Dr. Juily Phun, assistant professor and director of the Chinese American Oral History Project at Cal State L.A., brought her knowledge to the San Marino City Club dinner on March 18 to speak on Chinese American history within Southern California.

Phun, an multiethnic refugee from Vietnam who grew up in the San Gabriel Valley, is part of the inaugural faculty hired in Association for Asian American Studies and is one of the founding faculty members of the College of Ethnic Studies at Cal State L.A. She has also been a high school teacher in the San Gabriel Valley for more than 20 years.

For the evening of the educator’s visit, the San Marino Community Center served as Phun’s classroom. It was there that she delved deep into the Chinese American experience past and present.

To set the scene, Phun brought the audience back in time before the United States even had a name, to when the Chinese first began to migrate to America in the early part of the 1700s as sailors on trading ships, and then to the 1840s when a significant wave of immigrants, primarily Chinese men, came to California or “Gold Mountain” in search of riches.

During the Gold Rush, Chinese immigrants were among those recruited in large numbers by labor contractors looking to replace slave labor after the Civil War.

Many immigrants turned to gold mining, with much of that community made up of multiethnic, multiracial and multinational individuals. The Foreign Miners’ Tax, however, forced non-Chinese and non-Anglo miners to look for work outside of the mine. The legislation imposed a $20 fee every month for the right to mine in the state.

“In reality, this was only levied on the Chinese and Latino miners, while foreign-born Anglo miners did not pay this tax,” said Phun, who added that this roadblock led Chinese miners into timber camps, the agricultural industry, railroad construction and the grape fields of Sonoma County.

Other “far-flung and less well-known places,” Phun said, Chinese immigrants would venture to include what is today known as Yosemite, where the earliest version of the National Park Service originated, with the help of Chinese American Tie Sing.

Phun asked attendees to close their eyes for a moment and asked them to travel back in time with her.

“Imagine that instead of the wilds of San Marino, you’re in the heart of the Sierra Nevadas,” she said, going on to describe what it would be like being in nature — scouting, chopping through foliage to clear a trail in the woods.

Phun said those who typically went on these excursions often punctuated the day with a menu while sitting at white linen-covered table tops, with an indulgent feast to follow. Those meals were cooked by Sing, who served as a chef.

“In the middle of the wilds, among a mountain range extending half the length of the state of California such was the task of Tie Sing,” said Phun, noting that Sing had been hired by Robert Sterling Yard, who helped found the National Park Service.

Yard and his colleague Stephen Mather, who would be appointed the first National Parks director, found Chinese Americans as being capable cooks, wilderness experts and expedition guides, Phun said.

“Sing helped to create the paths that would one day designate places like Yosemite as part of the largest National Park system in the world,” she said.

“Sing Peak,” a 10,500-foot peak at Yosemite, was named in his honor in 1899, and people can still hike there all these years later.

In the latter half of the 1800s and early 1900s, it was unlikely for white Americans to have seen or met someone of Chinese heritage. To illustrate this point, Phun told the story of Afong Moy, who is the first known female Chinese immigrant to step on U.S. soil. At 14 years old, she was dubbed “The Chinese Lady” by merchants Nathaniel and Frederick Carne.

Though it’s uncertain how these merchants were able to get Moy out of China and into New York, Phun said Moy was the face of a marketing campaign to sell Chinese goods. She was part of an exhibit to “familiarize Americans to develop a fascination and desire for Chinese-made products,” Phun said.

Moy did not speak English. She communicated through her interpreter, a Chinese man who traveled with the exhibit.

“It is uncertain what became of her after the decline of the merchants’ business,” Phun said. “Some say she was sold to the circus, other accounts have her traveling to Europe to continue the exhibit, but the disappearance of Afong Moy and her mysteriousness was similar to Chinese American invisibility in early American history.”

In day-to-day life, many white Americans often didn’t see or come into contact with Chinese Americans who washed their linens, grew their food and prepared their meals throughout the United States.

“Strangely, despite these indispensable services, which were often unwanted labor and jobs by others, Chinese immigrants became economic scapegoats,” said Phun, who explained that politicians and labor leaders largely blamed Chinese Americans for depressing wages and taking jobs away from white workers.

In the mid-to-late 19th century, America ran rampant with anti-Chinese messaging.

“Anti-Chinese rhetoric was widespread, fueled by racist stereotypes and propaganda about economic competition, claiming that the Chinese took jobs at such low wages that they depressed labor,” Phun said. “They were depicted as unassimilable and foreign.”

These negative and hateful sentiments were amplified by the press, labor unions and political groups, which culminated in violence against Chinese communities already in the U.S.

In 1871, a mob of 500 men targeted a small Chinese community in Los Angeles of less than 172 people, at a time when the city had a population of only about 5,000 people. The “brutal” display of violence occurred on Calle de los Negros, which is known today as Los Angeles Street. Seventeen Chinese Americans were killed, which was 10% of the total Chinese community at the time and the largest mass lynching in American history, Phun said.

