The story of Ng Ming Yoke (b. 1906 d. 1987)

Ng Ming Yoke was born on August 1, 1906 in the Lunar month (starting on June 12) during the 31^st year of the reign of Emperor Guang Xu in the Qing Dynasty.  The Qing Dynasty began in 1654 and ended in 1911.  Ming Yoke was the first son of Ng Tat Kong’s second wife, Lim See, and was actually born before the first son of Tat Kong’s first wife, Wuen See.  Since he was technically the oldest son, Ming Yoke is considered to be the “number one” son.  Ming Yoke had only one full brother, Ng Ming Hen, who was born in 1913. He also had one half brother, Ng Ming Kun (born in 1909) and two half sisters, Ng Ah Yen (born in 1905) and Ng Sam Kiaw (born in 1907.)  In 1912, the leader of China, Sun Yat Sen outlawed queues, but up until then, Ming Yoke had a queue.  Ming Yoke attended school from the time he was 8 until he reached the age of 17.  His last 3 years of schooling took place in a town called Sao Tau Kok where he attended a boarding school.  After finishing school, he worked in a pawn shop in Kowloon, in which his father Tat Kong had a share.  On November 11, 1924, at the age of 18, Ming Yoke married 17 year old Lee Tien Kew by an arrangement that had been worked out when he was only 5 years old.  The first time Ming Yoke saw Tien Kew, she was 10 years old.  Tien Kew was attending a wedding with her mother and Ming Yoke’s grandfather gave her a red envelope.

After they were married, Ming Yoke worked for two more years at an uncle’s store as a cashier and bookkeeper.  In 1926, at the age of 20, he left for Panama, leaving his wife, Tien Kew behind in China.  Since he spoke nothing but Chinese, Ming Yoke also had to learn the English alphabet before he left for Panama.  With his baggage in hand, speaking only Chinese, except for his newly learned English alphabet, he boarded a Japanese ship bound for Panama which had stopovers at two ports in Japan, then Hawaii, San Francisco, and Mexico.  Finally, after 54 days at sea, Ming Yoke arrived at Balboa, Panama on March 13, 1926.  He was taken to an immigration processing center and was met there by Uncle Johnny and Guillermo Ten’s father.

Once in Panama, Ming Yoke took over the store that Uncle Johnny had been managing for Tat Kong, Ming Yoke’s father.  However, the business was not doing well and Tien Pak (Joyce Ng’s father), paid the debts and had Ming Yoke join into partnership with him.  In 1929, Tien Kew finally arrived in Panama and immediately started working in the store.  One of Tien Kew’s brothers had a job in Colon delivering bread in a cart, and he had also been helping Ming Yoke.  Now that Tien Kew had arrived in Colon and was able to help in the business, her brother decided to return to China.  In 1931 they sold the store that Ming Yoke had inherited from his father, and bought a dry goods store across the street.  This store was located at Calle 11 and Avenida Herrera (Cash Alley), in Colon.  (Herrera is between Bolivar and Amador Guerrero.)  They took up residence in an apartment above the store and it was there that they started their family.

On April 21, 1931, Ming Yoke and Tien Kew had their first child, Ruby.  Eighteen months later, on October 28, 1932, their second child Opal was born.  At the young age of two years, Ruby was sent to China in 1933 so she could learn the Chinese culture and language.  She traveled to China in the company of Guillermo Ten’s parents on a freighter that also carried passengers.  Their third child, Ferna was born on January 25, 1935.  Opal, now just four years old, was also sent to China in 1937 in the company of Uncle Johnny.  That same year, Ferna, just two year old at the time, was taken to China on the Dollar Line (President Line) by Ming Yoke.  Ming Yoke was probably returning to China because his father, Tat Kong, had died in 1936.

Ming Yoke returned to Panama on a French ship in 1938.  On his way he stopped over in San Francisco, and while there he took a taxi ride across the newly built Bay Bridge.  The taxi driver was able to stop the car and let him walk around, something that is not possible today.

Ferna was the last child to be sent to China as the Japanese Army invaded China on July 7, 1937.  Ming Yoke and Tien Kew’s fourth child, Juel was born on January 27, 1937, and on February 3, 1939 their first son, Clarence was born.

