Hey everyone, welcome back again, Lhasla Montgomery here with another China History Podcast episode.

Just a quickie for you today.

Last August, 2023.

Some of you may recall I introduced the life of Chinese American artist and star the silver screen, Key Luke.

And if you remember at the outset of that episode, I was mulling over the idea of presenting either the life of Key Luke or of James Hong.

So I thought, well, Key Luke was 25 years older than James Hong, so let's do him first and

we'll reserve James Hong for another day.

And that day has come.

I was in Redondo Beach a few days ago with an old friend of mine,

and I told him, I was working on this episode on James Hong, and his predictable response was, who?

So I googled an image of him and showed it to my friend and he was instantly familiar.

Oh yeah, yeah, that guy.

So let's take a look at his life. Like most Chinese Americans who

immigrated or grew up here prior to the 1950s, James Hong's ancestry was in the Tringuo Diy Chia Xyu Kyau-Shiang, the first home of the overseas Chinese,

the city of Taishan or Hoi-Sann.

Wu Han Chang was born on George Washington's birthday, February 22nd in the year

1929, just in time for Black Tuesday, the stock market crash, and the Great Depression. Though at that time in China, the

Nanjing decade was in full swing, and China was enjoying the post-warlord era,

calm before the storm.

James Hong's early life wasn't a part of all that exciting history.

He was born in the Twin Cities in the land of 10,000 lakes, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

His father, Nefok Hong, went by the name Frank Wu Hong.

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