SAVE OUR CHINATOWN COMMITTEE
  • Home
  • Discover Riverside's Hidden Heritage
  • Chinatown Heritage Park
  • Events
  • Donate
    • Year of the Dog Honor Roll
    • Become a Member
    • Share your time and services
  • About SOCC
  • Blog
  • News (Chinese/中文)

Wong Tong Yen, Traveling Chinese Barber

4/2/2017

1 Comment

 
PictureImage: 19th century British illustration of a traveling Chinese barber.
At this year's Ching Ming, SOCC shared information about Wong Tong Yen, Riverside's traveling Chinese barber. Mr. Wong worked in Riverside and San Bernardino Chinatown and made regular visits to the homes on Chinese vegetable gardens along the way. Itinerant barbers' work dwindled after the queue hairstyle was no longer maintained after 1910. As such, Mr. Wong had little work in the last years of his life and died a poor man on May 26, 1914. He was buried in Olivewood Cemetery in a section of the cemetery where most Chinese were laid to rest. His burial expenses were paid by local Chinese residents, likely by the Chee Kung Tong organization, of which he was a member. Mr. Wong left a wife and two children in China. According to a local newspaper report, he made only one trip to China to visit his family since his immigration to the U.S. Cemetery records reveal that he was disinterred in August 1937. 

1 Comment
Haircut Places Edmonton link
11/4/2021 06:34:07 am

This tradition has changed little today. Street barbers can still be found in the old neighborhoods in cities, in villages, and in the less developed realms of China.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    BLOG

                                                                     

    Archives

    June 2018
    January 2018
    April 2017
    February 2017
    October 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

© COPYRIGHT 2017 SOCC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • Home
  • Discover Riverside's Hidden Heritage
  • Chinatown Heritage Park
  • Events
  • Donate
    • Year of the Dog Honor Roll
    • Become a Member
    • Share your time and services
  • About SOCC
  • Blog
  • News (Chinese/中文)