Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco (20 page)

Participants in Well Baby Contest sponsored by Chinese YWCA and Department of Public Health, i9z8. (Courtesy of Chinese YWCA, San Francisco)

Americanization efforts on the part of the YWCA were directed much
more strongly at second-generation daughters than at immigrant mothers. Yet one area where the American way was pushed was child care,
as exemplified by the Well Baby Contest that the YWCA co-sponsored
with the city's Public Health Department in 192-8. Part of a national
campaign promoted by the National Council of Mothers to lower infant mortality by educating mothers about infant hygiene, the contest
was distinctly American.13' Even so, Chinese women responded enthusiastically because of the pride they took in their children's well-being
as well as the community effort that went into the event. Over sixty mothers entered 176 babies ranging in age from six months to five years in
the contest. Three babies were chosen as the healthiest by physicians of Chinese Hospital and awarded prizes. Follow-up workshops were held
at the YWCA on baby care, and the book used by the winning baby's
mother, Baby Diet, was translated into Chinese for the benefit of other
immigrant mothers. Through such cooperative programs and the dayto-day services it offered immigrant women, the Chinese YWCA succeeded in helping them with their personal problems, changing their attitudes toward Western institutions, and drawing some out of their
homes into the public arena for self-improvement and social interaction.

Christian organizations such as the YWCA were not the only force
having an impact on Chinese women's lives during this time; the intense
nationalistic spirit that took hold in the early twentieth century also affected Chinese women in far-reaching ways. Not only did the call for
modernization include the need to improve conditions for Chinese
women, but reformers also solicited women's active participation in national salvation work. Fund-raising for disaster relief and the revolution
in China opened up opportunities for women to become involved in the
community, develop leadership abilities, and move into the male-dominated public sphere. In 1907, for example, CSYP printed an article about
flood and famine in the lower Yangtze River area, appealing specifically
to Chinese women in the United States to follow the example of American women in other cities who had already donated over $430,000. The
article encouraged the growing numbers of literate Chinese women to
take heed and help spread the word among women everywhere .131 When
the same area was hard hit by another natural disaster in the early part
of 19 11, women participated in a program of songs and drama sponsored by the Presbyterian Church and, later, by the Chinese Six Companies to raise money.133 These efforts on the part of Chinese women
established a pattern of community involvement that would repeat itself each time a nationalist or community cause demanded their help,
thus furthering women's participation in public affairs.

Chinese American women first entered the political arena in support
of the 1911 Revolution. The Tongmenghui, the revolutionary party
founded by Dr. Sun Yat-sen to overthrow the Qing dynasty and establish a republic in China, was the earliest organization to accept them into
its ranks. Several dozen women-primarily relatives of Tongmenghui
men-are known to have joined the San Francisco branch in 1910, making it the first sexually integrated organization in San Francisco Chinatown. 114 Among them were Wong Ho and her five daughters, who had
harbored Sun in their home during one of his secret visits to San Francisco. Wong Ho's son, Won Hongfei, was one of the founding mem bers of the San Francisco branch of the Tongmenghui, and he later
served as Dr. Sun's personal secretary in China. It was he who encouraged his mother to allow all the girls to attend church, become educated,
and contribute to the revolutionary effort. Despite the objections of relatives who believed that women should not be seen in public, Wong Ho
later allowed her daughters to sit on a decorated float during the 19 12celebration of the founding of the Chinese Republic. Soon after, Lilly
King Gee Won, one of the daughters, followed the revolution to China,
where she spent the next sixty-eight years of her life helping to build a
new China.13s

In support of the revolution, women in China participated in benefit performances, enlisted in the army, and engaged in dangerous undercover work. Although far from the war front, Chinese women in San
Francisco, gripped by the same patriotic fervor, moved into the public
arena to do their share. They made "speeches of fire and patriotism"
that called for the destruction of the Manchu dynasty and for woman's
suffrage in China; they donated money and jewelry for the cause; and
they helped with Red Cross work-doing fiend-raising, preparing bandages and medicines, and sewing garments for the war effort-sometimes under the auspices of Protestant churches, other times under the
banner of the Women's Young China Society.136 A core group of
women, including the Won sisters, attended political rallies, helped roll
bandages at the Congregational church, and made handcrafted items to
sell at fund-raising events.

The national crisis encouraged changes in gender roles for women in
China and America, inspiring them to become "new women" like Qiu
Jin. Born into the gentry class, Qiu Jin was an accomplished poet, horseback rider, and fencer. In response to the failure of the 1898 reforms
and the Allied sacking of Beijing during the Boxer Rebellion, she resolved to help save China and to fight for women's rights. When her
arranged marriage proved a failure, she left her conservative husband
and went to study in Japan. There she became involved in radical politics and the Tongmenghui.137 Like Sieh King King, she was both a nationalist and a feminist, as evidenced in her actions and her writings. For
example:

Women's Rights

We want our emancipation!
For our liberty we'll drink a cup,
Men and women are born equal, Why should we let men hold sway?
We will rise and save ourselves,
Ridding the nation of all her shame.
In the steps of Joan of Arc,
With our own hands will we regain our land.13s