“As the story goes, a mob gathered after hearing that a police man and a rancher man had been killed as a result of a rivalry between two Chinese groups fighting over a Chinese woman,” Phun said. “In other versions, it was a beloved saloon owner. As news of their deaths spread across the city, rumors grew to epic proportions, claiming that the Chinese were killing whites wholesale.”

As a result, local authorities offered little protection, and after the massacre, the 10 prosecutions of the 500 men involved were overturned due to “technicalities,” Phun said.

This attack was only one egregious example of hostility toward Chinese immigrants and it wouldn’t be the last, according to Phun. Violence against Chinese Americans only increased over time, with similar cases seen throughout the United States — from Wyoming to Oregon to various parts of California. Phun also said incidents of anti-Chinese violence occurred in places like Mexico, Peru and Australia in the same period, drawing inspiration from the very script of anti-Chinese messaging that was entrenched in the U.S.

In 1875, legislation turned anti-Chinese as well, with the Page Act, the first restrictive federal immigration law in the U.S., primarily targeting Chinese women by prohibiting their entry under the guise of preventing prostitution and other “immoral” activities.

“This was an early effort to restrict Asian immigration without categorically restricting migration based on race,” Phun said.

Soon, Phun said the effort was pushed further with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which barred all Chinese from entering the United States. It was a policy renewed every 10 years until 1902 when it was made permanent.

It remains the only law in United States history that names one group of people for exclusion, Phun said. It was not repealed until 1943, when China was a member of the Allied Nations during World War II, yet it still only allowed a yearly limit of 105 immigrants. However, enacted laws of the past like the Johnson and Reed Immigration Act of 1924 solidified the United States’ bans, not just against the Chinese but across Asia and favored immigrants from northern and western Europe.

“The legacy of these immigration policies shaped the United States that you see today,” Phun said. “The Chinese Exclusion Act established a powerful template for future restrictive immigration measures. Lawmakers realized they could use federal legislation to control views and narratives on specific ethnic or national groups, with immigration at the spector for the nation’s ills. This approach expanded to include other Asian groups and other racial groups culminating in broader laws that set national quotas based on country of origin.”

The Chinese Exclusion Act and subsequent immigration legislation weighed heavily on Chinese Americans living in the United States as they navigated this politically charged landscape opposing them. Something as innocent as traveling back to China was not a viable option, because of the threat of “permanent exclusion” in the United States.

“Many men stayed in America indefinitely, separated from their wives, children and family,” Phun said.

Even with these laws in effect, anti-Chinese sentiment persisted, especially in the workforce. Since many immigrants were ineligible for high-paying jobs and were banned from schools and higher education, they embraced becoming entrepreneurs of small businesses — opening service-oriented businesses like community laundromats, restaurants and more.

Despite these challenges from the federal, state and local level, it did not deter Chinese Americans from creating a home for themselves in the U.S.

“At the time, Chinese Americans made up less than .03% of any given community, and even today in 2025, Chinese Americans are still only 1.6% of the total U.S. population,” Phun said.

Phun noted that in the mix of all these hard-fought battles, Chinese immigrants were also subject to racial covenants that restricted groups of people to certain neighborhoods. That meant that most Chinese people lived in small urban enclaves, which became known as Chinatowns.

“These were cultural and economic hubs featuring grocery stores, urban medicine shops, restaurants and communal associations,” Phun said. “They also acted as protective spaces where residents could find mutual support and resources. For outside communities, they were tourist destinations and places where you could find a decent, affordable meal.

These spaces were not completely immune from the world beyond its doorstep.

“While Chinatowns offered relative safety for the Chinese community, they were also targets for stereotypes and sensationalized media coverage,” Phun said. “Some visitors saw these neighborhoods as exotic and intriguing, while others viewed them through the lens of fear and racism.”

But, nonetheless, Chinatowns have fostered a plethora of culture and continue to do so.

“The story of Chinese Americans highlights the resilience of marginalized communities,” Phun said. Through history these immigrants have not only built thriving communities, but also passed down their cultural traditions and impacted various sectors of American society, including food.

Phun credited some of the wide-ranging contributions of Chinese Americans in the U.S. — from the arts, politics and agriculture, just to name a few.

The development of the “Asparagus Capital of the World” in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta region, the building of Sonoma County wineries, the cultivation of the Bing cherry, creation of ketchup which translates to “tomato sauce” in Chinese, and boba.

Hunter Chang, San Marino City Club president, said he enjoyed Phun’s presentation. He is proud to see her continue in the footsteps of the organization’s long list of guest speakers.

“Having a speaker come to our dinner meetings has been a long-standing tradition for City Club,” Chang said. “This is in line with the club’s mission to secure the best civic, educational and cultural services for its membership.”

Phun’s inclusion was well received by the board of directors and past presidents, he said.

Ed Tom, San Marino City Club first vice, is tasked to hand-pick each speaker. He became acquainted with Phun last year after accidentally stumbling upon her on YouTube.

“I was so blown away after watching this video that I tracked her down,” Tom said. “I believe it is important to learn from history no matter how painful it may be. Education is the key to eliminating stereotypes.”