Wongs Of Riverside
The Family of Voy and Fay Wong - Riverside, CA
Voy Wong was born Wong Gan Voy in Gom Benn Village, Toisan County, Guangdong Province, China August 8, 1913 to Sam Wong (Wong Chun Yee) and See Yung Lee Wong. Voy was a sickly child but survived despite the lack of healthcare in rural peasant China. Being the second son of an Overseas Chinese (wah que), Voy’s father sent money home for his education and allowed him to study and complete high school. When Voy was 21 yrs old, his mother arranged his marriage to Fay Hing Lee (Lee Fay Hing) from the neighboring Lee village. After his marriage he was interested in studying medicine, perhaps chiropractory in Guangzhou like his friend Docta Sim who was also instrumental in matching him with Fay. Because of his frail health, he did not have much energy for studying. Later in his life, in his forties, he would find out that he had a congenital heart defect (hole in his heart). Discouraged by his poor grades, he decided to join his brother and father in America to seek his fortune. He said good bye to Fay and left China in 1937. Fay accepted this fate as was the custom for the Chinese men to go to America to make money and send it back home. They hoped to eventually save enough money to return to China to buy land and retire a wealthy man.
Since his brother, Poy Wong (Wong Gan Poy), had already emigrated to America as the first born son of his father, Voy could not gain automatic entry as the first born son of a U.S. Citizen. Instead, he paid a large sum of money to emigrate as a “paper son,” the first born son of another Chinese immigrant already living in the U.S.
Voy’s father, Sam Wong (Wong Chun Yee), had a dry goods business (Gee Chong Co.) in San Bernardino. The store also served as a front for the Chinese gaming lottery held in the back of the store. It was decided that Voy should continue with his education. From 1940-1941, he attended San Bernardino Senior High School. Although he was 24 and already married, he was able to fit in with the students because of his short stature and youthful appearance. When World War II broke out, he learned of an opportunity to buy a restaurant business in Riverside from a Japanese American who was being sent to an internment camp. He and two partners, Wong Bing Tew and Harold Wong, scraped together $500 and purchased the business.
The partners renamed the restaurant Chungking Cafe, Chungking being the wartime capital of China. The restaurant was located at 3817 Market Street, in the heart of downtown Riverside. It was located in the old Hotel Plaza building, owned by Bill Evans, Mayor of Riverside. Voy soon befriended Bill and always gave him special treatment when he came into the restaurant.
Voy and his partners hired cooks from Los Angeles who knew how to make the Chinese American food that most Americans enjoyed such as chop suey, chow mein, egg roll, egg foo young and fried rice.
For many years, Chungking was the only Chinese restaurant in Riverside and being in downtown Riverside, lunch was a busy hour. Downtown government workers and merchants enjoyed the special lunch menu. Freshness was important and Voy and Fay made many trips to a Los Angeles Chinese market (Yung Chung Lung) for Chinese vegetables like bak choy, snow peas and bean sprouts. Meat was delivered from the Sam Sing butcher shop in Los Angeles Chinatown.
Chungking served many people from all walks of life as well as notables such as former Congressman and U.S. Senator John Tunney, and civil rights leader Cesar Chavez. As a family owned and run business, Chungking employed family members as well as hired cooks who were from the same Toisan region in southern China. Uncle Poy was the cashier, Voy and Fay the cooks, and the children served as hostess, waitresses, food preparers, dishwashers and buss boys.
The Restaurant Period had three phases: The Wartime Phase 1942 -1949, the postwar period to 1949-1961, and the remodel period from 1961 to 1974. Before the remodel period, Chungking Cafe was a classic old time Chinese restaurant with high back red vinyl booths, a juke box, round glass-countered cashier’s station in the front, neon signs, a pressed metal sculptured ceiling and the vintage red Coca Cola ice coolers.
Typically for a Chinese immigrant family, Voy and Fay’s children stayed in the restaurant during working hours when they weren’t in school. The old office /storage room in the back had a black and white TV where the kids watched the classic TV shows and movies in the fifties. They would play games or go outside and play in the parking lot or White Park next door. Not having many toys, the kids were creative in using their imagination and would perform plays in the old store room. Since the room had a loft, Rapunzel was popular because the “hair”(rope) could be dropped down from the upper level. When the appliance store next door discarded empty refrigerator and stove boxes, the kids cut up the boxes to make cars, submarines, and houses.
The restaurant was closed on Tuesdays and this was the day that the Wong Family would go visit other Gom Benn villagers in the southern California areas.
On August 9, 1961, customers were invited for the re-opening of the Chungking Restaurant, “completely remodeled, modernized building”, designed by Gin Wong, a descendant of Gom Benn who would gain prominence as a Los Angeles architect on the team that designed the Theme Building at LAX. The restaurant had a simple modern Japanese aesthetic, neutral colors- off white walls, black booths, Herman Miller chairs in gray, white and orange. The dining room was divided by rectangular framed shoji screens. Round white globes suspended by a slender gold rod lighted the room. The front had wall mirrors with a black cushioned bench next to a fish pond.
A few years later, the Moon Glow Room cocktail lounge would be added. With a full bar, it served all the classic Polynesian drinks- Mai Tai’s, Pi Yi’s,(fresh pineapple) Fog Cutter’s, Scorpion’s (large ceramic clam shell) and our own Chungking Sling.
In 1974, Voy and Fay returned to China for a visit made possible when President Nixon’s trip normalized relations between the two countries. They had not seen China since they left together in 1948. It was a difficult journey for both since Voy was very weak from a heart condition. They were part of a tour group of Gom Benn Villagers making their first trip back in many years. It was a whirlwind tour covering many places that none of the villagers had seen before including Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing.
They were treated to a big welcoming celebration in Gom Benn Village with feasts and festivities. With overseas money, the Gom Benn village had several new homes and a new factory building. A new school building was in the works at the time.
Voy received some Chinese medical treatment for his heart condition in Shanghai, but came back from China very weak.
On December 25, 1975, he became ill with pneumonia, was hospitalized and passed away at Riverside Community Hospital. He is buried in Olivewood Cemetery in Riverside.
