Presentation at Association of Asian American Studies Conference

Chicago, Il. April 18, 2008

Abstract

Isolated Chinese Boys And Their White Mentors:

Letters From John Jung (1929-1936) and To John Jung (1952-1956)

Until the middle of the past century, Chinese in areas with large Chinese immigrant
populations interacted primarily with other Chinese, partly due to common interests and
partly due to racial barriers. In contrast, many Chinese across the U. S. were the only, or
among the few, Chinese in their communities. This isolation may have been conducive
to more contact and interaction between Chinese and non Chinese, especially for Chinese
children, than for Chinese living in areas with many other Chinese. Analysis of the
letters written by John Jung, an isolated Chinese boy in North Dakota, to his elementary
school teacher from 1929-1936 and the letters received from 1952-1956 by another John
Jung, an isolated Chinese boy in Georgia, from some teachers and other white adults for
over four years provides a glimpse into these mentoring relationships and their positive
influences on the development of these boys.
.
Jung 2

Isolated Chinese Boys And Their White Mentors:

Letters From John Jung (1929-1936) and To John Jung (1952-1956)

John Jung

California State University, Long Beach

Adolescent peers, especially those of the same ethnic background, have

a major impact on the psychological development of each other. But when

peers of one’s own ethnic group are not available, what alternative resources

assume this role? The present account examines how much older white people

functioned as mentors for two young sons of Chinese laundrymen, each

coincidentally having the same name, John Jung. They grew up in cultural

isolation in two different generations, one in North Dakota, and the other in

Georgia. I used their written correspondences to determine the influence of

white mentors on the social development of these ethnically isolated boys. In

one case, I examined letters written by the North Dakota boy to his fourth

grade teacher after she moved from his hometown and in the other case I

studied letters that white adults in my Georgia hometown wrote to me after I

moved to San Francisco when I was 15.

In Devil Lakes, North Dakota, according to the 1920 U. S. census

schedule there were only 12 Chinese, all men working mainly in restaurants.

John Jung may have been the only Chinese child in Devils Lake in 1928. Born
Jung 3

in China, John lived with his father who ran a laundry while his mother

remained in China. A year after he was in the fourth grade class taught by

Fanny Boulden, she married and moved with her husband to a farm in Grand

Forks County, North Dakota. John himself moved a few years later to

Bismarck where he continued his schooling and worked with his father who

now ran a cafe.

What is known about John Jung’s life comes almost entirely from the

more than 20 letters that he wrote to this fourth grade teacher from 1929-1936.1

Although none of her letters to him have been found, some inferences about

their content can be made from what John wrote in his letters. The seven years

of correspondence reveal how a strong and lasting mentoring friendship

developed, one that was a positive and powerful influence on John’s personal

growth.

His letters provide a window into how he saw the mainly white world of

North Dakota. John reflected on life in the United States and described his

1
Photocopies of the John Jung Letters were deposited in the Orin G. Libby
Manuscript Collection at the University of North Dakota by Fanny Boulden
Peterson of Larimore, North Dakota in December, 1984. The original letters
were deposited by Fanny Welte (Peterson’s daughter) of Aneta, North Dakota,
on November 18, 2003 in exchange for the photocopies (Acc.#84-1338). Also
included was one letter to Jung from Nelson Sawvain, former Superintendent
of Schools in Devils Lake, a story written by Jung after he had been in
Boulden’s class for eight weeks, a biographical account about Jung written by
Carol Welte, and photocopied materials from the archives at Purdue
University.
Jung 4

daily activities and experiences in the American educational system. His tone

was mostly reverential and polite.

His first letter dated June 29, 1929, was written in the awkward prose of

an immigrant ill-at-ease with English:

Dear Miss Boulden.

I regret to inform you that I as good-by to you that day, then I am

very sorry and sad. Because forever without good teacher to help

me as after today, for long time ago… O thanks for you are

kindness, In spite of my foolish foolies and naughty, carefully to

show me the anytime, I felt glad in the joy of my heart, you keeps

me from carelss, and gives me unterstand all I have.

In closing, John implored her to write him when she had time:

”if you are leisure to send me a letter tell what place are you

going on if you are so kind as to grant me this favour, I shall be

happy very soon.”

Your friend,

Jung

Over the next 18 months, John wrote six letters to his teacher, These

early letters are a combination of apologies for not writing more often,

progress reports on his school work, and repeated expressions of gratitude for

her teaching.
Jung 5

However, his intellectual growth in less than two years was quite

evident in a letter dated March 22, 1931. By then John had discovered the

New York Times, which he described as “a professor’s newspaper, which is

liked by the first classes people.” He boldly wrote, “I think that will broaden

your mind and conception of things wonderfully”… and noted that “Reading

good books or mazanes(sic) is to improve the mind.” He ended with a moral

tone, “Men without knowledge is like the flower without gragrance (sic)!”

Yours truly, John Jung. I

n a postscript, he added that the New York Times had an essay contest

called, OUR NAVY DAY, which inspired him to enter a similar essay contest

for junior high school students in Bismarck where he won Second Price (sic),

leading him to boast, “This is the advantage from reading good paper.”

In one letter, John’s sensitivities to racism emerged. Outraged by his

French teacher, he wrote that she was not fair or “anti-different-peoples” in her

treatment of students." He reported that his anger led him to write a complaint

of letter to the principal.

In January 1932, John returned to China for approximately eight months

to visit his mother, and during this period the growing hostilities between

Japan and China galvanized John’s patriotism. He wrote about wanting to

return to China later to fight the Japanese, and even enlisted in the Chinese

army. However, he returned to North Dakota to resume school.

Jung 6

In a letter in March, 1933 John reacted with skepticism to his teacher’s

recommendation that he read Pearl Buck’s “The Good Earth.” He expressed

doubt about its validity, writing that he felt white writers about China were

hypocritical. He explained that his school history book stated that signs in

Shanghai parks forbade entry to Chinese and dogs, signs that he claims he had

never seen during his extensive travels throughout China. Angered by this

book, he had a tantrum at school and wrote: “I could hardly control my

temper; I threw and tore the book in front of the teacher.”

Out of respect for Mrs. Peterson, he promised, “But I will read the

“Good Earth”, however, as you said it is good! As I was raised in China, I

should by now know my fatherland well. After having read it, I will make a

little critic to it and tell you whether it was just or not.”

In Dec. 1934, John confessed some personal failings in a letter in which

he acknowledged, “I broke my friendship with a so-called friend and gave up

all my ambition of making friends and all my unholy desires of making money.

This experience led to some difficult times for John, who admitted...”I would

become immoral ___falling into a bad habit of drinking, gambling and fooling

around in a pool hall. I did smoke once a while when I was in Devil’s Lake,

but, taking your advice, I quitted (sic) smoking for almost four years.”

After Mrs. Peterson offered advice about smoking and drinking in

response to his confession, John replied on Jan 3, 1935:

Jung 7

“But I always have the feeling of danger of smoking and

drinking. It is not the matter of money, but the matter of my

health. Men shall never begin a bad habit! To learn a bad habit

takes only few hours while to learn a good one takes several

years … I tried quite smoking for many times, but in vain.”

“In your instructive letter, .you said, “these views are entirely

personal and you are under no compulsion to pay any attention

to them if you disagree.”

He feigned disappointment in Mrs. Petersen’s disclaimer that he

was free to ignore her advice.

”What kind (of) person do you think I am, Mrs. Peterson? Do

you think I am a boy who turns good advice out from me? I

should say not…As you have been my teacher and know more

than I, you should correct my errors whenever you can find it ..

From now on, please tell my faults and don’t just try to make me

happy, for my future has many days coming.”

John graduated from Bismarck High School in 1935 and secured a

scholarship to attend Purdue University in Indiana and on Aug. 5, 1935, he

wrote to inform Mrs. Petersen. Despite many invitations in the past several

years and promises to visit the Peterson farm, John finally managed to visit

them for the first and only time in mid- August on his way to attend Purdue.
Jung 8

0n Dec. 30, 1935, he wrote to Mrs. Peterson from Purdue informing her

of his academic challenges during his first year. The level of difficulty and

competition was more than he was prepared for. He confided that he was

barely able to obtain B’s in many of his courses. He criticized himself,

“Since I am not working, I ought to make higher marks than ‘B.’

Well, I cannot blame anybody but myself that I didn’t take

drawing in high school, that my foundation is not much good for

engineering school and that i am too dumb or did not study hard

enough.“

The story does not have a happy ending. No record of what happened

to John after 1936 has been found. His last letter dated December 27, 1936

gave no indication that he intended to return to China but given that he did join

the Chinese army in the early 1930s, Mrs. Peterson speculated that he may

have returned to fight in the Sino-Japanese War, which broke out in July 1937.

Years later, in 1984, Fanny Peterson, reflected that “his intriguing

letters are a literary event, I feel. They reveal a developing personality and a

young man dedicated to making it in a 'white man's world'.”

Letters to John Jung (1952-1954)

Like the John Jung in North Dakota, I had a solitary childhood growing

up in a laundry run by the only Chinese family in Macon, Georgia, during the

WWII years before the Jim Crow era was challenged. I, too, was suddenly

uprooted from my hometown when my parents decided to move our family to

Jung 9

San Francisco when I was 15 so we could live among Chinese people. Father

stayed behind to run the laundry to support us. Overnight, I went from being

totally isolated from other Chinese in Macon, to living in the midst of the

largest Chinese community in the United States.

