Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco (12 page)

Qiu Jin
revolutionary heroine, 19o6

From the beginning, social change for Chinese women in
San Francisco was tied to the nationalist and women's movements in
China. This became evident on the afternoon of November z, 1902,
when Sieh King King, an eighteen-year-old student from China and an
ardent reformer, stood before a Chinatown theater full of men and
women and "boldly condemned the slave girl system, raged at the horrors of foot-binding and, with all the vehemence of aroused youth, declared that men and women were equal and should enjoy the privileges
of equals."' Her talk and her views on women's rights were inextricably linked with Chinese nationalism and the 1898 Reform Movement,
which advocated that China emulate the West and modernize in order
to throw off the yoke of foreign domination. Beginning with the Opium
War (1839-1842), China had suffered repeated defeats at the hands of
Western imperialist powers and been forced to yield to their demands
for indemnities and extraterritorial rights. Fearing the further partitioning of China and possibly national extinction, reformers and revolutionaries alike were advocating social, economic, and political changes
for their country along the lines of the Western model. Elevating the status of women to the extent that they could become "new women"educated mothers and productive citizens-was part of this nationalist
effort to strengthen and defend China against further foreign en-
croachment.2

Sieh King King, whose talk was sponsored by the Baohuanghui (Protect the Emperor Society), a reform party that advocated restoring the
deposed emperor and establishing a constitutional monarchy in China,
expounded on exactly this point. China was oppressed from within by
feudal practices and from without by Western imperialism, she said. The
country was weak because for centuries it had bound the feet of women
and kept them ignorant, effectively barring them from work and public
affairs. The solution, she concluded, lay in establishing schools for the
zoo million women in China so that they could develop their intellect,
engage in professions, and contribute to the well-being of their families
and the prosperity of their country on the same footing as men.3

Sieh King King's sentiments on women's emancipation actually had
roots in China, even before the arrival of Westerners. As early as the seventeenth century, women of the gentry class were becoming educated
and asserting themselves as literary talents. Their rising visibility as writers and publishers of their own works sparked controversy, leading male
scholars like Mao Qiling, Yuan Mei, Yu Zhengxie, and Li Ruzhen to denounce sexist practices such as footbinding and the double standards of
chastity. In the 18 5 os, the Taiping rebels, who sought to liberate China
from Manchu rule, abolished footbinding, prostitution, arranged marriages, and polygyny and allowed women to fight in the army, own land,
and be educated. But it wasn't until foreign missionaries gained a
foothold in China after the Opium War that women's emancipation was
advanced through the establishment of anti-footbinding societies and
schools for girls, institutions that became an integral part of the modernization platform of the Reform Movement led by Kang Youwei.4

Although Chinese reformers and Protestant missionaries differed in
their ultimate goals-reformers sought national salvation, while Christians sought religious conversion-they shared a common strategy,
namely social reform, of which women's emancipation played a central
role. While reformers understood that China could not be saved as long
as half its population remained underutilized, missionaries saw the remaking of Chinese women in their image as the key to converting and
civilizing all of China. For these reasons, both groups worked for
women's emancipation, not only in China, but also in Chinese communities such as San Francisco Chinatown. Their overlapping programs included education and equal rights for women and an end to footbinding, female slavery, and polygyny. Regardless of the reformers' respective motives, Chinese women in both China and the United States
directly benefited from their combined efforts, which encouraged them
to unbind their feet and their lives, to free themselves of patriarchal oppression.

Sieh King King herself was an embodiment of feminist ideology stemming from both Western Christianity and Chinese nationalism. A daughter of a liberal-minded merchant, Sieh King King grew up and attended
a missionary school in the treaty port of Shanghai, where she and other
reformers were heavily influenced by Western contact and ideas. Even
before emigrating as a student to the United States, where she hoped
to further her education, she had developed a national reputation as a
patriot and an orator. According to one newspaper account, in r go i she
delivered a stirring speech before thousands of people in Shanghai in
which she protested the treaty forced upon the Chinese government that
granted Russia special rights in Manchuria.5 Although missionary efforts
resulted in few religious conversions, ideas of women's emancipation did
capture the imagination of women such as Sieh King King, who argued
that an improvement in women's conditions would make for stronger
families and ultimately a stronger China. Unlike in the West, in China
the argument for improving women's lot was always put in terms of how
it would benefit the Chinese race and nation, rather than how it would
benefit women as individuals.' Because this line of thinking was in keeping with traditional Chinese thought and practice-that the collective
good took precedence over individual needs-it was more effective than
Western feminist ideology in gaining wide support for women's emancipation in China as well as in San Francisco Chinatown.

Although it is difficult to measure the real impact of Sieh King King's
speech about women's emancipation on her audience without hearing
from the audience itself, newspaper reporters did note that women listened "like zealots" and men "with every sign of approval."7 And later
that evening, at a banquet held in Sieh King King's honor, women would
be allowed for the first time to sit in the main banquet hall and enjoy
the same food as the men.' A year later, Sieh King King gave another
"eloquent and inspiring speech" in which she again "expounded her
views on the role of Chinese women and the need to abolish outdated
Chinese customs and emulate the West," this time to an exclusively female audience of two hundred.9 After that, she was not mentioned again
in the local English- or Chinese-language newspapers.1° But what she advocated on behalf of Chinese women-unbound feet, education, equal
rights, and public participation-remained at the heart of social change
for Chinese women for the next three decades. The cause of women's
rights would be raised during each epoch of China's continuing fight
against feudalism and imperialism-through the 1911 Revolution, the
19 19 May Fourth cultural revolution, and the War of Resistance Against
Japan (1937-1945)-when the country was in need of the services of
all its citizens. With each national crisis, the hold of patriarchy over the
lives of Chinese women would loosen."

