Ow-Wing Fook

Written by Darin Ow-Wing, grandson of Ow-Wing Fook

Ow-Wing Fook in opera costume circa 1910. Ow-Wing performed Chinese opera up and down the west coast of the US in the early 1900s.

My grandfather, Ow-Wing Fook (1893-1956) was born in the town of Courtland, delivered by his grandmother in the family house on the Sacramento River. He was part of the first generation born in America. Gung Gung ("grandad") grew in Courtland's Chinatown, in the time of the Chinese Exclusion Act (effective 1882-1943), when Chinese Americans weren't allowed to own land, testify in court, or even seek medical help.

Courtland is one of several towns in the Sacramento Delta that, at that time, had Chinatowns primarily housing laborers. These workers converted swamps to farmland, subsequently providing the Delta’s main agricultural labor force in the mid- to late-1800’s. Aside from the laborers, there were merchants, herbalists, and others with a variety of expertise.

Ow-Wing Fook, c. 1910 (Gung Gung is on the left, unknown on the right)

For reasons and through means that have been forgotten, he was trained in Chinese opera and, according to my dad, performed in Chinese communities along the west coast of the United States.

Three costumes that belonged to Ow-Wing Fook.

The 1800’s were a time of great upheaval in China, as Western imperialism and the decline of the once effective Qing Dynasty coincided to create conditions ripe for political change. A movement to overthrow China’s ancient dynastic system of rule, led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, gathered steam.   

Here in California, Gung Gung helped to establish the North America Young China Association in Courtland in the early 1900’s to raise funds and organize support for the coming revolution which successfully overthrew the last emperor in 1911. Perhaps Gung Gung was an early precursor to Reagan and Schwarzenegger and Zelinsky, using his fame and ability to move people in order to move into leadership! 

After the revolution, my dad said that Gung Gung helped raise funds for the Chinese air force (an effort led in the Sacramento Delta by Chauncey Chew), and that planes were purchased and stored in a warehouse in the Delta before being shipped. Unfortunately, an arsonist put an end to that effort. 

During the Great Depression, Gung Gung and his family (including my dad and his siblings) left the Sacramento Delta for San Francisco. Upon arrival, they lived in the basement of the Hop Sing Tong on Waverly for a while before getting an apartment in Chinatown.  

Picture of Gung Gung (“granddad”) Ow-Wing Fook, Paw Paw (“grandma”) Yeung Wai Mun, and Aunt Sue, c. 1915. After the revolution of 1911, Gung Gung went to China to get married since there were hardly any Chinese women in America. Grandma learned herbalism from a relative here in America. She would buy herbs in San Francisco Chinatown, and then sell them or use them in treatments of patients in the Delta. Later, Aunt Sue was instrumental in convincing her parents to move to San Francisco during the Depression.    

In San Francisco Chinatown, my cousin Rick Wing says Gung Gung became president of the Jun Ying Tong, which was one of the “fighting tongs.”  I swear my dad said he became president of the Yeung Wo Association, and that I’ve seen a picture of Gung Gung showing him to be a member of the Six Companies in the 1940’s... which of course I can’t find anymore! Regardless, any of these roles would have put him in a position as one of many arbiters of life in Chinatown, as well as efforts to gain recognition and respect for Chinatown.  

Gung Gung speaking at an Association meeting in San Francisco Chinatown. The Associations were involved both in international and domestic politics, including early civil rights efforts in America. 

Gung Gung speaking at an Association meeting in San Francisco Chinatown. The Associations were involved both in international and domestic politics, including early civil rights efforts in America. 

In the end, Gung Gung was just one of countless people of all backgrounds who, despite poverty and discrimination, struggled to better the lives of their community, here and in ancestral lands. Born in the US, yet a minor leader in the revolution that sought to recreate China as a democratic republic, his life choices are examples of loyalty across generations, openness to newly developed transnational ideas of human rights, and the racist isolation of Chinese in America by white nationalists. As an opera performer turned leader, he was an early example of the artist/activist which is such a central role in the identity of San Francisco. 

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Darin Ow-Wing is a fourth generation Chinese American, community leader, and activist. He currently serves as Development Director for Livable City. Previously, he studied Ethnic Studies, worked in youth development in Chinatown for over 30 years, and served as Education Director for the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco.

He occasionally leads community walks through Chinatown sharing a deeper history of the neighborhood through a hodgepodge of community stories, oral histories, historical artifacts, and more than a few bad Dad jokes. It was on one such walk, at which members of SF Opera’s DEC team were present, that he mentioned his Gung Gung’s connection to opera and inspired this digital installation. 

Please Note: In American history, Westerners have held prejudicial views on names that sound too "ethnic," or are difficult to pronounce. For this reason many immigrants change their names, or adopt Western derivatives in order to better assimilate. Thus Ow-Wing Fook is also known as George Ow-Wing professionally.