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CHINESE AMERICANS
AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF AVIATION IN CHINA
Him Mark Lai
Beginning with the last decades of the nineteenth century, Chinese society slowly, at times
painfully, groped its way toward modernization. The possibility of promising careers buoyed by the
nationalistic ardor to build a strong modernized China during the years of the Republic attracted the
reverse flow of investment capital and Chinese overseas to their ancestral land. They often became the
agents introducing institutions and innovations. Chinese from the Western societies, in particular, played
important roles in the transfer of technological developments from abroad. One of the most interesting
chapters was the role Chinese overseas, especially those from North America, played in the development
of aviation in China during the first half of the twentieth century. Due to the fact that the overwhelming
majority of Chinese in North America were from Guangdong, the flow of talent naturally gravitated
toward that province. They played particularly important roles in the development of the Guangdong Air
Force that grew to a rather formidable force.
A few Chinese were already interested in the then infantile aeronautical sciences as early as the
late 19th century. It should not be a surprise to find that Chinese in contact with the Western world were
among the pioneers. One of these was Xie Zuantai (Tse Tsan Tai) (1872-1938), a Chinese of Kaiping
ancestry who was born in Sidney, Australia. Coming to Hong Kong in 1887, Tse matriculated in Queen's
College and then served as compradore in various firms. He was also one of the early sympathizers of
Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary movement. Tse became interested in lighter-than-air vessels and designed a
dirigible with motor-driven fan propellers and retractable wings. It is said that in1894 he sent his plans to
Sir Hiram S. Maxim of England, one of the early pioneers in aviation.1 Tse Tsan Tai's ideas never came to
fruition and it remained for Yu Kunhe (Yu Kwun Wo), a Kaiping immigrant who actually built a working
lighter-than-air contrivance in America in 1910. The aircraft was said to measure five by thirteen feet. It
was suspended from a large hydrogen-filled lacquer-coated balloon made with silk fabric that provided
the motive power.2 However, although his effort made headlines in the newspaper Nong-Gong Ribao in
Guangzhou, it led to a dead end, for by this time, many Chinese were shifting their focus to flight with
heavier-than-air machines.
Early Aviators
The pioneer in this field Feng Jiuru (Fung Joe Guey or Fong Yue) (Dec. 18, 1883-Aug. 23, 1912)
was born in Xingpu Village, Enping County in Guangdong Province, China. The only surviving son of
five in a peasant family,3 he was sent with an uncle to the U.S. in 1899.4 Settling in San Francisco, the
young lad worked in a missionary-operated institution by day and studied English at night. He became
interested in Western technology and science and decided to take up machine design. However, he soon
found out that it was virtually impossible to find a position as a machine shop apprentice in the rabidly
anti-Chinese atmosphere then existing in California. But with the help of another Chinese he was able to
find work in a New York machine shop. For eight years he worked by day and performed experiments on
his own by night at home. He constructed working models of electrical motors, adding a number of
technological innovations of his own invention. He also learned how to build a wireless telegraph
machine.5
Returning to the Bay Area in 1906, Fong became interested in the then fledgling aviation
technology. Unlike Tse Tsan Tai and Yu Kwun Wo, Fong was more interested in heavier-than-air
machines. Obtaining the backing of several Chinese merchants and aviation enthusiasts, he organized the
Guangdong Machinery Manufacturing Company and established a shop in Oakland in the fall of 1907.6
Working with great secrecy and consulting only a few trusted Chinese friends and also H. William Nelle
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of Oakland,7 Fong completed a machine by May of the following year. Unfortunately, the trial flight was
unsuccessful as the plane crashed. To add to his misfortunes, the work shop burned down. But resuming
work in a makeshift shed in a wheat field, Fong doggedly worked on another biplane. However, this
second aircraft was no less unsuccessful in five attempts.8
But Fong's unflagging determination was finally rewarded when on September 23, 1909 he
triumphantly piloted his creation in the skies above the Piedmont hills behind Oakland, staying aloft for
about twenty minutes despite a strong wind. Then suddenly the bolt holding the propeller to the shaft
failed and the flight came to a near catastrophic conclusion. Fong fortunately was not seriously hurt. In
spite of this abrupt ending to his aerial adventure, Fong had demonstrated that he had developed a
machine that could be kept under control while in flight. This impressive achievement did not go
unnoticed in the press, and the S.F. Examiner among others came out with the headline: "CHINESE
LEAVES WHITES BEHIND IN AVIATION--Oakland Genius Make First Flight on Coast in Craft
Driven by Home-Made Motor."9
Fong continued to improve his design. After a number of trials he finally succeeded in making a
four-minute flight without mishap on January 18, 1911 at Elmhurst, flying a biplane with a 75 HP engine
and capable of a top air speed of around 65 miles per hour.10
The imperial Chinese government, hearing of Fong Yue's accomplishments, offered him a
commission to be in charge of a planned Chinese army aviation corps. Fong returned to Guangzhou,
China, in early 1911 with several youthful associates.11 However, unstable political conditions were
unfavorable for his career. In March of that year a German aviator was scheduled to give demonstration
flights at Yantang, a Guangzhou suburb. While on his way to watch the show, Fuqi, commander of the
Canton garrison, was assassinated by a revolutionary.12 Shortly after, on the 29th day of the 3rd moon,
occurred an abortive uprising by the revolutionary forces, a number of whom were executed and later
buried at the site of the present Mausoleum of the 72 Martyrs at Huanghua Gang in Guangzhou. A few
months later, the Wuchang uprising occurred, marking the end of the Manchu dynasty. Under these
conditions Fong could do little to demonstrate his talents, although it is alleged that after the Wuchang
uprising Fong offered the revolutionaries in Guangdong to organize an aerial group to conduct
intelligence surveillance for a northern military expedition. However, the Manchu emperor abdicated
before this plan could be implemented.
Fong Yue made his final flight while giving a demonstration in Yantang. Flying at more than 100
feet elevation for several miles, his plane suddenly dove to the ground before the horrified gaze of
thousands of spectators. Fong was fatally injured. He was only twenty-nine. His body was interred at
Huanghua Gang near the Mausoleum of the 72 Martyrs.13
Contemporary with Fong Yue was San Francisco native Tan Degen (Tom Gunn) (Oct. 13, 18901920?) of Kaiping ancestry. Tom took flying lessons in aviation schools operated by Curtiss and by the
Eaton brothers. In March 1912 he passed the test for the F.A.I. certificate and is said to be the first
licensed Chinese pilot in the United States, with license No. 131 dated June 19, 1912. However, there
were no jobs for pilots in those days when aviation was still in its swaddling clothes. Supporters of the
Republic then made overtures to Tom to fly for the Chinese government and in 1913 Tom sailed for
Hawaii, then went on to the Philippines. Fellow Chinese in these localities treated him as a hero and he
gave a number of exhibition flights. After his arrival in China around 1915, Tom drifted back and forth
among the various rival regimes in the country. He also returned to the United States in 1916 and in
1919. Soon after his last trip Tom Gunn met an untimely death in China. He was then around thirty years
of age.14
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Another early Chinese American aviator was Lin Fuyuan (Lum Fook Yuen, Arthur F. Lym)
(1890-1962), born in San Francisco's Butchertown in a Kaiping immigrant family. Attracted early by the
glamour of aviation, Lym obtained a pilot's license at San Diego's Curtiss Flying School in 1913. In 1914
he went to Guangdong, bringing along an airplane of the New Era Aeroplane Co. founded by members of
the Chinese Constitutionalist Party in America. The plan was to use the developing aviation as a cover to
await an opportunity for military action to oust unpopular President Yuan Shikai's henchmen, then
governing the province. However, when the ship docked in Hong Kong, the British impounded the
aircraft. The stranded Lym was approached by members of the Kuomintang who persuaded him to cast
his lot with Sun Yat-sen’s government that was established in Guangzhou in 1917. An injury to his left
leg during a demonstration flight in 1920 ended his flying days and he was transferred to an armory to
work on weapons. In 1921 he became Director of Public Security, where he reorganized and modernized
the city's fire fighting system. From the 1920s through the 1930s Lym alternated between training pilots
and maintaining, repairing, and building aircraft. In 1938 the Chinese government ordered him and Chen
Qingyun (Chan Hing Wan) (1897-1981) to travel to the Americas to raise money from the Chinese
community to purchase aircraft. The team stayed for more than a year and when Lym returned, he stayed
in Hong Kong to provide logistical support for the Chinese Air Force. When the Japanese seized Hong
Kong, Lym escaped to Yunnan where he worked with the US armed forces overseeing the shipment of
war material over the Burma Road. In 1944 he became a consultant to the Central Airlines. Lym passed
away in Hong Kong.15
The Guangdong Air Force
The Revolutionary Party and its successor, the Kuomintang, also early expressed deep interest in
aviation, especially in its potential for military use. It was alleged that at the time of the 1911 Revolution,
supporters of Sun Yat-sen in the U.S. raised funds to purchase six airplanes to support the revolutionaries.
