Heading: (Chinese-American - 1925 letter, California store that hosted Sun Yat-sen)
Author:
Title: 1925 Sun Yat-Sen Slept Here: Letter from Courtland, California Chinese store
Place Published: Courtland, CA
Publisher:Wo Chong Co.
Date Published: 9272
Description:

Autograph Letter Signed (in Chinese). 1 pp. With original mailing envelope. 10½x9"

Untranslated letter; date taken from the original mailing envelope, postmarked May 20, 1925, with the store’s rubberstamp and printed address of the Kwong Yick & Co., San Francisco import-export firm. The historically-significant Wo Chong dry goods store in the small Chinatown community of Courtland, a riverboat landing town south of Sacramento, was a hotbed of Chinese revolutionary activity before the fall of the Manchu imperial government. Sun Yat-sen, while in western exile after failed uprisings against the Manchus, visited Courtland to raise money from local businessmen, led by the store’s senior partner; they reportedly purchased a dozen Wright Brothers-vintage airplanes to be sent to China in support of the Revolution, though these were destroyed by arson before they could cross the Pacific. Upon Sun’s death in 1925 – two months before this letter was written – a large memorial service was held for him in Courtland, which would remain a welcoming financial base for visiting Chinese officials like Lin Sen, who would succeed Chiang Kai-shek as chairman of the Nationalist Government in the 1930s, and visiting Generals who led the struggle against the Japanese invaders. Courtland Chinatown boasted social halls, restaurants, bakeries, boarding houses, and a school with over 100 students, but, throughout these years, the Wo Chong store would remain the center of the town’s Chinese communal activity.

Near fine.