On an infamous day in April of 1940, at around 4:00 PM, a big fire occurred in Colon destroying 15 blocks of wooden buildings.  The fire started in a house on Calle 4 across from the Cathedral spreading down towards Calle 9.  It included buildings on Avenidas Bolivar, Amador Guerrero, and Central.  Dynamite was used at Calle 9 and Avenida Central to stop the fire.  Ruby, Opal, Ferna, Juel and Clarence had all been born in the apartment above the Golden Star, a building now destroyed by the fire.  After the fire, Ming Yoke’s family moved to an apartment between Calles 11 and 12 on Avenida Melendez across from the Police Station. That same year, 1940, Ming Yoke bought the bar called the Golden Star.  He owned the building for less than a year, because Panama’s President Arnulfo Arias decided, in 1941, not to allow foreigners to own or run any type of businesses in Panama.  In 1940 there were over 10,000 Chinese living in Panama, easy political targets.

Ming Yoke and Tien Kew’s second son and sixth child, Humberto, was born in the apartment on Avenida Melendez on December 14, 1941.  Ming Yoke worked in the Canal Zone from 1941 to 1946 as a bartender at the Officer’s Clubs at Coco Solo and Fort Sherman, and as a grocery man at the Post Exchange.  In 1944 he worked at a concession restaurant at Albrook Field for a few months, coming home only on the weekends to be with his family.  In the meantime, Arnulfo Arias was ousted from office by the Panamanian Military in 1942.  In 1943 Ming Yoke moved his family to another apartment at 805 Calle 10 between Avenidas Melendez and Santa Isabel.  Their seventh child, Felicia was born on December 6, 1943 at the apartment on Calle 10.

Soon after Felicia was born, Tien Kew had a “mental breakdown” (possibly severe depression) and was taken to a hospital or sanitarium in Panama City where she stayed for several months.  There doesn’t seem to be much information about this episode in Tien Kew’s life.

When WWII was over, Ming Yoke bought a small grocery store called Las Palmas which was situated on Calle 12 at Avenida Amador Guerrero.  The business was registered in the name of a Panamanian born citizen as the Panamanian government continued to disallow non-citizens to own businesses.  By now the family was living in an apartment on Calle 12 about half a block from Las Palmas store.  Between 1947 and 1949, Ten Lui Pui (also known as Man Sook or Chiquitin), a first cousin to Ming Yoke, took charged of Las Palmas store.  This was because Ming Yoke was needed to help run Hon Chong, the Chinese dry goods business owned by Ng Wei Hun (also known as Tien Pak), and Lau Wei Hong.  Lau Wei Hong’s son, Lau Kee Pong (Juel’s Godfather) was working in the store with Tien Pak but was returning to China and the store needed another helping hand.

An apartment became available in the Colon Shian building, located on the corner of Calle 11 and Avenida Central, which was owned by Tien Pak and other Ng family share holders.  Ming Yoke and his family moved to this new location and lived there until 1951.  It was there that Ming Yoke and Tien Kew’s last two children, both boys, were born; Renaldo on October 8, 1947 and Augusto on August 8, 1949.  It should be noted that all of Ming Yoke and Tien Kew’s children were born at home, delivered by the same midwife, a woman named Ruby Johnston.  Miss Ruby was instrumental in providing English names for some of their children.

In the year1949, Ming Yoke sent for his teenage nephew, Ng Bing Hing (Luis) from China, to come and live with his family in Panama.  Having grown up with the Ng siblings, Luis was considered a brother by the family.  When he was able to assume the responsibility, Luis took over cooking for the “refresqueria” at the Comisariato, having learned cooking skills from Lung Pak, the cousin who managed it.

In 1950, Ming Yoke was asked to help manage Comisariato Nuevo Cristobal, also owned by Tien Pak.  It was a grocery store and soda fountain located at Calle 11 and Avenida Santa Isabel.  Eventually that business was sold to Ming Yoke.  The family then moved, in 1952, from the Colon Shian building to an apartment behind Comisariato Nuevo Cristobal to be closer to the store.  Tien Pak’s second son, Eugene, had been running the store, and when the store was sold, Eugene left the Comisariato and took over a bar in the Colon Shian building.  A few years later, in 1956, Ming Yoke’s cousin and mentor, Tien Pak, passed away.

