Photographs - One Perfect Shot
I recently watched Episode 4, Season 1 of One Perfect Shot, a documentary series interviewing film directors about the stories of an iconic moment or a memorable shot in their films. It got me thinking about all the photos I have come across throughout my life.
Director, Jon M. Chu, was describing the famous, over the top wedding scene in Crazy Rich Asians. But we learn there was so much more of a story associated with this film shot. To Chu, this moment was encapsulating decades of his own backstory, both of Chu’s personal experience as an Asian American, as well as the diversity of the people represented in the scene. Also, interestingly, in his interview on The Man Enough podcast, Chu references his observation that life and memories and that captured moment are temporary. That everything is temporary. For, that moment that we remember about what that photo or shot represents, things immediately change. That image becomes the past, but did the story end?
While many will look at a photo, reminisce and say, “those were the days,” as if that represented the best of times, one can pivot that thought and think whether the best days are ahead in that photo.
Photographs are certainly telling. We know the adage, a “A Picture Tells a Thousand Words.” But when thinking about the history contained within, we should understand there can be other, hidden stories. Remember the famous photo by Jeff Widener of the unidentified man blocking 4 tanks during the 1989 Tiananmen student protest?
The true impact of the man’s actions.
In my website Resources - My Gallery section, I share mostly personal photos where I reveal some stories (not all personal). Following, I highlight some other photos that are woven into the history I have been researching and the stories I can surmise that they contain. These photos are not selected for their artistic merit. Artistic merit is not what validates a photo. Look, wonder and learn.
1928. The Madison School baseball team, St. Louis, MO. Photo, Missouri Historical Society.
The Photo: If you notice in the front row (right), we find a sole Asian (Chinese) boy. This is not what one would typically find in a school in this era, particularly in St. Louis. When you look closely at his photo, there seems to be a very slight smile in his expression, the type that conveys a contentment. So, what does this shot represent?
The boy is Hop Leong, a boy who was brought to St. Louis (we don’t know why) by his father in 1923 at the age of 9, from Canton, China. No mother. And, like most Chinese immigrants, we can assume he spoke no English and that the U.S. was definitely a completely different land and culture and not welcoming to Chinese. Hop would work his way through the school transition process of isolated classes for Chinese to gradually acclimate, then being permitted (and rewarded) to participate in other social activities upon proof of assimilation proficiencies. We can surmise that the smile captures that after 5 years, learning English and the American Way, that he had made it and to some level of acceptance. You can read more about Hop (aka Henry Lang) here in this Missouri HIstorical Society Blog post of mine.
Homan Quen, 1932 (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
The Photo: So, we see this photo is of an announcement of a Chinese student receiving an award. What’s the big deal? This young man seems to be a bit serious (or confident?) in his matter of fact pose. So, what does this shot represent?
Homan Quen was sent to San Francisco in 1918 at the age of eleven to live with his father, eventually coming to St. Louis around 1925. In St. Louis he would start working at a laundry, then eventually employed in a restaurant owned by an uncle, as a waiter. He would sketch on back of menus during idle moments in the restaurant. What the photo historically tells is a young man, seemingly self-taught, eventually having the courage to apply to a university; did he present his sketches on menus? Then after only a short time at art school, would receive a prestigious award and that he obviously learned western art. This is all very unique for the time. We would learn that he may have studied with or in the studio of Thomas Hart Benton.
Circa 1944, Kunming, China. Photo, courtesy of the Lay Family.
The Photo: This photo is an apparent military setting, with a Chinese gentleman, a Chinese civilian woman and a soldier. A scene indicating a military alliance? Spirits are obviously good. So, what does this shot represent?
The setting is Kunming, China, a military center during WWII, the operations of the China-Burma-India (CBI) Theater and location of the American Volunteer Group (AVG), otherwise known as the Flying Tigers. The gentleman on the left is Ying Lay, a Captain in training in the Chinese Armed Forces. The woman in the middle, my mother and high school friend of Ying Lay; my father was stationed there as an engineer to support the CBI logistics. This was the key supply chain destination for supplies to China during the Japanese occupation.
The memories contained in this photo are that shortly after the Japanese surrender in 1945, there would then be an internal Chinese power struggle between the local warlord, Long Yun, and the Kuomintang (KMT); this was a 4-day battle (the Kunming Incident). For backstory, Long Yun, the KMT and others had agreed to put down their differences and unite, in order to battle the Japanese. But that pact ended, post surrender. My mother was in town visiting friends when the initial gun battle broke out, so Ying Lay, with a fellow Captain, rushed into town on an armed jeep to retrieve my mother. Times had changed since this photo.
Celebration, August 15, 1945. Photo, St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
The Photo: This photo is clearly a moment of joy and celebration. Where might this celebration be and why? So, what does this shot represent?