But unfortunately at that time there were no Chinese pilots available who could man the flying
machines.16 Shortly after the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912, Sun Yat-sen and the
Kuomintang were forced out of the government in Beijing headed by the Machiavellian Yuan Shikai.
After Yuan's death a series of military strong men dominated the Beijing government, and by 1917 Duan
Qirui had dissolved the assembly and abolished the provisional constitution of 1912 In the meantime Sun
and his followers went into exile again and sought to establish a base in the south to oppose the Beijing
regime and to work for the restoration of the constitution.
By that time the outbreak of World War I had seen the first major applications of aircraft for
military use. In 1916 Sun Yat-sen requested the Kuomintang in the United States to purchase several
airplanes for military use by his forces.17 A slogan attributed to him, "national salvation through aviation,"
immediately caught on. The Kuomintang in the United States began recruiting young Chinese to learn
flying skills in America to serve the Kuomintang armed forces. A selected group of twenty was enrolled
in the Curtiss Flying School in Buffalo, New York. In the San Francisco Bay Area the General Branch
organized a flying school in Redwood City with Chinese American Huang Boyao (Wong Bock You) as
the principal. Graduates from this pioneer group of trainees who returned to join the Kuomintang forces
in Guangdong in 1917 included the following who played prominent roles in the subsequent development
of the Guangdong Air Force: Zhang Huicang (Jeung Wai Jeung) (1899-1980), an immigrant who had
entered the US as a "paper son" with surname Chen (Chan);18 Chen Qingyun (Chan Hing Wan), who
immigrated at age three with his parents to Japan, where he was later recruited for aviation training in
America; Ye Shaoyi (Yip Shiu Ngai), an immigrant who had came to America with his uncle to Stockton,
California; and Hawaii-born Yang Xianyi (Young Sen Yet) (Oct. 26, 1893?-Aug. 20, 1923),19 the third
son of wealthy Honolulu rice merchant Yang Zhukun (Young Jeu Kwun, Young Ahin), a staunch
Kuomintang member. At that time Sun Yat-sen supporters had forged an uneasy alliance with Guangxi
and Yunnan military leaders to establish a military government in Guangzhou in opposition to northern
government. However, the coalition regime did not have any aircraft. Thus for awhile Jeung and Chun
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became military attachés on Sun Yat-sen's staff. In 1918 Li Yi'e (Lee Yat Ngok) (1892-1974) was
appointed to head the newly created Aviation Department with Jeung Wai Jeung as his deputy. Lee
discovered two used aircraft stored by Tom Gunn in Dashatou Island on the Pearl River, Guangzhou. Lee
was an immigrant from He serviced and repaired the aircraft so that they could be flown. These aircraft,
usable for training purposes only, became the nucleus for building the air arm of the Kuomintang as they
scoured the market for used aircraft paid for by scraping together their own meager resources as well as
by generous donations from supporters among Chinese abroad.20
In the meantime, differences between Sun Yat-sen and the Guangxi military leaders resulted in
Sun's resignation from the government and he proceeded to Shanghai in mid-1918. On his way he stopped
by Shantou where Guangdong garrison troops under Chen Jiongming had established a military base and
convinced him to continue a campaign to invade Fujian to consolidate the southern regime's base. Sun
also dispatched Chan Hing Wan to Japan to buy aircraft. Young Sen Yet, Jeung Wai Jeung, and other
airmen in the Kuomintang's miniature air force also joined Chen's forces in Shantou. During the military
campaign that resulted in Chen's forces capturing Zhangzhou in southern Fujian, Ye Shaoyi (Yip Shiu
Ngai) (1896?-Dec. 8, 1918), who was among the first group of aviators trained under the auspices of the
Kuomintang in America, became the first casualty in the still embryonic Kuomintang air arm when he
was killed in a crash while flying on a reconnaissance mission in inclement weather. He was only twentyfour at the time of death. 21
By this time, World War I had ended. The Beijing government, which Sun and his supporters
opposed, purchased some surplus warplanes from England and signed an agreement to purchase new
ones. To match this, Sun Yat-sen's supporters scoured the world market for aircraft. Chan Hing-wan
bought a used biplane in Japan that he flew to Zhangzhou, Fujian. Later, Jeung Wai Jeung and Chan Hing
Wan were sent to negotiate the purchase of a large and a small seaplane from a Frenchman who had been
trying to establish a passenger and cargo air service in the Pearl River Delta. The financially hard-pressed
Kuomintang regime could only scrape together enough funds for the smaller aircraft; however, Lu Jiu, a
wealthy Macao merchant was persuaded to purchase the larger airplane for $9,000 and donate it to Sun’s
forces.22
During this period, high-handed tactics of the Guangxi military leaders in Guangzhou forced
many Sun supporters to depart in 1919. A split between the Yunnan and Guangxi military leaders also
widened and Mo Rongxin of the Guangxi clique became the strong man. Seeing an opportunity to resume
power in Guangdong, Sun urged Chen Jiongming to return with his Guangdong troops from Zhangzhou,
Fujian, to oust the Guangxi clique. In a military campaign of two-month duration, Mo was ousted and
Sun's supporters returned to Guangzhou in October. A landmark event during this campaign was the first
use of military air power by the fledgling Guangdong Air Force. On the night of the Mid-autumn Festival
(September 26) in 1920, Young Sen Yet and allegedly Jeung Wai Jeung flew two planes over Guangzhou
to buzz Mo Rongxin's headquarters and release three crude bombs. The display of air power played a role
in hastening Mo's departure from Guangzhou by early October. As Mo's army retreated westward, Jeung
and Chan pressed their air superiority by strafing from above.23
After the Kuomintang had established a new regime in Guangzhou, it set up an Aviation Bureau
headed by Zhu Zhuowen (Chu Cheuk Mun) (1875-1935), who had immigrated from Xiangshan to San
Francisco in 1896, where he became a supporter of the revolution and Sun's trusted bodyguard in
America, and returned to China in 1912. By this time the tiny air force had also been augmented by three
more aircraft brought back by Cai Sidu (Tsoi See Do) (Nov. 15, 1884-Aug. 14, 1970), chief pilot in
Tuqiang Aircraft Company founded in 1918 by San Francisco Kuomintang members to purchase aircraft
for Sun's forces, and handed over to Sun Yat-sen in Shanghai earlier that year. (As a lad of sixteen Tsoi
had immigrated with his father from Xinhui to America in 1900, where he soon joined the Tongmenghui
and participated in the party organ Young China. Later, he graduated from the Kuomintang's Redwood
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City Flying School.) This motley mixture of aircraft was organized into two wings, one headed by Jeung
Wai Jeung, who was also Deputy Director of the Aviation Bureau, and the other allegedly led by Chen
Yingquan (Chin Ying Kuen), another aviator from America who had headed the air arm supporting Chen
Jiongming's forces in Fujian. When he was in the United States, Chin was copilot with Tsoi See Do in the
Tuqiang Aircraft Company.24
At the end of 1920 Sun Yat-sen assigned Young Sen Yet the task to further strengthen the air
force in preparation for a planned northern expedition to unify China. Young returned to Hawaii and
persuaded his aged father to donate funds to purchase four airplanes for the Sun Yat-sen's force. He also
actively campaigned in Hawaii and the mainland for the Kuomintang and raised funds for flying lessons
for the young Chinese he recruited. During this period Sun Yat-sen was forced to leave for Shanghai
again by Chen Jiongming's rebellion in 1922. Sun summoned Young to return, bringing with him the
aircraft that he had purchased and the recruits that he had brought to America to acquire the flying skills.
The newly arrived recruits and aircraft were sent into action strafing and bombing Chen Jiongming's
troops effectively. By the beginning of 1923, the supporters of Sun Yat-sen had forced Chen to retreat
eastward from Guangzhou as Sun returned to set up a new government. Yang was appointed head of a
reorganized Aviation Bureau. Some months later, Yang was killed at Huizhou along with more than a
hundred casualties when a mine was accidentally detonated on September 20. He was only thirty-two.
The Kuomintang government later designated this date as Air Force Day. Sen Yet Middle School was
also established to commemorate his memory in Shiqi (Shekki), Zhongshan, his ancestral county of
origin. He was buried at Huanghua Gang in Guangzhou near Fong Yue's grave. Sun Yat-sen appointed a
civilian, Trinidad-born Eugene Chen (1878-1944), to succeed Young. 25
The Guangdong Air Force slowly grew in the 1920s as Chinese overseas aviators returned to
China and enlisted, with many from the United States bringing along aircraft. Supporting institutions
began to emerge. An Aircraft Maintenance Group was established, headed by Zhou Baoheng (Chow Bo
Heng) (?-1987), an aviator who had learned flying in Chico, California, and arrived in China in 1923.
However, as the number of planes increased, this proved to be inadequate and it was upgraded to an
Aircraft Maintenance Shop, and Hawaii-born Yang Guanyu (Yeung Gwoon Yu) (1901-1970) became its
first director. Yeung had been recruited by Young Sen Yet in 1921, and after joining the Tuqiang Aircraft
Company to learn flying at Redwood City, arrived in China in 1922. In his early years he had learned
mechanical skills.26
One of the government's aim had been to be less dependent on foreign sources for aircraft and
parts. Earlier, Young Sen Yet had established a shop in Guangzhou, where he worked with two nonChinese technicians laboriously to complete the first aircraft built in China in mid-1923. Reportedly,
Madame Sun Yat-sen (Soong Qingling) took a flight on the plane; other accounts suggested that she only
had her photograph taken while sitting in the cockpit. It was at her suggestion that the aircraft was called
Rosamonde 1, using the name that she had while attending school in the United States. However, the
shop was soon converted to an airplane maintenance shop. After Lu Weipu (Loo Wai Pu), then head of
the shop, built an airplane in 1927 that did not successfully fly, Mei Long'an (Moy Lung On) (?-1970)
succeeded him in 1928. Moy was an immigrant who had learned the mechanical trades, and was
especially skilled in welding. In 1924 he entered Sanmin Flying School in Chicago to study aeronautics.
In 1926 he departed for Guangdong, whence he was sent to the Soviet Union for further studies in aircraft
design. After his return he became head of Guangzhou's Airplane Maintenance Shop, in which he also
established facilities for building aircraft. At the end of 1928, Moy completed an airplane that he named
Yangcheng 51, which was successfully flown at 80 mph speed. By purchasing some new parts and
cannibalizing parts from other aircraft, Moy improved his design by constructing successive models up to
a Yangcheng 57 model that could run at 140 mph. In 1934 he modified the design of a Douglas
reconnaissance aircraft and in 1936, he was able to complete and deliver ten Yangcheng Douglas aircraft
to be used for training. Moy's efforts was a far cry from establishing an aircraft industry, which at the time
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would have been just a dream in a country that did not even have a modern industrial base; however, his
efforts surely advanced Chinese efforts a few steps toward this end.27
The earlier aviators serving the Kuomintang regime were either Chinese from abroad, mostly
from America, or Chinese sent to learn flying in America. In order to ensure the availability of a pool of
aviation talent that was not dependent on foreign sources, the Sun Yat-sen-led government founded a
Military Aviation School in Guangzhou in 1924 to train pilots and ground personnel for the small but
growing air force. But with military campaigns and other duties constantly calling for the services of
personnel from the school and others being selected to go the Soviet Union for further training, the school
administration and personnel changed frequently and finally it ceased operation in early 1927. In mid1927 Guangdong Governor Li Jishen (1885-1959) reopened the school and put it under the administration
of Headquarters of the National Revolutionary Army. (The Nationalist government in Nanjing led by
Chiang Kai-shek also established a aeronautical school around 1929.) Jeung Wai Jeung became the
principal. In early 1928 he was promoted to be director of the Aviation Department of Guangdong, with
Chan Hing Wan as his deputy. In November, inspired by Charles Lindburgh's trans-Atlantic flight the
previous year, Jeung with a crew piloted a monoplane to make the first long distance flight in China to
publicize "national salvation through aviation." The plane flew from Guangzhou to Hankou, Nanjing,
Beiping (now Beijing), Shenyang (Mukden), Tianjin, and Shanghai. This was a dangerous journey in a
China that at the time had only a few crude airfields, and radio and weather reporting facilities were
non-existent. The plane attracted enthusiastic crowds wherever it landed and Jeung was accorded the
accolade of the "Lindburgh of China." His co-pilots were Hawaii-born Yeung Gwoon Yu and Huang
Yupei (Wong Yook Pui), born in Marysville, California, who had learned his fundamental aviation skills
in a flying school at Chico, California, and then organized the San Min Flying School in Chicago in 1924,
where he was the instructor. He joined the Guangdong Air Force in 1926. The remaining crew member
was Yang Biao, an aircraft mechanic.28
A month later, Chan Hing Wan piloted a seaplane from Guangzhou to Shantou (Swatow),
Fuzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Changsha, Wuzhou, and back to Guangzhou. His co-pilots included Zhou
Baoheng of Kaiping ancestry, who was recruited by Sen Yet Young in 1920 to be trained in the U.S. The
other was Taishan-born Huang Guangrui (Wong Gwong Yoey) (1899-1986), who had immigrated to
America as a child and was recruited there by Young in 1920.29
After the widely publicized flights, Sun Fo recommended to Chiang Kai-shek that Jeung Wai
Jeung be appointed in 1929 to head the newly created Aviation Office in the national government in
Nanjing, while simultaneously holding on to his position as head of the Guangdong Aviation Department.
During his tenure in the national office, he increased the office's budget, purchased new aircraft and
trained more young aviation cadets. This proved to be the zenith of his career for he became embroiled in
politics in opposition to Chiang Kai-shek and afterward was appointed only to minor posts unrelated to
aviation. Jeung passed away in Taipei.30
As for Chen Qingyun, after a number of posts in Guangdong, in 1934 he was appointed to be a
senior member of the National Aeronautics Commission that had been reorganized from the Aviation
Office of the Ministry of War, and in 1936 he became head of the Central Aviation Academy at
Hangzhou. That year Chiang Kai-shek sent him to Hong Kong to successfully talk commanders of the
Guangdong Air Force into defecting en masse from Chen Jitang (1890-1954), who was then threatening
the country with civil war. During the Sino-Japanese War, Chan and Arthur Lym were sent by the
Nationalist government to the Americas to raise funds. After his return he joined the overseas department
of the Kuomintang. In 1949 he went to Taiwan, whence he retired to New York City in 1966.31
Wong Gwong Yoey played a pivotal role in this intrigue. Wong had become head of the
Guangdong Air Force in 1933. In 1936 Guangdong Governor Chen Jitang decided to challenge the
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Chiang Kai-shek-led Nanjing government, and hostilities appeared imminent. At that critical juncture
Wong led some seventy aircraft and almost 200 personnel to defect to Chiang Kai-shek's side. This, plus
the fact that important military commanders in Guangdong also declared their allegiance to the central
government, forced Chen to resign hastily and take refuge in Hong Kong. Wong later served the
Nationalist government variously as an air force major-general, principal of the Central Aviation
Academy at Hangzhou, and deputy director of the Aeronautics Commission when the Sino-Japanese War
broke out in 1937. After the war ended Wong retired to Los Angeles, where he spent his final years.32
The Sino-Japanese Conflict
The 1930s saw continual Japanese aggression in China. China's poorly equipped armed forces
pitted against a superior military power suffered heavy losses. This was especially true of its tiny air
force. By this time the Chinese government had set up programs within China to train aviation personnel
so as to lessen the need for Chinese talent recruited from abroad. Nonetheless, Chinese Americans, which
began to be a growing minority in the Chinese Air Force, still played important roles in the defense of the
ancestral land. An example was U.S.-born Huang Yuquan (Wong Yuk Chuen) (1904-Feb. 5, 1932),
younger brother of Huang Yupei who had enlisted in the Chinese Air Force in 1926. He became the first
air casualty in the Sino-Japanese conflict during the Japanese attack on Shanghai in 1932, when his plane
lost control and crashed. He had then only been married about twenty days. A commemorative memorial
was later erected in Taishan, his ancestral county.33
The Japanese threat to China's sovereignty spurred the Kuomintang in the U.S. to step up its
efforts in the "national salvation through aviation" campaign. Enthusiasts established aviation clubs in
various centers of Chinese America. Aviation schools were founded in Portland, Oregon, in 1932 and in
San Francisco in 1933. Both operated for about a year. After the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, the
Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association organized another school in San Francisco in 1938. This
institution ran until 1939.34
About 150 to 200 Chinese Americans learned aeronautical skills in these clubs and schools and
went to serve in China's small and outnumbered air force. (This was exclusive of Chinese Americans
who served in the U.S. Air Force and were sent to China during World War II.) Despite greatly being
outmatched against the superior armament of their highly industrialized adversary, they discharged their
duties creditably in the defense of their ancestral land . A few were lauded for their heroism. An example
was Enping-born Huang Panyuang (Wong Poon Yeung), who was reported to have downed three enemy
aircraft by himself and three others in partnership with his comrades in aerial combats in 1937 and 1938.
There have been other pilots since that time who matched or exceeded his record, but news of his deeds
was a boost for Chinese morale during the dark dismal days of the time when China was being
overwhelmed by a merciless enemy and had lost the wealthiest and best developed parts of the country
along the coast. Wong was born in Enping and accompanied by his father had immigrated to America at
the age of nine. After taking flying lessons at the Portland flying school in 1932, he joined the air force in
Guangdong. In 1942 Wong turned from combat duty to civil aviation.
A number of others, however, made the ultimate sacrifice. Due to the unstable political situation
throughout this period, archival information on this subject is scattered and probably incomplete.
However, a fairly extensive compilation listed 188 aviators killed in battle or died from other causes from
the Japanese attack on Shanghai in 1932 to the end of World War II. Out of this number twenty-nine, or
about fifteen percent had come from abroad, with all but one being from the U.S. It is significant that
although by this time the number of domestically trained flyers in the Chinese Air Force had increased
substantially due to the establishment of training programs in China, there was still a significant
percentage of Chinese from abroad, especially from America. 35
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One of the best known of these was Huang Xinrui (Wong Sun Suey) (1914-Mar. 14, 1941), an
immigrant from Taishan who had arrived in the U.S. with his mother at the age of ten. After receiving his
flying credentials at Los Angeles and Portland, Wong returned to China to enter the Guangdong Air Force
in 1934. He was said to speak both Cantonese and English, but lacked fluency in Mandarin. During the
Sino-Japanese conflict, Wong made eight kills during various air combats before he was shot down while
defending Chengdu against Japanese bombers. Up against the more maneuverable Japanese Zero, the
Chinese suffered heavy casualties in that fray, losing four difficult-to-replace pilots, including another
Chinese American, Stockton-born Jiang Dongsheng (Gong Doong Shing) of Hua Xian ancestry. Gong
had learned aeronautical skills in his hometown and also enlisted in the Guangdong Air Force in 1934.36
Other lives were lost due to pilot error or mechanical failures. One such casualty was San Jose
native Rong Zhaoming (George Ming Young) (1911-Mar. 15, 1937), son of local Kuomintang leader and
merchant Young Soong Quong. George Young was trained in Texas and became the first Chinese
American with a transport License. He also was a skillful parachute jumper. Young cast his lot with the
Guangdong Air Force in 1930 as an instructor. He was the first to teach parachute techniques in China. In
1936 he had teamed with Wong Gwong Yoey and Chen Cheuk Lam, leading the defection of the
Guangdong Air Force to the Central Government under Chiang Kai-shek. Young was killed in a plane
crash during the Sino-Japanese War while flying in a thick fog over Guangdong.37
Some aviators were left with the permanent scars of war. One example was Chen Ruitian (Chin
Suey Tin, or Arthur Tin Chin) (1913-), who was born in Portland, Oregon, of mixed parentage. He
graduated from the Portland flying school in 1932 and in November of that year was enrolled in the class
established by the Guangdong Air Force for Chinese Overseas, after which he was sent to Germany for
further combat pilot training. He completed training in 1936. During the Sino-Japanese War he was
credited with shooting down six enemy planes and shared credit for downing another five. On December
27, 1939, Chin was severely burnt on his face, wrists, and feet when he was shot down in flames in
Guangxi. He had to return to America for medical treatment. After the war he turned to civil aviation. In
1949 he participated in ferrying the precious collection from the Palace Museum to Taiwan. The same
year in April, he flew the nineteen delegates of the Nationalist government from Nanjing to Beijing for
peace discussions. That summer Chin returned with his family to Portland , Oregon, where he eventually
found employment in the U.S. Post Office.38
A scant few eventually became high ranking officers in the Kuomintang air force. Two examples
are Zhou Yichen (Jow Yut Chun) (Apr. 12, 1910-) and Lei Yanjun (Louie Yim Gwun) (1914-). Zhou
was an immigrant from Kaiping who graduated from flying school in Oakland before joining the
Guangdong Air Force. Making the Air Force his career, he received successive promotions and in 1962,
he reached Chief Inspector General of the Air Force In Taiwan. Taishanese Lei was a member of the
second graduating class of the Chinese Aeronautic School in Portland. In 1933 he received further
training in China before joining the Chinese Air Force as a pilot. He also rose through the ranks and in
1964 became a General and Deputy Chief of Staff in the Air Force on Taiwan.39
One combat pilot, San Francisco-born Li Qichi (Lee Kai Chi, Archie Lee) (1920-1997) had an
unusual career. Lee was a graduate of the last class in the aviation school established by the Chinese
Consolidated Benevolent Association of San Francisco. He went to China in 1939 to join the Chinese Air
Force. In 1941 he was sent back to the U.S. for further training. He went on active duty as a combat pilot
and flew more than a hundred missions in the China theater. He also served with the composite ChineseAmerican group that flew supplies over the Himalayas or "The Hump" between India and China. After
the war he entered civil aviation serving the Nationalist government and then stayed in the People's
Republic of China, but he was not allowed to fly. Later when China bought Boeing 727s he taught pilots
the English they needed to communicate with international air traffic control towers. After China opened
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up, Lee was able to obtain a visa in 1980 to return to his native America, where he spent his remaining
years.40
Women Aviators
Two female cadet pilots, Li Yueying (Lee Yuet Ying, Hazel Ying Lee) (?-Nov. 24, 1944) and
Huang Guiyan (Wong Gwai Yin, Virginia Wong) (?-1935), both of Taishan ancestry, also graduated from
the American Overseas Chinese Aviation School in Portland in 1933 and went to China. Unfortunately,
they could not break through the barrier of male chauvinism to launch aeronautical careers. Wong stayed
in China, where she found work as a typist, but passed away soon afterward in Nanchang. Lee worked in
the library of the aviation bureau and later, as liaison at the Hongqiao air field in Shanghai. She was
forced to resign and leave China because she was suspected of being a spy. Upon her return to the U.S.
she took a job piloting cargo planes for the Portland Airplane Company. She was admitted into the WASP
during WWII, where she ferried new planes to England. She was the first Chinese woman to fly across
the Atlantic Ocean. She was killed in a mid-air collision at Great Falls, Montana.41
A contemporary of theirs, Enping immigrant Zhang Ruifen (Cheung Suey Fun, Katherine
Cheung) (1912-) also had intentions of returning to China that was never fulfilled. Cheung learned her
flying in Southern California. In 1932 she became the first female Chinese American licensed pilot.
Inspired by the National Salvation through Aviation Movement, she became a member of Luosheng
Huaqiao Hangkonghui [Los Angeles Chinese Flying Club]. In 1934 she became a member of the 99 Club,
a women's flying organization in America. After the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, she flew to
various Chinese communities to speak and show photograph exhibits about the importance of aircraft in
national salvation. The money she raised, added to selling her antiquated aircraft, enabled her to purchase
a new trainer in 1938 that she intended to take to China to start a flying school for women. Unfortunately,
her dream was demolished when another pilot flew the plane and crashed. She was so disappointed that
she seldom flew after that, and completely quit in 1942, as she promised her father on his deathbed.42
In the Civilian Sector
During this period there were also those who helped to establish civil aviation in China. One of
them was Hu Jinya (Woo Gam Nga) (1894-1975), an immigrant to America who completed a two-year
course on the internal combustion engine in 1918 and graduated from flying school in 1921. The same
year, Young Sen Yet recruited him to return to China, where he served as a fighter pilot through a number
of campaigns. By 1927 he was working in the Aviation Office of Guangdong. He was close to Jeung Wai
Jeung and was active in the Transportation Division that was established under the Aviation Office in
1929 to oversee civil aviation operated by the military. Beginning in December 1929 he made trial runs
on a seaplane between Guangzhou and Wuzhou in Guangxi. Daily flights started in January 1931, but
they had to be suspended when fighting threatened to break out between the Nanjing government and the
Southwest government based in Guangdong and Guangxi. 43
When Jeung Wai Jeung fell into disfavor with the Nanjing government, Woo Gam Nga's career in
the military also suffered. At this time, Liu Peiran (Lau Pui Yin) approached Woo in 1933 about joining
his venture to start Southwest Aircraft Corporation to meet the potential competition from two civil
aviation airlines started by the Nanjing government. Woo traveled to the U.S. to purchase five aircraft.
The airline began regular service in 1934, flying five routes between points in Guangdong and Guangxi,
as well as two international routes to Hanoi in French Indo-China, where it fed into Air France's roundthe-world mail route. This was the first airline owned by private investors in China. When the SinoJapanese War began in 1937, Japanese air raids on Guangzhou disrupted service so much that the airline
had to cease operation.44
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A Chinese American who participated in Southwest Airlines was Guan Zizhang (Chong Quan)
(1900-). Earlier Quan had completed a course of study in the Boeing School at Oakland. He headed for
Guangzhou in 1931, where he established one of the earliest aeronautics courses in China at Xiangqin
University. Accepting an invitation to join Southwest Airlines, Quan served two years, at first as
mechanical engineer and then was promoted to be airport manager. Upon the outbreak of the SinoJapanese War, Quan served in the Chinese Air Force for a short while before returning to America around
1938.45
Another person who learned his aviation basic skills in America, Chen Zhuolin (Chin Cheuk
Lam) (1892-1965) played a key role at an important juncture in recent Chinese history. Chin was born in
an immigrant household in Taishan and had become one of the recruits who went with Young Sen Yet in
1920 to take flying lessons at the Curtiss Flying School in New York. He returned to China in 1923 and
served in the Air Force for many years. In 1943 he became general manager of the government-owned
Central Airline, providing cargo service. At the time the airline had only one plane. However, under his
management, the airline vastly expanded, particularly after the end of World War II when it was able to
acquire a number of aircraft as war surplus. During the civil war between the Nationalists and the
Communists, the airlines headquarters moved from Shanghai to Guangzhou and then to Hong Kong as
the Nationalists suffered repeated defeats on the battlefield. In spite of Chiang Kai-shek trying to cajole
him to proceed to Taiwan, on November 9, 1948, after secret consultation between the top management
of the airlines and the Communist and clandestine planning, twelve aircrafts successfully flew out of
Hong Kong to the north. The airlines announced its severance of ties to the Nationalist regime.46
Guan Rong (Gwan Wing) (1896-1987) was another person in the Guangdong Air Force who later
turned successfully to civilian pursuits. Gwan had immigrated from his native Kaiping to America when
he was nine. He was one of the few Chinese to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces during World War I. After
he was discharged he took up flying, inspired by Sun Yat-sen's call for national salvation through
aviation. In 1923 he returned to China, bringing along an aircraft he had purchased as war surplus. After
joining the Guangdong Air Force, he first was an instructor and then in 1925 became a flight leader. In
1929 he took up aerial photography at Fairchild, Long Island, and returned in 1931. After becoming head
of the Management Department when Wong Gwong Yoey became head of the Guangdong Air Force in
1933, Gwan was given $50,000 to set up an Aerial Photography Survey Laboratory, the head of which
was a Nevada-born Chinese American, Liu Jintao (Lau Gam To) (Aug. 12, 1903-Jan. 17, 1992), who
began working as an aerial photographer in the late 1920s. The twenty or so specialists trained as part of
the laboratory's program later continued to contribute to the development of military aerial photography
in China. As for Gwan Wing, he maintained a liaison office for the Chinese Air Force in Hong Kong
during the early years of the Sino-Japanese War. When the Japanese seized Hong Kong he managed to
escape to China, where he worked for the 14th U.S. Air Force. When the war ended he left the air force to
establish and manage the Hong Kong Office of Central Airlines. After 1949 he worked with the Hong
Kong Office of Northwest Airlines until he retired to New York in 1964.47
Changed Situation after World War II
After World War II, China was no longer an attractive goal for Chinese American aeronauts, for
by this time China had developed its own pool of aviation talent and there was no need to recruit from
abroad. Also, the improved social and political status and opening of more economic opportunities for
Chinese Americans in this country as well as chaotic political and economic conditions in China after the
war, followed by tense relations between US and China from 1950 to the early 1970s, did not provide
much incentive for them to seek careers there.
Early Chinese American aviators who went to China had mixed motivations such as the attraction
of the glamour of aviation, a search for better opportunities, and a desire to help build the ancestral land.
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Their total number was relatively small, but they played an important role in stimulating the development
of Chinese aviation during its formative years. During the entire period of their involvement, China never
became a strong air power, for in this modern age it is not feasible to build and maintain such a force in a
poor agricultural nation with little technical know how and few industries. Nor could national salvation
be achieved by aviation alone, for it required more than airplanes to cure China's ills. Nevertheless, the
story of the Chinese American aviators and their role in the early development of aviation in China
presents a fascinating story and is a reminder that the flow of immigrants is not always in the same
direction, and that there is a certain reverse flow, the volume and quality of which is determined by social,
economic and political factors both in the host country and in the land of origin. The flow of aviators to
China is a good illustration of a response to such factors: racial prejudice and discrimination plus
depressed economic conditions in the host country America, while in China, the land of origin, there was
the promise of opportunities in the Republican revolution accompanied by the continuing threat to China's
very existence from Japanese militarism. At the very least, the story of Chinese American aviators is
illustrative of one of the threads that existed and still exist between Chinese in China and the Chinese in
America and between Chinese and Chinese American history.
Him Mark Lai
November 28, 2002
11
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NOTES
1
Chesney Duncan, "Tse Tsan Tai, His Political and Journalistic Career," reprinted from Present Day Impressions of
the Far East and Prominent and Progressive Chinese at Home and Abroad (Hong Kong, 1917).
2
Guangdongsheng Kaiping Xian Zhengxie Wen-Shi Weiyuanhui [Literature and history committee of the Political
Consultative Conference, Kaiping County], ed., Kaiping minrenlu [Notable individuals from Kaiping], 2nd
Collection, 8-10. Referenced hereafter as Notable Individuals from Kaiping, 2nd Collection.
3
Woguo di-1 ge Feiji Shejishi, Zhizaozhe, Feixingjia Feng Ru Shiji [Deeds of our country's first airplane designer
and builder, the aviator Feng Ru), pamphlet prepared for a ceremony in Enping to commemorate the centennial of
Fong Yue's birth (Enping, 1983); "Zhongguo feixingjia Feng Ru jun xingzhuang" (A brief biography of the Chinese
aviator, Mr. Fong Yue), Eastern Miscellany, 9 (Shanghai, Nov. 1, 1912), 20-22.
4
Information on the year Fong emigrated to the U.S is conflicting. In an audience with Guangdong's governor
general in 1911 after his return to China, Fong stated that he went to the U.S. when he was 9; i.e., 1892). A
biographical sketch published in Eastern Miscellany (Nov. 1, 1912) gave the year as 1895. Investigations on his
native village indicated that he left in 1899 and that he married a year previous to that date. Since Fong is a
surviving son it would have been in accordance with custom if he married before his emigration. In 1899 Fong was
sixteen, which would have been a reasonable age for marriage.
5
Centennial commemoration pamphlet, cited above.
6
Eastern Miscellany, op. cited.
7
San Francisco Sunday Call, Mar. 19, 1911.
8
Eastern Miscellany, op. cited.
9
San Francisco Examiner, Sept. 23, 1909.
10
San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 19, 1911.
11
San Francisco Examiner, Aug. 27, 1912.
12
The Chinese World, Apr. 12, 1911.
13
Eastern Miscellany, op. cited.
14
Willie L. Nye, "Tom Gunn," research report dated Mar. 30, 1971.
15
Interview with George Chang, one of Lym's childhood friends, July 27, 1974; The Chinese World, July 2, 1913,
May 25, 1914; Huang Yan, Guang Zhongren, eds., Guangdong Kongjun shiliao xuanji [Collection of selected
historical materials on the Guangdong Air Force] (Guangzhou?: Guangdong Hangkong Lianyihui, 1994), 153-67;
Notable Individuals from Kaiping, 2nd Collection,19-32.
16
"Lu-Mei Huaqiao zuzhi kongjun shimoji" [The Story of the organization of an air force by the Chinese in
America] in Feng Ziyou, Geming Yishi (Reminiscences of the Revolution) II, (Taipei, 1953, reprint of 1943
Chongqing edition), 316-319.
17
Guofu Chuanji [Complete Works of Dr. Sun Yat-sen], III (Taipei, 1973), 370; Liu Weisen, Sun Zhongshan yu
Mei-Jia Huaqiao (Taipei: Jindai Zhongguo Chubanshe, 1999), 174-75.
18
During the Exclusion Era many Chinese immigrants tried to enter the US as the offspring of merchants or citizens
often with an assumed surname. These immigrants were commonly known as "paper sons."
19
Huang Yan, Guang Zhongren, eds., op. cited., 105-106. The several sources gave different versions of Young Sen
Yet's birth date. The pilot license issued in the U.S. gave 1893 as the year of birth; his son stated that the family
genealogy gave the birth date as 6th day of the 9th moon in the 18th year of the Guangxu Reign (Oct. 26, 1892), and
the plaque dated 1988 placed at the base of his bronze statue by the Zhongshan Government gave the birth date to be
Sept. 6, 1891.
20
Howard L. Boorman, ed., Biographical Dictionary of Republican China, I (NYC: Columbia University Press,
1968), 172-73, in article entitled "Ch'en Ch'ing-yun," Zhao Rongfang, Xiangshan hangkong renwulu [Record of
Xiangshan individuals in aviation] (Shiqi: Zhongguo Renmin Guangdongsheng Zhongshanshi Weiyuanhui Wen-Shi
Weiyuanhui [Literature and history committee of the Political Consultative Conference of Zhongshan City in
Guangdong Province], 9, 15-22, 39-45; Liu Zhongmin, Taishan jindai hangkong renwulu [Record of individuals in
aviation from Taishan City in modern times] (Taicheng: Taishanshi Huaqiao Lishi Xuehui, Taishan City Chinese
overseas historical society, 1992), 108; Dormant Chang, ed., The Chinese of Hawaii (Honolulu: Overseas Penman
Club, 1929), 70-71; Xiao Qiang, Li Debiao, Guofu yu kongjun Woguo chuqi geming kongjun shihua [The father of
the Republic and the air force: Narrative of the early history of the revolutionary air force of our nation] (Taipei:
1983), 19; Huang Yan, Guang Zhongren, eds., Guangdong Kongjun shiliao xuanji [Collection of selected historical
materials on the Guangdong Air Force] (Guangzhou?: Guangdong Hangkong Lianyihui, 1994), 116-17.
12
Aviation: 2/9/2016
21
Liu Zhongmin, op. cited, 20-21; Xiao Qiang, Li Debiao, op. cited, 19-20; "Zhu-Meiguo Zong-Zhibu Dangwu
Gaiyao" [Summary of Party Affairs of the U.S. Branch], in Zhongguo Guomindang zai Haiwai--Ge Di Dangbu
Shiliao Chu-gao Huibian [The Chinese Nationalist Party Abroad--Collection of First Drafts of Historical Materials
from Party Branches in Various Localities], edited by Zhongguo Guomindang Zhongyang Weiyuanhui Di-3 Zu [The
Third Cell of the Chinese Nationalist Party Central Committee] (Taipei, 1961), 12-39; Howard L. Boorman, ed.,
Biographical Dictionary of Republican China, I (NYC: Columbia University Press, 1968), 172-73, in article entitled
"Ch'en Ch'ing-yun." Liu quoted in full a memorial plaque for Ye Shaoyi dated March 1, 1918 and presumably
erected at Huahua Gang that gave the date and circumstances of Ye's death. Xiao and Li gave the death date as July
1919. A letter from Sun Yat-sen to Lin Zichao (Lin Sen) on Feb. 18, 1919 requested the latter to ask Young and
Zhang to go to Shantou (Complete Works of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, III, 601).
22
Xiao Qiang, Li Debiao, op. cited, 21-22; Howard L. Boorman, ed., Biographical Dictionary of Republican China,
I, 172-73, in article entitled "Ch'en Ch'ing-yun."
23
Xiao Qiang, Li Debiao, op. cited, 23; Huang Yan, Guang Zhongren, eds., op. cited, 20, 60-61, 116-17; Zhao
Rongfang, op. cited, 30-31. Howard L. Boorman, ed., Biographical Dictionary of Republican China, I , 172-73,
based on unnamed sources, credited Chan Hing Wan rather than Jeung Wai Jeung with piloting the second plane in
the raid.
24
Xiao Qiang, Li Debiao, op. cited, 23-24, 190-91; Liu Zhongmin, op. cited, 94-97, 102; Huang Yan, Guang
Zhongren, eds., op. cited, 145-47. Howard L. Boorman, ed., Biographical Dictionary of Republican China, I , 17273, based on unnamed sources, credited Chan Hing Wan rather than Chin Ying Kuen as head of the squadron.
25
Zhang, Aitong, "Yang Xianyi Shilue" [A brief biography of Young Sen Yat], in Jianguo Yuekan [National
Construction Monthly] II:5 (Nanjing, Mar. 1930), 50-51; Dormant Chang, ed., op. cited, 70-71; Hong Wai, ed., The
Chinese of Hawaii: Who's Who 1956-1957 (Honolulu, 1957), 179; Huang Yan, Guang Zhongren, eds., op. cited, 23,
110-11; Israel Epstein, Woman in World History: Soong Ching Ling (Mme Sun Yat-sen), Beijing: New World Press,
1993), 113-14
26
Huang Yan, Guang Zhongren, eds., op. cited, 141; Zhao Rongfang, op. cited, 39-45
27
Huang Yan, Guang Zhongren, eds., op. cited, 184-87; Zhao Rongfang, op. cited, 48-49; Liu Zhongmin, op. cited,
84-87.
28
Wang Chengbin, ed., Minguo gaoji jiangling liezhuan [Biographies of high-ranking military officers during the
Republic] (Beijing: Jiefangjun Chubanshe, 1993), 517-27; Zhao Rongfang, op. cited, 15-22, 39-45; Liu Zhongmin,
op. cited, 108; Liu Boji, History of the Chinese in the United States of America, II (Taipei: Liming Wenhua Shiye
Gufen Youxian Gongsi, 1981), 669; Huang Yan, Guang Zhongren, eds., op. cited, 292-93.
29
Howard L. Boorman, ed., Biographical Dictionary of Republican China, I (NYC: Columbia University Press,
1968), 160-63, 172-73; II (1968), 200-01, in articles entitled "Ch'en Chi-tang," "Ch'en Ch'ing-yun," and "Huang
Kuang-jui," respectively.
30
Huang Yan, Guang Zhongren, eds., op. cited, 128-29; Zhao Rongfang, op. cited, 15-22. When Chiang Kai-shek
put veteran Kuomintang member under house arrest, Jeung left Nanjing for Guangdong to become
commander-in-chief of the air arm of the Southwest Air Force, the air arm of the Guangdong-Guangxi
opposition (the so-call Southwest group) to Chiang Kai-shek. He advocated cessation of civil war and
sent aircraft to support the 19th Route Army's resistance against the Japanese attack in Shanghai in 1932.
However, Guangdong governor Chen Jitang abolished the post of air force commander-in-chief and Jeung
left for Hong Kong, where he supported the 19th Route Army's failed 1933 rebellion in Fujian against the
Chiang Kai-shek government. Afterward, it was only through the intercession of influential party
members and fellow Zhongshanese Wu Tiecheng and Sun Fo that Jeung escaped punishment. In 1935 he
was China's envoy to Cuba, and in 1937-1946, magistrate of Zhongshan County.
31
Huang Yan, Guang Zhongren, eds., op. cited, 130-35; Zhao Rongfang, op. cited, 23-29; Howard L. Boorman, ed.,
Biographical Dictionary of Republican China, I, 172-73, in article entitled "Ch'en Ch'ing-yun."
32
Huang Yan, Guang Zhongren, eds., op. cited, 135-38; Liu Zhongmin, op. cited, 75-80.
33
Liu Zhongmin, op. cited, 81-82.
34
Liu Boji, op. cited, 669-678, 682-93.
35
Huang Yan, Guang Zhongren, eds., op. cited, 253-84.
Chinese overseas in the Chinese Air Force Killed in Combat or from Other Causes, 1932-1945
Name
Ancestral
County
From
Date of Death
13
Cause
Location
Aviation: 2/9/2016
Huang Yuquan (Wong
Yook Chuen)
Taishan
Born in Marysville,
California
Huang Bo (Wong Bo)
Taishan
Immigrant to USA
Lei Guolai (Louie
Gwok Loy)
Huang Yuanbo (Wong
Yuen Bo)
Su Yingxiang (Soo
Ying Cheung)
Liao Zhaoqiong
Taishan
Kaiping
Born in Seattle ,
Washington
USA
Taishan
Born in Oregon
Taushan
Japan
Kaiping
USA
Taishan
Immigrant to New
York City
Kaiping
USA
Guangdon
g
Taishan
USA
Zhang Yimin (Jeung
Yik Mun)
Rong Guangcheng
(Yung Gwong
Shing)
Guan Wansong (Gwan
Man Soong)
Xian Changqing (Sin
Sheung Qing)
Huang Xinrui (Wong
Sin Suey)
Jiang Dongsheng
(Gong Doong
Shing)
Tan Guocai (Tam
Gwok Choy)
Huang Qi (Wong Kei)
Yang Tiansen (Yeung
Tim Sum)
Chen Xinyuan (Chin
Sun Yuen)
Zhang Mianzhi (Jeung
Min Jee)
Zheng Xiexun (Jang
Shie Fun)
Chen Jingting (Chin
Ging Ting)
Cai Bingqiu (Choy
Bing Kau)
Guan Zhongnian
(Gwan Joong Nin)
Rong Zhaoming
(Young Siu Ming,
George Young)
Tan Xiaoyan (Tam Siu
Yim)
Lin Lianqing (Lum
Luen Ching)
Chen Xiting (Chin Sik
Ting)
Huaxian
Immigrant to Los
Angeles
Born in Stockton,
California
Feb. 5, 1932 Crashed while
Shanghai
taking off to meet
enemy
Sep 12,1937 MIA returning
Shanghai
from attack on
enemy positions
Sep. 21, 1937 Air combat
Taiyuan
Oct. 7, 1937
Air combat
Shaoguan
Oct, 15, 1937 Air combat
Xinxian,
Shanxi
Oct. 21, 1937 Died from wounds Taiyuan
in air combat
Nov. 11, 1937 Air combat
Luoyang
Mar. 8, 1938 Air combat
HuayinWeinan
Aug. 21, 1938 Shot down while
taking off
1938
Air combat
Xiaoguan
Mar. 14, 1941 Air combat
Shuangliu,
Sichuan
Shuangliu,
Sichuan
Mar. 14, 1941 Air combat
Kaiping
USA
1941
Taishan
Zhongshan
USA
USA
1933
Aug. 1933
Enping
USA
Kaiping
Luoyang
Air combat
Kunming
Info n. a.
Mid-air crash
Nanxiong
Meixian
1934
Info n. a.
USA
1934
Info n. a.
Guangdon
g
Taishan
USA
1935
Mid-air crash
USA
1935
Mid-air crash
Taishan
USA
1935
Mid-air crash
Kaiping
USA
1936
Info n. a.
Zhongshan
(now
Doumen)
Taishan
USA
Guangzho
u
Guangzho
u
Guangzho
u
Guangzho
u
Guangzho
u
Guangzho
u
Shixing
USA
1938
Crashed
Xinhui
USA
1939
Crashed
Taishan
Immigrant to USA
Mar. 15, 1937 Crashed into
mountain
14
Aug. 11, 1943 Crashed into
mountain
Xiaogan,
Hunan
Info n. a.
Hump
Aviation: 2/9/2016
Ma Guolian (Ma Gwok
Lim)
Tan Shou (Tam Shau)
Taishan
USA
1944
Crashed into
Mountain
Jan. 18, 1945 Crashed while
testing new
aircraft
?
Died of sickness
Taishan
USA
Huang Pulun (Wong
Pu Loen)
Zhang Sen (Jeung
Sum, Jeung Oi
Gwok)
Taishan
USA
Kaiping
Immigrant to San
Francisco
36
1943
Crashed into
mountain
Kunming
Guiyang
Dushan,
Guizhou
ChengduLanzhou
Liu Zhongmin, op. cited, 72-74; Huang Yan, Guang Zhongren, eds., op. cited, 229-32; 241-43.
Zhao Rongfang, op. cited, 144-45; Connie Young Yu, Chinatown San Jose, USA (San Jose: San Jose Historical
Museum Association, 1991), 102.
38
Liu Zhongmin, op. cited, 59-62; Huang Yan, Guang Zhongren, eds., op. cited, 130-35: Wu Jianxiong, Haiwai
yimin yu Huaren shehui [Emigrants and Chinese society overseas] (Taipei: Yuncheng Wenhua Shiye Gufen
Youxian Gongsi, 1993), 373-81.
39
Liu Zhongmin, op. cited; Liu Guoming, ed., Zhongguo Guomindang jiuqian jiangling [9,000 generals of the
Nationalist Party of China] (Tianshui, Gansu: Zhonghua Gong-Shang Lianhe Chubanshe, 1993), 511, 772; Liu Boji,
op. cited, 676.
40
San Yup Benevolent Association History Editorial Committee, A History of the San Yup Benevolent Association
in the United States, 1850-2000 (San Francisco: Sam Yup Benevolent Association, 1999), 250-51; San Francisco
Chronicle, Mar. 4, 1997.
41
Liu Boji (Pei Chi Liu), "Meiguo Huaqiao hangkong jiuguo de shizhi" [The Story of the Chinese of America in the
national salvation through aviation movement), in Guangdong wenxian [Documents on Guangdong] X:2, X:3
(Taipei, June, Sept., 1980), 1-7, 10-15; Guan Zhongren, Zhongguo funü hangkong gouchen [Study on Chinese
Women Aviators: 1915-49] (Guangzhou: Guangdongsheng Zhongshan Tushuguan [Zhongshan Library of
Guangdong Province], Guangdongsheng Funü Lianhehui [Women's confederation of Guangdong Province]; Enping
Xian Zhengxie Wen-Shi Zu [Literature and history group of the Political Consultative Conference, Enping County],
1988), 115-17, 118-19; communication with Prof. Judy Yung, Aug. 30, 2002.
42
Liang Huiqing, Zhang Wenshi, Guan Zhongren, Cen Nengduan, eds., Hangkong nüjie: Zhongguo diyi nü teji
feixingyuan Zhang Ruifen [Female aeronautical heroine: Katherine Jeung, first special skills female Chinese airplane
pilot] (Guangzhou: Guangdongsheng Zhongshan Tushuguan [Zhongshan Library of Guangdong Province], Enping
Xian Zhengxie Wen-Shi Zu [Literature and history group of the Political Consultative Conference, Enping County],
Lü-Gang Enping Litang Tongxianghui [Fellow townsmen club in Hong Kong from Litang Village, Enping County],
Enping Xian Qiaowu Bangongshi [Chinese Overseas Affairs Office, Enping County], 1987), 20, 27-28, 138-39,
143-44; "A Pioneer Flyer," Jade: An Asian American Magazine, 3 no. 3 (June 1980).
43
Huang Yan, Guang Zhongren, eds., op. cited, 170-78.
44
Huang Yan, Guang Zhongren, eds., op. cited, 170-78; Xiao Qiang, Li Debiao, op. cited, 14-16.
45
Dick Quock, John Hall, Him Mark Lai, A History of the Sam Yup Benevolent Association in the United States,
1850-2000 (San Francisco: Sam Yup Association on the United States, 2000), 189-190; two-page handwritten
biography by Chong Quan, Nov. 14, 1996; Gan Zonghua, Zheng Houbang, "Xi'nan Hangkong Gongxi de chengli ji
qi jieguo [The founding of Southwest Airlines and its outcome]," in Guangzhoushi Zhengxie Wen-Shi Ziliao Yanjiu
Weiyuanhui [Literary and historical materials research committee of the Guangzhou City Political Consultative
Conference], ed., Nantian suiyue: Chen Jitang zhu Yue shiqi jianwen shilu [The years of the southern skies: A
veritable record of what was seen and heard during the period when Chen Jitang ruled Guangdong] (Guangzhou:
Guangdong Renmin Chubanshe, 1987), 268-75.
46
Huang Yan, Guang Zhongren, eds., op. cited, 60; Liu Zhongmin, op. cited, 49-51 Huang Yan, Guang Zhongren,
eds., op. cited, 170-78.
47
Huang Yan, Guang Zhongren, eds., op. cited, 60, 182-84; Liu Zhongmin, op. cited, 87. Lau Gam To retired to San
Francisco in 1881 to spend his remaining years.
37
15