"MEET THE ANONYMOUS DONOR"
Comments by Chuimei Ho (President of the CMF) at press conference, 6/14/04
The 4-storey brick building at 238 West 23rd Street is an important landmark in Chinatown history. Built in 1896, presumably as a warehouse with shop space downstairs, the building was already old when Chinatown moved to its present location in the early 1920s. For the next 20 years its history is obscure. But in 1948, the building was bought by father and sons of the Lee family. They made it the headquarters of the Quong Yick Wholesale Trading Company, the second largest Chinese foodstuff wholesaler in the Midwest. Quong Yick also made its own bean curd and grew its own bean sprouts in its basement. The ground floor was for business while the upper floors served to warehouse foodstuffs and provided temporary beds for staff members. Many of you must have shopped or even worked at Quong Yick before it was finally closed in the 1997. The building was then sold to a Chicago businessman with Chinatown roots, Jeffrey Moy.
One of the workers at Quong Yick was the son of a Lee family shareholder. In 1950, when he was 15 years old, this boy came to Chicago from China. He immediately began to work at Quong Yick. He was not pampered. For the next ten years he spent his time preparing bean curd in the basement, moving stock on the upper floors, serving customers on the ground floor, and preparing meals for his uncles and cousins. In spite of this, he also managed to finish high school and then college, graduating in 1960 with a degree in finance and business administration from the University of Illinois Navy Pier Campus. He soon put his education to good use, first at Quong Yick, then at companies outside Chicago, and finally in Chicago again as the head of the largest East Asian food importing company in the Midwest.
The Chinatown Museum Foundation was established in 2002 with very little money but a lot of enthusiasm for documenting the history of Chinese Americans in Chicago and other parts of the Midwest. The Foundation operated without a base and was desperately in need of a home. By coincidence, Moy was trying to sell the old Quong Yick building. He offered it to the Foundation at the price of $660,000. The Foundation was interested: the building was large, well-located, and part of the history of Chinatown. The problem was that we did not have the money.
It is here that the story comes full circle. The young man who grew up in Quong Yick, who by now has acquired a few grey hairs, heard about the situation. After extensive discussions with me, he decided to donate the full purchase price of the building to the Foundation. In return, the Foundation agreed to name the building in memory of the donor and his wife, but for the time being he requested that his name be kept secret.
While there has been a lot of speculation about the donor’s identity, we have kept quiet. But at last we can now reveal the truth. Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to the young man who grew up in Quong Yick, a long-time Chinatown resident, community leader, and visionary businessman, Mr. Raymond Lee. Please join me in thanking him for making history in our community. With his help, Chicago’s Chinatown is now the home of the first Chinese American museum between the East and West Coasts.
