Ong Ko Met History and Culture
Chinese Dialects
Mandarin
Wu
Gan
Xiang
Hakka
Yue
Inventions
- Gunpowder
- Silk
- Porcelain
- Tea
- Printing
- Compass
- Papermaking
- Chinese medicine
- Abacus
- Seismograph
- Kites
- Acupuncture
The History of the Ong Ko Met Family Association
The names Ong, Dong, Deng, Tang, Teng and Ung are all being used by those whose surname is represented by the Chinese character 鄧
The spelling of the name is based on whatever the translator heard at the time when the Chinese dialect was spoken.
Our Roots
The first Ong generation began with Ong Mon Kung. Ong Mon Kung was appointed by King Wu Ting in the Shang Dynasty in 1400 BC to be Chieftain in charge of the country of Ong in Nan Yang County located in today’s Henan Province.
The Ongs did not establish their present identity with the name Ong Ko Met until the 47th generation. Prince Wong Mong rebelled against King Gong Mo during the Eastern Han period in 26AD. The rebels were badly beaten by General Ong Yu who defended West Fort, thereby saving the kingdom. A tall monument was created on a terrace called Wun Toy, translated Cloud Terrace, in honor of those heroic twenty-eight generals who defeated the rebels. At the age of twenty-four, General Ong Yu was the youngest general to be awarded with the highest honorary title, Marquis Ong Ko Met.
As time passed from dynasty to dynasty, the Ongs slowly migrated to other parts of China. In the Sung Dynasty, 1272 AD, the 92nd generation of Ongs conducted a mass migration toward southern China. Prince Ku Sze Tao had forced Chieftain Wuhan of the Ong Clan to move southward to Nanhung in Guangdong Province. In subsequent years, their descendents had spread to the Sunwui, Toishan and Hoiping Districts also known as the Pearl River Delta. Many of the Ongs that came to America originated from this delta area.
Life became very difficult for people in China during the nineteenth century, especially for those in Guangdong Province where the Opium War of 1839-42 and the Second Opium War of 1856-60 between China and Britain was fought. The Chinese fought hard to keep opium out of China. Eventually, the effects on Chinese society were devastating. The aftermath of the war had brought about more hunger and misery. Everyone was looking for a better place to live and to escape British imperialism.
Coming to America
As gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill in California in 1848, news of the Gold Rush spread quickly to China. The California Gold Rush brought hope to many Chinese. All were eager to find a passage to America or Gold Mountain (Gum Shan). By 1856 the lure of gold attracted thousands of Chinese to America. They settled mainly in San Francisco (Tie Fow), Sacramento (Yee Fow), and nearby communities.
The building of the Central Pacific Railroad across the Sierra Nevada started a greater wave of Chinese immigration. Upon breaking ground for the railroad in Sacramento on June 8, 1863, Governor Leland Stanford praised the Chinese laborers for their achievements and called for more to come. Within a year, 15,000 Chinese joined the labor force and more were on the way from China. But by the 1870s the Central Pacific Railroad was built and many Chinese workers were now out of work.
Fortunately during the 1850s the United States government, as part of the Federal Swampland Act, offered up millions of acres of delta swampland at very little cost for anyone who could reclaim it. Many developers saw opportunity to exploit the Chinese workers that needed jobs and built Chinatowns in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. They had the Chinese push back the waters and the developers claimed the land. In the end, the Chinese played a pivotal role in reclaiming the delta by building a complex system of levees, transforming over 500,000 acres of swampland into one of the richest agricultural regions on earth. Many Chinese immigrants became productive farmers and farm workers in the Delta region of Sacramento and San Joaquin River. Today, some of their descendants still reside in Locke, Walnut Grove, Courtland and other delta communities.
The San Francisco Ong Ko Met Association
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prevented all new Chinese immigrants from entering America except tourist, students and merchants. Discrimination against the Chinese was rampant.
