The Richest Chinese in America: Joe Shoong and the National Dollar Stores
Joe Shoong was the perfect immigrant to America. When Joe arrived in San Francisco just before the turn of the century around 1899, [1] Chinese immigrants typically took on false names, due to inadequacy of immigration officials to properly file immigrants. In 1850, Chinese were simply labeled as “China men” (where the slang comes from); later, officials used a semi-official prefix “Ah” before the family name to designate the immigrants as being from China. [2] Joe, however, took a different tact. Rather than following official procedures, he transcribed his Chinese name into English. Using his Chinese name, Zh ō u S ō ng 周崧 , [3] he took the English name Joe Soong. While a minor detail, this was just the first choice he made when immigrating to transform himself into an American. Soong started in the garment industry. By 1902, he had opened his first store in Vallejo, California with three partners, but in 1903 he bought out his partners and then some years later moved the st...
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