Why I Named Myself Son of Paper - The Paper Daughter Story Behind My Music

My great-grandmother came to America under a false name.

That's not a metaphor. That's not artistic license. That's just what happened. In 1933, she crossed the Pacific Ocean with a name that wasn't hers, a family history she had memorized but never lived, and papers she had bought because there was no other way in for her.

Even her marriage to my great-grandfather - a US citizen - wasn't enough to bring her over legally. The Chinese Exclusion Act made sure of that. So she did what thousands of Chinese women did during that era. She became someone else on paper. A paper daughter.

That document is literally the reason I exist.

What Is a Paper Daughter?

Most people have heard of paper sons - Chinese men who entered the United States using false identities during the era of the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882–1943). But paper daughters are less talked about, less documented, and in many ways even more invisible in the historical record.

A paper daughter was a Chinese woman who purchased false immigration papers in order to enter the United States legally. The Chinese Exclusion Act made legal immigration nearly impossible for most Chinese nationals, regardless of their circumstances. Women faced an additional layer of exclusion. Even being married to a US citizen was not enough.

So they bought papers. They memorized entirely false biographies - fake family members, fake village details, fake personal histories - in case they were interrogated by immigration officials at Angel Island. They crossed the Pacific carrying a name that wasn't theirs, knowing that one wrong answer during questioning could mean immediate deportation.

They did it anyway.

The Silence I Grew Up With

I grew up not fully understanding any of this.

There was always a silence in my family around certain parts of our history. Not the kind that comes from shame - more the kind that comes from survival. You keep your head down. You move forward. Looking back was a luxury they couldn't afford when they were just trying to make it.

The silence showed up in the language too. My grandpa was severely bullied in school for having a Chinese accent. And so he and my grandmother made a decision - they weren't going to teach my mom Cantonese. They wanted to protect her from going through what he went through. That was an act of love. But what it meant for me growing up was that I had no access to the language, which made it so much harder to ever connect with where my family came from.

The language wasn't lost. It was surrendered. To keep us safe.

I'm an adult now learning Cantonese from scratch. There's something strange and meaningful about reclaiming something that was given up to protect you.

Where the Name Comes From

Son of Paper.

I get asked about my artist name all the time. And every time someone asks, I get to tell her story. That's the whole point.

I am literally the descendant of a false document. My great-grandmother arrived in America under someone else's identity so that her real life - and eventually mine - could exist here. As Son of Paper, I get to make her real.

And with that, I carry her strength and our family's lineage into everything I make.

Why Paper Daughters Are Still Forgotten

Paper sons get more attention in the historical record. There's more documentation, more research, more public awareness. But women's stories from that era are just harder to find. They were already living in a world that didn't center them - and then on top of that they had to hide who they were just to get through the door.

There's a double layer of invisibility. First the exclusion. Then the erasure that came from surviving it.

I think about the women who lived their entire lives under false identities. Raised families, built communities, grew old - and never told anyone. Some of them may have carried their real names their whole lives and never said them out loud. Others may have said their false name so many times that eventually even they stopped reaching for the real one.

That's an enormous thing to carry alone.

This project exists in part because of that. Not just to tell a story, but to specifically name her. Not as a footnote to someone else's history. As the origin of mine.

What I'm Still Looking For

I've found about 66% of my family history - way more than I expected. There's a 200-year-old banyan tree outside my family temple in Guangdong, China. I've stood under it. I've met relatives I didn't know existed.

But there's still one family line where the trail goes cold. And what's strange is that it feels like neither my US family nor my China family really wants that thread pulled. Like there's something there that nobody's ready to face yet.

I don't know if I should keep digging or let it rest. Some silences are still protecting something. And I've had to learn to sit with not fully understanding that - which doesn't come naturally to me.

The Music That Came From All of This

My newest single R!SE was born directly out of this journey. On my fourth-to-last day in China, after 86 days of searching for my roots, I was asked to perform in front of ten thousand people in my ancestral hometown - with my newly found family in the audience. That feeling came back across the Pacific with me and went straight into the record.

I'm not trying to just document this history. I'm trying to capture what it feels like to be living inside it. The grief, the joy, the homecoming. All of it is in the music.

My great-grandmother built a life in silence. She crossed an ocean with a false name and made something real out of it - a family, a future, me. I'm trying to be loud enough for both of us.

If your family has a paper son or paper daughter story - if there's a silence in your history you've never quite been able to name - I hope this music gives you permission to start talking about it. That's what it's for.

Son of Paper is a Korean and Chinese American Hip-Hop artist based in San Francisco with over 100 years of family roots in Chinatown. Follow his journey: @sonofpaper on Instagram | @sonofpaper on Rednote 小红书