Common Truths Event

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Jin Sue Heung Fong, also known as “Ah Heung” and “Susie,”was born on June 24, 1926 in the small rural village of Long Yin Li in Toisan, Guangdong province, China. The second eldest of five, she grew up in tumultuous times of economic hardship, food deprivation and violence during the Great Depression, World War II and the Japanese occupation.

After the war, in 1947, Harry S. Fong, one of many eligible Chinese American bachelors in pursuit of compatible brides, lucked out to find Ah Heung, a wonderful, educated girl and an excellent candidate for any young man.

They wed on April 28, 1947, and six months later, boarded a ship bound for San Francisco. Susie stepped off the boat to start a new life in her hanfu (Chinese pajamas) and new pink wool coat gifted by Harry, along with other prized possessions of a green plastic hooded raincoat and wristwatch.

Over seven decades of marriage, Harry and Susie worked hard together to raise their six children—Beatrice, Anna, Nora, Katherine, David and Alan. Harry eventually found his career as a Muni mechanic, and Susie worked various times as a shrimp deveiner, an antique store salesperson, an apprentice at a Chinatown cheongsam store where she learned tailoring and pattern making, and a clothing factory worker at Koret of California. Along the way, she studied English; worked side-by-side with Harry to invest in, renovate, repair and maintain residential properties and build a modest real estate portfolio to ensure a lifetime of financial stability; and reunited with her extended family—brothers, sister, and their children—by helping to bring them to America.

Susie made sure to infuse the Fong family’s life with the richness of Chinese culture, mastering the traditional home cooked Toishanese dishes learned from Harry’s mother, playing Chinese opera music on the stereo, continuing the traditions of honoring elders, and fortifying her children with the mysterious medicinal concoctions of bitter ginseng and viscous goot foon.

Post-retirement, Harry and Susie enjoyed traveling, casino and racetrack trips, ice cream cones, and spending time with their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Harry passed away in 2018. Susie missed her husband, but continued enjoying life, playing mah jong, joining friends at Washington Square for Luk Tung Kuen exercise, hobnobbing in Chinatown, trying her luck at casinos, and spending time with her loved ones, for seven more years.

Jin Sue Heung passed away peacefully at home surrounded by family, after a brief illness, on March 4, 2025. While we miss her already, we are heartened to know that she is reunited with Harry, at last.