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Oral histories are intimate conversations between and among people who have generously agreed to share these recordings with BHS’s archives and researchers. Please listen in the spirit with which these were shared. BHS abides by the General Principles & Best Practices for Oral History as agreed upon by the Oral History Association and expects that use of this material will be done with respect for these professional ethics.
Every oral history relies on the memories, views, and opinions of the narrator. Because of the personal nature of oral history, listeners may find some viewpoints or language of the recorded participants to be objectionable. In keeping with its mission of preservation and unfettered access whenever possible, BHS presents these views as recorded.
The audio recording should be considered the primary source for each interview. Where provided, transcripts created prior to 2008 or commissioned by a third party other than BHS, serve as a guide to the interview and are not considered verbatim. More recent transcripts commissioned by BHS are nearly verbatim copies of the recorded interview, and as such may contain the natural false starts, verbal stumbles, misspeaks, and repetitions that are common in conversation. The decision for their inclusion was made because BHS gives primacy to the audible voice and also because some researchers do find useful information in these verbal patterns. Unless these verbal patterns are germane to your scholarly work, when quoting from this material researchers are encouraged to correct the grammar and make other modifications maintaining the flavor of the narrator’s speech while editing the material for the standards of print.
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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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Reverend Fook Wong
Oral history interview conducted by Mary Lui
April 15, 1993
Call number: 1994.007.27
0:10 - 现在的地址，来到美国，创立中国教会，现在教会的规模 Church address, coming to US, founding Chinese church, church’s congregation in 1993
7:49 - 与八大道其他教会的交流，为什么中国人喜欢聚居在八大道，“第三中国城”经济潜力 Other 8th Ave churches, why Chinese gather at 8th Ave, “the third Chinatown,” economic potential
21:43 - 新移民的迁居路线，造衣厂，传教的内容和责任 Paths of new immigrants, garment factories, his commission and responsibility
31:44 - 第一次来美国，美国和基督教，神指引下的未来 Landing in US for first time, Christianity and US, future path with God's guidance
35:52 - 对比这里和香港，牧师的日常，自己的假期和教会活动 Comparing NYC with Hong Kong, daily life as a preacher, personal vacations and church activities
45:25 - 教会成员来自哪里，使用和被需要的语言服务，混居的社区 Congregation members’ origins, language service as used and what's needed, neighborhood mix
52:14 - 成员的需要和教会的目标，对中国大陆移民的态度，移民家庭的小孩和青少年 Members' needs and church’s goal, attitudes toward Mainland Chinese immigrants, kids from immigrant families
65:10 - 新移民感情上和生活上受到的冲击，八大道的新移民是怎么来到美国的 New immigrants’ emotional and social challenges, how 8th Ave’s immigrants came to NYC
81:16 - 这个地区对中国新移民的态度，抢劫 Attitude towards the new Chinese immigrants in the region, robberies
Interview Description
Oral History Interview with Reverend Fook Wong
Called by a relative to bring the word of Jesus Christ to Brooklyn's Chinese community, Reverend Fook "Samuel" Wong, at age forty-two, immigrated with his wife to New York City from Hong Kong in 1982. In 1983, they established the Chinese Promise Baptist Church in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn. Through the church, Wong and his wife founded an annual Memorial Day Weekend street festival, which they hoped would increase neighborhood vitality and pride, while reducing street crime. At the time of the 1993 interview, Wong's daily activities were spent in community service; preaching, providing charity, organizing the annual street festival, and tending to the needs of his fifty parishioners.
In this interview Reverend Fook "Samuel" Wong discusses his life as an evangelical Baptist preacher in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn. He talks about the innermost lives of the immigrant Chinese community he works with daily, detailing their "stages of immigration," as they assimilate to American culture. He details the domestic and financial challenges faced by overworked immigrants. Wong speaks on other issues, including corrupted youth, Chinese gang-related activities, the diversity of Brooklyn's Chinatown, and ethnic tensions between the area's Hispanic and Chinese residents. He also describes the Fuzhou people of China. 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
Wong, Fook, Reverend, Oral history interview conducted by Mary Lui, April 15, 1993, New Neighbors: Sunset Park's Chinese Community records, 1994.007.27; Brooklyn Historical Society.People
- Chinese Promise Baptist Church (New York, N.Y.)
- Wong, Fook, Reverend
Topics
- American Dream
- Baptist associations
- Baptists
- Chinese Americans
- Crime
- English as a second language
- Ethnic neighborhoods
- Ethnic relations
- Evangelistic work
- Gangs
- Immigrants
- Multiculturalism
Places
- Bay Ridge (New York, N.Y.)
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
- China
- Chinatown (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
- Sunset Park (New York, N.Y.)
Finding Aid
New Neighbors: Sunset Park's Chinese Community records