In 1951, Ming Yoke bought a small country store (Abarroteria y Comisariato Cativa) in Cativa, a village located at the outskirts of Colon City along the Transismica Highway.  After he bought the building, which was made of wood, he added a wing made of concrete blocks.  Family members recollect that the wing was built by two local guys, Sandino and Chocolate and that Sandino even made the concrete blocks himself.  The store had living quarters on the second floor and Ming Yoke and Tien Kew lived there with their three youngest children, Felicia, Renaldo and Augusto.  Tien Kew ran the store in Cativa while Ming Yoke commuted to the Comisariato in Colon, and took the kids to school there as well.

Ming Yoke’s daughter Opal returned to Panama from China on June 18, 1951.  In 1953, Ming Yoke sent for his mother, Lim Sui Kew, as the Communists had invaded her village in China.  Once in Panama, Sui Kew moved into the apartment above the Cativa store.  Finally, Ruby and Ferna, the last of Ming Yoke’s children in China, returned to Panama in 1956.  Ruby, Opal, and Ferna had all lived in China since the 1930s when they had been taken there to live with Sui Kew and other relatives.  All of these family members were brought to Panama from China as a result of the Communist takeover of Mainland China.

In 1958, Ming Yoke acquired a share of the Colon Shian rental building which was eventually sold and the money was equally divided among his four sons and his nephew Luis.  In 1960, Ming Yoke and Tien Kew, along with Ming Yoke’s mother, Sui Kew, moved into the apartment in back of Comisariato Nuevo Cristobal.  Also in 1960, the Cativa store was turned over to Chiquitin and his wife, Talo.  Chiquitin passed away in 1962 and Talo continued to run the Cativa store until 1968 when the store was again turned over, this time for Ruby and her husband Yu Sang to run.  Ruby’s oldest son, Marcial, began running the store in 1977.  Soon after, it was rented out, taxes were due, and the store was taken over by the government, abandoned and eventually fell into ruin.

Ming Yoke’s mother, Sui Kew, celebrated her 81^st birthday in Colon Panama, and eventually died there on March 25, 1971 at the age of 90.  Ming Yoke and Tien Kew retired from running the grocery store, Comisariato Nuevo Cristobal in 1970, and their eldest son, Clarence took over operations.  After Ming Yoke retired, he helped out in the Comisariato as well as helping out in the book store El Progreso that was owned by his second son, Humberto. Comisariato Nuevo Cristobal was eventually sold in 1978.

Ming Yoke had wonderful cooking skills and enjoyed preparing gourmet meals on special occasions, particularly during the Christmas and New Year holidays.  On these occasions there would often be 20 or more family and friends seated around several tables.  Special Hakka Chinese style dishes such as birds nest soup, mogu kai, stuffed bitter melon, dried oysters and bamboo shoots wrapped in ham, and steamed fish would be prepared and every dish had its own unique taste.  His cooking skills live on as many of his children watched and learned from him.

Now that Ming Yoke and Tien Kew were retired, they did some traveling.  They took trips to the United States, to visit their children and grandchildren.  On one occasion, Tien Kew stayed in El Cerrito with her daughter, Juel, for nine months.  Ming Yoke was able to visit Hong Kong, but he never did return to his home in Yam Tien, Mainland China, where he grew up.  On three separate occasions, his daughter Juel attempted to take him to Mainland China but there were always circumstances that prevented him from getting there.  The first time he could not get a visa, the second time he was not feeling well enough and the third time he felt he was just too old and weak for such a long trip.

Ming Yoke and Tien Kew lived to see their children get married and to get to know many of their grandchildren.  Their two youngest children graduated from college in the United States, which Ming Yoke was very proud of.  He and Tien Kew had celebrations for their 50^th and 60^th wedding anniversaries and their marriage was finally officially registered in Panama on March 9, 1964, 50 years after their marriage in China.

Ming Yoke and Tien Kew continued to live in the apartment behind Comisariato Nuevo Cristobal.  In 1977, Tien Kew had a stroke that partially paralyzed her right hand and leg.  She recovered enough to be able to walk with the help of a cane but it was difficult for her to travel much.  She spent her last years mostly in the apartment and was kept company by daily visits from family and friends.  Tien Kew passed away December on 27, 1984.

Ming Yoke passed away in Colon, Panama on August 9, 1987 after a long and prosperous life.  He left behind a great legacy as all of his descendants have been successful in their lives.