Among the first Ong family members to arrive from China and settle in San Francisco during the 1860’s were Ong Kai Yet who opened Bock Toa Hong, an herb store at 859 Stockton Street and Ong Sen Shek who opened Hi Wo Hong, an herb store at 718 Grant Avenue. Many more Ong families left their home villages from the Woo Lung, Hoiping District which is now referred to as the Hu Long / Xiao Hai, Kaiping District.
From 1910 to 1940 the point of entry for Chinese immigrants arriving from Pacific routes was Angel Island. Immigration officials detained and interrogated newly arrived Chinese people while they determined if they were eligible to enter the United States or if they were merely “paper sons.”
State laws were passed to exclude Chinese from all but meanial occupations, from owning land, and from basic legal rights. Chinatowns and family associations, like the Ong Ko Met Association, were formed to secure the safety of Chinese-Americans and to fight for the rights of Chinese immigrants.
San Francisco Ong Ko Met Association - Chronology of Events
1877 First established at 808 Clay Street
1887 Relocated to 160 Waverly Place
1945 The association raised money through a special family fund to purchase a three story brick building at 49.53.57 Brenham Pl.
1951 The association sold the old building and raised enough money to purchase a new three story building that is now located at 719 Grant Avenue.
The Sacramento Ong Ko Met Association
Among the first Ong family members to settle in Sacramento were Sun Gung and Sun Yip. Sun Gung arrived in 1884. He was the first Sacramento pharmacist of Chinese descent, a translator at the Court House, and a clergyman at the Congregational Church. Sun Yip was a grocer and also a clergyman at the Chinese Baptist Church. In 1899 Dong Si Chon opened the Sun Yee Yuen herb store at 214 I Street.
A few years later Dong Haw, Dong Oy Lung, and Dong Bock Lung immigrated to Sacramento. In 1906 Dong Haw, Dong Oy Lung, and Dong Bock Lung opened Hong King Lum Restaurant at 3rd and I Street. Later in 1911, Dong Haw opened the Yick Chong Co., the first Chinese grocery store in Sacramento. In 1942 the Ong Ko Met Association was formed.
Sacramento Ong Ko Met Association - Chronology of Events
1942 Jack L. Tang, Stanley Dong, Chong Ong, Don Haw, Wing Tow Ong, Ong Si Jum, Kung Ong, and others, decided to establish a Sacramento branch of Ong Ko Met Association. They rented the second floor of the building at 973 3rd Street.
1951 Dong Haw suggested that the membership purchase and construct a new association building. A building fund drive was started. Many members donated, but much of the effort was credited to Dong Haw who traveled in Sun Kung Ong’s car to solicit donations from the Ongs in San Francisco, California, Phoenix, Arizona, and Albuquerque, New Mexico.
1952 Construction of the two-story association building at 318 I Street was completed.
1960 The Sacramento Redevelopment Agency presented a proposal to establish a Chinatown Mall in the area where the Confucius Temple had just been built.
1971 The association building at 427 Chinatown Mall was completed in July. The Grand opening was held on August 26th. It was truly a great day for the Ong’s.
The Phoenix Ong Ko Met Association
In the 1860s, Chinese worked at the Vulture Mine in Wickenburg Arizona. By 1872, when the first wave of Chinese immigrants was more centralized, the Chinese in Phoenix open laundries. Before the gray-faced America West Arena shadowed First and Madison streets, the Ongs and Tangs owned grocery stores and lived in this same swath of costly real estate from the late 19th century until the 1930s. They called the settlement China Alley. In the early 1940’s the Ong Ko Met Association was established in Phoenix to coordinate and assist the family members with the surname of Ong, Dong or Tang.
When builders broke ground for the basketball arena in the early 1990s, Fred Ong helped raise more than $20,000 from Arizona’s Chinese-American community to help pay for the archaeological dig at the site. Thousands of artifacts, from bottles and buttons to rice bowls and toothbrushes, have been stored at the Pueblo Grande Museum in Phoenix.
