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I. Biography
Sylvia Sun Minnick was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, during
World War II. During this time, she ended up living the life of both an orphan as well as a refugee, while traveling around Asia with guerilla warriors and the Red Cross. She finally met her father in the
Philippines. In 1951, after she met her grandmother, she moved with her to San Francisco, where they resided in Chinatown.
As a young girl, Sylvia Sun Minnick was a Girl Scout and she sang in a church choir. She
graduated from Lowell High School which, according to Mrs. Minnick is the oldest high school west of the Mississippi; it is now going through legal problems due to its quota cap
on Asians. She was a history major in college and later in her life she attended the San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton, California. She came to Stockton in 1961 and she has been here for thirty-nine years.
She moved to Stockton in order to get away from San Francisco for two distinct reasons. One being that she wanted to raise her kids in a safer and "more homey" environment. The
other being the need to find an available parking spot without considerable trouble. Stockton has influenced her writing through its diverse community. One characteristic of
Stockton that fascinated her the most is the fact that it hasn't changed since the 1950s. She thinks that they had the opportunity to develop more efficient uses of transportation
such as use of the ports and the highways. In her mission to further develop Stockton, she bought out the publishing company that published the book Samfow: The San Joaquin Chinese Legacy
. She now owns Heritage West Books in Stockton which specializes in publishing California based authors and their history based works.
Although she wrote about the Chinese experiences during and after the Gold Rush, her family came to California narrowly missing the end of the Gold Rush. Her great grandfather
began a shoe factory in 1869 to make shoes specifically for the small feet of the Chinese workers in San Francisco.
When asked about the greatest influence in her life she said her husband. He's an
engineer from West Virginia. They have traveled together and she feels that he has influenced her critical thinking and her writing style. They have been together for twenty
years. She stated that she is very creative and often asks offbeat questions such as, "Where do ducks go at night?" This question seemed to lighten the environment for the
interviewers as well as for her, all taking their own comical view of it.
Through her creative side, she is trying to destroy typical Chinese stereotypes. Other
people who have influenced her life have included teachers at Delta College, neighbors, and one specific professor at Sacramento State University who challenged her to use her
own thought in problem solving. Another question which came up was, "Why did you write about the Gold Rush?" She said that there were no books about Chinese American
history from the Gold Rush to the present. Also she commented that when the Chinese were buried here, their bones were sent back to China. There were no written records
available which made research for her book difficult.
Sylvia Sun Minnick has had various occupations which have made her such a well-rounded author. She has worked at a fair, packed pills, done clerical work, was a
receptionist, a typist, worked with the highway, for the prison system, in industrial safety, teaching, environment, lecturing, state parks, was a politician, has contributed to many
anthologies, and the most important, is being a mother, just to name a few occupations. She believes that writing isn't a job, it is a luxury. She has decided to work on her next book in the year 2002, but until then
Samfow: The San Joaquin Chinese Legacy is her only book. As the final interview question, she was asked, "Is there anything that you would
like to tell the students and teachers reading this?" She replied, "When you start doing for others, you're going to find pleasure within."
II. Works Cited
Samfow: The San Joaquin Chinese Legacy. Fresno, CA: Heritage West Books,1987.
The following is the address of Sylvia Sun Minnick's publishing company as well as the phone number and the fax number.
Heritage Books West
306 Regent Court
Stockton California 95204
Phone: (209) 464-8818
Fax: (209) 954-1015
III. Minnick on the Web
Sylvia Sun Minnick's writings have all been based on the Stockton Chinese community and the Chinese effect on the San Joaquin Valley during the Gold Rush. She began writing
about the Chinese after hearing stories told by an old man. This man inspired her to do more research and she did most of the research for her book in an old Stockton cemetery
where many Chinese had been buried. She continues to focus her writing on Stockton and the San Joaquin Valley because she believes that there is great opportunity to be found
here and that the area deserves to be recognized.
IV. Literary Works
"The Gold Rush Collision of Cultures"
This is an article about a segment on PBS (the Public Broadcasting System) which covers the Gold Rush. Mrs. Minnick discusses the history of the Chinese Americans in the article.
"Gold Coin's 2 Sides: Diversity, Bigotry"
Again in the San Jose Mercury News, Mrs. Minnick discusses her research and point of view on the Chinese American history in the Gold Rush.
This essay was submitted by students of Matthew Weeks, a teacher at St. Mary's High School in Stockton, California.
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