AMY QIN2026年4月2日桑德拉·黄和诺曼·黄是黄金德的孙辈，黄金德在1898年最高法院案件中的胜诉，确立了几乎所有在美国出生的儿童均自动获得公民身份的原则。 Minh Connors for The New York TimesSandra Wong was at her father’s funeral, looking at a display of mementos, when she saw a newspaper clipping and learned something surprising: She was a direct descendant of Wong Kim Ark, a cook in San Francisco who was behind the landmark 1898 Supreme Court decision granting citizenship to virtually anyone born on American soil.桑德拉·黄在父亲的葬礼上看着陈列的家族纪念品时，一张剪报让她得知了一个惊人的事实：她是黄金德的直系后代。黄金德曾是旧金山的一名华人厨师，正是他促成了1898年那项具有里程碑意义的最高法院裁决，该裁决赋予几乎所有在美国本土出生的人自动获得美国公民身份。Before that day in 2011, she had never even heard of the name Wong Kim Ark. Nor had she known that birthright citizenship was a contentious issue, as it is now once again. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on the constitutionality of President Trump’s executive order last year rolling back birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants and temporary visitors, including international students.在2011年的那一天之前，她从未听过黄金德这个名字，也从不知道出生公民权曾是争议话题——如今，这一议题再次掀起轩然大波。本周三，美国最高法院将开庭听证，就特朗普总统去年发布的一项行政命令的合宪性展开辩论。该命令取消了无证移民、临时访客（包括国际留学生）在美国所生子女的出生公民权。“I always thought that if you were born in America, you were a citizen,” she said.“我一直以为，只要生在美国，就是美国公民，”她说。That Ms. Wong was not aware of her genealogical link is partly a measure of how deeply ingrained birthright citizenship has become in the American consciousness and how rarely Wong Kim Ark’s case is taught in schools.桑德拉此前对自己的家族渊源一无所知，这一方面印证了出生地公民权早已深深植根于美国人的集体认知，另一方面也体现出，黄金德案在美国校园教育中极少被提及。黄氏兄妹得知，黄金德于1870年出生在旧金山唐人街，那里距离他们长大的地方仅几公里之遥。As Ms. Wong dug more into her family history, she found a rich and complex legacy — one that shows how birthright citizenship gave her family members a powerful legal foothold in the country, but not complete acceptance, which they struggled to attain.随着桑德拉深入挖掘家族历史，一段厚重而复杂的家族遗产在她面前展开——这段历史表明，出生公民权为她的家族成员在美国立足提供了强有力的法律支撑，却没能为他们换来完全的接纳，而这份接纳是他们一直都在奋力争取的东西。Discrimination and bias continued. Family members were separated across oceans. And, caught between the pressure to assimilate and the desire to maintain ties to their heritage, the descendants of Wong Kim Ark had to make difficult choices about which stories and traditions to pass down to their children — and which to withhold.歧视与偏见依然存在，家族成员被迫远隔重洋、天各一方。在同化压力与维系自身传统纽带的愿望之间，黄金德的后代们不得不做出艰难的抉择：哪些故事与传统该传给下一代，哪些又该隐去。“We tend to sell this idea of American citizenship as the pinnacle in an immigrant story that somehow marks your complete acceptance in society,” said Hardeep Dhillon, a history professor at the University of Pennsylvania. “But in reality, you can be a U.S. citizen and still have very differentiated rights.”“我们总在宣扬一种观念，把美国公民身份塑造成移民故事的顶峰，仿佛它标志着你被这个社会彻底接纳了，”宾夕法尼亚大学历史学教授哈迪普·迪隆说。“但现实是，即便你是美国公民，所享有的权利依然存在显著差异。”Growing up in San Francisco, Ms. Wong and her three brothers did not hear much about either side of their family.桑德拉和三个兄弟在旧金山长大，父母双方的家族往事他们都知之甚少。Their mother, Kimiko Takeuchi, who was Japanese American, had been interned along with her family in an incarceration camp in Utah during World War II, but did not speak often about that experience.他们的母亲竹内喜美子（音）是日裔美国人，二战期间曾和家人一同被关押在犹他州的日裔拘留营，却极少向孩子们提起这段经历。Their father, Wong Yook Jim, also rarely talked about the past. He worked as a ship steward and traveled for long stretches at a time. They knew that he was Chinese, but didn’t know much more.他们的父亲黄沃沾也几乎从不谈及过往。他是一艘船上的乘务员，常常一出海就是数月之久。孩子们只知道他是华人，除此之外，对他的过去知之甚少。黄沃沾和竹内喜美子。 Norman WongLater, they learned that he had known about the Supreme Court case. But he never mentioned it to his children.后来他们才知道，父亲其实知道最高法院的这起案件，却从未对孩子们提起过。“You could tell there was a lot of pain,” said one of his sons, Norman Wong, now 76.“你能感觉到，那段往事里藏着太多的痛苦，”他的儿子、如今76岁的诺曼·黄说。The Wongs have since learned that their grandfather, Wong Kim Ark, was born in 1870 in San Francisco’s Chinatown, just a few miles from where they grew up. His parents had come as part of a wave of Chinese workers who flocked to the United States starting in the mid-1800s.此后，黄家兄妹才慢慢了解到，他们的祖父黄金德1870年出生于旧金山唐人街，距离他们长大的地方只有几公里。19世纪中期开始，大批中国劳工涌入美国，他的父母是这股移民潮中的一员。