Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco (6 page)

Patriarchal cultural values, financial considerations, and anti-Chinese
legislation prevented most Chinese women from becoming part of the
early stream of immigrants to America. Confucian ideology, which had
governed social conduct in China for nearly Z,ooo years, dictated that
women remain subordinate to men and confined to the domestic sphere.
The "Three Obediences" prescribed that a Chinese woman obey her father at home, her husband after marriage, and her eldest son when widowed. The "Four Virtues" required of her were propriety in behavior,
speech, demeanor, and household duties. Separate spheres for men and women were clearly defined. As a popular saying put it, "Men are the
masters of external affairs, women the mistresses of domestic affairs";
in other words, men ruled the country, while women stayed home to
manage the household and raise the children. Education was thus important for sons but not for daughters. Rather, Chinese proverbs claimed,
"The absence of talent in a woman is a virtue," since "A woman too
well educated is apt to create trouble."10 And because it was the sonnot the daughter-who stayed within the family, worked for its honor
and prosperity, continued the family lineage, and fulfilled the duties of
ancestral worship, so it was that daughters-rarely sons-were sold, abandoned, or drowned during desperate times."

Neither men nor women had a choice in the selection of their spouses,
but women were further disadvantaged in that they had no right to divorce or remarry should the arranged marriage prove unhappy or the
husband die. Men, but not women, were also permitted to commit adultery, divorce, remarry, practice polygyny, and discipline their spouses as
they saw fit. According to a Chinese proverb, "A woman married is like
a horse bought; you can ride them or flog them as you like." Widows
without sons could not inherit property, and women could not participate in politics or public activities. Their proper place was in the home,
where their sexuality could be regulated and controlled. Further, the
practice of footbinding ensured that women did not "wander" too far
outside the household gate, let alone go abroad. In fact, until 1911 the
emigration of women was illegal according to Chinese law.

In practice, only the scholar-gentry, merchant, and landowner classes
could afford to bind their daughters' feet and keep their women cloistered and idle. But even gentry women were known to venture out of
their chambers to steal away to the mountains, attend women's gatherings, and accompany their husbands on business trips. It was also common for peasant women in the rice-growing and silk-rearing districts of
Guangdong Province to work both inside and outside the home. Within
the household women were expected to care for family members, provide moral training for the children, observe customs and holidays, do
the household chores of cleaning, washing, and cooking, and bring in
extra income by handicraft work such as spinning, weaving, and sewing.
They also worked outside the home gathering fuel and herbs, fetching
water, doing the wash, picking mulberry leaves, tea leaves, or cotton,
guarding the crops, gathering the harvest, hulling rice or threshing wheat,
raising geese and other livestock, gardening, and marketing. Some also
hired out as domestic servants or manual laborers.12 Although they en joyed more freedom of movement than well-to-do women, even this
relatively active work kept them close to home and controlled by men.
Women's wages were generally lower than men's, and any monies
earned by women went immediately into the family coffers.

New studies of women's diverse roles in China have led to a reassessment of their presumed status as passive victims. One exceptional
group of women were the zishunii of the Shunde, Nanhai, and Panyu
districts, who practiced the shuqi custom of "combing up the hair" as a
sign of confirmed spinsterhood. Their labor was essential in the sericulture industry-rearing silkworms, tending mulberry trees, spinning silk
threads, and weaving-and allowed these women to enjoy economic independence and freedom of movement. They did not practice footbinding and openly resisted marriage by returning to their natal home
to live after the wedding, purchasing a secondary wife to take their place,
and joining sisterhoods in which they vowed celibacy. It is likely that some
were also lesbians." Hakka women in Guangdong Province also did not
practice footbinding and were known for being independent-minded,
even domineering, having proven themselves capable of hard labor and
self-support in the absence of their husbands. They were also known for
their courage and military prowess. Many fought side by side with men
against the Qing government in the Taiping Rebellion.14 For most other
women, however, work seldom resulted in greater independence or leverage. They were still subordinate to men, depending on them to protect
and provide for them.