Are these military personnel in another country? No, they are Chinese Air Force cadets, stationed at Scott Field (now Scott Air Force Base) across the river from St. Louis, in Illinois. Scott Field was a major training facility since WWI and focused mostly on training skilled radio operators. For years, the Chinese were being sent here. It is a bit ironic to think that while the Chinese population in St. Louis was relatively small, that in this room alone might have been a quarter of the total population, living at a nearby military base.
The cadets were at Chungking restaurant in downtown St. Louis. They had gathered to celebrate their own Chinese Air Force milestone. So, is that the celebration at this restaurant? No, while there, the announcement had hit of the Japanese surrender. Presumably they thought they could go home now.
The crowning of Miss Chinatown, 1951. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
The Photo: In the 1950’s, the Chinese American community was not large and the Chinese were still a bit of a novelty to the local St. Louis Community. So, what does this shot represent?
When immigrant communities are small it is common for these communities to find ways to come together, to be supportive and to provide opportunities to celebrate one’s existence, in a safe space. It still happens to this day. It is where you can be who you are without worrying of being shamed or ridiculed. This photo captures such an occasion, with the celebration of Miss Chinatown, which was a gathering at the On Leong Merchant’s Association center on Market Street in downtown St. Louis. The center was a place where the Chinese community would come together to socialize, including wedding receptions.
Here, we discover that Miss Chinatown is Sue Sit, a high school student from Beaumont HS and part of a true legacy family of St. Louis, dating to the early 1900s. Crowning her is Wing Leong, a high school student from McKinley HS and the president of the St. Louis Chinese American Youth Association. Coincidentally, we discover that Wing will one day be inspired by a chat with a young Chinese American, Washington University graduate at this family’s restaurant, Asia Restaurant (precursor to Asia Café); the graduate is Sam Sit (cousin to Sue Sit). That conversation would give Wing the courage to ask the family to pursue a college education and not the family business. Through this research, I have become close to both the Leong and Sit Family descendants.
1963, the final beginning of the end. Photo, SHSMO, Orville Spreen collection.
The Photo: Demolition of a downtown St. Louis building. So, what does this shot represent?
This is the final stages in the elimination of the area that was once St. Louis’ Chinatown. 3 years later this entire area would be demolished and become a surface parking lot. This photo does not represent just the bittersweet memories of St. Louis’ only Chinatown, but it is a representation of St. Louis’ urban renewal policy, efforts and desperate beliefs on how to revive a dying city. During this 1950s-60s urban renew effort, St. Louis will wipe out Millcreek Valley (once a home to 20,000 Black St. Louisans), the riverfront and much of the downtown central core. While St. Louis gained an Arch and a baseball stadium (since demolished), they lost neighborhoods, people and daily life.
1965(?). Photo courtesy of the Leong Family
The Photo: A sterile urban background to a joyous photo. So, what does this shot represent?
This is Annie Leong, proprietor of Asia Café, the last standing restaurant in downtown St. Louis’ Chinatown. 1 year later she would no longer be here working in this location. The restaurant would be forced to relocate and torn down.
This photo is not about the Chinatown history. Rather, this photo captures the people who lived there. That since the beginnings of Chinatown, circa 1870s, there were people who lived there and found joy there in spite of the challenges. The challenges? The people would be constantly surveilled by immigration services, due to the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. The people would be viewed as peculiar and oddities simply for looking different. The people would not really be viewed as important, an important factor in urban renewal movements. But here, this photo makes me happy to see that in spite of past and current challenges, this young woman could still find joy in a candid photoshoot.
1937 August 28. Bloody Saturday. Photo H.S. Wong
The Photo: Finally, the iconic photo that captured Bloody Saturday, the Battle of Shanghai, the war officially begins between China and Japan. This was captured of the Shanghai South railway station bombing. So, what does this shot represent?
This one is very personal. This was the summer that my father was in Shanghai for summer school. To set up the scene, in film jargon, from my father’s 20-year old perspective, his country was slowly being occupied by the Japanese. So, his country along with his fellow students were trying to process it all.
Only weeks earlier, on August 14, my father heard on the radio that the China Air Force was coming to bomb a Japanese cruiser, the Izumo, positioned in the Huangpu river along the Shanghai Bund. Along with fellow students, excited to see their country taking action, a flag waving crowd would rush toward the riverfront to watch this momentous, symbolic occasion. It would indeed be momentous, for the ill trained Chinese Air Force bombs would go array, landing into the populated urban areas. A bomb would land not far from my cheering father. He would describe carnage, chaos and body parts flying by. The war would officially start weeks later with the Bloody Saturday bombing. I often wonder how I am here today with the adversities my parents endured.
Are these Perfect Shots? Perfect is of course a very subjective interpretation. These shots simply capture a visual moment, but there is interesting history that transcends time, prior to and after that shot.
If you visit other areas of my website and the current list of resources, you will find some elaborations and more details on the above or simply new stories for you to discover.
