Fong Get Moo
Fong Get Moo (1894–1989), whose real name was Lon Yoke Wong Fong, was the first woman barber in Oakland's Chinatown. She gained widespread fame within the community for giving out candy to her customers after cutting their hair. The building where her barbershop was still stands, at 8th and Harrison.
“Fong Get” was part of her husband’s name, and “Moo” being an honorific for an unrelated Chinese woman.
She moved to Oakland in her early 20s and married Fong Get Chong, a barber. The couple had two sons, Clifton and James, both of whom became dentists.
Fong Get Moo & baby Clifton Fong
Her son, Dr. Clifton Fong, has spent many years researching his mother's early life which began in 1894 in a Chinese gold mining camp in Northern California near the Oregon border. This was a rarity for an ethnic Chinese woman to be in the camps in the late 19th century.
Fong Get Moo passed away at the age of 95 in 1989.
