Closing Argument
When Competence Met Prejudice

The first Asian American to practice law in California, my father fought discrimination — and won

By Linda Chan ’78
This article was originally published in the USF Lawyer Magazine (Spring 2018).

My mother was cleaning out the basement and told me to take an old chest to Salvation Army, but I couldn’t bear it. I loved this beautiful old Chinese chest — it was more than 100 years old and covered with intricately carved flowers, dragons, and other ornate Chinese art. After moving it into my Berkeley apartment and lovingly cleaning and oiling it, I opened it to discover century-old newspapers featuring my father, C.C. Wing, a fellow USF law alumnus who graduated in 1918.

I knew my father as the first Chinese American general agent for Occidental Life Insurance Company, now Transamerica Life Insurance Company. Not until I read those newspaper articles did I learn he was the first Chinese American ever admitted to practice law in the state of California. “Chan Chung Wing, in charge of the Chinese Branch of foreign exchange in the Bank of Italy, passed his bar examinations today in the District Court of Appeals with a percentage of 96. This is said to be one of the highest ratings ever recorded,” wrote The Recorder in 1918.

After I read these glowing newspaper articles, I asked my father how it felt being the first Chinese American attorney in California. Unfortunately, his stories were not very uplifting and reflected the rampant discrimination against Chinese during the early 1900s.

He had great memories of attending USF School of Law at night, after working during the day for A.P. Giannini at the Bank of Italy, which became the Bank of America. But his first experiences in the California court rooms were challenging. One Sacramento judge did not believe that my father was an attorney and refused to allow him to practice law in his court room. Another San Francisco judge constantly ruled against my father regardless of the merits of his case. Because he normally lost at the local level, he had to appeal his cases where he was generally able to prevail. My father finally felt vindicated when he successfully represented a Chinese man accused of murdering his employer.

Always the pioneer paving the way for other Chinese, my father wanted to help Chinese businesses succeed. In his role at the Bank of Italy, he saw Chinese merchants being denied life insurance they badly needed. Most insurers thought they would be bad risks because of rumors that “Chinese ate fish heads and rice.” He armed himself with mortality tables and proved that the Chinese would be a very safe bet, and his life insurance career officially began. The C.C. Wing Agency became one of Occidental Life Insurance Company’s top producing agencies in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s.

When my father asked me to take over his law practice and insurance agency in 1980, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to practice law and run the insurance agency. When I told my father that I didn’t think I could do it, he looked at me with that cute sparkle in his eye that he always got when trying to persuade me to do something I was afraid to do — like golf — and said with great assurance, “Don’t worry! It’s easy!” And he was right.

Not only did he pave the way for new opportunities for the Chinese community in America, but for me personally as a woman and a Chinese American attorney. Just as he was shocked and delighted at my first hole-in-one during our early morning round of golf, he was tremendously pleased when I passed the California bar exam. His best friend told me, “Your father’s buttons were popping off his vest when you passed the bar!” For his vision to think differently, I am tremendously grateful.

Linda Chan ’78 (pictured at left with her father) recently retired as a general agent for Transamerica Life Insurance Company, after running the C.C. Wing Life Insurance Agency, Inc., the company her father founded.

Join us for "Celebrating Chan Chung 'C.C.' Wing: California's First Chinese American Lawyer" on May 31st, 6 - 9 PM at Hanson Bridgett, San Francisco. Register here.