In 2005, the Phoenix Ong Ko Met Family Association was also active in saving the 1929 Sun Mercantile Building in Phoenix’s Chinatown from hotel developers and secure space for an Asian American museum.
Phoenix Ong Ko Met Association - Chronology of Events
1860 Chinese worked at the Vulture Mine in Wickenburg Arizona
1872 Chinese in Phoenix open laundry businesses.
1940 The Ong Ko Met Association was established in Phoenix.
Chinese History and Culture Primer
China is the world’s longest continuous civilization, in existence since 6000 B.C.
The oldest form of the Chinese written language was found in Oracle Bone inscriptions
carved on tortoise shells and mammal bones during the Shang dynasty (c 1600-1100 BC).
Chinese is the world’s longest continuously used written language. Today, Chinese is the most widely spoken language in the world (primarily Mandarin dialect), with about 850
million native speakers and 1.34 million speakers worldwide.
Under the First Emperor Qin, the Qin Dynasty built two of China’s most famous tourist attractions: the first version of the Great Wall of China and the Terracotta Army. The construction of both involved hundreds of thousands of men who conscripted into years of forced labor.
The Terracotta Army was accidentally uncovered by farmers digging a well near Xi’an in 1974 revealing one of the world’s most spectacular architectural finds. Archeologists unearthed an
entire Terracotta Army of some 7,000 warriors, chariots, and horses, which were buried with the emperor in a vast underground mausoleum to protect him in the afterlife. To keep the location secret, thousands of workers were killed and buried after construction was completed.
Multi-Cultural Integration
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) officially recognizes 55 ethnic minority groups within China in addition to the Han majority. As of 2005, the combined population of officially recognised minority groups numbered at 123.33 million, comprising of 9.44% of China’s total population.
The PRC’s Constitution and laws guarantee equal rights to all ethnic groups in China and help promote ethnic minority groups’ economic and cultural development. Some ethnic minorities in China live in what are described as ethnic autonomous areas. These “regional autonomies” guarantee ethnic minorities the freedom to use and develop their ethnic languages, and to maintain their own cultural and social customs.
Language
There are between 7 and 13 main regional groups of Chinese, of which the most spoken, by far, is Mandarin, followed by Wu, Yue, and Min. Most of these language groups are mutually unintelligible, although some, like Xiang and the Southwest Mandarin dialects, may share common terms and some degree of intelligibility. Standard Chinese (Putonghua/Guoyu/Huayu) is a standardized form of spoken Chinese based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin and is the official language of China and Taiwan.
Chinese Characters
Chinese characters have evolved from their primitive forms to their modern styles through many phases. The major styles include oracle bone inscriptions, bronze inscriptions during the Western and Eastern Zhou, scripts popular during the Warring States Period, and theseal script characteristic of the Qin Dynasty.
人 (man, person) 马 (horse) 儿 (child,kid)
心 (heart) 炎 (hot) 鄧 (Ong)
Chinese Characters
Since the end of the Cultural Revolution (1966–76), the education system in China has been geared toward economic modernization. In 1985, the national government ceded responsibility for basic education to local governments. In 1986 nearly 20 percent of the state budget was earmarked for education. In the 2009 test of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a worldwide evaluation of 15-year-old school pupils’ scholastic performance by the OECD, Chinese students from Shanghai achieved the best results world-wide in mathematics, science and reading.
Cities
Ancient China
Humanoids have lived in China for hundreds of thousands of years. A group of fossil specimens—collectively known as “Peking Man”—were discovered in Zhoukoudian cave near Beijing. These specimens of Homo erectus (a relative of Homo sapiens) lived between 780,000 and 300,000 years ago and could make fire and used primitive stone tools. In Liujiang in southern China, the first modern human skull was discovered and is estimated to be about 67,000 years old.
