In 1906, the San Francisco earthquake and fire destroyed local public records. Dating from the fire, many Chinese claimed that they were born in San Francisco. With this citizenship the father then claimed citizenship for his offspring born in China. In subsequent trips to the Orient, the father would report the birth of an offspring or two upon his return, usually a son. Sometimes, the father would report the birth of a son when in reality there was no such event. This was what was termed a “slot” and would then be available for sale to boys who had no family relationships in the United States in order to enable them to enter this country. Merchant brokers often acted as middlemen to handle the sale of slots. Sons who entered the country in this fashion were known as “paper sons.” The fact that such deception was practiced was entirely due to the exclusion law. All the “paper sons” wanted was to emigrate to America in search of a better life.
- The History of the Chinese in California, Thomas Chin, 1969
My father, who was a paper son didn't have the requirements to enter the United States under the exclusion act, he had to be a merchant to do so. He would've been classified as a laborer and technically he wouldn't have been allowed to enter the country. Chinese developed a method called "Paper Son" where you could buy papers from someone else who was entitled to enter, so he came under a different name."
-John Jung, Personal Interview, December 21, 2017
"I am the grandson of illegal immigrants. My father's parents came here as Paper Son and Paper Daughter. The "Paper" system involved buying real U.S. identities, sold by international agents, and then assumed, in this case, by my grandparents when they arrived in California. My real last name is Wong, not the name they bought."
- Richard Lui, February 10, 2013
Death and destruction have been the fate of San Francisco. Shaken by a temblor at 5:13 o’clock yesterday morning, the shock lasting 48 seconds, and scourged by flames that raged diametrically in all directions, the city is a mass of smouldering ruins. At six o’clock last evening the flames seemingly playing with increased vigor, threatened to destroy such sections as their fury had spared during the earlier portion of the day. Building their path in a triangular circuit from the start in the early morning, they jockeyed as the day waned, left the business section, which they had entirely devastated, and skipped in a dozen directions to the residence portions. As night fell they had made their way over into the North Beach section and springing anew to the south they reached out along the shipping section down the bay shore, over the hills and across toward Third and Townsend streets.
-Oakland Herald, San Francisco, April 16, 1906
February 6, 1929, at the age of 17 (on the ship’s manifest, he was listed as being 15 years old, his “paper son” age), Jim Fong, a “Paper Son”, arrived in San Francisco, CA on the ship SS President McKinley. While crossing the Pacific Ocean, my father, spent the time on board the SS President McKinley studying the 200 page document his father had purchased from a Fong family. He memorized the layout of the village, the layout and design of his “paper home” including such things as what room he slept in and how many steps there were in front of his “paper home”. He memorized details and pictures of his fake brothers and parents. Dad went through three weeks of intensive interrogations on Angel Island by US Immigration Officials to determine if he was a true son of a citizen. On February 27, 1929, he was permitted to enter the United States as a U.S. Citizen based on the citizenship papers that his father purchased in China. " |
"My grandfather was an orphan and he claimed he was a merchant's son. That was a lie and he bought papers, which was extremely common during that time because it was really the only way you could come in if you were Chinese. He eventually regularized his status and became a naturalized citizen when they granted Chinese “amnesty” during the Cold War — though they didn’t call it that at the time. By that time he kind of bragged about it: "Yeah, they tried to keep us out but I got in!". On the other side, my grandmother whose great grandfather had come over during the gold rush, she had been left behind. She had been abandoned. Her father could only bring two kids with him. He brought his son and then gave my grandmother's slot to a nephew. And because of the way exclusion laws worked, that totally barred her from any chance of coming as his daughter. So she never talked about how she did end up coming. We all knew that you just don't ask. Don't ask her about her family, because it was clearly very traumatic."
-Erika Lee, Historian
"My father's story is the story of most of the Cantonese people that came here during the '40s, '50s and '60s, he lived under the fear that he could be deported any time if he was discovered. So he took his real [identity] to his grave thinking it's the best thing to do."
-Steve Yee, Los Angeles Times, January 24, 2010
“'About 80% to 90% of the 175,000 Chinese that came to America between 1910 and 1940 were paper sons, said Judy Yung, a professor emeritus in Asian American Studies at UC Santa Cruz whose father was a paper son."
-Los Angeles Times, January 24, 2010