Mayor London Breed’s “Chinese grandmother,” Mrs. Wong, said that at a Chinatown banquet on Wednesday, she was coerced into wearing a Mark Farrell hat and tricked into posing with Breed’s opponent in a bid to make it appear she had switched sides.
Tow Kuk Wong, more widely known as “Mrs. Wong” is president of the California Friends of Tenants Caucus, which has over 500 members, according to the 86-year-old. A well-connected community leader, Wong has also mobilized large groups of Chinese volunteers for Breed’s events. Wong is frequently pictured alongside Breed at campaign events.
Her well-known image as a staunch Breed supporter makes any betrayal of the mayor a coveted win for other campaigns in a race in which Chinese votes hold significant importance.
On Wednesday, she prepared herself for a mid-autumn festival lunch at the Far East Cafe. Instead, she found herself at the wrong end of a “deception,” Wong told this reporter in Cantonese.
“They had confirmed with me it was just a meal,” Wong said, of the organizers of the luncheon. She recalled that Selena Chu from the Chinese American Democratic Club, which has endorsed Farrell, told her beforehand that Farrell would attend the event, but just to celebrate the mid-autumn festival, not for political publicity.
Instead, it turned into an unpleasant ambush in the bathroom and a quick move to replace her orange San Jose Barracudas hat with a blue “Mark Farrell for Mayor” cap, according to Wong. Photos of her wearing the Farrell hat and subsequently posing next to Farrell were then posted online.
Wong began the mid-day lunch eating and catching up with her old friends from the California Friends of Tenants Caucus. But at some point, Farrell supporters approached Wong, she said.
“I was worried that I’d be asked to go on stage and take pictures in support of Farrell,” said Wong.
To avoid this, Wong — who had surgery on both legs only weeks ago and has trouble walking — says she excused herself and retreated to the bathroom. She ultimately hid in the bathroom for more than 15 minutes, she said. Four women then followed her in, she said, and even more waited outside. One of them slapped on the door of the stall in which Wong sat. “I was pulling up my pants,” Wong said, when she saw a woman peering at her through the gap in the stall door.
Wong couldn’t recall exactly who did what to her in the bathroom and in the banquet room. “It was noisy and chaotic, I couldn’t see much,” she said. Nevertheless, she was certain that Farrell’s campaign manager Jade Tu and Josephine Zhao of the Chinese American Democratic Club were involved. Wong also recalled seeing Leanna Louie, a Chinese activist, but added that she didn’t speak individually with Louie at the banquet.
Wong was asked “to come out [of the bathroom] and take pictures,” she said, by women in the bathroom with her. She recalls being told, “We have a blue hat for you, it’s very cool, just put it on.”
When Wong exited, someone suddenly lifted off the orange hat she was wearing, emblazoned with San Jose’s minor league hockey team logo, and put a “Mark Farrell for Mayor” hat on her head instead.
Wong cannot speak or read English. None of the people surrounding her explained to her what the words on the hat said, she told Mission Local, and she said she had no idea what was going on.
Then, she says, someone pulled at the side of her facemask, which she usually wears, to remove it — presumably so she could be identified in a photo. She refused, and the group then walked away.
When Wong returned to her table and removed her mask to eat, however, someone took the opportunity to snap photos of her wearing the Farrell hat.
Wong said Farrell was not involved in this incident.
Louie confirmed she was at the banquet but said, “I have no comments” regarding Wong’s accusations. Eyewitnesses placed both Tu and Zhao at the event. Zhao denied any interactions with Wong, claiming she didn’t know about the incident until later seeing photos online. Tu denied mistreating Wong or putting the cap on her head: “I have the utmost respect for my elders and I would never do anything to hurt them.”
Wong says Zhao phoned her after the banquet and asked her to support Breed first, and Farrell second. Wong says she didn’t give a direct answer, just said “Let’s talk about this later.”
Zhao made the same ranked-choice voting suggestion, unsolicited, when reached by Mission Local today for comment.
The banquet, held at the Far East Cafe in Chinatown, served some 600 Chinese seniors who enjoyed celebrating the second most important festival in Chinese culture with a good meal. It also drew politicians including Farrell, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins and Republican State Senate candidate Yvette Corkrean, who’s trying to unseat state Sen. Scott Wiener. Organizers of the event included BetterHousingPolicies.org, a group that supports Farrell. Breed did not attend.
It wasn’t until some time after the bathroom incident, when an acquaintance explained to her that she was wearing a Mark Farrell hat, that Wong grasped what had happened. She then took it off and, according to an eyewitness, became angry.
“Absolutely under no circumstances did I force her to wear the hat or force her out of the bathroom,” Tu said in a statement. “She put on the hat herself and she decided to take a photo with Mark and then Mark and I left the event.”
When informed of Tu’s statement, Wong replied “I definitely didn’t volunteer to wear the [Farrell] hat.”
While Tu said she did not see Zhao at the banquet, multiple sources have confirmed to Mission Local that Zhao did attend.
Wong said part of the reason she was willing to attend the banquet was because its main organizer, Louis Lam, chairman of American Teochew Foundation, has invited her to the event almost every year for the past decade.
“No one tried to force her to do something. No,” said Lam, when asked for comments. “All the situations, she totally agreed to and was clear about them.”
“Maybe she felt a lot of pressure,” so she made up the story, Lam added.
Wong says she was told on Wednesday about a plan to publish the photo of her wearing the Farrell hat in English-language media. She says she told Zhao that she would file a lawsuit if that happened. The photo was still circulated to members of the press, however: A reporter with the San Francisco Standard tweeted the photo on Thursday, writing “Four months later, Grandma Wong betrays Mayor @LondonBreed.”
One of the photos posted to social media depicts Wong posing for a photo with Farrell, wearing the blue Farrell hat and holding Farrell campaign literature. When asked about the photo, Wong said “I don’t know how that happened.” She says she didn’t know why she was holding a Farrell campaign flier and “I didn’t even realize I had a photo with Farrell.”
“I’ve only met Farrell twice, I actually don’t really recognize his face,” said Wong, adding that she could barely tell Farrell and Daniel Lurie apart. She says that both campaigns have approached her for her support multiple times.
Joe Arellano, a spokesperson for Breed’s campaign, accused the Farrell campaign of “elder abuse.”
He said that Farrell and Tu “should be ashamed of themselves.”
Tu countered that Breed’s campaign was “coaching” Wong to “make up parts of the story.”
No one from Breed’s campaign or mayor’s office accompanied Wong at the banquet.
Wong, for her part, felt that she was disrespected. She said she was sickened to see photos online of herself in Farrell gear and couldn’t fall asleep until 1 a.m. on Friday morning. “It’s just not right to do this to me!” she said on a call Friday morning, with strong indignation. “I was pissed off. It’s a huge blow to an 86-year-old.”
“They followed me in the bathroom,” she said. “That’s just not right.”
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