creation of this performance, such as -
Who came up with the idea? How did you hear of the real life story of Hugh Liang? Why Hugh Liang - were there other choices? The question and answer section was pretty amazing - you were able to answers the questions from the audience all in character. You really gave the impression that you were Hugh Liang. Were you channeling him :) ? What did you do to prepare for this performance? How long did this take?

At the Chinese Historical Society of America we discussed several possible choices but chose Hugh Liang because he was a Chinese American, he was 15 years old and so was old enough to accurately remember what happened, and because he was in Vaudeville for 12 years, I could sing a song at the end.

There are three sections of research for the presentation. One, all and any materials extant must be found and placed in order and all facts known about the character must be memorized. Two, the "voice" of the character must be found and practiced, ( his cadence, his accent or lack of one, his attitude, etc.) Three, all facts known about the event must be memorized. (books, films, TV documentaries, articles, etc.) Reviewing 3 by 5 inch flash cards with questions on one side and the answer on the otherside while on the train to and from San Francisco is the main technique I use.

Did you ever get to meet Hugh Liang? Did you talk with his friends and family and other people that knew him?

I never met Hugh Liang, but I have talked to some people who met him and talked with him before he died in 1984 at the age of 93. He wrote a memoir for a grandniece and I found a copy of the manuscript in the archives of CHSA. He and his group, the Chung Wah Quartet were famous and there was some mention and reviews about them.

Your performance and question and answer section also shows that you are very well versed with the history of the 1906 earthquake and how it relates to Chinatown. When I started out researching for this month's newsletter article, I wanted to find little know stories about 1906 or something of significance that related the 1906 earthquake to the Asian American communities of the San Francisco Bay Area. Can you tell us anything that you learned in your research that you found of great interest or significance (basically help me with my research here :)?

The thing I found of interest to me was that there was an Afro-American community right next to Chinatown. There are period photos of people watching the fire coming up Clay Street towards Powell (Street) and there are nicely dressed middle-class Black people standing in the street. Apparently many of them went to Oakland. There is a section of the Oakland museum's exhibition about this small Black community but I haven't seen it yet.

This is kind of interesting because there was a Japanese community in close proximity too. I also have a book with a map that shows a Latin Quarter north of Chinatown. Tell us a little bit about the establishing and reestablishing of Chinatown and the Japanese community too.

If we talk about the communities around Chinatown, we have to keep in mind that Chinatown sits on what was the founding site of San Francisco. There is a historical plaque on a building on Grant Ave between Clay and Washington streets marking the site of the first

building in San Francisco. The Bay edge and the docks were only a few blocks down from Portsmouth Square and Chinatown. In fact the square is named after the ship, U.S. War Sloop Portsmouth that Captain John B. Montgomery (the Montgomery that the street is named for) sailed into Yerba Buena (San Francisco Bay). The square is where he raised the American Flag to claim the area for the United States in 1846. Landfill was used later to extend the shoreline out after the Gold Rush in 1849-1850 (still a problem if there is an earthquake).

This being the case, it is a natural course of events that the rich move up the hill to the more spacious, less crowded, better view, section and the poor are stuck down the hill at the center of town where it's crowded, dirty, and literally smells bad.

The Japanese community was always represented, but small in the Bay Area. Japanese were primarily farmers and so most were further down the Peninsula and towards San Jose. There has never been a large-scale immigration out of Japan for any reason, because of the 260 years of self imposed isolation and then modernization during the Meiji Restoration, and its emergence as an Asian Industrial Power following the 1905 Russian/Japanese War.

There is a listing of 93 Japanese children that were forced to change schools, by the SF Board of Education, to the former Chinese school that was named the Oriental School in 1906. Even if every child was an only child, that would mean only 93 Japanese families, and a larger number of Japanese single men laborers. The 1910 census lists 4,700 Japanese in San Francisco at the time.

As to why the city left Chinatown to rebuild on the original site, my research shows that when both Seattle and Los Angeles offered to take in the Chinese community this made city leaders suspicious of their motives. So they reviewed how much revenue, (legal and bribes etc.) that Chinatown brought in (huge). Chinatown leaders like Oak Tin Eli raised money (millions in Hong Kong) to rebuild right away. White landlords complained that the Chinese paid the high rents they charged and always paid on time and they didn't want that kind of income to move away. Most Chinatown businesses were ready to rebuild out of their own pockets.

I know the historian Gladys Hansen was working on a more comprehensive list of the individuals that perished in the 1906 earthquake and fire. Do you know if she's been able to come up with any rough figure for the number of Asian Americans that may have died in the earthquake and fire? What's your rough guess?

Gladys Hansen's work I only know of from a distance. She has put the number of city deaths at around 3000. But I have no idea how many Chinese were killed. Most of the accounts of the Chinese population vary widely, from 20,000 to 60,000 in Chinatown but nobody really knows. One guy at that time came to a figure by taking the number of beds and cots found in Chinatown during health inspections and doubling the number, figuring that two men slept in the same bed during 24 hours, one at night, one during the day. Nobody has come up with a hard figure for the population or the number of deaths in C-town community.

In my studies on the earthquake, I found the Asian discrimination stories kind of sad. Things such as how few rescue attempts were made to help Asian Americans buried in the rubble and left to burn in the fires. Of how the San Francisco Chinese refugees were moved from place to place because no one wanted them near by and how some ended up in the coldest and wettest parts of the city. Of how there were major arguments and fights over where to rebuild Chinatown. Of how the ruined Chinatown was pillaged while other parts of the city were being protected by "shoot to kill orders." Of how Japanese nationals came in relief and for scientific research, and were beaten up and had stones thrown at them for being in the wrong parts of town. Of how there was even a need to partition the city into a Chinatown and Japantown. It's strange how we honor the 100th anniversary for communities such as San Francisco's Japantown that were basically ghettos built as a result of turn of the century discrimination. Should we be celebrating or memorializing this anniversary?

Well, the question of whether we should be celebrating or memorializing the 1906 quake and fire is something the city has been turning over also. Some people say because it was a disaster we should have somber remembrances. Others see the rebuilding of the city as a thing to celebrate. I don't know. You can take your pick. Thousands died and 500 blocks were burned but the city was rebuilt in three years and went on to be a successful and famous city.

Do you have any favorite books and or videos on the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire that you can recommend to our readers?

I don't have any special books or films that I like, as I have to research all of them. I feel that the city has gotten a lot of information and that people will be ready to put it all behind them after this April is over. Which is why so many agencies are trying to impress people with earthquake awareness now. They know people will move on and forget about it by summer.