The Diarist

In an entry dated “Spring 1880,” Dukesang Wong recorded in his diary, “I have decided to venture to that country they call ‘the Land of the Golden Mountains.’ The next ship that departs for those shores is the one which I shall be on. Because I cannot build upon my own land in this country, it is right that I should attempt to seek land over the ocean.” In a subsequent entry, marked “Late Summer 1880,” he confessed trepidation about his “wild and uncivilized” destination, where “people kill each other daily” and “all the business and the laws are controlled by white people, while we are not permitted to rule over our own actions.” He wondered if there were less “barbaric” areas: “My life doesn’t yet have the signs of impending death, and my family has not yet carried on its name. With no wife and children, my life has still to be lived, and I am curious what this new land will bring.”

These words were written when Wong was in his mid-thirties. For more than a...