Pearl of the Desert | Chinese History in Arizona, USA (44) Chapter 4: Guan Chongqiong Family (6)

Arizona Chinese Historical Association: Zhang Zhaohong After Guan Chongqiong participated in World War I, he returned to China and brought his wife back to the United States. The two of them have been working hand in hand for decades to start a business...

Arizona Chinese Historical Association: Zhang Zhaohong

After Guan Chongcong participated in the First World War, he returned to China and brought his wife back to the United States. The couple has been working hard to start a business for decades and has eleven children. At that time, a prosperous population was the capital for making a fortune. After decades of hard work, the Guan family has grown stronger and has a successful career. It has become a prominent family in the Arizona Chinese community and has won a lot of glory for the Chinese in mainstream society.

However, in the era of Chinese exclusion, American society discriminated against Chinese people. When some successful Chinese businessmen die, the American media often reports not the name of the deceased, but the business name he ran instead, because Americans do not care about the names of Chinese people.

Only a few Chinese people have been noticed by the mainstream and have left written records. The Guan Chongqiong family is one of the few. We have collected and organized these fragmentary texts and photos to allow people to see the Chinese style of that era.

A 1936 newspaper article about the wedding of the family’s eldest daughter Guan Xiurong in a church.

>Guan Xiurong is the daughter of Guan Chongqiong who was born in China. After the end of World War I, Guan Chongqiong returned to his hometown in Kaiping, Guangdong, and brought his wife and his 6-year-old eldest daughter back to Phoenix. Since her parents have many children, Guan Xiurong, as the eldest sister, does her best to take good care of her younger siblings and share the burden of this big family.

As a prominent member of the Chinese community, Guan Chongqiong integrated into American society faster than other Chinese families. He had already brought his family into the local church very early and became a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Phoenix.

In 1936, 23-year-old Guan Xiurong held a wedding in the church and accepted the blessings of 500 guests. The local mainstream media reported the wedding in detail with the title “First Chinese Wedding In Church Here To Take Place This Morning”.

> Guan Xiurong is the eldest sister respected by her younger brothers and sisters. At the age of 23, she married to the Li family in Chicago, eastern United States. From then on, she raised her husband and raised her children until her death in 2012, when she was 99 years old.

Having children in groups means a heavier burden in life. Guan Chongqiong is hard-working, tenacious and has a vision for development. In 1940, Guan Chongqiong built a shop on the land he purchased and rented it out. He also has his own new store "TOY’S MARKET".

Back then, most Chinese grocery stores opened in the southern area of ​​Phoenix City, while Guan's Market was located in the north. At that time, Tuofeng Road and 16th Street were already prosperous areas, and Guan's Market became the most prosperous Chinese shopping mall in the early days.

>Toy’s Market sells all kinds of daily necessities, selling fresh fruits, vegetables and cold drinks. The doors and windows of the shop are covered with various advertisements. Guan Chongqiong uses the popular “ice cream” as an advertisement. This is the earliest advertisement that can be found for a Chinese merchant in Phoenix:

"Congratulations on the opening of our new store in 1940! This is Toy's Grocery Market with first-class products! Please try the double rich ice cream! It is made in our own sanitary factory, always available for ice cream parties, and our equipment makes all flavors. Ice cream is 15 cents per pin and 25 per quart. cents. Free food delivery! "

Just as the Guan family's career was moving forward, World War II broke out!

On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor! The "Edict of the Emperor" declared war on Britain and the United States. On the same day, Britain and the United States declared war on Japan.

The USS Arizona battleship anchored in Pearl Harbor was sunk by a rollover bombing, killing 1,177 sailors. To this day, there are still 1,102 remains of fallen soldiers in the wreckage.

In order to commemorate the fallen officers and soldiers, a memorial hall was built above the wreckage of the original battleship in 1962, and the two 19,585-pound anchors on the "Arizona" were also salvaged ashore. One was placed in Pearl Harbor on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, while the other was placed in Phoenix, the capital of Arizona. When the Arizona sank, it was carrying 1.5 million gallons of fuel. About 500,000 gallons of fuel did not detonate and are still slowly leaking. The seeping fuel is known as the "Tear of the Arizona."

In Phoenix at that time, the population was 65,400, but there were only 431 Chinese (adults or heads of households only). During World War II, more than 70 Chinese disciples were drafted to serve in the European battlefield, the Pacific battlefield and the Chinese battlefield. Five of them died in bloody battles. Six Chinese disciples returned to the anti-Japanese front line of their motherland and worked with the Chinese military and civilians to fight against the Japanese invaders.

At that time, the eldest son of the Kwan family, William Kwan Toy, had reached adulthood and he enlisted in the army. Two years later, the third son of the Kwan family, Gray Kwan Toy, also joined the army to protect his family and country. (to be continued)