Henry Inn, Photographer (2024)

Henry Inn was born on February 3, 1898, in China, according to his World War I and II draft cards. The birth year 1899 was on his Social Security application. Inn’s birth name, Yuen Yun Joe, was recorded on passenger lists from 1909, 1922, 1926, 1932, 1935 and 1937. His World War II draft card had his name as Yuen Yen Joe. The Watumull Foundation Oral History Project conducted an interview with Inn on September 28, 1971. He did not give his Chinese name. East Asian Architecture in Globalization: Values, Inheritance and Dissemination (2021) had his Chinese name as 阮勉初 (Ruan Mianchu).

Although his real name was Yuen Kwock, he was known locally as Fong Inn after the name of the store he had established in 1903, and his son took Inn as a surname.

Twelve-year-old Inn was aboard the Pacific Mail Steam Ship Korea when it departed Hong Kong on June 29, 1909. He arrived at Honolulu, Hawaii on July 20, 1909. The passenger list said he was born in Lam Bin Hee, Heungshan, China.The oral history said Inn was nine-years-old when he came to Hawaii in 1908.

Affidavit, testimony and Chinese inspector’s report from Yuen Yun Joe’s Chinese Exclusion Act Case File C-1757, San Bruno, California NARA

Affidavit, April 30, 1909

Testimony, July 30, 1909

Chinese Inspector’s Report, July 30, 1909

The 1910 United States census counted Inn (Yan Jow Yuen, line 36), his parents and younger brother in Honolulu at 1196 Nuuanu Street. His father was a bookkeeper at a furniture store.

In the oral history, Inn said he attended the “Aliiolani School at Kaimuki”.

October 6, 1921

Inn visited China again. He returned on the steam ship President Wilson which departed Hong Kong on August 5, 1926. Fourteen days later he arrived at Honolulu.

In her youth, Helen Sau Ngam Mau was raised by the Fong Inn family, who owned and operated the elegant Fong Inn Store in Honolulu. Helen assisted with sales at the store where her future husband, Yew Char, was fascinated by her beauty. He arranged for Fong Inn to send her to attend the Virginia Intermount College, Bristol, Virginia, a girls’ finishing school located in the southwestern part of the state. After two years, “she left school when Yew Char took her to Washington, D. C. in 1923. He married her in the National Capital, bought a new car, and drove across the continent with one of her teachers riding with them!” This was told to his son, Washington Char, by Yew Char in 1982.

The first collection of Inn’s photographs appeared in the 1940 book, Chinese Houses and Gardens, which was edited by Shao Chang Lee and published by Fong Inn’s Limited.The dust jacketfront flap said

A resident of Honolulu and a collector of Chinese Art, Mr. Inn has traveled widely in China through a number of years. This collection of pictures was taken in 1936, shortly before the start of the Sino-Japanese hostilities, and many, if not the majority, of the places shown are now utterly destroyed.

Professor Lee, who edited the book, Dr. Ch’en Shou-Yi, Dr. Wing-Tsit Chan, and Mr Chuin Tung, who contributed the articles, is each an expert in his field.

It is hoped the plates and drawings will be of value, not only to students of Chinese Art, but to the people who are planning and building the American home today.

In 1950 a revised edition was published by Hastings House and Bonanza Books. The dust jacketfront flap said

Henry Inn of Honolulu, art collector, designer, and photographer, has here produced a collection of Chinese architectural pictures that is extraordinary.

Probably it is the only record of its kind. Though photographed as recently as 1936, many of these houses and gardens are no more, for they have been bombed out of existence by Japanese invaders.

Even more distinctive is the range of subject matter, for as a veteran traveler to his ancestral homeland, Mr. Inn was fortunate in an extraordinarily wide acquaintance, which gave him an entree into many of the best and most representative private homes throughout China. The combination of artistic skill with unusual opportunity had brought us a record of the architectural forms and traditions which are the cultural expression of the modern Chinese family.

Supplementing the illustrative material are several fine treatises on Chinese philosophy and culture and their influence on the form of the Chinese dwelling. Contributors to this section are Editor S. C. Lee, Professors S. Y. Chen, W. T. Chan and Chuin Tung.

The 147 beautifully reproduced photographs, the 113 line drawings, and the five brilliant essays constitute an invaluable source book of design for the architect, the decorator, the homebuilder, the garden enthusiast, and every student of Chinese culture.

Hastings House

Bonanza Books

The editors of this volume are Henry Inn, a resident of Honolulu and a collector of Chinese art, and Professor S. C. Lee of the Oriental Institute in the University of Hawaii. Part One of the book consists of articles dealing with various aspects of Chinese domestic landscape architecture. Professor Ch’en Shou-yi, whose learned study on “The Chinese Gardens in Eighteenth Century” was published in Tien Hsia four years ago (Vol. II, No. 4), outlines the factors which have transformed and reshaped houses and gardens in China from primitive times to the present day. Professor Wing-tsit Chen, who lectures on Chinese Philosophy at the University of Hawaii , writes on the philosophical conceptions which underlie the architecture of Chinese gardens. Professor S. C. Lee contributes an essay on the Chinese love of home and the use of symbolism in Chinese houses and gardens, illustrated by selections from Chinese literature, translated by himself. In addition to these articles, written especially for this book, there are Mr. Tung Chuin’s “Foreign Influence in Chinese Architecture” and “Chinese Gardens: Contrast Designs”. These have been reprinted from T’ien Hsia in which they originally appeared.

The second part of the book consists of 242 photographs and drawings made by Mr. Inn, who in 1936 made a trip to his motherland, travelling from Canton to Peiping and from Shanghai to Wuchang, visiting many homes and gardens as well as famous scenic spots along the way. These pictures are mostly taken in places now under Japanese occupation, and looking at them therefore one cannot help experiencing a feeling of nostalgia, not unmixed with a bitterness against the invaders.” Heaven above; Soochow and Hangchow below”—all that was very true before the war, but enter the devils and these earthly paradises have become veritable hells!

Both the printing and the make-up of the book are of the highest standard. The enterprising firm, Fong Inn’s Limited, is indeed to be congratulated upon bringing out a volume which every lover of things Chinese volume which every lover of things Chinese should be proud to acquire for his library.

In 1944 Fong Inn’s Limited printed Tropical Blooms: A Portfolio of 40 Flower Prints from Photographs by Inn.

Inn’s photographs of Hawaiian women were published by Hastings House, in 1945, under the title, Hawaiian Types.

Inn passed away on December 12, 1994, in Honolulu. He was laid to rest at Manoa Chinese Cemetery.

(Next post on Wednesday: Chinese Theatre in New York Chinatown, 1903)