Biography
Early life
Alice Fong Yu was born Alice Fong in the small gold-mining town ofIdentity as Chinese American and Christian
Alice Fong Yu became familiar with anti-Chinese racial discrimination at a young age. In interviews, Fong Yu has recalled being taunted and shunned by white students as a child in Washington. Of the experience she has said: The Fong siblings found comfort in the words of their parents and in the acceptance of local Christian communities. The Fong parents encouraged their children to take pride in their Chinese heritage, calling their children's tormentors “barbarians” whose taunts shouldn't be allowed to bother them. They assured their children that their people had a rich culture and a long history, and that once they gained an education, they would be looked up to when they returned to China. Once the family moved to Vallejo, they were invited into the Vallejo Christian community. The Presbyterian church first sent a Sunday school teacher to the Vallejo Chinatown to teach the community's children, eventually leading to the Fong's joining the larger, majority-white congregation. This was unusual for the time, and Fong Yu has praised the congregation as “ the ones who accepted us in the early days... ndgave us a chance to intermingle with other races." Both Fong Yu's Chinese heritage and Christian faith would remain strong influences on her life. Together, they would form the bedrock of her future career in community service. Fong Yu did not perceive any conflict between these two facets of her identity, and indeed believed that the virtues of both overlapped. According to Fong Yu, the teachings of Confucius “'contained all the virtues of Christian teachings'” and “'that only those who were unfamiliar with the heritage of China’s wisdom failed to see that'”.Marriage and family
On December 22, 1940, in Tucson, Arizona, Alice Fong Yu married Jon Yong Chang Yu, a writer and journalist who wrote editorials for the ''Young China'' newspaper. The couple met through the Chinese War Relief Association, where Fong Yu served as the Square and Circle Club's representative and Yu served as the organization's secretary and news release writer. They had two sons, Alon and Joal. Jon Yong Chang Yu died of a sudden illness in 1966, while the couple was on a trip to Asia to visit members of Jon's family that he had not been able to see in decades.Career as an Educator
After graduating from high school in 1923, Alice Fong Yu moved to San Francisco to attend the San Francisco State Teachers College. When she had applied in 1922, she was personally introduced the president of the college, Dr. Frederic Lister Burke. This introduction was made by the head of the local Red Cross, whom she had worked with and impressed with her fundraising work for the YWCA Girls Reserve. She was initially denied admission to the college, being told by Dr. Burke that she would not be hired for a teaching job anywhere in the country because she was Chinese. Fong Yu, frustrated because “” he'dfaced so much discrimination’”, told Dr. Burke that she has no intention of staying in the US, and was instead planning on moving to China to “’teach my people’”. This convinced Dr. Burke to admit Fong Yu to the program, and she graduated in 1926.Commodore Stockton Elementary School
Alice Fong Yu never moved to China to teach, and instead was hired directly after her graduation by Commodore Stockton Elementary School (formerly known as theSpeech Therapy
Alice Fong Yu's youngest son, Joal, was born withCommunity leader and activist
In addition to her work in the San Francisco public school system, Alice Fong Yu was a noted community leader and activist. She was involved with many Chinatown organizations including the Square and Circle Club, Chinese Needlework Guild, the YWCA, and the Lake Tahoe Christian Conference. She also contributed to the ''Chinese Digest'', a progressive Chinese language newspaper founded in 1935. By the time Fong Yu was in her early 30s, she had already developed a reputation as a community organizer who was ready and willing to take on whatever project San Framcisco Chinatown had a need for. Later in life, Fong Yu recalled that "'being so useful in the community, they put me in everything,'" and that "' hewas always the superintendent wherever hewent'".The Square and Circle Club
In 1924, Alice Fong Yu and six other young women who were members of the Chinese Congregational Church founded the Square and Circle Club, the oldest Chinese women's service organization in the United States. Fong Yu served as the club's first president. The immediate impetus behind the club's creation was to raise money for flood and famine victims in China. However, the founding members had long spoke about ways to better their community and perform public service, and also organized the club to serve these more long-term objectives. Of the club and its founding goals, Fong Yu has said that at the time, "so much community service had to be done, and nobody was doing it... We felt that we could bring women together and use our talents, our energy, and be more loving and caring in doing things for the community"". Fong Yu advocated for the women of the Square and Circle Club to be allowed to perform community service work that was previously the domain of Chinatown men's organizations. Regarding the organizations' first benefit dance organized to fundraise for Chinese Flood and Famine Relief, Fong Yu was quoted by a local newspaper as saying, "Usually the Chinese Chamber of Commerce or the Six Companies are in charge of these charitable and public affairs... But we wanted to help, too. American girls can do these things. Why shouldn't we?'" In this way, Fong Yu was a vital part in starting the Square and Circle Club's tradition of community service, leadership, sisterhood and pride that has impacted several generations of Chinese and Asian American women.Journalism and Writing
