Wong Quon Sue, known as “Wah Chung” was a wealthy labor agent for the Southern Pacific Railroad, who acted as a conduit between the Chinese laborers and their employers. He was also the owner of a Chinese goods store in his home of Ashland, Oregon, where he was a prominent local citizen. A 1901 profile of his elaborate wedding noted that he made frequent trips to San Francisco, “ostensibly on business, but which later developments prove were for the sole purpose of visiting his fiance.” It was perhaps on one of these trips he had his photograph taken at the Royal Gallery on Washington Street in the city’s Chinatown neighborhood.

While the photograph is un-ID'd, this is the second copy of this exact image that we have handled, the first of which bore a manuscript identification verso.