"When You Drink Water, Remember The Source"

Yin & Yang Press books blend history and psychology to examine lives of Chinese immigrants from Guangdong who were self-employed in businesses such as laundries, groceries, and restaurants from the late 1800s until past the middle of the last century. Their struggles against substantial obstacles and how they dealt with them are inspiring and must be recognized, admired, and recorded because they paved the way for later generations of Chinese to have a better life.

Yin & Yang Press Psychological Perspectives on Chinese American History

Southern Fried Rice is a story of my immigrant parents and their children, the only Chinese in a city in the Deep South, running a laundry from just before the Great Depression until the early 1950s when they moved to San Francisco to escape social and cultural isolation to join a Chinese community. The memoir raises issues that are central to the daily lives of immigrants from many lands as they struggle to adjust to a new country with a different language and customs. It describes how they encounter prejudice and discrimination against racial minorities in America, manage to earn a living through hard work and frugality, stay connected to family and relatives in their homeland, and eventually become acculturated to American ways.

This narrative, woven with genuine scholarship about the lives of Chinese immigrants, is a masterful bit of storytelling. It is an admirable and valuable contribution. Ronald Gallimore, Professor, Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA A charming and engrossing self-ethnography. More importantly, John Jung’s book enhances the archive on Asians in the South as well as our understanding of how Jim Crow situated the Chinese between “white” and “colored. Leslie Bow, University of Wisconsin Author "Partly Colored:

Thank you for telling your story in such an

engaging manner.  While your story is personal it

is also universal because of its working class

foundation laced with layers of Chinese ethnicity,

family structure and dynamics, and the specificity

of the South.         

Flo Oy Wong, Artist, Sunnyvale, California

Your book is a joy to read. It has a beautiful flow

to it and an enriching quality that is easier to feel

than it is to describe. Couched in humor, it deals

with the painful and serious matter of day-to-day

struggles of existence of a couple who came here

with hardly anything more than faith in their

hearts and steel in their spines.   

Krishan Saxena, Kensington, California

"Riveting - couldn't put the book down until it was

finished - it mirrored many of my own childhood

experiences growing up in New Zealand in the

50s. The Chinese immigrant experience must

have been the same the world over."   

Helen Wong, Auckland, New Zealand

Thank you for a wonderful evening as a speaker at the Chi-Am Circle dinner. Your speech and life in the South typify some of the members in our group. My husband went through a lot when he was a child in Mississippi. C. F.

You had the audience in the palm of your hands at the luncheon today! Thank you so much for taking the time to come up and share some of your experiences with us. Several people came up to me later to tell me how much they enjoyed your talk. G. I.

I was pleased to be in your audience in Phoenix, and purchased both books from you. I thoroughly enjoyed reading So. Fried Rice and to know Chinese-Americans all over the US of our generation all felt the same about ourselves, no matter the parents_ occupation, or our lifestyles. J. Yen

Thank you again for coming to Houston last weekend and for giving us such an interesting talk. I enjoyed reading your first book, "Southern Fried Rice" before the talk and am now reading your second book on "Chinese Laundries". I understand that you are working on your third book "Chopsticks in the Land of Cotton." I like your writing style. It is clear and easy to read. J. T.

A social history of the role of the Chinese laundry on the survival of early Chinese immigrants in the U.S. and Canada Why and how Chinese got into the laundry business and how they had to fight discriminatory laws and competition from white-owned laundries to survive. Description of their lives, work demands, and living conditions. Reflections by a sample of children who grew up living in the backs of their laundries provide vivid first-person glimpses of the difficult lives of Chinese laundrymen and their families.

… a significant contribution to the history of Chinese

laundries … best told by someone like Jung who

experienced a ‘laundry life,’ and understands its

psychological impact on the Chinese laundrymen and

their families. . .

Murray K. Lee, Curator of Chinese American

History, San Diego Chinese Historical Museum

… a remarkable book...a comprehensive historical

study of the Chinese laundries in the United States, a

profound analysis of the psychological experiences of

the Chinese laundrymen in America and their families

in China; and above all, written by someone who has

intimate experiences with the Chinese laundry, it is a

tribute to those Chinese immigrants whose labor and

sacrifice laid the foundation of the Chinese American

community, and a testimony of the Chinese

laundrymen’s resilience, resourcefulness, and

humanity.Renqiu Yu, To Save China, To Save Ourselves, The

Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance of New York.

I appreciated that you wrote this book, because it has given me a deeper perspective in what it means to be a second generation Chinese American of emigrant parents who operated a Chinese laundry. I understand that all minorities that emigrated to the United States in search of a better life had their struggles with survival and discrimination, this makes me not only value and respect my parents, but for other emigrant parents who desired their children to be prosperous.

It is fabulous that you have compiled stories of Chinese laundry life within North America, It is amazing to learn how others grew up with similar experiences…the excerpts made me both laugh and cry. One thing for sure is that growing up in a Chinese laundry is colourful and interesting. Working class ethnic culture is so sur-real. Elwin Xie, Vancouver

Congratulations on a landmark achievement. We know how much work you put into this volume and I am highly honored to be a small part of your accomplishment. Thank you so much for preserving this part of history. I think you will be long remembered for your work. Ken Lee, Ohio State University.

