What if you discovered the last name you've lived with since birth is fake?
That's what happened in many Chinese-American families who first came to the U.S. before World War II, when the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 banned Chinese laborers from legally entering the country.
The law, formally repealed by Congress 70 years ago Tuesday, prompted tens of thousands of Chinese to use forged papers to enter the U.S. illegally.
Today, their descendants are still trying to uncover the truth.
Paper Sons And Daughters
William Wong says that even as a child, he knew Wong was his last name on paper only; his real family name is Gee.
"We knew when we were growing up in Oakland's Chinatown that we were a Gee family," says Wong, 72, a retired journalist in Piedmont, Calif.
“ Coming to America was a game. And the Chinese knew they were playing a game, and the Americans knew they were playing a game.