Because the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 restricted immigration from China to merchants, students, scholars, and their immediate families, many Chinese immigrants, predominantly males, entered the U.S. through the use of fraudulent papers which indicated that they were American citizens or the children or grandchildren of citizens.

To convince American immigration officials that he was the person identified on the paper, "a paper son" had to memorize a myriad of facts such as his paper name, birthplace, and age, and his parents' names, ages, birthplaces, and occupations. In 1934, when he was 19 years old, Lai Bing Chan migrated to the United States.

His father, a paper son himself who owned and operated a laundry in Charlestown, Massachusetts, arranged for his son's passage by borrowing $2,400 from a nephew named Yu Nap and asking Yu to find a paper of someone who approximated Lai Bing Chan's description. Yu located a paper for someone named Chin Tung Pok, the 19-year-old son of an American citizen named Chin Chu Gin.

Before he left for America, Lai Bing Chan spent many months studying his paper which was for a single man. Although Lai was married with two young sons, Lai Wai Sing and Lai Wai Yong, his father later explained to him that a paper for a married man would have been more expensive and would have required him to memorize more information.

Lai's first three days in the U.S. were spent in the Boston Immigration House where immigration officials subjected him to a thorough interrogation. When the interrogation ended, an American citizen named Chin Tung Pok emerged from the immigration house to make my fortune and return home a wealthy and envied man.

To view excerpts and a book description, please see The Paper Son Narrative