Yick Kuen (Y.K.) Wong
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"On November 9th, 1902, Y.K. landed at the port of San Francisco. Newly arriving immigrants were subject to primary inspections on board their steamships and a medical examination. Immigrants were asked anywhere from two hundred to one thousand questions during their interrogations and if the details did not match their witnesses, they were detained for longer and possibly sent back to China. In order to be let out of immigration holding, Y.K. needed to prove that his relationship to his father was genuine and [his father] Wong Kee needed to prove his exempt status as a merchant."*
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"On February 12th, 1915, the University of Florida school newspaper The Florida Alligator announced Y.K. Wong’s arrival stating, “The Agricultural department has been increased by the addition of...Mr. Yick Kuen Wong who registers from San Francisco. Mr. Wong has recently been pursuing work in the University of Illinois. His real home is in Hang San Kwongtung, China.”*
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Y.K. Wong (Front Center) with the Flint Chemical Society in front of
Peabody Hall (1915)
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Y.K. Wong's Form 431
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"In the months after his graduation from the University of Florida, The Florida Alligator newspaper stated, “Y.K. Wong of ‘Yamaguchi-Wong’ fame is on the campus for a few days. Yick has been ‘Cankering’, since his graduation for the State Plant Board.” Although Y.K. does some post-graduate work after he finished cankering he does not complete a master’s degree and departs Gainesville and goes back to San Francisco...By summer of 1917, Y.K. applied for a return certificate of departure (Form 431) back to China. This was his first time returning to China after 14 years."*
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Y.K. Wong's Senior Yearbook Picture
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"A year after the Chinese Exclusion Act was lifted, Y.K. Wong...filed his Declaration of Intention to naturalize as a U.S. citizen. Immigrants wanting to become citizens needed to file this Declaration of Intention also known as first papers which was then followed by a two-year waiting period before one could file a Petition of Naturalization. Two and half years later, on July 24th, 1947, Y.K. Wong submitted a petition for naturalization and took an oath of allegiance. One month later on August 25, 1947, Y.K. became a U.S. citizen."*