A New Life
In 1908, the Pacific Improvement Company (PIC) began subdividing its land and selling it to wealthy San Franciscans. Through this process, the cost to rent land from the PIC rose significantly. Although the Jungs had been important to the company in the past, they could not keep up with the increasing costs of living on the PIC's land, nor could the Jungs (or any Asian Americans) own land at all. It was time for Jung San Choy and his family to make a change.
The Jungs began leaving Monterey for the San Francisco Bay Area. By the 1910s, all of the Jungs had moved to the Bay Area, settling in the Chinatowns of various cities. Jung San Choy passed away from cancer in 1917, at age 67.
In Oakland, California, Jung San Choy's children entered the produce business. They started off sorting fruit for a living, and then later progressed to owning their own fruit and vegetable cart, from which they would sell their produce door to door. The Jungs sold produce for years, until the livelihood of selling door to door was ended by the advent of large chain stores, like Piggly Wiggly, in the 1920s and 1930s.
Firmly rooted in the Bay Area, the children of Jung San Choy raised their families, and the next generation was able to get better educations and jobs, and future generations were afforded more opportunities and prosperity. All from a lone teenage immigrant fisherman from China, seeking a better life, an escape, a possibility, a dream.
Children of Jung San Choy
Oakland, California, circa 1920s, unkown photographer