Tyrus Wong Remembers Angel Island

Overview: This video lesson can be used to teach the experiences of Chinese immigrants to Angel Island.

Tyrus Wong created some of the most memorable images in the history of animation and American cinema when he worked at Disney and later Warner Brothers. Among the highlights of his long and accomplished film career was his role as the lead animator for the film Bambi. Before that, however, he was an immigrant to the United States during the period of Chinese Exclusion. After arriving in the U.S., Wong was detained at Angel Island where he studied false papers to prepare him for integration. The staff at the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation explain:

Under the Chinese Exclusion Act, only a few Chinese—merchants, teachers, students, diplomats, clergy, and dependent children—were allowed to enter the United States legally. After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire destroyed immigration records, some Chinese residents claimed to have dependent children living overseas. To assist others in China, and to financially benefit from the government’s lack of historic records, false identities were sold to families who hoped to send their sons or daughters to America. Each “paper child” received a detailed personal history that they could memorize and use on Angel Island.

Immigrants endured exhaustive interrogations before the Board of Special Inquiry, answering numerous questions about their supposed family, neighbors, and village layouts to verify their claimed identity. Any inconsistency between an applicant and their witness could mean rejection or deportation. Some waited weeks, others years, for the board’s decision on their cases. For Chinese detainees, the fear of exposure persisted for years. They were sometimes forced to live as their paper identities indefinitely.

Below is a short profile in which Wong shares his memories of Angel Island and its impact on his life.