What happened to women in China had a direct impact on Chinese
women in the United States. Beginning in the early twentieth century,
not only were new immigrants bringing a different set of cultural baggage with them in regard to women's roles, but political developments
in China remained in general more meaningful to Chinese immigrants
who had been barred from participation in mainstream American society. Aware that the racial oppression and humiliation they suffered in
America was due in part to China's weak international status and inability
to protect its citizens abroad, Chinese immigrants kept nationalist sentiment alive, focusing their attention and energies on helping China become a stronger and more modern country, even as they worked to
change their unfavorable image and treatment in America. As reported
in the local press, Chinese women were becoming "new women" in the
homeland, and Chinese women in America were encouraged to do like-
wise.12 But aside from Chinese nationalism, the reform work of Protestant missionary women and the Chinese women's entry into the urban
economy also helped to advance women's cause in San Francisco Chinatown.

Journey to Gold Mountain

At the time of Sieh King King's speech, China was still
suffering under the stranglehold of Western imperialism and the inept
rule of the Manchus. China's defeat in the Sino-Japanese War (1894-9 5)
and the Boxer Rebellion (1900) resulted in further concessions of extraterritorial rights and war indemnities to the imperialist powers, including Japan, Germany, Russia, France, England, and the United
States. China's subjugation, by adding to the humiliation and economic
burden of an overtaxed Chinese population, only strengthened the re solve of nationalists to modernize their country and rid China of both
foreign domination and Manchu rule. But even after Sun Yat-sen's Tongmenghui (United Covenant League) succeeded in overthrowing the
Qing dynasty in 1911, the problems of foreign control, internal dissension, and economic deterioration persisted. Political and social upheavals continued unabated as warlords, and then Nationalists, Communists, and Japanese, fought for control of China.13 Life for the
ordinary Chinese remained disrupted; survival was precarious. Oppressed by the competition of imported foreign commodities, inflation,
heavy taxes, increased rents, and rampant banditry, peasants could not
hope to make enough money to meet their expenses. A common saying at the time was "The poor man who faces two swords-heavy farm
rent and high interest-has three roads before him: to run away at night,
hang himself, or go to jail." 14 Consequently, many able-bodied peasants
in Southeast China continued to emigrate overseas where kinfolk had
already settled. Despite the Chinese Exclusion Acts and anti-Chinese hostilities, a good number went to America, the Gold Mountain, by posing as members of the exempt classes or by smuggling themselves across
the borders.

Chinese immigration declined drastically during the Exclusion period
(1883-1943; see appendix table z). Since many Chinese in the United
States were also returning to China (90,299 between 1908 and 1943),
the Chinese population in the United States dropped significantly, from
105,465 in 188o to 61,639 in 192o.15 By 1900 the industrial revolution was over, the American West had been conquered, and Chinese labor was no longer being recruited. Many Chinese continued to disperse
eastward to cities, where they could find work and where their presence
was better tolerated. By 1910, 40.5 percent of the Chinese in the United
States were concentrated in cities with populations above z5,ooo; by
1920, the percentage had increased to 66 percent. Most worked in ethnic enterprises in Chinatowns, as domestic servants for European American families, or opened small laundries, grocery stores, and restaurants
in out-of-the-way places. Others found seasonal employment in agriculture or in canneries.16 Those who had the economic means got married and started families or sent for their wives and children from China. l7

Although there was a precipitous drop in the immigration of Chinese
women to the United States following the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act, their numbers began increasing steadily after 1 goo. A number of reasons explain this increase despite the effort to keep Chinese
and their families out of the country. Conditions at home were wors ening and becoming unsafe for family members left behind by overseas
Chinese. These deteriorating conditions, combined with the lowering
of cultural restrictions against women traveling abroad, encouraged increasing numbers of Chinese women to emigrate overseas to join their
husbands or to pursue educational and employment opportunities on
their own. Unlike in the nineteenth century, when there were no gainful jobs for them in America, they now had an economic role to play in
the urban economy or in their husbands' small businesses. Only immigration legislation continued to limit the numbers of women (as well as
dictate who could come at all).is

Most Chinese women entered the country as merchant wives, the class
most favored by immigration legislation throughout the Exclusion period. Until 1924, wives of U.S. citizens were also admissible. But the
passage of the Immigration Act of 1924, which was aimed primarily at
curbing immigration from eastern, southern, and central Europe, dealt
Asian immigration a deadly blow when it included a clause that barred
any "alien ineligible to citizenship" admittance. By law, this group included the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, and Asian Indians. On May z5,
1925, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Chinese merchant wives were
still admissible because of treaty obligations; the Chinese wives of U.S.
citizens, however, being themselves ineligible for citizenship, were not.
Alarmed by what this interpretation would mean for their future in America, American-born Chinese fought back through the organized efforts
of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance. Arguing persuasively that
every male American citizen had the right to have his wife with him,
that it was inhumane to keep husbands and wives separated, and that
aliens (merchants) should not be entitled to more rights under the immigration laws than U.S. citizens, they moved Congress to amend the
192.4 act in 1930 to permit the entry of Chinese alien wives of U.S. citizens-but only those who were married prior to May z6, 192-4.19 Another way for Chinese women to come to the United States was as daughters of U.S. citizens. In this case, however, they were allowed entry only
if they claimed derivative citizenship through the father (not the mother),
and they had to be unmarried.20 A few women also came as students,
one of the classes exempted from exclusion. But Chinese female students
amounted to only about thirty annually in the 191 os and several dozens
annually in the 19 zos.21