Wong, Nellie C.

A Chinese-American poet and union activist, Nellie Wong was born and raised in the Oakland Chinatown of the 1940's. After the incarceration of over 120,000 Japanese Americans to relocation camps during World War II, Wong worked in her family's great China Restaurant in Oakland's Chinatown. Later, she traveled across the Bay to pursue studies in creative writing at San Francisco State University. Meanwhile, Wong worked at the Bethlehem Steel Corporation as a secretary from 1964-82. Wong began writing poetry in the early 1970's.

Wong is one of the founding members of Unbound Feet, a writing collective of Chinese-American women who read together and lectured at universities throughout California, in the late 1970's. Wong's poems deal with themes involving Asian Americans, especially the sense of leaving "home" behind. "I care about the roots of Asian-American culture and how and why they came here," says Wong, referring to the long history of Asians' immigration to America. "It's something every Asian family has experienced."

Wong is a member of Poets & Writers, NY; Radical Women, The Freedom Socialist Party; the National Asian American Telecommunications Association; and the University Professional & Technical Employees, and is a delegate to the San Francisco Central Labor Council. In 1989 she was honored by the San Francisco Women's Foundation with the Women of Words award. Wong prides herself on her feminist and socialist viewpoints. "The more I see some people fighting back, the more I see everyone acquiring the strength to fight back," says Wong. "Otherwise I'd just shut my door and say, 'good-bye world.' But that's not me."

From the description of The Nellie Wong Papers, 1972-2001. (University of California, Santa Barbara). WorldCat record id: 429339568