Thus, when their men went overseas to America, most Chinese
women (following the Confucian teaching, "A woman's duty is to care
for the household, and she should have no desire to go abroad") remained at home, attended to their children and in-laws, and awaited the
return of their husbands. This was not an easy task, considering that the
separation could extend anywhere from ten years to a lifetime, depending on when finances would allow the husband a visit home or a final
return. In the meantime, family members and fellow villagers tried to
ensure that the women remained chaste. The harsh punishment meted
out by villagers on No Name Woman in Maxine Hong Kingston's The
Woman Warrior for bearing an illegitimate child while her husband was
overseas was not unusual." Cantonese folk rhymes tell of the conflicting feelings involved in being a gamsaanpo (wife of a Gold Mountain
man) or, more appropriately, a sausaanggwai (grass widow):

0, just marry all the daughters to men from Gold Mountain:
All those trunks from Gold Mountain You can demand as many as you want!
0, don't ever marry your daughter to a man from Gold Mountain:
Lonely and sadA cooking pot is her only companion! 16

If you have a daughter, don't marry her to a Gold Mountain man.
Out of ten years, he will not be in bed for one.
The spider will spin webs on top of the bedposts,
While dust frilly covers one side of the bed.17

Although other groups of women, such as Italian women, were similarly discouraged from traveling abroad by cultural constraints during
this period, Chinese women were further hindered by economic and political barriers.18 Few Chinese women had the resources to travel to
America on their own, and many were discouraged from doing so by
the inhospitable conditions in that far-off land. Although enterprising
capitalists needed Chinese labor to help them exploit the western frontier, they had no use for women. Indeed, the presence of women and
families, it was felt, would only stabilize the Chinese work force, causing them to demand higher wages and better working conditions. Nor
did the American ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness apply equally to people of color. Treated as a reserve army of low-wage
workers, the Chinese were tolerated only as long as their labor was
needed. Anti-Chinese prejudice, discriminatory laws, and outright violence ensured that the Chinese remained subordinate to the dominant
white society and that they did not bring their women and families to
settle in America.19

Although initially welcomed to California as valuable labor and investors in an expanding economy, Chinese immigrants quickly became
the targets of white miners, workers, and politicians when the gold ran
out and economic times turned sour. In 1 851 a Foreign Miners' Tax,
which accounted for more than half of the tax revenues collected in California until its repeal in 18 7 0, was imposed, affecting primarily Chinese
miners. Special taxes were also levied on Chinese fishermen, laundrymen, and brothel owners. Other local ordinances, which did not specifically name the Chinese but which obviously were passed to harass and
deprive them of a livelihood, included the cubic-air law, which prohibited residence in rooms with less than 500 cubic feet of air per person;
the sidewalk ordinance, which made it a misdemeanor for any person to
carry baskets across the shoulders; and the queue ordinance, which required that the hair of every male prisoner in the city jails be cut to within
an inch of the scalp. Laws were also passed by the California legislature that denied Chinese basic civil rights, such as the right to immigrate,
give testimony in court, be employed in public works, intermarry with
whites, and own land. Negatively stereotyped as coolie labor, immoral
and diseased heathens, and unassimilable aliens, the Chinese were driven out of the better-paying jobs in the mines, factories, fishing areas,
and farmlands. They were generally not allowed to live outside Chinatown, and their children were barred from attending white schools.20

But racial prejudice, segregation, and discriminatory laws against the
Chinese were evidently not enough to assuage popular discontent over
the economic upheavals caused by the growing pains of industrial capitalism. It was not unusual for Chinese to be robbed and murdered with
impunity, but during depression years when the unemployment rate was
high, entire Chinese communities suffered unprecedented racial hatred
and physical violence. On a number of these occasions in the i 87os and
18 8os, Chinese settlements throughout the American West were attacked
by bloodthirsty mobs out to loot, lynch, burn, and drive the Chinese
out. In the Los Angeles riot of 18 7 1, unarmed Chinese were shot down
in cold blood. Others were hauled out of buildings, beaten, and murdered while their homes were looted. In 1885 the massacre of Chinese
miners at Rock Springs, Wyoming, claimed twenty-eight Chinese lives
and caused $147,000 in property damage. All of the shacks belonging
to the Chinese were set on fire, and stragglers were shot as they emerged.
Federal troops had to be called in to protect the survivors.21

