Apology wanted for Chinese immigrants

Chinese-Americans in the Mid-Valley had a mixed stance Wednesday on an Assembly resolution that would constitute a formal apology from the state to Chinese for discriminatory treatment over much of the state's history.

Janice Nall of Yuba City, president of the Sahm Fow Chinese Community Inc., said she acknowledges Chinese mistreatment in the past, but she's not up in arms over it.

"I'm not one for doing a lot of protesting," said Nall, whose group organizes such events as the annual Bok Kai Festival. "I prefer to look forward, but while always recognizing the past."

Nall, who was familiar with the resolution introduced by Assemblyman Paul Fong, D-Cupertino, said not all Chinese-Americans feel the same way, and recalled that her father said he experienced a lot of discrimination when he came to the U.S. from China as an 11-year-old.

"He told me about many different things that happened to him that shouldn't have happened to him," she said, adding her father was angry about that for many years. "In his adult years, though, he came to terms with it."

Gordon Tom, whose cousin opened a Chinese-American museum in Marysville that documented many of the events the resolution would apologize for, saw the resolution as oddly timed.

"The people that need to be apologized to are long dead and gone, but it's a good gesture," said Tom, 68, of Marysville.

He said people supporting such resolutions need to remember that times have changed, and such overt discrimination is largely gone.

"It's a whole different world," he said. "Most of us don't have that much trouble now."

Her uncle, Charley Lim of Marysville, had a more enthusiastic response to the idea.

"I would really like that. It's a long time coming," said Lim, 82, of the resolution.

His parents told him of how difficult it was for his mother to emigrate here, and later how they were barred from owning property, he said.

But even in his lifetime, Lim said, he experienced discrimination while he served in the Korean War, and later from a work supervisor who told ethnic jokes.

"The only thing we can really do is be smarter, get hired places, go to school, get some financial standing," Lim said. "But I won't forgive them because my ancestors suffered and I know about it."

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Ben van der Meer at 749-4709 or bvandermeer@appealdemocrat.com.