Alice Fong Yu was a prolific journalist, writing many opinion and lifestyle articles that spoke on many political, social, and day-to-day issues of her time. Some of her earlier writing was published in the ''Chinese Christian Student,'' which was the official newspaper of the Chinese Christian Student Organization (CSCA)''.'' However, it wasn't until 1937 that she began writing her own regular column for the ''Chinese Digest'' aimed at Chinese American women entitled the "Jade Box”. For this column, she wrote under the pen name “Lady P’ing” and later “Lady P’ing Yu” after her marriage. This was a reference to her Chinese name, Fong Yu P’ing, though she used different Chinese characters in her pen name. Through the “Jade Box”, Fong Yu offered advice on fashion, recipes, men, and marriage alongside political and social commentary regarding issues of race, women's issues and American life. Fong Yu often used the “Jade Box” as an extension of the community activism and advocacy she performed in other part of her life. For example, when the Square and Circle Club was rejected from the Federation of Women's Clubs on racial grounds, Fong Yu wrote about this act of discrimination in her column, connecting it to the larger phenomenon of anti- Chinese racism. She also often used her column to advocate more generally for the rights of women, particularly Chinese American women, to be seen and treated as equals by their male counterparts. Finally, with the onset of theChinese Needlework Guild
While she was teaching at Commodore Stockton Elementary School, Alice Fong Yu worked to help her students' families if they were in need. One way she accomplish this was by establishing the Chinese chapter of the Needlework Guild. This group was started partially because many of her students' parents could not speak English well enough to participate in the Commodore Stockton PTA. In response to this issue, Fong Yu started her chapter of the Needlework Guild to serve as an alternative PTA. This group provided shoes and clothes to children in Chinatown, as well as provided a space for Chinese mothers to sew for their own children. Fong Yu has described the guild as a place where she and other Chinese women “'got together to sew and talk about things,'” and that “'wheneverYWCA
Alice Fong Yu worked with the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) at many points in her life. Her career in public service started in the YWCA Girls Reserve during her teenage years. In her adult life, Fong Yu became highly involved in the San Francisco Chinatown YWCA, acting as "forum leader, fund raiser, and den mother". In her role as the YWCA's first house mother, Fong Yu ran a Friday breakfast club and started a Bible class for Sunday School teachers. She also participated in and facilitated activities to help second-generation women acclimate to life in the United States, including language classes, social dinners, sports, and group discussions on topics such as race prejudice, Chinese culture, current events, marriage, and parenting.Lake Tahoe Chinese Young People's Christian Conference
In 1932, inspired by their experiences at YMCA and YWCA conferences, Alice Fong Yu joined with two other politically active Chinese American Christians, Fong Yu's future brother-in-law Ira Lee and the future Chinese Methodist minister Edwar Lee, to organize a liberal Christian conference for Chinese American youth. These plans would come to fruition in 1933, when the trio was able to organize what would become the first annual Lake Tahoe Chinese Young People's Christian Conference, known colloquially as simply the "Tahoe Conferences". Although the Tahoe Conferences had their origins in Church organizations and discussed Christian issues, non-Christians were encouraged to attend and the conferences were not meant to proselytize. Instead, the Tahoe Conferences provided a space for second generation Chinese Americans to meet, socialize, and discuss social and political issues as a larger community outside of their local Chinatowns. These conferences would become annual events in the Chinese American community that would meet through the 1960s, and then continue on as a family conference into the early 2000s. Tahoe conference participants, or "Tahoeites", would go on create several offshoot organizations and events inspired by their experiences at the conferences. One of these offshoot organizations was an East Coast variation on the Tahoe Conferences held at the Silver Bay Conference Grounds at Lake George, New York. These conferences were organized by "Tahoeites" George Kan, Eddie Leong Way, and Paul Louie, and were held from the early 1940s to the 1960s. Fong Yu also created her own offshoot organization called "The Chinese Young People's Forum". This interdenominational organization met at the Donalinda Cameron House to discuss issues affecting the San Francisco Chinatown community.Yu's legacy
In 1996 San Francisco's Chinese immersion school was named Alice Fong Yu Alternative School in Yu's honor. At the San Francisco Jazz Festival in October 2007, composer and jazz pianist Jon Jang performed the world premiere of "Unbound Chinatown: A Musical Tribute to Alice Fong Yu.” Jang called the piece a "musical portrait" of Yu's experience as an activist in the late-1930s.External links
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yu, Alice Fong Educators from California 1905 births 2000 deaths San Francisco State University alumni