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[Last name, First name], Oral history interview conducted by [Interviewer’s First name Last name], [Month DD, YYYY], [Title of Collection], [Call #]; Brooklyn Historical Society.
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Huan Reng Chin
Oral history interview conducted by Mary Lui
April 1993
Call number: 1994.007.08
0:00 - 开场白：介绍受访者、地址、日期、及采访人 Introduction of narrator and interviewer’s names, interview location, and date
0:21 - 自我介绍，家庭、教育，以及泰国华侨的状况 Self-introduction, family, and education; situation of Chinese immigrants in Thailand
7:23 - 回中国参加抗日战争, 投奔共产党，被国民党逮捕 Back to China: involved in Sino-Japanese War, assisted Communists, detained by Nationalists
21:30 - 运送情报被国民党逮捕，监狱生活 Arrested by Nationalist Party because of intelligence activities, life in prison
33:59 - 参加中央军校，支援抗战，海外华侨的贡献 Central Military Academy; Chinese ex-patriots' activism & supporting of Sino-Japanese War
44:43 - 在英国接受军事训练, 内战爆发逃到新加坡，1950年回中国 Military training in U.K.; Escape to Thailand as civil war starts; Return to China, 1950
58:29 - 在中国的经历，土改、反右、文革 Experience in China, land-reform, anti-rightest movement, Cultural Revolution
81:09 - 移民初期的挑战，对中国及其统治阶级、唐人街生活的看法 Immigration: arrival & 1st challenges; Attitude on China/ruling class; Chinatown life
121:57 - 布鲁克林的生活，被菲律宾移民欺负，被抢劫、失业 Life in Brooklyn; Being bullied by Filipino immigrants; Being robbed; Unemployment
144:50 - 家庭，与泰国移民、同龄人、中国人、外国人的交往 Family life; Relating to immigrants from Thailand, elderly peers, Chinese, and Westerners
Interview Description
Oral History Interview with Huan Reng Chin
Huan Reng "Benson" Chin was born in 1922 to a merchant-class Chinese family in Bangkok, Thailand. When the Sino-Japanese war broke out, Chin-aged fourteen-became a spy for the Japanese Resistance Committee of Overseas Chinese. Chin experienced World War II, the Cultural Revolution, and the Chinese Communist Party as a spy and revolutionary. In 1984, aged sixty-two, Chin immigrated to New York City; where he took work as a dishwasher in Manhattan's Chinatown. He later moved to Brooklyn's Chinatown in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn. At the time of the 1993 interview, Chin looked forward to retirement.
In this interview, Huan Reng "Benson" Chin discusses his involvement in the Sino-Japanese war; conducting espionage for the Chinese Communist Party. He recalls his military education in Marxism/ Leninism and fighting in World War II. Chin speaks of the Chinese Cultural Revolution; including detention in labor camps, mass starvation, and numerous civilian suicides. Chin evaluates life after his 1984 immigration to New York City; Chinatowns of the boroughs, Sunset Park street crime, and looking forward to retirement. Interview in Cantonese conducted by Mary Lui.
Brooklyn Historical Society collaborated with the Chinatown History Museum (now the Museum of Chinese in America) in order to conduct a series of oral histories with residents of the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn. The Cantonese, Mandarin, and English language interviews focused on what was then a new presence of Chinese and Asian immigrants concentrated along Eighth Avenue. Among the topics that are explored in the interviews are tensions between different groups of Chinese immigrants, crime and safety in the neighborhood, Sunset Park's relationship to Manhattan's Chinatown, and how long-term residents of Sunset Park had adjusted to the area's "newcomers."
Citation
Chin, Huan Reng, Oral history interview conducted by Mary Lui, April 1993, New Neighbors: Sunset Park's Chinese Community records, 1994.007.08; Brooklyn Historical Society.People
- Chin, Huan Reng
- Zhongguo gong chan dang
Topics
- Chinese Americans
- Community information services
- Crime
- Emigration and immigration
- Immigrants
- Older people
- Pearl Harbor (Hawaii), Attack on, 1941
- Sino-Japanese War, 1937-1945
- World War, 1939-1945
Places
- Bangkok (Thailand)
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
- China
- Chinatown (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
- Chinatown (New York, N.Y.)
- Hong Kong (China)
- Sunset Park (New York, N.Y.)
Finding Aid
New Neighbors: Sunset Park's Chinese Community records