One of Savannah’s strongest ethnic groups is the Chinese. Although there were Chinese before 1889 that is the year that the first Chinese ‘settler’ came to make Savannah home. When Chung Ta-Ping came to Savannah he was fleeing the hostile racial environment of San Francisco and on his way to New York. He had fled China seeking political freedom only to find racism and immigration laws discriminating against Chinese in San Francisco. So he had packed his bags and was headed to New York hoping for a better world. But along the way he stopped in Savannah and pinned his hopes here.

He started a laundry business because it was partly what he knew but also could supply jobs for what he hoped would be the boom of Chinese immigration to Savannah. The boom never came. But a population of a little over five hundred Chinese did come. Part of the reason Savannah never had a Chinatown which presumably would have brought more Chinese immigrants was Ta-Ping’s belief that it would be better for the Chinese to not gather in one district. This belief was obtained by watching the suspicion of the white population of San Francisco’s racist nervousness toward the Chinatown there. In the early days to accommodate Savannah’s Chinese rarely spoke Chinese in public and wore western-style clothes.

Today, Savannah has Chinese families with five generations. Some of them no longer speak Chinese and have even developed Southern accents. The Chinese of Savannah have had and continue to have a remarkable influence on Savannah especially considering their small numbers.

The Chinese community began to make a mark in the mid-20th century. In 1945 the Chinese Benevolent Society was formed. Up until the 1950’s Savannah’s Chinese sought to move upward economically through small businesses. At this time the Wus, opened a Canton Restaurant that became a local hot spot and while filming here actor Gregory Peck was a frequent patron. The business ran for more than six decades. TS Chu the patriarch of the Chu family started over ten local 7-11 stories and Chus department store on Tybee Island. This latter business helped him gain the title "Mr. Savannah Beach" for his engaging personality and businessman acumen.

It was the arrival of Dr. Shaw Shu who would portend the end of the small business economy and bring the professional economy. Dr. Shu was one of the leading doctors who helped form the Urological Associates of Savannah. His son Dr. Claude Su founded the Cardiology Associates of Savannah.

The daughter of Ta-Ping was Gerald Chan Sieg. She would help start the Georgia Poetry Society and become a nationally recognized poet. The Poetry Society established an award in her honor. Her stories were published in The New York Times and The Washington Post. She was also a writer for the Savannah Morning News & Evening Press. She wrote children's stories and science fiction as well.

The education field was enhanced by the presence of the Chinese-American educators. Some such educators were Frances Wong,  who served as the principal at Myers Middle School, Windsor Forest High School and H.V. Jenkins High School (Jenkins won an award as a National School of Excellence during her tenure) and she later served as a student services vice president at SCAD. Shelia Woo served as a Pooler Elementary School Principal. Lancy Jen was a professor at Savannah State University and the Savannah College of Art and Design.

Today, Savannah’s connections with China are significant. Savannah College of Art and Design in 2009 opened a Hong Kong location. It is the first and only university exclusively focused on art and design education in Hong Kong. SCAD’s library is named after a Chinese donor Jen. Gulfstream has offices and hangar to repair their planes in China. China has become one of their fastest growing markets. The city of Savannah in 2009 became a sister city of JiuJiang. This led to Savannah State University’s (in 2014) non-profit Confucius Institute. The Institute’s aim is to serve as a platform that promotes intercultural understanding as well as the study of Chinese language and culture (including art, music and literature), and to enhance educational exchange between the US and China. The connections continue to grow daily.

I leave you a poem from one of Savannah’s great poets:

Reincarnation
By GERALD CHAN SIEG
Throughout the ages I have known
Your lovely laughter and your tears,
Your fingers locking with my own.
I saved you from a dinosaur,
Then lost you till the spinning years
Returned you in the Trojan War.

Together we endured the whips
Of pagan Rome and, singing, died;
Together watched the Tartar ships
Unloading silk from dim Cathay
Which softly robed you as my bride.
(A thousand years are but a day.)

I found you next in Aragon,
A maiden hid in costly lace;
And later—ah, sweet Puritan
In your prim bonnet, sober dress,
Who went with courage in your face
To dare with me a wilderness!

Your mind cannot recall the past.
You would be frightened if you knew
What powers, dark, eternal, vast,
I have controlled throughout the years
to keep the essence that is you:
Your lovely laughter and your tears!
​

One of Savannah’s greatest love stories was between Corrine Lawton Mcakall and Gari Melchers. The vast amount of their time as a married couple was not spent in Savannah but the influence on Savannah of their marriage ties would be monumentally. Gari Melchers was one of America’s greatest early twentieth century painters. By the time Corrine would meet him he was already established as renowned artist. In 1883 he had with another American painter George Hitchcock established an art colony near the Egmonds aan Zee a fishing village in the Netherlands.

