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• 1 2021-04-23T10:20:58-07:00 Moy Kee: Chinese Mayor of America 20 plain 2021-05-03T16:18:05-07:00

  A dominant picture of Moy Kee and his wife appears in the circus route book Looking Backward Thirty-Three Weeks With a Circus: a Complete History of the John Robinson's Ten Big Shows for the Season of 1905. The caption reads Moy Key, Chinese Mayor of America, and His Wife. The 1882 Exclusion Act prevented most Chinese from entering the country and they certainly could not hold mayoral office. The image and description contradict the current anti-Chinese sentiment and American law of the time. Is this another circus fantasy, spectacle? Who is Moy Kee? 

  The photograph depicts the couple similarly to ancestor portrait paintings which have a long history in China. These paintings were meant for the family and not the public. Family members commissioned ancestor portraits to commemorate deceased relatives. They depicted parents and grandparents and honored and respected by family members through rituals, year after year on holidays. Like the photograph, the subjects were usually shown in their best dress, which also revealed the rank of the persons. The couple's robe apparel signifies them of a higher official, social rank. An image of Puyi, China’s emperor of the time sits behind the couple. The portrait promotes a view that the circus commonly favored: to aggrandize and exaggerate performers with the orientalist perception of regality, revered history of a faraway exotic place.⁸¹

  Moy Kee arrived with his uncle in California from Guangzhou, China during the 1850s. He found work selling newspapers and later at the governor’s house. He returned to marry in China and came back to America to live with his wife. During the 1870s, he spoke out against the strict U.S. laws that no longer favored Chinese immigration in New York City. He converted to Christianity, served as a preacher for the Methodist Chinese missionary, and taught English. After being accused of stealing and jailed, he moved to Chicago and opened a laundry and then a tea house.⁸²

  In 1897 he moved to Indianapolis and became a naturalized citizen. He opened the Moy Kee and Company’s Chinese Restaurant in the Hazelton Hotel building in 1901. Moy Kee exhibited and was a participant at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904. At the fair, he met China’s Prince Pu Lun which led to the prince's visit to Indianapolis. The city planned many events for the visit including a luncheon at Moy Kee’s restaurant with Indianapolis Mayor John W. Holzman, civic leader William Fortune, and poet James Whitcomb Riley as guests, a reception in the State House and a visit to May Wright Sewell’s Girls’ Classical School where he spoke and passed out diplomas.⁸³

  Pu Lun granted Moy Kee the rank of  Mandarin of the Fifth Degree after his vist. Moy Kee received an embroidered badge but the title did not offer any real standing or benefit, and most likely seen as a business transaction for China. China commonly courted Chinese merchants outside the country for funds as the government was declining during this period.⁸⁴

  Moy Kee was an active member of the Indianapolis community and local newspapers often pursued him as a reliable source for reporting. The community embraced him so much that he was recognized as the Chinese mayor of Indianapolis. Unfortunately, Moy Kee found himself not accepted by both his countries. The Chinese government rescinded his title and fourteen years after it was granted, the United States government in 1911 stripped him of his citizenship due to his race. Many of his friends offered support in his fight to remain in the country. Mayor Samuel L. Shank wrote a letter to President Taft declaring him one of the city’s upstanding citizens.⁸⁵The Indianapolis Star stated in a portrait column on him:

  Moy always has been regarded as a loyal citizen, and his many friends are expressing regret that he may have to forgo the privileges of citizenship.⁸⁶

  Moy Kee and his wife left for China, but came home to Indianapolis after a year. In 1914, Moy Kee died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 65. He was one of the city’s wealthiest residents at the time, worth $25,000 (over $600,000 today). His wife Chin Fung returned to China with his body for burial.⁸⁷