Modern Day China
Throughout China’s history, China’s modern capital “Beijing” was once known as Yanjing, Dadu, Beiping, and most recently Peking. Beijing is translated literally as “Northern Capital” and is one of China’s “Four Great Ancient Capitals of China.” The other three are Nanjing (“Southern Capital”), Luoyang, and Chang’an (today’s Xi’an).
Beijing
For thousands of years the Chinese believed that Beijing sat at the center of the Universe, with the emperor’s throne in the Forbidden City as the absolute center.
The Forbidden City
Beijing’s most famous tourist attraction is the Forbidden City — where China’s emperors held court for 500 years from the 15th century until 1911.
The Great Wall of China
The Great Wall of China is undoubtedly one of the ancient world’s most amazing feats of engineering. With the earliest pieces built around the 5th century BC, the wall spans over 5,500 miles (8,800km) — making it the longest man-made structure ever built. It is the only object on Earth viewable from Mars.
Hangzhou
Marco Polo described Hangzhou as “the most beautiful and magnificent in the world.” Undoubtedly one of China’s most picturesque cities, it is known among the Chinese as most romantic city in China (earning it the title as China’s Honeymoon Capital). The undisputed star in this show is the spectacular West Lake, offering postcard-like vistas.
Hong Kong
Probably the best know city, it is sometimes described as “a dream of Manhattan, arising from the South China Sea.” With one of best city skylines in the world, Hong Kong is a dazzling city of futuristic skyscrapers, serene mountains, and stunning views to the open sea and islands.
Huangshan
The Chinese say that once you’ve ascended the peaks of Huangshan, you’ll never want to climb another mountain. It’s mist-wreathed granite peaks and twisted pines perched on jutting crags have been immortalized in countless Chinese scroll paintings and movies including “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”
Shanghai
Shanghai is a fashionable locale for the Western shopaholic. A dynamic, international city known for business, shopping, nightlife, and sophistication. Shanghai is undoubtedly China’s most modern city.
Suzhou
Less than an hour away from Shanghai by train, Suzhou is known as a top tourist destination in China. It is called the “Venice of the East” because it was built around a latticework of 24 canals. But Suzhou’s main feature is its classical Chinese gardens — intricately designed masterpieces that harmoniously blend surrounding buildings with nature.
Chronological Outline of Chinese History
10,000-2,000 BCE Neolithic Cultures
ca. 2100-1600 BCE Xia (Hsia) Dynasty
ca. 1600-1050 BCE Shang Dynasty
One of the Three Dynasties, or San Dai (Xia, Shang, and Zhou), thought to mark the beginning of Chinese civilization: characterized by its writing system, practice of divination, walled cities, bronzing, and use of horse-drawn chariots.
ca. 1046-256 BCE Zhou (Chou) Dynasty: Western Zhou (ca. 1046-771 BCE), Eastern Zhou (771-256 BCE)
A hierarchical political and social system with the Zhou royal house at its apex: power was bestowed upon aristocratic families as lords of their domains or principalities. Although often compared to European “feudalism,” what actually gave the system cohesion was a hierarchical order of ancestral cults. The system eventually broke down into a competition for power between rival semi-autonomous states in what became known as the Spring and Autumn period (ca. 770-475 BCE) and the Warring States (ca. 475-221 BCE) period. It was during these tumultuous times that Confucius (551-479 BCE) lived.
221-206 BCE Qin (Ch’in) Dynasty
Created a unitary state by imposing a centralized administration and by standardizing the writing script, weights and measures. Known for its harsh methods of rule, including the suppression of dissenting thought.
206 BCE-220 CE Han Dynasty: Western/Former Han (206 BCE-9 CE) and Eastern/Later Han (25-220 CE)
Modified and consolidated the foundation of the imperial order. Confucianism was established as orthodoxy and open civil service examinations were introduced. Han power reached Korea and Vietnam. Records of the Historian, which became the model for subsequent official histories, was completed.
