Chan Doo Sung papers,
Scope and Contents
The Chan Doo Sung papers consist three main parts. The first series is advertisements, which contains advertisements that were posted on the newspapers. All of them were cut off from newspapers. Some were made into scrapbooks, others are rearranged into different files based on location of the offices chronologically. The other main component of this category is testimonial. Chan asked his patients to write testimonials for him to use as advertisement. Testimonials are arranged by location of the office chronologicallt as well. Materials in this category indicate types of diseases Chan worked on and feedback from his patients.
The second series is business. It contains different materials including the original text of Chan's advertisements with his corrections by hand on some of them, brochure, congratulation card from Chan's friends, correspondence between Chan and his patients, instruction and receipts. One special material in this series is Chan's logos for printing. It is a traditional figure with a positive meaning in Chinese culture. Some of the logos were curved on paper, other were curved on metal either with or without a wood base.
The last series is prescriptions that contains a notebook of hand written prescriptions and some separated ones. Those prescriptions are vary based on the diseases which include but not limited to heache, throat ache, backache, women's problem, problem of different organs such as heart, liver, and kidney...The prescriptions are also vary even for the same symptoms with different causes.
Dates
- Creation: 1925-1941 and undated
Creator
- Chan, Doo Sung (Creator, Person)
Language of materials
Languages represented in the collection: English and Chinese.
Access
This collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
All requests for permission to reproduce or to publish must be submitted in writing to Special Collections.
Biography
Chan Doo Sung was born in Canton, China, on September 25, 1898. Most men in his family for generations were practitioners of herbal medicine. At age 18, Chan set sail from China on September 12, 1916, on the S.S Shinyo Maru. He was admitted into the U.S. as a student and entered the U.S. at Angel Island in San Francisco on November 25, 1916. Chan's uncle had come to America many years before and had established a successful herbal practice in Oakland, very successful that he needed more practitioners to staff the satellite offices he had set up in neighboring towns. That was the reason why Chan come to America, to intern with his uncle so to speak and learn English and take over one of the offices. By 1922, Chan had met Aster Lee, his future wife, who turned down a match with a rich man and married him on May 29, 1922. Chan became a loving husband and father who took care of the family well.
Chan as a Chinese herbalist was very patient and had great caring manner. His practice was mostly white Americans, hardly any Chinese. When the patient was cured, Chan would ask them to write a testimonial which was often used in advertisements that he ran in the local newspaper. There were highs and there were lows in the business; more lows than highs which accounted for the frequent moves. When he became discouraged that patients were not coming through the door he began considering other places to practice.
WWII arrived while Chan and his family lived in Tucson, and eventually it was impossible to order any herbs from San Francisco or China. He contiuned his herbal practice until the herbs ran out and ended up taking a job as a cashier in a local Chinese restaurant to support the family.
Throughout his whole career as a Chinese herbalist in America, Chan had run around 27 offices from 1925 to 1941. Most of those offices were based in California. Other locations include Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Utah, Idaho and Arizona.
Infomation comes from Chan Doo Sung's biography by his daughter, Anna Don.
Chronology
Chronology
- 1925
- Association of Chan and Kong (Bak Foo's Office), Oakland, CA
- 1927
- Principal of Chinese School, San Francisco, CA
- 1928
- Chan and Kong, Sacramento, CA
- 1929
- Chan and Kong, Bakersfield, CA
- Chan and Kong, Fresno, CA
- 1930
- Chan and Kong, Redding, CA
- Chan and kong, Anaheim, CA
- 1931
- Chan and Kong, Medford, OR
- Chan and Fong, Yakima, WA
- Chan and Fong, Dunsmuir, CA
- Chan and Fong, Aberdeen, WA
- 1932
- Chan and Kong, Pueblo, CO
- 1933
- Chan and Kong, San Raphael, CA
- Chan and Kong, Sonora, CA
- Chan and Lee, Petaluma, CA
- 1934
- Chan and Kong, Napa, CA
- Chan and Kong, Vallejo, CA
- 1935
- Hung Wing Herb Co. Walla, Walla, WA
- 1936
- Chan and Wing, Salt Lake City, UT
- 1937
- Chan and Wing, Idaho Falls, ID
- 1939
- Chan and Wing, Twin Falls, ID
- 1940
- Chan and Hing, Santa Cruz, CA
- 1941
- Chan and Kong, Tucson, AZ
Two additional locations are shown below: Chang and Kong, Ventura, CA Chang and Kong, San Luis Obispo, CA
Extent
1 Linear Feet (1 legal document box + 1 oversize document box)
Abstract
Chan Doo Sung (1898-1971) was born in Canton, China. At age 18, Chan set sail from China on the S.S Shinyo Maru. He was admitted into the U.S. as a student and entered the U.S. at Angel Island in San Francisco in 1916. Chan came to intern with his uncle, who ran Chinese medicine offices in the U.S successfully, so to speak and learn English and take over one of the offices. Chan got married in 1922, and practiced Chinese herbal medicine for more than a decade til he ran out all the herbs he had and could not get more due to WWII.
Materials in this collection are dated from 1925 to 1941 when Chan ran offices in different cities in the U.S. The three series of this collection include advertisements, business and prescriptions. Series of advertisements, which contains advertisements that were posted on the newspapers. All of them were cut off from newspapers. Some were made into scrapbooks, others are rearranged into different files based on location of the offices chronologically. Series of business contains materials such as original text of Chan's advertisements, brochures, congratulation card from Chan's friends, correspondence between Chan and his patients, instruction and receipts, and logos for printing. Series of prescriptions contains a notebook of hand written prescriptions and some separated ones that are vary based on the diseases.
Organization and Arrangement
This collection is arranged into three series:
Series 1: Advertisements
Series 2: Business
Series 3: Prescriptions
Physical location
Please consult repository.
Source of Acquisition
Gift of Anna Don, November 26, 2013.
Accruals
No additions to the collection are anticipated.
Processing Information
Processing Information
This collection is arranged and processed by Dixinyao (Moonlight) Zhu, June 2015.
There was no original order. In the process, the materials were arranged based on the category: advertisements, business or prescriptions. Within each category, the materials were arranged in folders alphabetically due to the location then chronogically in each folder.
Normal process includes photocopying the original material because the original ones are very acidic. However, for this specific collection, there was no photocopy. The collection mostly contains newspaper clipping from 1930s. The best way to save and keep the original ones in this collection is to keep them in files and interleaved with acidic free paper.
Genre / Form
Occupation
Topical
- Title
- Chan Doo Sung papers
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Finding aid prepared by Dixinyao (Moonlight) Zhu, CCEPS Fellow, Summer 2015
- Date
- 2015
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the 01 - Special Collections & Archives, The Claremont Colleges Library Repository
800 North Dartmouth Ave
Claremont CA 91711 United States
Email: specialcollections@claremont.edu