But these laborers soon encountered virulent racism and violence, and increasing restrictions in the form of federal laws like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which barred most Chinese people from entering the country.但这些劳工很快就遭遇了恶毒的种族歧视与暴力袭击，联邦法律也对他们施加了越来越严苛的限制，例如1882年出台的《排华法案》禁止大多数中国人入境。Around that time, Mr. Wong went back to China with his family. But he soon tried to return to the United States, lured by the promise of higher wages.大约就在那段时期，黄金德随家人回到了中国。但不久后，他被更高薪资的诱惑所吸引，试图重返美国。After being denied re-entry in 1895, he took the extraordinary step of suing the United States government. He was only 24 years old, a cook in Chinatown who wore a braided queue.1895年，他再次入境美国时遭到拒绝，随后做出了一个惊人的决定：起诉美国政府。那一年，他只有24岁，只是唐人街的一个厨师，还留着辫子。Even after he won the case, Mr. Wong’s struggles continued. Like most Americans of Chinese descent at the time, he was repeatedly subject to interrogations by border officials and had to obtain letters from white witnesses attesting to his birth in America, said Beth Lew-Williams, a history professor at Princeton University.普林斯顿大学历史学教授贝丝·廖-威廉姆斯介绍，即便赢下了这场官司，黄金德的困境也未结束。和当时绝大多数美籍华人一样，他屡屡遭到边境官员的盘问，还必须拿到白人证人的书面证词，来证明自己确实出生在美国。Mr. Wong also tried to bring his sons from China, where they were born, to the United States, which had better economic opportunities.黄金德还试图把自己在中国出生的儿子们带到有更多经济机遇的美国。Because Mr. Wong was an American citizen, his children should also have been considered citizens. But officials denied entry to one son after days of interrogation. His three other sons were also subject to intense questioning, but were ultimately permitted entry.按照法律规定，黄金德是美国公民，他的子女理应也被认定为美国公民。但他的一个儿子在经过连日盘问后，依然被拒绝入境。另外三个儿子也经历了严苛的审讯，最终才获准进入美国。The youngest was Yook Jim, Sandra and Norman’s father, who was admitted in 1926 at the age of around 11. (The Wong family and some experts now believe that Yook Jim may not have been Wong Kim Ark’s son, but rather his grandson, based on the timing.)最小的那个孩子就是桑德拉和诺曼的父亲黄沃沾。1926年，年仅11岁左右的他获准入境美国。（如今，黄家后人与部分专家根据时间线推断，黄沃沾可能并非黄金德的儿子，而是他的孙子。）Even though Kim Ark eventually moved to China, Yook Jim stayed. Still a child, he settled with distant relatives in the Midwest, Norman said. Like many Chinese boys at the time, he would have been expected to work and send money back home to relatives.诺曼说，尽管黄金德最终定居中国，黄沃沾却留在美国。诺曼·黄说，当时还是个孩子的他在美国中西部的远亲家安顿下来。和当时很多华人男孩一样，他注定要去打工，把钱寄回给家乡的亲人。He later moved to San Francisco and married Ms. Takeuchi, with whom he had four children, including Norman and Sandra.后来他搬到旧金山，与竹内喜美子结婚，两人育有四个孩子，其中就包括诺曼和桑德拉。In 1945, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy under the name James Yuen Wong. Decades later, he would still speak proudly of his service, Ms. Wong recalled.1945年，他以詹姆斯·元·黄(James Yuen Wong)这个名字加入美国海军。桑德拉·黄回忆，几十年后，他仍会自豪地谈起自己的服役经历。。But he also held on to his Chinese roots. Ms. Wong recalled seeing the flag of the People’s Republic of China flying outside his home in Rio Linda, Calif. He later took a second wife in Hong Kong, and had another child.但他也始终守着自己的华人根脉。桑德拉·黄记得，在加州里奥林达的家中，他曾在屋外悬挂中华人民共和国国旗。后来，他在香港娶了第二任妻子，又生了一个孩子。Now, almost 130 years since Wong Kim Ark successfully won the right to be an American, some of his descendants have only faint ties to their ancestral homeland.如今，距离黄金德成功获得美国公民身份已经过去了近130年，他的部分后代与祖籍国的联结早已变得十分淡薄。Growing up in San Francisco, Norman and Sandra spoke English at home. They watched Disney movies and westerns on television.诺曼和桑德拉在旧金山长大，在家只说英语，在电视上看迪士尼电影和西部片。They didn’t celebrate any Chinese holidays and knew only vaguely about anti-Chinese exclusion laws.他们不过任何中国传统节日，对当年的排华法案也只有模糊的认知。They went to college. Norman attended the University of California, Berkeley, and went on to work in different jobs, including as a carpenter. Sandra went to San Francisco State University, and worked in marketing.两人都读完了大学。诺曼就读于加州大学伯克利分校，毕业后从事过多种工作，其中包括木匠。桑德拉毕业于旧金山州立大学，从事市场营销相关工作。It never occurred to them that they might be anything other than American. They know whom to thank for that.他们从未怀疑过自己美国人的身份。他们也知道，这应该归功于谁。“If he had not fought for that right,” Mr. Wong said. “I probably wouldn’t have existed.”“如果当年他没有为这份权利而抗争，”诺曼·黄说。“我可能根本不会来到这个世界上。”Amy Qin为时报撰写亚裔美国人社群新闻。点击查看更多关于她的信息。翻译：纽约时报中文网点击查看本文英文版。