Ken Yee's father couldn't afford to send him to college, so upon retiring after a lengthy career as an electrician, at 60 years old, Yee decided to enroll at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

“;My wife, all my children went to university. I was not gonna be the only one left out,”; said the 96-year-old who with his wife, Nancy Wong Yee, compiled and edited a new publication, “;Chinese Pioneer Families of Maui, Molokai, and Lanai.”;

The book is a valentine to the memory of his wife, whose knowledge of Chinese language, dance and music led her to host Chinese radio and television programs in Honolulu from 1946 to '56.

She died 2 1/2 years ago, about 33 years after they embarked on the project that became a labor of love for both. On her deathbed the incomplete book still weighed heavily on her mind, and Yee promised he would finish it.

The book shares the experiences of Chinese families who migrated to Maui, Molokai and Lanai. To date, much of the history of the Chinese in Hawaii has focused on Honolulu. The stories are told in the voices of the children and grandchildren of those who came from villages in the Pearl River Delta in Kwangtung province (Guangdong) in the late 1800s through early 1900s, sharing tales of perseverance and adaptation to their new home even as they maintained their ties to China through rituals now ingrained in local culture.

Yee said he was struck by the common experiences of the Chinese in Hawaii, in spite of the separation by islands and continent. “;They all celebrated the Chinese holidays and ate the same foods.”;

And in spite of the relatively small population of Chinese in Hawaii, the impact of their fundraising played a role in China's history, in financing Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary attempts to overthrow the Manchu Ching Dynasty and later create a unified China. The man now considered to be the father of modern China lived with his brother Sun Mi, a successful rice farmer and businessman on Maui, before being sent to Honolulu for education at Bishop's (later 'Iolani) School.

As for Yee, nothing about returning to school came easy. “;My brother-in-law and I retired at the same time, and he signed up for courses, too, but after two weeks he gave up. It's not easy to learn how to study,”; Yee said. “;It was hard to keep up, but I always liked to read history books.”;

With the encouragement of Puanani Woo, president and executive director of the Hawaii Chinese History Center from 1978 to 1988, Yee started collecting oral histories while working toward his master's degree in Asian studies. He had earned his bachelor's degree in Chinese language.

With grown children, the Yees had the time and means to travel frequently to the neighbor islands, and Yee said Woo asked the couple whether they were willing to continue the project after he completed his course work.

But age came with setbacks. “;My health wasn't so good,”; Yee said. “;In 1979 I had my first bypass surgery. My second was in 1991. Two veins were taken out of my leg, so I had difficulty walking. Lots of things happened.”;

After a time the book became a family project with his four children — three on the mainland — and their cousins pitching in to input the Yees' handwritten notes into the computer, with edits sent to and from the mainland.

Yee's son Roy said, “;Anything my mother and father got interested in, we were able to help. It was quite a transition for them to go from a typewriter to a computer. We were all the time back and forth, hand-carrying documents. E-mail didn't exist until the 1990s.

“;I'm proud my father is able to see the finished product,”; Roy said. “;I could relate to how the Chinese were such a hardy people who were able to succeed in life by being frugal and family-oriented. We can still see that today. Families saved so these children of farmers were able to go to school and get college degrees. That's the heritage.”;

And the elder Yee says his writing days are not over. He's considering setting his own life story down on paper.

“;Now that I have a little time — God gave me a little extra, I almost died a couple years ago — I believe I can.”;

”;A FRIEND OF QUEEN EMMA: TONG KAN, AKA T. AKANA LIILII”;

By Edna Tavares Taufaasau (granddaughter)

Shortly after (Tong Kan's) arrival in May 1853, a smallpox epidemic broke out. It spread like wildfire during the months of June, July and August and finally subsided in October of that year. Entire families died, especially among Hawaiians as they had no immunity to the disease. The few who had recovered from smallpox in their earlier years did most of the nursing, among them being Tong Kan, who had smallpox as a young boy in China.

While caring for smallpox victims, he had the opportunity to meet Queen Emma, who took an active part in the work of stopping the disease. She became fond of the young Chinese man who helped so many victims of the disease and accepted him as a friend. As a result, he had the opportunity of visiting the queen's household both in Honolulu and on Maui.

Business in Honolulu had suffered a depression because of the epidemic. The island of Maui was not as hard hit by the epidemic, so Tong Kan decided to move to Maui, where he hoped to be able to make a good living. He made a contract with a Honolulu merchant, borrowed to buy some goods, and accepted a guarantee of one dollar a month in pay.

When he went to register with the minister of interior of the kingdom, the Hawaiian official who registered him was not aware that Tong was his last name. He wound up with a new official name, T. Akana, because the Hawaiians called him Ah Kan-a. Because there was another “;Akana”; who was a larger man, the official added the word “;liilii,”; meaning small. In time, my grandfather became known far and wide as T. Akana Liilii.

When he first went to Maui, he traveled by foot from village to village, peddling his wares and keeping his eyes open for opportunities to make money. At that time, the real money was to be made selling produce to the whaling fleet anchored off Lahaina. He worked diligently and was soon able to buy a mule, enabling him to go to various chiefs' ahupuaas and buy coconuts. He sold some of the coconuts to the whalers but traded most of them in the uplands of Ulupalakua and Kula for sweet potatoes and other vegetables, which brought more money from the whalers than coconuts. Before long he managed to accumulate sufficient funds to lease lands directly from the king at Waiopae and Kahikinui near Kipahulu on the slopes of Haleakala, to raise cattle. He lived at Alele in Makawao and opened a meat market in Wailuku town. The meat market opened only when the butcher brought fresh meat in, once or twice a week. The meat was sold right away — either there, in Lahaina, or to the nearby camps — as there was no refrigeration.

Providing provisions to whalers ended in 1872 with the great Arctic disaster that caught the Pacific whaling ships in an ice pack and destroyed them. Akana then decided to supplement his ranching by raising sugarcane, making five attempts to do so. His first venture was made in Lahaina. He and two friends took a short lease on some land, planted their crop, but lost the whole thing when their lease expired before maturity of the cane and the owners refused to extend or renew the lease. …

Other attempts also failed, primarily because of the higher interest rates charged Chinese entrepreneurs than those charged white men. While a white man could borrow money at nine or ten percent, Chinese had to pay 16 or 18 percent for the same money. This discrimination led to the eventual opening of banking establishments by the Chinese community. One of these, the Chinese American Bank, later changed its name to American Security Bank. Some of these banks are still in existence today.