Mendocino County native Look Tin Eli at the heart of an early birthright citizen court case

BORN IN 1870 in Mendocino, Look Tin Eli’s influence would travel far beyond the coast.

Built on the south side of Main Street, Mendocino’s Chinatown grew quickly in the mid-1800s with the increase in Chinese immigration to the U.S. In the early 1860s, Look Bing Tai immigrated to the U.S. He married Su Wang, and the couple had four children on the coast, the eldest being Look Tin Eli. Look Bing Tai opened his general store in 1870, where it operated for more than 40 years before a fire destroyed it in 1911.