Hoi Chuen, born in the Pearl River Delta, had risen from poverty to become one of Cantonese opera’s great chou sang, or comic masters. Together they gambled on a tour of America through the Mandarin Theatre in San Francisco. In a stuffy room, Hoi Chuen and a dozen other Asian men were stripped and inspected by medics for hookworm. “They weren’t allowed to get off the train whatsoever,” said Robert Lee, Hoi Chuen and Grace’s youngest son. AdvertisementIt is hard to believe that Hoi Chuen and Grace would have wanted to subject any of their children to such treatment.