Ep. 325 | Chin Gee Hee

Published: April 30, 2023, 2 p.m.

b"With the Taiwan series now behind us, it's onwards and upwards. This time I wanted to select one of the many great Chinese American heroes of his day, Chin Gee Hee. Chin was another Toisan native who came to the American west coast, not to the usual haunts of San Francisco and Los Angeles, but to Seattle. He arrived in the 1860s and stayed till 1904. Following a career in labor contracting and other entrepreneurial ventures that made him quite wealthy, he returned to his native Toisan where, together with a partner, he built the Sun Ning Railway \\u65b0\\u5b81\\u94c1\\u8def. The Sun Ning was one of the very few rail projects funded entirely by Chinese investors.\\xa0During his decades living in the Washington Territory\\xa0Chin Gee Hee faced the worst racism and anti-Chinese violence the future state would ever see.\\xa0And when he returned to China during the final years of the Qing Dynasty to build his railroad, his best intentions encountered a different set of challenges and disappointments.\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices"