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parents, in order to adhere to the Confucian teaching: “A woman’s duty is to care for the household, and she should have no desire to go abroad” (Yung, Unbound Feet, 20). Thus, the men arrived in America without their wives, creating a void in which women were not part of the fiber of the Chinatown culture in San Francisco.
Chinese women were up against anti-immigration laws from both sides of the Pacific. Chinese law forbade the emigration of women until 1911, and the 1852 Foreign Miners’ Tax affected Chinese miners, along with taxes “levied on Chinese fishermen, laundry men, and brothel owners” (Yung, Unbound Feet, 21), making it even more expensive to support a family.
the California legislature denied them basic civil rights, including immigration rights, employment in public works, intermarriage with whites, ability to give testimony in court, and the right to own land. Then came the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, in which Congress suspended Chinese laborers from immigrating for ten years.
By virtue of this forged paperwork system, in which the Chinese woman would memorize her new family’s heritage and claim to be married or otherwise related to a Chinese man already living and working in California, the paper daughter was allowed into the country.
“Although as a race the Chinese are characterized for their love of domestic life, few family circles have been formed among them in San Francisco. Woman, the important link in the sacred chain, is not here; or if she is here she has been forced to engage in that infamous pursuit that is the destroyer of homes. Of the whole number of Chinese women in San Francisco, there are, perhaps less than a hundred who are lawful wives, or keepers of the home.” —B. E. Lloyd, Lights and Shades in San Francisco, 1876
She’d led a privileged life compared to so many out there. Yes, she’d had her sorrows and losses and disappointments. But she’d never been sold, her body had never been abused, she’d never been mistreated.
“The helpless have no chance for justice in this city. I couldn’t sleep at night if I didn’t do what I could.”
“I’m afraid so.” He lit another cigarette, and Dolly noticed the tremble in his hand. “We might live in the land of the free, but none of us are truly free as long as slavery exists in our society.”
Lloyd, B. E. Lights and Shades in San Francisco. San Francisco: A. L. Bancroft & Company, 1876. Logan, Lorna E. Ventures in Mission: The Cameron House Story. Wilson Creek, WA: Crawford Hobby Print Shop, 1976. Martin, Mildred Crowl. Chinatown’s Angry Angel: The Story of Donaldina Cameron. Palo Alto, CA: Pacific Books, 1977.
Pryor, Alton. Fascinating Women in California History. Roseville, CA: Stagecoach Publishing, 2003.
Siler, Julia Flynn. The White Devil’s Daughters: The Women Who Fought Slavery in San Francisco’s Chinatown. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2019.
Yung, Judy. Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1995.
