January 25, 2015

  • Geisha in Glass Case and China

    geisha in a glass case

    geisha in a glass case

    This was the kind of stuff we used to sell at our store, Fueng Wah Company, in SF Chinatown. The majority of the merchandise we sold were from Japan. We had very few items to sell from China. It was due to the embargo with China.

    China was considered an enemy of the United States throughout the fifties, sixties and seventies. The was a fear of communism during these times too. With the McCarthy inquistitions of the early sixties. A long drawn out war with Vietnam in the name of containing communism from spreading where many people were killed.

    The China governed by the People's Republic of China and Mao Zedong was not recognized as the legitamite government of China by the United Nations. The small island of Taiwan was considered China for more than 25 years. I remember seeing the vote for China to be considered the representative of China of the United Nations as a momentous event on the news in 1971.

    <iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/s4AHBy0dBJw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

    By that time we have already closed the store so we never sold any curios from China. If we did, it's is smuggled into Hong Kong and exported as made in Hong Kong goods.

    I've been compiling a bunch of images of typical stuff we used to sell at Fueng Wah Company on Pinterest.