Haoqing's Art Website
One-Eyed Bossy Man
Material: Chinese Migrant Workers' Names on CPRR Payroll Records; Festisite
Date: June 2024
Creator: Haoqing Yu
Strobridge was a demanding and intimidating supervisor who had earned a reputation for being especially tough on Chinese. He was as ferocious in appearance as in temperament: an errant explosion early in the construction effort had taken out one of his eyes, and an ominous black eye patch now covered an ugly scar. The Chinese railroad workers, in their lingo, called him “one-eyed bossy man” (Chang, 2019, p. 6).​​​​
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Story of Hung Lai Woh​
Another family historian and American of Chinese descent, Russell N. Low, a physician, proudly tells the story of one of his ancestors, his great-grandfather Hung Lai Woh, who came to work on the CPRR in the mid-1860s. Though his name is similar to Hung Wah’s, he was not the same person. Hung Lai Woh was accompanied by a brother who also worked on the line and lost an eye in a blasting accident. The two helped build the snow sheds that ran for miles to protect the line in the Sierra. A story circulates in the family about how one day Low’s great-grandfather was walking atop a high wooden trestle when a train engine came right at him. He grabbed hold of a railroad tie and dangled in midair while the train rumbled past on the track above him. After the completion of the railroad, he made his way to San Francisco, where he learned to roll cigars, then a rising industry in the city. ​
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--- Gordon H. Chang, Ghosts of Gold Mountain, 2019, p. 174