He began to establish himself as one of the better painters in Europe. In an 1888 Munich exhibition, Melchers's entry was awarded a first prize he beat out the second prize winner James Abbott McNeill Whistler, won second prize. The following year he included in the American Section of the Paris Exposition Universelle four paintings. The only Americans to win a prize at the Exposition were Melchers and John Singer Sargent. Melchers's success in Europe led to purchase of his art by influential American art collectors. This in turn led to his fame and exhibitions in the United States.

Meanwhile Corrine who was twenty years his junior was an aspiring artist herself. She took a transatlantic voyage to Europe to study. On this same voyage was Melchers. Upon learning that the great painter Melchers was on the ship Corrine paid him a visit. And love was discovered. They were married in 1903. With marriage and his successful career Melchers style would change as he began to fill his paintings with brilliant color and domestic scenes with Corrine often his model.

Melchers connection with Savannah was made when Corrine’s uncle, Alexander Lawton the president of the Telfair Academy Board, asked him to act as the collector and purchaser of paintings for the Academy. Melchers said yes if for no other reason than to stay on the good side of his in-laws. He worked officially from 1906-1916 for them but continued to have input until 1930. He would acquire seventy paintings for the Academy. Some of America’s greatest painters were in the paintings Childe Hassam, Robert Henri, William Metcalf, Ernest Lawson and the list goes on. The Academy also purchased one of their favorite paintings of his The Unpretentious Garden with Corrine as a model in their garden in Egmonds.

Melchers would also be primarily responsible in recruiting Daniel Chester French in sculpting the Oglethorpe Statue in Chippewa Square. When he was asked who would he recommend for the commission he steered the Monument Committee from sculptor Alexander Doyle and suggested French. He continued throughout the search to promote French and when French won an award at the Paris Salon sent the notice to the committee and that appears to have been the clinching act in their decision.   

The couple would eventually move to and live in Fredericksburg, Virginia in an estate called Belmont until their respective deaths. While at Belmont Melchers would serve as president of the committee that would eventually start the National Museum of Art in Washington D.C. and he was also appointed to the board of directors of the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Corrine, for her part, filled her days as lady of the manor, as a member of the Daughters of the Confederacy, as founder off the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, which still owns one of her oil paintings, helping to ensure the restoration of the nearby Kenmore estate of George Washington’s sister, founder of the local garden club, and when she had time painting.

Her last act was to turn the Belmont estate which she and Melchers had enhanced with gardens, nature trails and architectural enhancements to the state of Virginia. The estate is a historic home administered by the University of Mary Washington. The home is filled with Melcher’s and her paintings. Because she meticulously kept everything as it was when they both lived together you can see the life that she and the man she called ‘my artist’ lived.

Amos Scudder was born on 17 March 1813. He was born in New Jersey but came to Savannah @ 1817. He would soon become one of Savannah’s most prominent citizens. This was true although he claimed New Jersey as home and he would maintain a summer home there. Each year he would harness his four hitch wagon and make the trip to Savannah. Savannah would become where he made his fortune and grew his reputation. He was Savannah’s jack of all trades working as a civil engineer constructing many of our brick cisterns in the squares to retain water for the fire department. He would work as a master builder supervising the construction of the Independent Presbyterian Church and the William Jay designed Savannah Theater and Archibald Bulloch Home (now razed) among other things. He would work as an architect designing some of Savannah’s finest homes including a row of townhomes. He would also serve on the City Council from 1830 to 1839 as an alderman.

​
But his most famous work was with the Savannah, Ogeechee, and Altamaha Canal Company. He built or repaired many sections of the canal, and served as the President of the Canal's Board of Directors from 1837 until his death. The canal consisted of 16.5 miles. Before Scudder’s involvement the canal experienced numerous problems such as decay of wooden locks to solve this issue he proposed doing the locks in brick. The company thrived on the work and foresight of Scudder and was a key feature in the Savannah economy from the 1840's and into the 1860's.

Today the canal has been restored and is used to interpret the Ogeechee waterway and its natural environment. At the Ogeechee River terminus a small museum and nature center is open to visitors near Lock 5 with displays that emphasize both the canal’s history and the natural history of the local area. One can also walk along the Heel or Tow paths and envision the canal as it was.
​ 
Scudder died in Plainfield, New Jersey where he was buried June of 1856.
​