by Wayne Hung Wong
edited by Benson Tong
introduction by Benson Tong
University of Illinois Press, 2005
Cloth: 978-0-252-03014-7 | Paper: 978-0-252-07263-5 | eISBN: 978-0-252-05652-9
Library of Congress Classification F689.W6W66 2006
Dewey Decimal Classification 978.186004951

ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK

In the early and mid-twentieth century, Chinese migrants evaded draconian anti-immigrant laws by entering the US under false papers that identified them as the sons of people who had returned to China to marry. Wayne Hung Wong tells the story of his life after emigrating to Wichita, Kansas, as a thirteen-year-old paper son. After working in his father’s restaurant as a teen, Wong served in an all-Chinese Air Force unit stationed in China during World War II. His account traces the impact of race and segregation on his service experience and follows his postwar life from finding a wife in Taishan through his involvement in the government’s amnesty program for Chinese immigrants and career in real estate. Throughout, Wong describes the realities of life as part of a small Chinese American community in a midwestern town.


Vivid and rich with poignant insights, American Paper Son explores twentieth-century Asian American history through one person’s experiences.


See other books on: 1922- | Asian & Asian American | Chinese Americans | Kansas | Midwest
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