Hi everyone! Avajane here — it’s been a moment since I’ve shared a research update on the blog! In early January, after completing a training in oral history interviewing, I received funding from the Grinnell College Anthropology Department to travel to New York City to continue my research on Chinese immigrants who lived in Rock Springs. This past summer, for my mentored advanced project, I created an ArcGIS StoryMap about the life and legacy of Leo Yee Litt, a coal miner who lived in the post-massacre Rock Springs Chinatown. My research was pieced together through Leo Yee Litt’s descendants in oral histories, his immigration and census records, archival and family photographs, and newspaper articles.
The purpose of my visit to NYC was to interview one of his grandsons, Arvin Chin, who might share stories that may have slipped through the cracks of the written record regarding two of Yee Litt’s children — Mabel and George — who moved from Rock Springs to New York City, and the military service of the Yee Litt brothers. Arvin himself is an Air Force veteran.
Accompanied by my mom, I arrived in NYC on January 4th, where I would get to know Arvin over the next few days. Shortly after settling in, we were invited to join him and his friends from the American Legion Lt. Kimlau Chinese Memorial Post, to share a Toisanese family-style dinner at the Sun Hong Wong restaurant in Chinatown. The members of the American Legion were curious about my research and asked about the Rock Springs Chinatown; in turn, they shared their Chinese families’ similar early experiences in America. The dinner was a warm welcome to New York City.
My interview with Arvin took place the following day at the American Legion Post 1291 building on Canal Street. Over the span of nearly four hours, he dove deep into the lives of Leo Yee Litt’s seven children, which included his mother, Mabel Chin. I learned that Arvin’s most memorable interaction with his maternal grandfather was as a four year old during one of his mother’s occasional trips to California to visit family who had moved to the Bay Area by 1951. He likely met his maternal grandparents in Rock Springs in 1950 or 1951 as there is a photo of them holding him and his twin as babies/toddlers. He also sometimes accompanied his mother to her high school reunions in Rock Springs. The Yee Litts clearly maintained their closeness with each other despite their slow trickle out of Rock Springs into the east and west coasts over the decades.
The following day, I visited Arvin in the Upper West Side at the yarn store he owns, Knitty City. He opened the store in 2006 with his late wife, Pearl Chin. As Arvin showed me around the store, he slipped in anecdotes about its beginnings and how Pearl had loved the idea of owning a mom-and-pop shop together. In the back of the store hung a tapestry in her memory, surrounded by photos of their family. There is even a newspaper clipping of Arvin and his twin, Alvin, as kids on their first day of school back in 1953. In the photo is his mother, Mabel, the second of the seven Yee Litt children.
To end this post, I would like to thank Arvin for his kindness and willingness to share his family’s story in and beyond Rock Springs. I would also like to thank Professor Ng for her guidance in approaching this oral history project and the Anthropology Department for providing the funding, which made this trip possible.
Edited for clarity on when and where Arvin visited his maternal grandparents.
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