LA's "old" Chinatown in 1902. Below, Hong with then-Governor Ronald Reagan in the late 1960s. Courtesy The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.

The new calendar of upcoming exhibitions at the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Garden in San Marino includes one that should be appealing to those of us who are into the details of Los Angeles history. In November the Huntington will put up an exhibit on You Chung Hong, one of the first Chinese Americans to pass the California Bar. He practiced as an immigration lawyer in LA's Chinatown and was a founding member when Chinatown was moved to its current location to make way for the construction of Union Station in the 1930s. The Huntington received Hong's family papers in 2006 — papers which no doubt reflect a lot of what was going on in Los Angeles during the decades when Hong was active.



"This exhibition is the first opportunity for the public to get a deeper sense of the life of this extraordinary figure in Chinese-American history through some 75 items, including historical documents, correspondence, photographs, maps, and ledgers," the Huntington flackage says.

The Chinese Exclusion Act, a federal law in effect from 1882 to 1943, prohibited the immigration of Chinese laborers to the United States. Regarded as one of the leading authorities on Chinese immigration, Y.C Hong gave testimony in Washington, D. C., on several occasions at congressional and presidential commission hearings. “During his lifetime, he facilitated and worked on at least 7,000 immigration cases,” said Li Wei Yang, curator of Western American History at The Huntington and curator of the exhibition. “This exhibition will give visitors a rare and comprehensive view of the life and career of a legendary lawyer who advocated relentlessly on behalf of Chinese Americans striving to achieve the American dream.”

Divided into six sections, the exhibition will provide visitors with insight into the early history of the Chinese experience in California, in part through photographs of Chinese gold miners and railroad laborers; it will cover Hong’s early years in San Francisco, where he was born and educated up though high school; it then segues into his career as an immigration attorney, through examples of a coaching scroll and village map that some of his clients had to memorize in order to pass the questioning of U.S. immigration officials.



Hong’s extensive civic and political engagement, which includes his tenure as president of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance, is illustrated by photographs of him with Ronald Reagan, when Reagan was governor of California, and with Soong May-ling, the wife of Chiang Kai-Shek, president of the Republic of China between 1928 and 1975. The exhibition also provides an intimate portrait of Hong’s family life, including a love letter to his wife, Mabel, and photographs of them with their sons. The final section focuses on New Chinatown in Los Angeles, which Hong, as a founding member, helped build after Old Chinatown was razed to make way for Union Station. A poster and photograph of the opening ceremonies for the colorful and family-friendly New Chinatown, contrasted with photographs taken of Old Chinatown with its run-down infrastructure, help bring home the impact of Hong’s influence.



Also on the Huntington schedule through 2016: