Immigration of Li Keng Wong

            
             My name is Li Keng Wong and I was born in 1926 in Goon Do Hung, Southern China. Before I was born my father had left to the United States where a lot of people were immigrating to because of the changes that would happen once they arrived. In China there were no jobs, no money and really no way to live. I lived with my sisters, my mother, and my grandmother who was now a widow. My father sent money home once a month to keep us going, but it wasn't much. Growing up I was a tomboy, climbing trees, exploring forrests, playing hide-and-go-seek, hunting for bamboo shoots, and wading in the nearby lake. Not many things you would typically find a girl doing.
             Life was getting harder and harder as time went on, but the villagers were very helpful with everyone and they all got along. The village and villagers being so poor, on my father's last visit home he knew that he didn't want to see his family going through this, he was going to move us all to the United States. Weeks later he sent a letter to us with coaching papers. The papers that he sent were what was going to happen when reaching the United States. Before you were allowed in, there were many questions to be asked. If the officers didn't like the answers to your questions, you would be sent back to your homeland in shame. The questions that were to be asked consisted of ones such as; When and where were you born? What is your occupation? Can you read any language? What is your final destination in the United States? Who is that lady with you? Is she your mother? My mother could not enter the United States as my father's wife, because laborers were forbade to bring in a wife. It was against the law. We also had to refer to her as "Auntie", and it was my father's sister. Before we left for our new lives, we gave all of our furniture, utensils, clothes, and our small plot of land to our neighbors. A very close neighbor also took over our old house.