Ah Bing, whose name lives on in the ubiquitous Bing cherry, was a Chinese foreman in the Lewelling family fruit orchards in Milwaukie, Oregon, in the 1870s.

It isn't exactly clear why this popular variety of sweet cherry was named after him. Some claimed that he had cultivated the fruit; others surmised he merely cared for the crops. One thing is certain, however: like almost all Chinese migrants at the time, Ah Bing was forbidden from owning land.

Despite his 'fame', after he left the United States to visit his family in China, Bing was barred from re-entering the country under the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.