The Color of Success: Asian Americans and the Origins of the Model Minority (Politics and Society in Twentieth-Century America) by Ellen D. Wu

Author:Ellen D. Wu [Wu, Ellen D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2013-11-24T00:00:00+00:00

Chinatown’s Juvenile Delinquency Crisis

The San Mateo and Oakland incidents were but two episodes in what many Bay Area Chinese viewed as a youth crime wave. Ethnic media reported steadily on “hooligans” committing vandalism, robberies, petty theft, and assaults and wreaking havoc in the streets of Chinatown. By early 1950, the situation erupted into a full-blown “Punk War,” with newspapers noting “gang warfare” at all hours. Area merchants attributed sizable income losses to the turmoil, complaining that rowdyism kept would-be tourists and Chinatown residents away from their businesses.8 In the pages of the Chinese Press, which became a forum for public debate on “misguided youth,” a consensus emerged that juvenile delinquency was a calamitous dilemma necessitating immediate consideration. Attributing the rise to families’ “disharmonious interpersonal relations” and a dearth of educational and recreational opportunities, sociologist Rose Hum Lee charged families with the responsibility of guiding their young toward “wise use of leisure-time.” She further advised San Franciscans to follow the lead of Chicago’s Chinatown, where the owner of a vacant storefront had lent the space for use as a youth center—a successful effort that “broke up the ‘gangs’ and stopped anti-social behavior.”9 Others pressed the community to “improve” the neighborhood’s social environment and utilize police more frequently as preventive measures.10 After yet another unpleasant encounter, this time between several “ruffians” and members of the Chinese Students Christian Association, one Berkeley resident railed, “We have fought so long for our freedoms and privileges as Chinese-Americans. Are we going to let some silly and sissy punks ruin all our efforts and degrade our people to a lowly, beastly level?” Chinatown’s George Yip addressed the “punks” directly, emphasizing the fragility of the recent gains in Chinese America’s social standing: “Are you, by your actions, going to dash all that pieces? … Society is now looking upon you for the next step. Will it be degradation or integration? Choose wisely for there is no in-between.”11

Chinatown took action. At the urging of juvenile probation officer Lim P. Lee, residents organized their inaugural Youth Welfare Conference in cooperation with the San Francisco Coordinating Council for Youth Welfare. On June 11, 1949, eighty community leaders, social workers, religious figures, parents, teachers, and students convened at the American Legion Cathay Hall to discuss the roots of the crisis as well as policy recommendations to stem its tide. Speakers and panelists attributed the problem to a range of issues, from the “deterioration” of the home resulting from the waning influence of the church on family life to the alienation of Chinese American minors from both “old Chinese culture” and “true American culture.”12 Discussants also identified the postwar recession as a significant factor, contending that families could no longer provide their children with pocket money, as was the case during the wartime boom. Budgetary constraints coupled with “loose discipline” impelled young people to “secure their needs” through illicit means. And with the recent arrival of war brides and children from China, the neighborhood’s social service providers were stretched thin and unable to assist their clientele effectively.

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