Seattle Yee Fung Toy Family Association 2018 News Page

二零一八年活動

• 舍路余風采堂2018年新任職員向各界恭賀新禧
  
• 賀！余紹江榮任西雅圖中華會館主席
  
• Seattle Yees Attended the 2018 Chinatown Associations Luncheon
  
• 2018 Seattle YFT Spring Banquet
  
• Seattle YFT Members Attended the 114th Anniversary of the Yee Fung Toy Society of Canada Spring Banquet
  
• Yee Fung Toy Family Association Headquarters Spring Banquet
  
• Observing Ching Ming
  
• 舍路余風采堂行山拜祭舍路余氏先人
  
• Monument Marks Little-Remembered Case That Set Precedent for Asian Americans to Testify in Court
  
• Seattle Chinatown-International District Seafair Parade 2018
  
• Seattle YFT 2018 Annual Picnic and Scholarship Awards
  
• Seattle Yee Fung Toy Family Association Mourns the Passing of Fred Yee
  
• 【懷念余海量】希望我們的社區還有1,000多名像余海量這樣的人！
  

舍路余風采堂2018年新任職員向各界恭賀新禧

 
  

舍路余風采堂二零一八年度新職員名單

2018 Seattle Yee Family Association Officers

舍路余風采堂訊

賀！余紹江榮任西雅圖中華會館主席

Seattle YFT President Kevin Lee 余紹江 elected to be President of the Seattle Chong Wa Benevolent Association.

Congratulations!

舍路余風采堂訊

Seattle Yees Attended the 2018 Chinatown Associations Luncheon

 

 

Members of the Seattle YFT Association attended the Chong Wa Traditional Chinese Family Associations Chinese New Year Luncheon on Sunday, February 18, 2018. Over 200 community leaders and members attended. Seattle YFT President Kevin LEE also serves as current President of Seattle Chong Wa Benevolent Association.

Fred Yee

2018 Seattle YFT Spring Banquet

   

 

Seattle YFT hosted a spring banquet for its members at the Renton Seafood Restaurant on Thursday, March 15th.

The festivities we opened with Seattle YFT President giving a welcome speech and wishing everyone present a happy, healthy and prosperous new year.

Grand Advisor Fred Yee gave an update of our rebuilding efforts, and project manager Dennis Su and wife Millie were able to join the Yee’s to celebrate the new year together.

The delicious meal prepared by Seattle YFT Vice President and his staff.

President Kevin Lee had to leave early to preside over the Chong Wa Benevolent Associations monthly meeting.

The festivities include karaoke entertainment provide by YFT members. We hope in the future to host a community spring banquet and to invite our Yee cousins to help Seattle YFT celebrate our new Seattle YFT building headquarters.

Kevin Lee

Seattle YFT Members Attended the 114th Anniversary of the Yee Fung Toy Society of Canada Spring Banquet

   



   

  

Seattle Yee Fung Toy President Kevin Lee, YFT Grand Advisor Fred Yee, senior YFT Advisor Suey Yee, and senior YFT Advisor De Sum Yee led a delegation of 10 members to attend the 114th anniversary of the Yee Fung Toy Society of Canada Spring Banquet on Sunday, March 18th.

President Kevin Lee and his aunties Boy King, Marcella, and member Gui Lien, attended the ancestor ceremony at noon at the YFT society of Canada headquarters on Georgia street in Vancouver’s Chinatown and were warmly welcomed by YFT Society of Canada Grand President Kan Yu, and all the society members present as well as the Mah’s and the Tse’s who joined in honoring our ancestor Yee Chung Sheng.

After attending the Ji Zu (祭祖) ceremony, we were treated to a delicious buffet luncheon at the society’s headquarters.

The Seattle YFT members then took advantage of the great shopping opportunities in Vancouver’s Chinatown and purchased bakery goods, Barbecued meats and dried Seafood that we can’t find in Seattle.

At 6:00 pm after the shopping spree the 10 Seattle YFT members attended the 114th anniversary YFT society of Canada spring banquet at Floata Seafood Restaurant.

The Mah society’s athletic club along with several young YFT members gave a impressive lion dance performance to greet the audience and wish us luck, good health, and prosperity for the new year.

The greetings and speeches were followed by a sumptuous banquet and fun filled evening of karaoke and kinship pride.