The most damaging blow to Chinese immigration and settlement
proved to be the Chinese Exclusion Act of 18 8 z, passed by a Congress
under siege from white labor and politicians at the height of the antiChinese movement. The act suspended the immigration of Chinese laborers to the United States for ten years. It was renewed in 189 z for another ten years, and in 1904 extended indefinitely. The Exclusion Acts
were strictly enforced until they were repealed in 1943. 21 It was the first
time in American history that a specific group of people was excluded
on the basis of race and class. In the interest of diplomatic and trade relations between China and the United States, Chinese officials, students,
teachers, merchants, and travelers were exempted by treaty provisionsand therein lay the loophole through which Chinese, including women,
were able to continue coming after i 8 8 z. Although the number of Chinese immigrants dropped sharply-only 9z,41 r entered during the Exclusion period (1882-1943 ), as compared to 2- 58,zro prior to the i88z
act-Chinese immigration was not totally stopped.23 As my maternal
great-grandfather and father did, Chinese immigrants who could pool enough money to become partners in import-export businesses were
able to attain merchant status and so send for their wives and children.
Many others who had merchant or U.S. citizenship status would falsely
report a number of sons (rarely daughters) in China, thereby creating
"paper son" slots that were then sold to fellow villagers who desired to
immigrate.

The class bias of the Exclusion Act applied to women as well as men.
Wives of laborers, although not specifically mentioned in the act, were
barred by implication. The ambiguity was settled two years later in the
separate cases of In re Ah Quan and Case of the Chinese Wife [Ah Moy].
Both women were married to Chinese laborers who were bringing them
back with them after a visit to China. While their husbands, who possessed the proper certificate indicating prior residence in the United
States, were allowed to reenter, the two women were barred because they
were of the laboring class (by virtue of their husbands' status) and were
entering the United States for the first time.24

Chinese women could enter only if they qualified as one of the exempt classes; even this right, however, had to be won through the judiciary. Chung Toy Ho and Gue Lim, both merchant wives, were initially
denied admission on the grounds that they did not hold merchant's certificates. Their successful appeals established the right for merchant wives
to join their husbands in the United States. As Judge Matthew Deady
of the Circuit Court for the District of Oregon ruled in the case of Chung
Toy Ho,

My conclusion is that under the treaty and statute, taken together, a Chinese merchant who is entitled to come into and dwell in the United States
is thereby entitled to bring with him, and have with him, his wife and
children. The company of the one, and the care and the custody of the
other, are his by natural right; he ought not to be deprived of either, unless the intention of Congress to do so is clear and unmistakable.25

The Exclusion Act severely limited the number of Chinese women
who could come to America, keeping a crack open mainly for the privileged few-the wives and daughters of merchants. But in fact, rigorous
enforcement of the act, along with the implementation of anti-Chinese
measures regulating prostitution such as the Page Law of 1875, kept
even those Chinese immigrant women with legitimate claims out of the
country and made immigration to America an ordeal for any woman
who tried to enter. Immigration officials apparently operated on the
premise that every Chinese woman was seeking admission on false pre tenses and that each was a potential prostitute until proven otherwise.
Only women such as my great-grandmother who had bound feet and a
modest demeanor were considered upper-class women with "moral integrity." As one immigration official wrote in his report, "There has never
come to this port, I believe, a bound footed woman who was found to
be an immoral character, this condition of affairs being due, it is stated,
to the fact that such women, and especially those in the interior, are necessarily confined to their homes and seldom frequent the city districts."
Furthermore, he wrote, "The present applicant No. 14 4 18 is a very modest appearing woman whose evident sincerity, frankness of expression
and generally favorable demeanor is very convincing."26 Most other
women, however, were detained for inordinate lengths of time and crossexamined like criminals. Under such trying circumstances, women suffered humiliation and, often, the added expense of legal fees in order to
obtain release and appeal adverse decisions. They also ran the risk of being barred for a number of other reasons: lack of proper documentation, having a contagious disease, or discrepancies in their testimonies.
As a result, the numbers of Chinese women in the United States remained
low throughout the nineteenth century, never exceeding the 5,000 mark,
or 7 percent of the total Chinese population (see appendix table i); the
scarcity of women supported Chinese prostitution, which was rampant
until the 18 8os; and merchant wives predominated as the favored class
of Chinese immigrant women throughout the Exclusion period.