THE ONLY KNOWN COPY OF FRESNO’S FIRST CHINESE TELEPHONE DIRECTORY
[Fresno, California--Chinese Directory]. 埠那市年侨电话号码数录. [TELEPHONE NUMBER LIST OF OVERSEAS CHINESE IN FRESNO]. Bock Ngar Chy Co., 920 Grand Ave., San Francisco, 1938. 24 pp. 8vo (21 cm). Original printed green wraps, stapled at spine, edgewear and light chipping to corners, string tie in upper left corner for hanging. Interior clean with advertisements in Chinese and English; directory text in Chinese with manuscript additions. Very good.
“As in other parts of California, most of the Chinese immigrants who settled in Fresno were landless peasants from Kwangtung Province; the vast majority from eight districts: Toi-Shan, HoiPing, Yan Ping, Sun-Wei, Shun-Tak, Nam-Hoi, Pun- Yu, and Chung-Shan. With the creation of Chinatown, West Fresno became a central region that attracted more Chinese. In 1880, Chinatown consisted of several blocks facing the railroad tracks, its central area defined by a four-block square that included China Alley and G Street between Kern and Mariposa. At this time, there were 171 Chinese inhabitants of Chinatown: 147 men, 19 prostitutes, 13 “respectable” women, and two sons of the pioneer settler, Ah Kit (Chacon 1988:374). While most of the Chinese in Fresno were farm workers, they also found work as gardeners, cooks, irrigation ditch diggers, and general domestic workers. Others owned and operated businesses, including laundries, herb and grocery stores, and restaurants. Only a small number of Chinese residents were of this merchant class, but they were the ruling elites of Chinatown. Controlling the distribution of goods consumed within the Chinese community and extending credit to those in need of support, they dominated political and social structures by dominating the Chinese associations. Fresno’s Chinatown also developed a red light district that became a haven for vice: prostitution, gambling, and opium.”
During the 1920’s, the Chinese population fell as they were combined with other immigrants from Japan, Italy, Russia, Armenia and Mexico. The Chinese population fell as these others grew in numbers, from 1104 in 1900 to 617 in 1920, and in the process, Fresno’s Chinatown lost some of its Chinese character but thrived as a multicultural enclave. This 1938 directory, titled 埠那市年侨电话号码数录, or Telephone Number List of Overseas Chinese in Fresno, dates to this later period of Chinatown’s development. All of the listings are in Chinese with English numbers, and the 24 pages are divided into sections including government and emergency contacts, social groups and civic organizations, businesses, and private residences; several of the pages have manuscript additions in spaces provided. A rare and important survival from what was once the third largest Chinatown in California.
Relevant sources: Chacon, Ramon D. 1988 The Beginning of Racial Segregation: The Chinese in West Fresno and Chinatown’s Role as Red Light District, 1870s-1920s. Historical Society of Southern California Quarterly 70(4):371-398. Lai, Him Mark 2004 Becoming Chinese American: A History of Communities and Institutions. AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek, CA. Street, Richard Steven 2004 Beasts of the Field: A Narrative History of California Farmworkers, 1769-1913. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.