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7 July , 2003
Echoes of Asian America, 1940s-style
Two bars of piano and the voice slinks in: "I'm in the mood for love," sings Larry Ching on his debut CD, with his warm vibrato wrapping around the words like a comfortable old wool blanket.
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The CD, "Till the End of Time," features 16 1940s and '50s pop standards such as "All of Me" and "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" as well as gorgeous Hawaiian melodies including the "Hawaiian Wedding Song (Ke Kali Nei Au)." It's a fabulous debut, with Ching accompanied elegantly by pianist George Yamasaki, bassist Dean Reilly and drummer Jim Zimmerman.
Ching was definitely no overnight success, though.
He waited a damned long time to get his voice out to the public. Although this was his first release, at age 82, Ching's career arc peaked in the 1940s. Back then, he was labeled "The Chinese Frank Sinatra," and was one of the star attractions at Forbidden City, a San Francisco nightclub that featured all-Asian entertainers.
He always hated the label. He was a fan of Sinatra's muscular style, but listening to Ching now and on the four wonderful tracks at the end of the CD that were recorded in the 1940s, a better comparison would be Bing Crosby. Like Der Bingle, Ching instinctively caresses the microphone with his quavering, emotion-drenched tenor. He especially lays claim to any ballad that crosses his path - the CD's title track, one of the tracks recorded in the '40s with a spare piano arrangement, is simply gorgeous. But ultimately he doesn't sound like anyone else - Ching sang on his own terms, with his own vocal stamp, which took on some gravel and an endearing quaver over the decades.
 A happy Larry Ching during the recording sessions for his debut album. Photo courtesy of LarryChing.com |
Ching was a self-taught crooner - he was born and raised in Hawaii by his grandparents when his mother took off to Europe for training as an opera singer, and absorbed the records he grew up with. He didn't plan on being a singer. He spent his early years working on ships all along the Pacific Rim. While on leave in San Francisco, he sat in with a group on a nightclub stage in Chinatown, and was later invited to become a singing bartender.
His showbiz career went into high gear in 1940, when Charlie Low, the owner of Forbidden City, which was located close to, but not within Chinatown - a crucial distinction for the non-Chinese clientele Low catered to - recruited Ching to become one of the club's main stars. The photos from the era show Ching was like Sinatra in two ways - he was slight in build but devastatingly handsome. He's shown flanked by glamorous Chinese women in the photo on the CD's front cover, and shown still dapper and holding a microphone on the back cover.
It's hard to believe that after the heyday of Forbidden City, Larry Ching became a delivery truck driver for San Francisco's daily newspapers, singing only at weddings and private parties.
Forbidden City closed in the early '60s because its time had passed - television kept people at home in the evenings and the younger generation was already rocking and rolling. The club's combination of Asian performers providing western-style entertainment with touches of vaudeville and titillating burlesque was no longer a novelty (by then Las Vegas was where that kind of entertainment was featured). And unfortunately for the stars of Forbidden City, even though their talent as singers and dancers may have been the equal of anyone else in Hollywood or Broadway, they couldn't break into the mainstream because they were Asian. If they continued their careers, it was as dance teachers or hoofing it on small circuits as a specialty Asian act.
So how is it that this talent took 60 years to release his first CD?
 The documentary film that brought Larry Ching and writer/producer Ben Fong Torres together. |
Ching's revival came about because he was one of the performers interviewed in, and featured at the premiere of, a 1989 documentary film by Arthur Dong about the nightclub, "Forbidden City U.S.A." At that premiere he met Ben Fong-Torres, a veteran music critic (one of the early staffers at Rolling Stone magazine) and a Chinese American. The two fell out of touch until a few years later when they crossed paths at a wedding, and Fong-Torres said he'd like to record Ching someday. Fong-Torres had never produced a record, but he was enchanted with Ching's singing. Fast-forward to 2002, when the two met up again, this time at the party celebrating the DVD release (with lots of extra material) of "Forbidden City U.S.A." This time, with Ching in his 80s, Fong-Torres didn't lose touch. They recorded the tracks this February, and the CD was just released.
It's a remarkable project not just because of the stellar music contained on the disc, but for the story of Ching's life and Fong-Torres' determination to capture Ching's voice, as the song says, till the end of time.
For anyone interested in the era when Ching first gained fame, and anyone interested in Asian American culture, "Forbidden City U.S.A." is required viewing. Filmmaker Dong captured all of the principal players in the nightclub's success, from its choreographers and its biggest stars to Charlie Low himself (who died the same year the film was first released, and who would surely appreciate the DVD).
 A souvenir program book from Forbidden City, an extra feature on th DVD of the documentary. Cover courtesy of Deep Focus Productions. |
The film is chockfull of anecdotes both hilarious and poignant, including stories of racism aimed at the performers, and a particularly stark recollection by Paul ("The Chinese Astaire") Wing about his longtime partner Dorothy Takahashi Toy, a Japanese American. When World War II began, the duo was in New York performing and were invited to Hollywood for their big break: an appearance in a film with bandleader Kay Keyser. But the two were told if they came to the West Coast, Toy would be incarcerated along with other Japanese Americans in the wartime internment camps, so they passed up their chance and started from scratch on the East Coast.
Dong adds evocative archival footage from the era, some of the club itself and its stars. Other clips are culled from movies made for the Asian market or novelty shorts including a 1920s movie scene featuring a young Cary Grant being racist to a Chinese woman, and incredible dance segments with Wing and Toy.
One of the most powerful themes that emerges from the documentary is how this first generation of American-born Chinese consciously pursued careers performing Western-style entertainment. Some of the performers recall the scandal they caused and the criticism they received from the local immigrant Chinese community. These were Asian American pioneers, accepting their identities as Americans even while understanding their heritage as Asians.
There's one more reason to watch this film: At the end, Larry Ching plucks a ukulele and sings "Hawaiian Wedding Song" for the camera. It's a sweet, heartbreaking moment when the song stops and he says quietly, "that's it."
The heartbreak segued into sadness, with Ching's passing this past weekend from a brain aneurism. He died just a week after celebrating his first -- and now only -- CD. He even received a special proclamation from San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, who declared June 28, 2003, "Larry Ching Day."
You can read the San Francisco Chronicle's obituary online, and more about Larry Ching's life and order his CD, "Till the End of Time" online at www.larryching.com. You can also order the "Forbidden City U.S.A." documentaryonline at www.deepfocusproductions.com.
Readers have sent me tributes to Larry Ching; I'd love to post more if you have any comments.