As the rate of anti-Asian rhetoric and violence has increased significantly in the past year, the Utah Asian American community responds by fostering connection, compassion, safety, and unity while also striving to bring more awareness to the history of exclusion and discrimination against Asians despite their significant contributions to the state. 

In the Facebook group “Our Kaysville Story,” Kaysville historian Bill Sanders recently shared the story of Chinese merchants Yee Kee and Hop Gee who established a laundry business on Kaysville’s Main Street in 1896. Sanders said, “His laundry was in a frame building at 81 North Main just to the north of the Heber J. Sheffield & Sons mercantile store. This building had been the previous home of the Ladies Aid Society Hall--the meeting place of the Kaysville LDS Ward relief society. The Kee Laundry operated successfully for several years, and it is believed that Mr. Kee and his associates lived in the rear section of the laundry building.” 

Local newspaper accounts at the time characterized the family as being able to communicate and interact with their customers and neighbors despite their limited English. While they often traveled to Ogden to socialize with the Ogden Chinese community to participate in Chinese festivals and other cultural events, they contributed to the local community in general. 

The May 5, 1900 edition of the Salt Lake Herald credited Yee Kee for donating to the relief fund for the Scofield mine disaster which took place on May 1, 1900, and killed over 200 people. A February 9, 1900 Davis Clipper article mentioned Hop Gee and Yee Kee’s celebration of Chinese New Year. The article said, “They treated their customers with candy and nuts.” 

However, Sanders said, “In 1910, several Kaysville teenagers harassed and played nasty practical jokes on Mr. Kee, his son, and business associates. As a result of the harassment, the Kees moved to Layton and closed their laundry business. They lived in Layton for five years and then moved to Ogden where they are lost to history.”

When Kathleen Barnett Lee of Kaysville read of the bullying that drove them away, she said, “So sad to hear about harassment that made them move. It would have made Kaysville's history very interesting if they could have stayed.” Kristine Murdock of Kaysville said, “I love this piece of our Kaysville history, although I am saddened about how they were treated by some of the citizens.”     

While legislation such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 which prohibited immigration of Chinese laborers contributed to the anti-Asian sentiment 140 years ago, the xenophobic rhetoric surrounding COVID-19 for the past year resulted in dramatic increases in anti-Asian incidents. Stop AAPI Hate – a nonprofit that tracks episodes of discrimination and hate against Asians and Pacific Islanders - reported 6,603 cases from March 19, 2020 to March 31, 2021. The report said, “The number of hate incidents reported to our center increased significantly from 3,795 to 6,603 during March 2021.” While many incidents are verbal harassment, shunning, and discrimination, some consist of physical assault as evidenced by the viral videos of elderly beatings and the March 2021 Atlanta shootings which targeted Asian American women. 

In response to these disturbing incidents of hate among the AAPI community, some Utahns are proactively trying to prevent them. In May 2021, the Asian Link Project launched to provide free chaperone services to members of the Utah Asian American community in the Salt Lake Valley. Patterned and inspired by Compassion in Oakland who provides the same service in California, the Asian Link Project provides volunteer chaperones to accompany Utah Asians (particularly the elderly) during their day-to-day errands and activities. Asian Link Project’s mission is to provide safety and link the Asian American community with group projects and services to promote real connections and build unity. 

When founders Carrie Shin Pace and Itzak Lefler launched the project, the response was overwhelming. The call for volunteers was so successful that they had to suspend accepting volunteer applications in order to vet and train each team member properly. In addition to onboarding their volunteers, the organization is working tirelessly to foster relationships and trust within the Utah Asian American community. 

“Many Asian Americans are private people,” Pace said. “Culturally, they don’t ask for help. Our goal at Asian Link Project is to build trust and a strong foundation of friendship within the community – particularly with Asian businesses and markets which are often targeted for hate incidents.” 

Emilio Manuel Camu, president of OCA Asian Pacific Islander American Advocates Utah, said that the current incidents are just the more recent reiterations of the violence, hate, and exclusion against Asian Americans which have existed for centuries despite the significant contributions to American society and industry by Asians – contributions which have been largely overlooked or downplayed in American history books. For example, it wasn’t until 2019 during the 150th anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad at Promontory, Utah that the significant role the 15,000+ Chinese laborers played in the building of the railroads were finally recognized and celebrated after nearly a century and a half of the Chinese being excluded in reenactments, commemorations, and photographs. 

Camu mentioned Fulgencio Romero, who is reported to be the first Filipino to arrive in Utah in 1900 and worked as a servant at Fort Douglas in exchange for housing and classes at the University of Utah. Examples of early Utah Asians’ dedication to work and industry are evident in Romero and the Kaysville Chinese merchants Yee Kee and Hop Gee. 

“Even though the Chinese were not allowed to become citizens then due to the Chinese Exclusion Act, it seems like these men were so fond of their community that they were trying to share parts of their culture,” Camu said. “It goes to show that for Asian Americans in Utah, we have been so ready to give our love and share different parts of our culture but the mainstream was not, and perhaps still is not ready to accept us for who we truly are. And it is unfortunate because we have so much love and so much culture to give. Even though Utah has a history of exclusion, here we still are – dedicated and ready to serve. But we are not a culture that looks to be pitied. We demand justice. We demand to keep moving forward and create spaces for us to be happy.”   

For more information and to get involved, visit www.asianlinkproject.org and www.ocautah.org.