When I was growing up in Western Massachusetts, I remember my family befriended a Chinese family who moved into the area to open a family business. I learned one day that they were descendants of Confucius–in fact, something like the twenty-something-th generation. I was amazed that Confucious’s descendants will still keeping track and stayed in touch so many generations later. So I was interested to see my friend, a “Lee,” post an article on Interim Mayor Ed Lee and the Lee family association in San Francisco’s Chinatown:
Mayor Ed Lee’s seven months on the job and ties to the city’s power brokers aren’t the only things he’s got going for him in his race for a four-year term in November. He’s also got the Lee name itself. And that means he’s got the backing of the Lee Family Association, the largest family association in Chinatown.
The associations – Wong, Fong, Chan and Louie are also big ones – are part of the lifeblood of Chinatown’s culture. They were formed in the 1800s as social service organizations for new immigrants, based on their last names, which signify their home villages in China. Now, they’re very politically powerful; the Chinese Six Companies, one of the city’s oldest benevolent organizations, serves as an umbrella organization for all the family groups.
It still boggles my mind about multi-generational Chinese or Asian American families in the United States, given that most Asian Americans immigrated to the United States after 1965 and a majority today were born overseas. These non-profit associations, by law, cannot endorse political candidates, but who do you think the “Lee” family association will be quietly rooting for?
The Lee Family Association spans 17 branches throughout the United States, including New York, Los Angeles and Boston. The San Francisco branch, the earliest branch formed, started in 1866 and there are something like 100 million Lee’s in the world! That means there are more Lee’s in the world than Kim’s in all of Korea! In fact, Lee is the most common last name in China, so I assume that makes it the most common last name in the world!
As for the other Asian American candidates (or for that matter, all candidates) running for mayor in San Francisco (with San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi adding his name to the race last Friday – the filing deadline), there is apparently a small Yee (as in Leland Yee) family association in San Francisco, but no others for Chiu or Ting.
Chiu gives a very nice explanation of his broad support amongst the Chinese community with these words: “Since I represent Chinatown [Chiu represents District 3, which includes Chinatown] and I’m invited by many family associations to attend their New Year’s banquets and celebrations, I hope they all consider me a member of their extended family.” Good answer!
I don’t know if other cultures have active “family associations” in the United States. Is there a “Smith” family association? I guess Americans who are descendants of the Mayflower are often proud of that fact and it wouldn’t be surprising if the Mayflower descendants had an association. Maybe the modern day equivalent would be those Italian Americans on MTV’s Jersey Shore? All of this of course seems a bit antiquated in our modern democracy. Am I necessarily going to help a person simply because he or she and I share the same last name and we are related twenty generations ago?
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