During this sometimes bewildering transition, my emotional ties

remained to Georgia and it was through letters that I maintained ties with

people in Macon that were important in my life. Two teachers were faithful

correspondents. Miss Rosa Taylor, the retired principal of my elementary

school, took a special interest in my development as far back as when as I

entered the first grade. She invited me to visit her occasionally after school at

her nearby home. We would sit on her front porch and converse at length on

topics that I, of course, no longer recall. She served for me the role of one of

my grandmothers in China that I never met, always patiently listening, with

indulgence, to my undoubtedly childish banter.

What was important about this relationship was that a highly respected

adult had a genuine interest in my growth. After I moved to California, she

would often write spirited letters of encouragement to me. When I once

confided my high school in San Francisco was very difficult, she wrote: “I

only know that you are in every way an A-1 boy and will always be a joy and a

credit to everyone who has had the happy privilege of knowing you. Right you

are! Show the Westerners that the “deep South is not so benighted as we have

been pictured…
Jung 10

A second mentor, Mr. Guyton Carr was my 9th grade science and

homeroom teacher. A curmudgeon at heart, he was a master teacher captured

and held the attention of fidgety 14-year old boys long enough to teach them

the principles of physical science. In his letters, Mr. Carr was full of

encouragement and praise, expressing high hopes for my success. When I

disclosed that my new school, the prestigious Lowell High, was intensely

competitive and I was no longer making all A’s, he offered support with a dose

of humor. “As far as I am concerned, something about your school has the

delicate aroma of a two weeks old fish-head. Surely that school is not than

much harder … Another thought just struck me,, Are you a courting boy now?

If the love bug has bitten you, that explains it.”

Mr. Carr treated me as a colleague or peer rather than as one of his

pupils. For example, in more than one letter he described his ideas for new

ways of teaching certain concepts, and then asked me for my opinion: “Do you

think I give too much homework? What methods could be used to get them to

have fun doing science? Anything you can say would be very much

appreciated. You would be a much better critic than practically any of the

students I had last year.”

And then there were townspeople who cared about me. Mr. Shirley, the

manager of an office building, was a father-surrogate to me, and a family

friend who treated us respectfully and was always available to assist my

father in business matters. Mr. Shirley was a prototypical Southern gentleman,

Jung 11

the kind who tipped his straw hat and nodded to women as they walked by on

the street.

His style was polite, genteel, and refined. In one letter, he wrote,

“I pass by the store daily, and it suddenly dawns on me that my fine

young friends, are 3000 miles away.” He also would comment on how well

my father was doing alone in Macon. And he often noted my father “missed

his family a lot.”

A second correspondent was Mr. Jessie Cooner, an elderly good ol’ boy

who served as a surrogate for the grandfathers in China I never met. He was

the clerk at the small liquor store next door to our laundry. We developed a

deep friendship through our mutual interest in baseball, and we would spend

hours discussing major league players and listening to radio broadcasts of

games. On Sundays, we often attended local games together.

From Mr. Cooner, I would get a letter every few weeks lamenting about

the local hot weather, how much he missed my companionship, and how

poorly the local baseball team was playing. He liked to tease me when my

favorite team, the St. Louis Cardinals, was not doing well. He often mentioned

his conversations with my father when they would sit outside their stores to

cool off during the summer evenings, “I talk with your Daddy every night and

of course it is about you all. He tell me every time hear here (sic) from any of

you.”
Jung 12

In several letters, his Southern racial biases would emerge, “John, your

Daddy just told me that Negroes go to the same school you go to. How about

that. I bet you don’t like that at all. Write me all about how they work that

kind of business.”

And so it was, that when I moved across the country, this assortment of

correspondents helped me adjust by expressing interest, concern, and

confidence in me. My correspondences lasted for only for one to two years,

brief compared to those of the North Dakota John Jung. Nonetheless, the

affirmation and support I received was invaluable in giving me confidence in

my potential.

None of my letters to these mentors are available. My recollection is

that I usually rambled, as adolescents tend to do. I usually wrote about new

experiences, schoolwork, tourist sights, career plans, the weather, and, of

course, how much I missed my Georgia friends.

What was the significance of these letter exchanges between two

solitary Chinese boys and their white teachers and mentors? Even though both

boys moved from the familiar worlds of their hometowns, both needed, sought,

and received the security and assurance of regular communication with

someone from back home that they admired and trusted. Neither of the two

John Jungs had any peers in their hometowns of their own age or ethnic

background. Psychological theories assume that such peers strongly affect

development. However, the two John Jungs illustrate how emotional support
Jung 13

can come from unexpected sources, as people differing widely in age and

ethnicity from the boys proved to be highly effective substitutes.