Chinaman Tycoon: The Life and Times of Lew Hing (1858 - 1934)

Chinaman Tycoon tells the true story of Lew Hing, a poor Chinese who immigrated to America in the early 1870s. Defying overwhelming odds, he achieved fame and fortune by venturing into the white man’s business world at a time of intense, pervasive anti-Chinese sentiments. Starting with a fruit cannery in 1904 that employed as many as a thousand workers of all ethnicities, he diversified into banking and shipping and invested in commercial and agricultural enterprises that helped develop Mexicali, Mexico, into the metropolis it is today. Considered by many the wealthiest Chinaman in America in 1907, Lew Hing died nearly broke, a victim of circumstances and ill-advised decisions. Besides detailing the remarkable life of Lew Hing, this book also touches on the socio-economic conditions of San Francisco Chinatown in the late nineteenth century, the struggles experienced by minority entrepreneurs, Chinese immigration to Mexico, and the inner workings of the Chinese lottery business.
Reviews:
Was Lew Hing unusual? Actually, he represents many of the successful Chinese community leaders of his time, but their stories have not been told. Roland Hui has done an excellent job presenting to the world Hing’s life story based on family documents, Chinese newspapers, and a myriad of other impressive primary sources combined with Hui’s knowledge of the culture and times. The book shatters many of the long-held baseless stereotypes of the Chinese in the American West and should be read by all. — Sue Fawn Chung, Ph.D., Professor Emerita
Roland Hui has skillfully combined meticulous research with a compelling chronicle of the rise and fall of Lew Hing, the first Chinese American Industrialist. Drawing from both Chinese and American documents, Hui, as an accomplished historian, recounts Lew Hing’s hard-earned business success and then his fall from grace during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The title “Chinaman Tycoon” reminds us that racial animosity towards Asians that permeated American society in the mid-nineteenth century has continued to linger since the beginning of the COVID pandemic in March of 2020. — Bruce Quan, Jr., great-grandson of Lew Hing and author of Bitter Roots: Five Generation of a Chinese Family in America.