Joe Shoong

Joe Shoong (30 August 1879 – 13 April 1961) was a Chinese American businessman and philanthropist who founded the National Dollar Stores and supported many Chinese organizations. He was one of the first Chinese American millionaires and at one time, according to Time Magazine, was the "richest, best-known Chinese business man in the U.S." Though the National Dollar Stores are now closed, Shoong's legacy endures through the organizations, including cultural centers, schools and universities, which he and the Shoong Foundation supported.

Name Joe Shoong was born as Zhou Song . Due to the Chinese usage of placing the family name first, Shoong's names were transposed when he emigrated to the U.S. and his given name, Song (changed slightly to Shoong), became the family name he used in America. Song means "big and tall mountain".

Early years

Shoong was born to Joe Gon Lim and Chew Wong Shee in the village of Long Tau Wan in Zhongshan, Guangdong, China. In that village, the Long Du dialect was spoken so that is most likely the dialect spoken by Shoong. Long Du speakers can generally understand Cantonese.

According to his daughter Doris, Shoong sold eggs in China when he was young, and emigrated to the United States when he was 18 or 19 years old (1897 or 1898), without any relatives. From 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was in force, allowing only three categories of Chinese immigrants to America: merchants, students and diplomats.

Shoong's first place of residence in America was Vallejo, California, where he lived with friends and relatives from Long Tau Wan and worked in a garment factory.

National Dollar Stores In 1901, Shoong opened a store in Vallejo called Sang Lee Dry Goods together with Hon Chui Choy, Doh DohWing and a fourth unknown person. The stores sold clothes and household goods: quality merchandise offered at low prices.

Shoong changed the name to the National Dollar Stores in 1928, when there were sixteen store locations in the West, in cities such as Sacramento, Seattle, and Portland.

The National Dollar Stores were unusual because the majority ownership and all management was Chinese, and about 90% of the clerks were Caucasian.

Other business interests Shoong invested in real estate and in the stock market, and kept a ticker tape in his bedroom. Just before the Wall Street crash of 1929, Shoong was traveling across the country by train and had a premonition to sell all of his portfolio. At each train stop, he ordered his broker to sell off his stock, and in the end he received a check from the Bank of America for his portfolio value of a million dollars

Around 1926, Shoong bought 51% of the stock of the National Shoe Company, thus acquiring a controlling interest in Reeves Shoe Stores, a chain of 32 shops on the West Coast.

Political views and affiliations

Like many Chinese emigrants, Shoong kept close ties with his homeland. He donated 120,000 yuan to support China during the Second Sino-Japanese War, and at his home he entertained Soong Mei-ling, known as Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, wife of Chinese political leader Chiang Kai-shek.

Shoong was a Shriner and 32nd degree Mason. Children's Fairyland, Oakland Renovation of Paramount Theatre, Oakland Joe Shoong Chinese School, Locke Chung Wah School, Sacramento the first female architect licensed in California.

In 1952, a year and a half after Rose's death, Shoong married Ruth Chow.

Shoong was ill from January 1961 and died a few months later, on 13 April at the age of 81. The National Dollar Stores closed for one day in his honor. He is buried at Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland.

Milton Shoong took over the management of the National Dollar Stores and the Shoong Foundation after his father's death. Doris Shoong Lee died in 2018.