Friday, July 23, 2021

Kang's Ideal Southern California Town--Redlands?

On his first day in the city, Kang told the Los Angeles Herald, “I have found Los Angeles one of the most progressive cities I have met during my travels.”  In fact, Kang came to see Los Angeles as a prime example of Western “material civilization” and gave it prominence in his "Essay on National Salvation through Material Civilization" (Wuzhi jiuguo lun), whose preface was written in April 1905 while in the city.  By "material civilization," Kang meant the advancements brought by science and technology, not only convenience and efficiency, but happiness. 

In Kang's view, the steam engine powered steamships, locomotives, factories, and electricity generating stations—and along with other technological innovations like the automobile—were the keys to creating a Datong-like environment where people could enjoy urban affluence close to nature. 

Kang's essay describes a prosperous new town he toured in Southern California with amenities more desirable than the grand cities of Suzhou, Hangzhou, Edo, and Yokohama. “Not that we in the East with several thousand years of civilization and millions of people could not attain this, but material learning (wuzhi zhi xue) has made it possible. Their remarkable material gains can be traced back to many sources long ago and eventually led to an unprecedented economic harvest.”  

Buildings rise into the sky; parks are magnificent and beautiful. They fill the hills and gullies. Weeping willows line both sides of the road. Men and women stroll and gather on the roads between beautiful and neatly pruned fields and gardens. . . . With a warm climate, the small place favors the growth of oranges, which bring ready profits. Rich people from New York immigrated to this place from the east. It developed so rapidly. There are already forty-six millionaires among several thousand people. There are countless rich people among the rest. Each one has his own gardens and palatial buildings occupying an entire hill. Their gates look strangely wonderful, overlooking each other from a distance. Each one has electric vehicles and good horses chasing each other day in and day out. Thus, the hotels, theaters, schools and parks are bustling with activity. Wide roads were built in the high mountains so that cars and horses can twist up to the top, allowing homes to be reached by tramcars and residents to drive their cars in and out. At night, electric lamps shine like daylight. During the day, women travel here to shop. All of this has been made possible by tramcars and automobiles.

This town could have been any one of several rapidly-growing and well-planned communities in the area, quite possibly Redlands. Redlands prospered from orange groves and railway connections to become known at the turn of the century as “The City of Millionaires” and “The City of Beautiful Homes.” Redlands’ Smiley Heights neighborhood was a tourist stop on a popular rail excursion from Los Angeles known for its scenic route along the San Gabriel Mountains; the town would also have been familiar to Kang’s Los Angeles host, Tom Leung, since Tom's cousin and partner Tom Foo Yuen had opened his first herb business there in the early 1890s. In the 1919 edition of Kang's essay, the town's name is transcribed both as 叻論—Lelun or (Cantonese) Lahk-leuhn--and as 叨論--Daolun or Dou/tou-leuhn.  Redlands, which is about sixty miles from Los Angeles, appears as 列倫 or Lielun (Liht-leuhn) in the Chinese and English Phrase Book and Dictionary (Vancouver, BC: Thomson Stationery Company, 1903 and 1910]. 

Redlands, California, from Smiley Heights
Archives, A.K. Smiley Public Library

Carey McWilliams, in Southern California: An Island on the Land (Santa Barbara Peregrine Smith, 1973), describes how the area was promoted to Eastern settlers by the railroad companies; the wealthy Smiley twins from Lake Mohonk, New York, who developed a garden estate on two hundred acres overlooking the San Bernardino valley; and how “in Redlands social rating is clearly marked by altitude.” In other respects, Kang’s description does not match Redlands—its age of well over six years (incorporated in 1888) and that most of its wealthy migrants came from Chicago. 

And as exemplars of cities best representing the the expansive, enlightened West, Kang extolled Vancouver, British Columbia, and, even more so, Los Angeles:

The two metropolises used to be desolate mountains full of vegetation and home to foxes and hares. Today they have developed into metropolises covering dozens of [square] miles with populations of more than 100, 000. How magnificent the buildings and parks are! How imposing the schools and mansions are! Tramcars are numerous, and electric lamps are just as bright as the moon. On Sundays, people all go to the parks. There are men and women as well as carriages everywhere. Los Angeles is even more magnificent than Vancouver.

Thank you to Paul Chace, Suellen Cheng, Gilbert Hom, and Kirby Leung for sharing their expertise in Southern California history and Chinese names.

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