Kevin Lee

Yee Fung Toy Family Association Headquarters Spring Banquet

 



 

 



 



 





 



 

 

U.S. YFT Grand Advisor Fred Yee and wife Clara attended the Spring Banquet celebration from March 23/March 25 in San Francisco. Fred also attended the Upper Level meeting on March 24. Seattle YFT VP Shek Jing Yee also attended part of the meeting. Among the many discussion topics was the rebuilding plan for the fire damaged Seattle YFT building on Seattle’s Beacon Hill.

The Spring Banquet was held at New Asia Restaurant with almost a thousand guests attending. The dinner was attended by many political figures and governmental officers, There were also karaoke singing late entrance,

Fred Yee

Observing Ching Ming

Several members of the Seattle YFT Family Association observed Ching Ming in visiting cemeteries around the Seattle-King County area.

Members participated in the March 29, 2018 visits included President Kevin Lee, Senior Advisor Suey Yee, Senior Advisor De Sum Yee and wife. Cemeteries visited included Evergreen Washelli, Lakeview, Hollyrood and Mt. Pleasant Queen Anne Hill.

Kevin Lee

舍路余風采堂行山拜祭舍路余氏先人

舍路余風采堂代表包括紹江主 席，士晃顧問，汝深顧問伉儷，於三月廿九日（星期四） 二零一八年，一起前往霍利魯德墓園( Holyrood Cemetery)、湖景墓園 (Lake View Cemetery)、萬年青 - 華秀麗墓園 ( Evergreen-Washelli Cemetery) 及 萬柏墓園 (Mt. Pleasant) 拜祭及獻花致敬舍路余氏先人。

舍路余風采堂訊

Monument Marks Little-Remembered Case That Set Precedent for Asian Americans to Testify in Court

The history around the ‘Territory of New Mexico v. Yee Shun’ will be memorialized in the upcoming public work ‘View from Gold Mountain’

A model of the planned artwork for downtown Albuquerque memorializing the landmark case that expanded the rights of Asian Americans.  (Bernalillo County)

By Julissa Treviño

Chinese immigrants moved to the territory of New Mexico in large numbers in the 1800s. They came, like so many other diaspora groups, in search of work. But legalized discrimination, through laws like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, created profound hurdles for them.

That’s why the little-known case Territory of New Mexico v. Yee Shun is so significant. On the evening of February 24, 1882, Yee Shun got off the train in East Las Vegas, New Mexico. The 20 year old, who had emigrated to the United States shortly before, was on his way to Albuquerque in search of a job, but decided to make the stop to check in with a friend, Gum Fing. When he walked into a local Chinese laundry to inquire the whereabouts of Fing, gunfire rang out. Shun ran out of the laundry. Inside, a man named Jim Lee (who was also known as Sam Ling King or Frank) had been fatally shot.

When witnesses placed Shun at the scene of the crime, he was arrested. One of the Chinese immigrants who witnessed the shooting, Jo Chinaman, claimed Shun was the killer. Two other Chinese men who also witnessed the shooting contradicted his testimony.

Shun was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. Following an unsuccessful appeal, Shun committed suicide.

The tragedy had an unintended postscript. During his lawyer’s failed appeal, he claimed that Chinaman’s testimony was invalid because he was “of the Chinese religion,” and so his oath could not hold up in court. But New Mexico’s territorial supreme court judge disagreed. He upheld the conviction, and in the process established the precedent that Asian Americans had the right to testify in court.

“The Yee Shun precedent held sway throughout most of the trans-Mississippi West for Chinese litigants, and it was even used to apply to other Asian-American minorities,” write Arif Dirlik and Malcolm Yeung in Chinese on the American Frontier. “In 1909 the Nebraska Supreme Court invoked Territory of New Mexico v. Yee Shun to determine if a Japanese witness, Jack Naoi, could be disqualified ‘for the alleged reason that Japan is a heathen country.’”

Now, this landmark case will be memorialized with a planned public monument.

As Ollie Reed Jr. reports for Albuquerque Journal, the towering 28-foot-tall, $275,000 public sculpture was approved last month. The project has been in the works for several years.

According to a press release, local optometrist Siu Wong, a member of Asian civil rights group Chinese American Citizen Alliance, initiated the project and raised the funds to make it a reality.

“[Wong has worked] to give this court case the place in history that it rightfully deserves,” Bernalillo county public art project coordinator Nan Masland tells Smithsonian.com.

