Pioneer Chinese American Boxer, Georgie Washington Lee

When I was researching the rise of Chinese restaurants in the 1920s, I stumbled upon a 1921newspaper article about a boxing match featuring a bantamweight Chinese boxer named Georgie Lee.  He received enthusiastic crowd support for his vigorous performance even though he lost the match.

Lee started boxing in Sacramento at an early age of 10 in 1910 (and lived to a ripe age of 92) and became popular on the East Coast and American South even though his record was modest, at best. 

Despite his limits as a boxer, his manager marketed George as the "Yellow Peril of the Prize Ring," and added a theatrical gimmick by having George wear an Oriental robe and false pigtail when he entered the ring.

Typical of the racism against Chinese for many decades, the journalists often made condescending and mocking comments.  At least the audiences did show some admiration for the spunky fighter that George was even though he was never more than mediocre as a boxer.

George and his brother Raymond had boxing matches outside the U.S, as well.  They had boxing matches all over the world— Canada, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Australia, Germany, France, and the British Isles.  

Below is George's Immigration Form 430 which under the Chinese Exclusion Act all Chinese had to file if they left the country and planned to reenter later.