220-589 CE “Period of Disunity” or Six Dynasties Period
The empire was fragmented. The North was dominated by invaders from the borderland and the steppes. The South was ruled by successive “Chinese” dynasties. Buddhism spread.
581-618 CE Sui Dynasty
China reunified.
618-906 Tang (T’ang) Dynasty
A time of cosmopolitanism and cultural flowering occurred. This period was the height of Buddhist influence in China until its repression around 845. Active territorial expansion until defeated by the Arabs at Talas in 751.
960-1279 Song (Sung) Dynasty: Northern Song (960-1127) and Southern Song (1127-1279)
An era of significant economic and social changes: the monetization of the economy; growth in commerce and maritime trade; urban expansion and technological innovations. The examination system for bureaucratic recruitment of neo-Confucianism was to provide the intellectual underpinning for political order of the late imperial period.
1279-1368 Yuan Dynasty
Founded by the Mongols as part of their conquest of much of the world. Beijing was made the capital. Dramas, such as the famous Story of the Western Wing, flourished.
1368-1644 Ming Dynasty
The first Ming emperor, Hongwu, laid the basis of an authoritarian political culture. Despite early expansion, it was an inward-looking state with an emphasis on its agrarian base. Gradual burgeoning of the commercial sector; important changes in the economy and social relations in the latter part of the dynasty; also a vibrant literary scene as represented by publication of the novel Journey to the West.
1644-1912 Qing (Ch’ing) Dynasty
A Manchu dynasty. Continued the economic developments of the late Ming, leading to prosperity but also complacency and a dramatic increase in population. The acclaimed novel Dream of the Red Chamber was written in this period. Strains on the polity were intensified by a rapid incorporation of substantial new territories. Its authoritarian structure was subsequently unable to meet the military and cultural challenge of an expansive West.
1912-1949 Republic Period
Weak central government following the collapse of the dynastic system in 1911-12; Western influence was shown by the promotion of “science” and “democracy” during the New Culture Movement. The attempt of the Nationalist government (est. 1928) to bring the entire country under its control was thwarted by both domestic revolts and the Japanese occupation (1937-45). The Nationalists fled to Taiwan after defeat by the Communists.
1949-present People’s Republic of China
Communist government. The drive for remaking society ended in disasters such as the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. Economic reform and political retrenchment since around 1978.
THE CHINESE LUNAR CALENDAR
Chinese calendar defines the lunar month with winter solstice as the 11th month, which means that Chinese New Year usually falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice (rarely the third if an intercalary month intervenes).
In more than 96% of the years, the Chinese New Year’s Day is the closest new moon to lichun (Chinese: 立春; “start of spring”) on 4 or 5 February, and the first new moon after Dahan (Chinese: 大寒; “major cold”). In the Gregorian calendar, the Lunar New Year begins at the new moon that falls between 21 January and 20 February.
Many people inaccurately calculate their Chinese birth-year by converting it from their Gregorian birth-year. As the Chinese New Year starts in late January to mid-February, the previous Chinese year dates through 1 January until that day in the new Gregorian year, remaining unchanged from the previous Gregorian year. For example, the 1989 year of the Snake began on 6 February 1989. The year 1989 is generally aligned with the year of the Snake. However, the 1988 year of the Dragon officially ended on 5 February 1989. This means that anyone born from 1 January to 5 February 1989 was actually born in the year of the Dragon rather than the year of the Snake. Many online Chinese Sign calculators do not account for the non-alignment of the two calendars, using Gregorian-calendar years rather than official Chinese New Year dates.[17]
The table below shows the Gregorian Date, Animal, and Day of the Week.
Gregorian Date Animal Day of the week
2018 Feb 16 Dog Friday
2019 Feb 05 Pig Tuesday
2020 Jan 25 Rat Saturday
2021 Feb 12 Ox Friday
2022 Feb 01 Tiger Tuesday
2023 Jan 22 Rabbit Sunday
2024 Feb 10 Dragon Saturday
2025 Jan 29 Snake Wednesday