The Berkeley Chinese Community Church Senior Center have been twice blessed with your presentations, last year on "Chinese Laundries" and this year on "Southern Fried Rice." You have a way of telling your stories that bring back so many memories of our own lives as we all grew up as 2nd generation Chinese Americans. We look forward to a presentation on your 3rd book "Chopsticks in the Land of Cotton" with great anticipation. Warren Chinn

After reading the chapter on "Lives of Chinese Laundry Children” I felt great pride in my unique experiences (growing up in a laundry), and was very happy to have my thoughts and feelings normalized. Kathy I just wanted to tell you how much we enjoyed your lecture on Chinese laundries. Thank you for coming to Arizona State University and giving us a most enjoyable time.

The story of how a few Chinese immigrants found their way to the Mississippi River Delta in the late 1870s and earned their living with small family operated grocery stores in neighborhoods where mostly black cotton plantation workers lived. What was their status in the segregated black and white world of that time and place? How did this small group preserve their culture and ethnic identity? "Chopsticks in the Land of Cotton" is a social history of the lives of these pioneering families and the unique and valuable role they played in their communities for over a century.

"Chopsticks" tells the story of yet one more

example of Chinese tenacity in which John Jung

traces the paths of pioneer Chinese immigrants in

Mississippi as they moved from laborers to

become successful grocery store merchants for

decades with family members and relatives

serving as the backbone. "Chopsticks" pays

tribute to the resilience and "can-do" attitude of

these enterprising entrepreneurs.

Sylvia Sun Minnick, Sam Fow,The San Joaquin

Chinese Legacy

John Jung has done it again! Plunging into the

history of Chinese grocers in the Mississippi-

Yazoo Delta, he traces their migration history,

work, families, and social lives. His work is

anchored in a creative mix of oral history,

community historical documents and public

records, and includes a generous fill of photos.

As a study of the complexities of triangular race

relations in the Jim Crow South, his work rivals

James Loewen's classic study, The Mississippi

Chinese. Greg Robinson, By Order of the President: FDR

and the Internment of Japanese Americans (2001)

.. your book presents the most definitive and accurate account of the Chinese in the Ms Delta--what it was like to be Chinese and growing up in the segregated South during that time. Thanks for all your time and effort in researching and telling the story of the Ms Chinese Grocers in the Land of Cotton. Peter Joe

"What a juicy read! The hard work, the social isolation, the networking, the solutions of problems such as education in a segregated society which never had them in mind - it's mind-boggling! And the similarities and differences in the Chinese relationships with whites as opposed to blacks - fascinating! Your books are a significant contribution to the social history of this nation."   Nan McGehee

Thanks for the informative and educational presentation at Berkeley CCC. It was very well received. … The southern friends were delighted to meet you and hear the lecture. Rachel Wong

I completely understood your sense of "not being Chinese enough." Even today, when I am in a room full of Chinese adults, I feel like a foreigner, too much "white" attitude to be Chinese. Not only was I the ONLY Chinese kid in Baton Rouge, La... I was also an only child in a typical Chinese family (be seen but not heard) so I led a very lonely existence. I did not make a Chinese friend until I was in the 4th grade, when we moved back to New Orleans… I am grateful for your willingness to share your story with us last Saturday in Washington, D.C. I felt like you overwhelmed the audience and left them wanting to hear more... We have heard nothing but positive comments from many of the folks who attended. Stan Lou

T

"Sweet and Sour" examines the history of Chinese family restaurants in the U. S. and Canada. The goal of "Sweet and Sour" is to understand how the small Chinese family restaurants functioned. Narratives provided by 10 Chinese who grew up in their family restaurants in all parts of the North America provide valuable insights on the role that this ethnic business had on their lives. Is there any future for this type of immigrant enterprise in the modern world of franchised and corporate owned eateries or will it soon, like the Chinese laundry, be a relic of history?

I greatly admired and enjoyed "Sweet and Sour: Life in Chinese Family Restaurants" It does an excellent job of going over the historical background on early U. S. Chinese restaurants, unearthing lots of material new to me. And the interviews of Chinese restaurateurs opened up a whole new side to the story, of what it was like to work and live in these restaurants. Andrew Coe, "Chop Suey: A Cultural History of Chinese

Food in the United States"John Jung again demonstrates a marvelous ability to blend archival

data with fascinating first-person accounts to bring to life the family-

operated Chinese eateries that are quickly disappearing from today’s

society. Following solid historical groundwork, Jung uses narratives

of 10 individuals who grew up in such places to take readers inside

old-time chop suey houses. Their stories provide a candid telling of

the personal, familial, and cultural significance of these familiar cafes.

As with his earlier books on Chinese family-owned laundries and

grocery stores, the author sheds a fresh and ample light on a subject

even more familiar. And once again he does it so well from the inside

out. Mel Brown, "Chinese Heart of Texas: The San Antonio

Community 1875-1975."

“When reading Sweet and Sour, I was struck by how it is both a work of scholarship and a documentation of the experience of Chinese restaurant workers. It serves to teach us about their experiences on multiple levels.” Heather Lee, Brown University

You've made some amazing observations, wrote them down with sincerity, and I wholeheartedly support you on it. You've brought back some fond memories and I'm sure it will touch other folks like myself that have gone through it. Dave Chow

Bravo! Wonderful talk on my favorite of all of your books! Thank YOU for being the object of our overwhelming attendance and I hope you sold a few books to the attendees! The food was good at the Forbidden City, the ambience was great, and you proved that you were the "man of the hour"! Thank you for "being" our event. Hazel Wallace, Past President, U.S.-China Peoples Friendship Association-Long Beach. Thank you for making the trip to Chicago for this very special event. Everyone had great compliments for your presentation! Soo Lon Moy

Thanks for a great presentation!!!! As I told you earlier today, my friends were greatly impressed with you and your info on Chinese families of restaurant owners... it is an honor to meet you and hope to see more of you again in Portland. Bruce Wong

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Recognition

Grant Din Director of Special Projects at Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation John writes books in a very readable way about topics that need to be told such as the growth and decline of Chinese laundries, and growing up Chinese in the American South. I have heard him speak to groups, and he has a very entertaining and informative style.

Gregory J. Hugh Chairman of the Board at CHINESE HERITAGE FOUNDATION

John was very cooperative and knowledgeable when I approached him about doing a review of his book for our newspaper, China Insight.

Raymond Chong Flying Swan Trading Company, LLC

John Jung is an excellent writer of the Chinese American experience. His well-researched books are unique and rare glimpses of lives of the sojourners in Gold Mountain. He is a very passionate advocate in remembering our history and legacy.

PC Wu Councilman at City of Pensacola

John is an exceptional historian and writer. He has done so much to preserve the history of the Chinese in America. In addition he is an outstanding presenter.

Ronald Gallimore, Distinguished Professor Emeritus at UCLA

Like pilots, there are old academics and bold academics, but few old, bold academics. John Jung is an exception.

After a distinguished and mainstream academic career, in retirement he decided to write an autobiographical account of his 1940s childhood as a member of the only Chinese-American family living in Macon, Georgia. This book was compelling not only because of the unique social circumstances of his early life but its smooth, seamless integration of solid scholarship on Chinese in America. A highly favorable response to his autobiography led to many speaking events across the nation, and in so doing he discovered the lived experiences of scores of Chinese Americans. Three more books followed, all as compelling and significant as the first. John is unique in many ways, but none more striking than what he has accomplished in his second career, begun in his 7th decade. His wry and engaging wit, solid scholarship, and accomplished writing style has produced four books of note, ones that will be read for generations by anyone interested in the history and contributions of Chinese-Americans.

Riki Hamilton Jackson Assistant Director, Confucius Institute and Asian Studies - U of Memphis

Dr. Jung is an incredible professor, author, and professional. I have read all of his books and enjoyed having him join us in Memphis as a professional speaker for the CIUM. He's terrific!

Tunney Lee Professor Emeritus, M.I.T., Cambridge, MA.

John's books are well researched and cover topics of Chinese-American history untouched elsewhere.

Gilroy Chow Engineering Manager at Metso Minerals

John is a very astute observer of the evolution and growth of the Chinese society as it existed and exists across America. As a scholar and trained author he has captured the essence of life in the microcosms of Chinese life in several venues. His attention to detail and ability to simplify complex interactions has help capture and tell these stories to a broad and diverse audience.

Claire McLeveighn Specialist in Global Public-Private Partnership, and External Affairs

As an author and publisher, John Jung has made major contributions to the knowledge base of his readers and potentially countless others relative to U.S. history and the role and important place of Chinese Americans in this framework. All Americans, not just those of Chinese descent benefit from John's skillful work at Yin and Yang Press.

Albert Lee Photographer / researcher, Chinese Canadian history

John writes from the heart and is also informed in a scientific approach to his subjects.

Franklin Carvajal Ph.D., LCP President and CEO at E Mental Health Center

Dr. Jung is an ardently passionate writer and researcher who publishes works in new and exciting areas related to Chinese American history. He has always done a great job at shedding light on topics that unfortunately have not been the focus of past writers interested in Chinese American history, such as what it was like to be a Chinese American in the heart of the South in the 60's. Does not get any better!

About the Author: John Jung was born in 1937 in Macon, Georgia, where his parents, the only Chinese in town, lived above their Sam Lee Laundry. Earning a Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 1962, he was a Professor of Psychology at California State University, Long Beach for 40 years, publishing many research articles as well as eight college textbooks including most recently, Alcohol, Other Drugs, and Behavior: Psychological Research Perspectives. Thousand Oaks, Ca.: Sage Publications, 2001. Sec. Ed. 2010.

4413 Via MajorcaCypress, CA. 90630

jrjung@yahoo.com