While organizing for the revolution in Zhejiang, Qiu Jin was arrested
and put to death; she was only thirty-two. Newspapers in both China
and the United States expressed outrage over her execution; she was
equally mourned by revolutionaries on both sides of the Pacific Ocean. 139
Dr. Sun, in his many talks to overseas Chinese, often pointed to Qiu Jin
as a role model for Chinese women-a fair cry from the traditional model
of passivity and subservience. His words did not go unheeded. A few
women in San Francisco followed her example and cut their hair as a
revolutionary gesture; others redoubled their commitment to the revolutionary cause.140

Although the success of the revolution and the establishment of a republic in China failed to bring peace and prosperity to the country, it
did have a lasting impact on the lives of Chinese American women. Jane
Kwong Lee later commented, "After the establishment of the Republic
of China, Chinese women in this country picked up the forward-looking trend for equality with men. They could go to school, speak in public places, have their feet freed from binding, and go out to work in stores
and small factories if they needed to work. 11141

Indeed, the ultimate symbol of subjugation-the crippling practice
of footbinding-was brought to an end. The new republican government, linking the elimination of footbinding with women's emancipation, halted the practice by issuing prohibition orders against it and by
promoting women's education. Following the example of women in
China, Chinese women in America also began to unbind their feet (a
process that was often just as painful as having the feet bound) and to
stop binding their daughters' feet. By the I9zos, the only trace of footbinding that remained was the unnaturally small feet of older women
encased in specially made leather shoes. 141

Women also began to leave the confines of the home for wage work,
community activities, and political involvement. The following story of
how the 1911 Revolution changed one woman's life in Butte, Montana,
is applicable to Chinese women's experience in San Francisco:

When I came to America as a bride, I never knew I would be coming
to a prison. Until the Revolution, I was allowed out of the house but once a year. That was during New Year's when families exchanged New
Year calls and feasts. We would dress in our long, plaited, brocaded, handembroidered skirts. These were a part of our wedding dowry brought
from China. Over these we wore long-sleeved, short satin or damask
jackets. We wore all of our jewelry, and we put jeweled ornaments in our
hair.

The father of my children hired a closed carriage to take me and the
children calling. Of course, he did not go with us, as this was against the
custom practiced in China. The carriage would take us even if we went
around the corner, for no family women walked. The carriage waited until we were ready to leave, which would be hours later, for the women
saw each other so seldom that we talked and reviewed all that went on
since we saw each other.

The women were always glad to see each other; we exchanged news
of our families and friends in China. We admired each other's clothes and
jewels. As we ate separately from the men, we talked about things that
concerned women. When the New Year festivals were over, we would put
away our clothes and take them out when another feast was held. Sometimes, we went to a feast when a baby born into a family association was
a month old. Otherwise, we seldom visited each other; it was considered
immodest to be seen too many times during the year.

After the Revolution in China, I heard that women there were free to
go out. When the father of my children cut his queue he adopted new
habits; I discarded my Chinese clothes and began to wear American
clothes. By that time my children were going to American schools, could
speak English, and they helped me buy what I needed. Gradually the other
women followed my example. We began to go out more frequently and
since then I go out all the time.143

Meanwhile in San Francisco, Mrs. Owyang and Mrs. Chu Chin
Shung, wives of the outgoing and incoming Chinese consuls, respectively, caused quite a stir when they attended a Chinese banquet with
their husbands. "The fact that women were present was taken as an indication of the democracy of the new China," the reporter covering the
event wrote. 144 A year later, the same newspaper found it newsworthy
to report that Chinese women had not only marched in a parade
through Chinatown for the first time, but at a banquet hosted by the
Chinese Nationalist League of America "they made speeches just as the
men did."145 Because of the changes wrought by the Revolution, Chinese women in San Francisco were beginning to flex their political
muscles.

In keeping with this new image of women, the Chinese Women's Jeleab [Self-Reliance] Association was established in 1913. As indicated by its name, this organization was unique in that it was started by Chinese American women unaffiliated with a church or nationalist cause.
Its origin, purpose, and membership were a combination of San Francisco and Oakland, of Chinese nationalism and Western progressivism,
of immigrant mothers and American-born daughters. According to a
full-page story that appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle-complete
with a photograph of the group's members holding the American flag
and their club banner inscribed with its Chinese name-the Jeleab Association was inspired by the Chinese revolution and American progressivism. In the words of its "thoroughly Americanized" president,
Mrs. C. G. Lee (Clara Lee):

How did it start? It's hard to say exactly. It's one of those things that
grow out of a need. For two years the women of the Chinese quarters
of San Francisco and Oakland have watched the progress of the men and
encouraged them all they could. They were interested in what the men
were doing and were yearning to do something themselves, but so few
of them had any education at all. Whv some couldn't even read and write
their own language. Many were too poor to afford an education; and others couldn't be spared from family duties. It didn't look very bright at
first.146

The organization, she continued, was patterned after the Chinese Native Sons of the Golden State, which excluded female membership;147
and was also broadened to include foreign-born women:

The idea first started with the Chinese Native Sons' parlor. If a Native
Sons' parlor, why not a Native Daughters'? But we soon found that that
wouldn't do [since many of the members were not native-born], so we
concluded to have simply a woman's club for the purpose that had
brought us together. Then we had to have an American name, for we intended to incorporate and have a charter. It was impossible, however, to
find an English word that would combine all the reasons for which the
club was formed.... The name would have to stand for independence,
educational and progressive. We finally decided to take a Chinese word
[jeleab], and, by using it, Anglicize it.14s