My mistake. I have a Hawaiian uncle who is of Japanese descent with a Chinese surname.
My family tree can get VERY confusing, to say the least.
I'm not an expert either. It wouldn't take us long to find a lot of Asian people with decidedly non Asian names. I'm playing the odds on Yee. He could be of an ethnic group other than Chinese, but as he is from San Francisco, I am betting that the odds are high that he is Chinese.
In the Movie, "Big Trouble in Little China," Kurt Russel is in a Chinese brothel, and the madam is a Chinese lady named Mrs. O'Toole.