Wong, J. P. (sold) (黃華培)

J. P. Wong (黃華培, November 18, 1901 - December 6, 1988), also known as Huang Huapei, was a Kuomintang (KMT) nationalist active in San Francisco throughout the 20th century. Wong was born in Daxiuyong, China and emigrated with his family to San Francisco in 1913. He joined the Kuomintang party in 1922 and became an officer of the San Francisco branch of that party. There is some suggestion that, at this time, he may have worked as a Chinese-language newspaper reporter. By 1926 he was actively raising funds and recruiting from the Chinese-American community in San Francisco for the National Revolutionary Army and the Northern Expedition. In the same year, he was involved with a Chinatown bootlegging ring and arrested. Wong published one map, a detailed mapping of San Francisco's Chinatown for the Consolidated Chinese Benevolent Association, with which he was associated. Later that year, 1929, Wong returned to China to support the KMT, becoming prominent in Shanghai where he moved in elite political circles. Wong returned to the United States only after 1949 when the mainland KMT nationalist regime collapsed. In 1951 he acquired an ownership share in the Hang Ah Tea Room (香雅. The oldest standing dim sum house in America), which is still active, using it as a platform to support the KMT in San Francisco. Wong became a citizen of the United States five years later in 1956. He was on the board of directors of Young China and in 1974 was an adviser to the Taiwan Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission (OCAC). He did not return to mainland china gain until 1980 and in 1981 was invited to the 70th anniversary commemoration of the 1911 Revolution. Wong died in San Francisco in 1988, aged 87.