Following a national call for artists, the Asian American Monument Committee of New Mexico selected Cheryll Leo-Gwin and Stewart Wong’s design “View from Gold Mountain.”

Gold Mountain is what Chinese laborers called the greater American West during the Gold Rush period that brought so many to the West Coast in the mid-1800s. But as Smithsonian’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage explains, “the vast majority of Chinese who rushed to the West Coast never got rich from gold. Instead, after arriving on these shores, they laid railroad tracks, worked as itinerant farm laborers and factory hands, cooked food, pressed shirts, and performed other tasks that helped build the American West.”

Now in the final design stage, installation should begin around early 2019 with a spring or summer completion according to Masland. It will be installed near the state district courthouse in downtown Albuquerque.

Article from Smithsonian Magazine

Seattle Chinatown-International District Seafair Parade

The Greater Seattle Chinese Chamber of Commerce organizes the annual Chinatown Seafair Parade, a sanctioned Seafair event. The parade features lion and dragon dances, the Seattle Chinese Girls Drill Team, and many more local community groups on Sunday, July 22, 2018.

Our Seattle YFT Family Association members getting Ready for the Seattle Sea Fair Chinatown Parade.

Fred Yee

Seattle YFT 2018 Annual Picnic and Scholarship Awards

On a warm, cloudless and sunny summer day on Sunday, August 5, 2018, about a hundred of the Seattle YFT Family Association members and friends gathered at Woodland Park Picnic Area #1 for wonderful few hours of good food and great companionship. This 64th traditional annual gathering continues to be a memorable event for all who participated,

Among the guests attended the picnic were 6 members of the Vancouver YFT Society, led by Vice Chairman George Yee and Secretary Martin Yee. Members of the Seattle Ma Family Association also attended the picnic.

In addition to a great lunch of fried and steamed chicken, BBQ pork and chow mein, there were great prizes for the picnic attendees. Of course, scholarship presentation to deserving students was another high point of the picnic. There were 16 students from 4th grade to senior in college received scholarship awards this year. The picnic ended with great appreciation from all attended.

Photos courtesy of Steven D. Yee and Martin Yee.

Fred Yee

Seattle Yee Fung Toy Family Association Mourns the Passing of Fred Yee

    The Yee Fung Toy Seattle Chapter is deeply saddened to share the news that our Grand Advisor Fred Yee passed away at his Bellevue home early Tuesday morning, August 7, 2018. He was 67. YFT Seattle conveys its deepest sympathies to the family on the passing of our Grand Advisor and mentor.

    The Passing of Fred Yee is a great loss to the Seattle YFT as well as the Greater Chinese Community. Fred had been a great mentor and friend. He will be greatly missed.

    In addition to his many community activities, Fred was our Advisor from before I joined the Association since he joined in 2012 and currently YFT Grand Advisor. His guidance was key to our successful 2012 National Convention. He attended the 2015 National Convention in Boston Over many years, Fred became a influential contributor to YFT, both locally and nationally.

    Fred was interested in Chinese American history, especially the Chinese Exclusion Act, and educating others. He often shared his family history and how they were impacted by the Exclusion era. Fred was born in Hong Kong, came to Seattle in 1969 to join his father George Yee, a partner in the Wah Young Company, a pioneer business in Seattle's Chinatown. He recorded the story of his father and family - six generation of Yees in the United States - on the following website: Photo of My Dad.

    "Fred was so actively engaged with the Seattle Chinese Community long before Seattle YFT came onto the scene. Thankfully, he chose to offer his time, knowledge of the community's needs and effort. Fred has been an instrumental figure not only helping to build Seattle YFT new building, but throughout the Seattle Chinese Community. Fred will be forever missed."

    A Celebration of Life will be held for Fred on August 25 from 10:00 AM to noon at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 8501SE 40th St. in Mercer Island. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to Kin On Health Care Center, Chinese Information and Service Center or the Yee Fung Toy Family Association.

    Fred is survived by his wife Clara and her daughters Veronica Ho and Joanne Ho; his daughter Andrea Yee (husband Jonathan Glass); son Alex Yee (wife Meesha Yee); and grandchild, Koehn Yee. For more information: Click here.

Kevin Lee

余風采堂總顧問余海量猝逝
深切悼念我的摯友余海量
ICHS remembers Fred Yee
BLOG: Wishing there were 1,000 Fred Yees