Unbound Voices brings together the voices of Chinese American women in a fascinating, intimate collection of documents—letters, essays, poems, autobiographies, speeches, testimonials, and oral histories—detailing half a century of their lives in America. Together, these sources provide a captivating mosaic of Chinese women’s experiences in their own words, as they tell of making a home for themselves and their families in San Francisco from the Gold Rush years through World War II.
The personal nature of these documents makes for compelling reading. We hear the voices of prostitutes and domestic slavegirls, immigrant wives of merchants, Christians and pagans, homemakers, and social activists alike. We read the stories of daughters who confronted cultural conflicts and racial discrimination; the myriad ways women coped with the Great Depression; and personal contributions to the causes of women’s emancipation, Chinese nationalism, workers’ rights, and World War II. The symphony of voices presented here lends immediacy and authenticity to our understanding of the Chinese American women’s lives.
This rich collection of women’s stories also serves to demonstrate collective change over time as well as to highlight individual struggles for survival and advancement in both private and public spheres. An educational tool on researching and reclaiming women’s history,
Unbound Voices offers us a valuable lesson on how one group of women overcame the legacy of bound feet and bound lives in America. The selections are accompanied by photographs, with extensive introductions and annotation by Judy Yung, a noted authority on primary resources relating to the history of Chinese American women.
Unbound Voices brings together the voices of Chinese American women in a fascinating, intimate collection of documents—letters, essays, poems, autobiographies, speeches, testimonials, and oral histories—detailing half a century of their lives in Am
Cuprins
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
TERMINOLOGY AND TRANSLITERATIONS
INTRODUCTION
PART ONE. Lessons from My Mother’s Past:
Researching Chinese Women’s Immigration History
Chin Lung’s Affidavit, May 14, 1892
Leong Shee’s Testimony, April 18, 1893
Leong Shee’s Testimony, July 24, 1929
Jew Law Ying’s Coaching Book
Jew Law Ying’s and Yung Hin Sen’s Testimonies, April 2-3, 1941
Oral History Interview with Jew Law Ying
PART Two. Bound Feet: Chinese Women in the Nineteenth Century
Images of Women in Chinese Proverbs: ‘A Woman without Talent Is Virtuous’
Kwong King You, Sau Saang Gwa: ‘If I Could Just See Him One More Time’
A Stain on the Flag, by M.G. C. Edholm
Confession of a Chinese Slave-Dealer: How She Bought Her Girls,
Smuggled Them into San Francisco, and Why She Has Just Freed
Them, by Helen Grey
The Chinese Woman in America, by Sui Seen [Sin] Far Worse Than Slaves:
Servitude of All Chinese Wives, by Louise A. Littleton
Mary Tape, an Outspoken Woman: ‘Is It a Disgrace to Be Born a Chinese?’
PART THREE. Unbound Feet: Chinese Immigrant Women, 1902-1929
Sieh King King, China’s Joan of Arc: ‘Men and Women Are
Equal and Should Enjoy the Privileges of Equals’
Madame Mai’s Speech: ‘How Can It Be That They Look upon Us as Animals?’
No More Footbinding (Anonymous)
Wong Ah So, Filial Daughter and Prostitute: ‘The Greatest
Virtue in Life Is Reverence to Parents’
Law Shee Low, Model Wife and Mother: ‘We Were All Good
Women-Stayed Home and Sewed’
Jane Kwong Lee, Community Worker: ‘Devoting My Best to
What Needed to Be Done’
The Purpose of the Chinese Women’s Jeleab Association,
by Liu Yilan
PART FOUR. First Steps: The Second Generation, 1920s
The Oriental Girl in the Occident, by One of the ‘Second Generation’
Manifestations of Modern Influences on Second Generation Chinese, by Miss Rose Chew
Alice Sue Fun, World Traveler: ‘A Rebel at Heart’
Rose Yuen Ow, Cabaret Dancer: ‘I’ve Lived a Full Life’
Tiny, by Tye Leung Schulze
Some Rambling Thoughts on Why I Am a Christian, by Florence Chinn Kwan
Story of a Chinese College Girl (The Conflict between the Old and the Young),
by Esther Wong
Flora Belle Jan, Flapper and Writer: ‘I Long for Unconventionality
and Freedom’
Gladys Ng Gin, Cocktail Waitress: ‘That’s What Happens When You’re Illiterate’
PART FIVE. Long Strides: The Great Depression, 1930s
Ethel Lum, Social Worker: ‘Careful Social Planning Needed’
Jane Kwong Lee, Community Worker: ‘A Richer Life for All’
Wong See Chan, Hardworking Wife and Mother: ‘The 1930s Were the Hardest’
Eva Lowe, Fighter for the Underdog: ‘You Have to Stand Up
for Your Rights: Nobody Will Give You Anything for Nothing’
Alice Fong Yu, Schoolteacher and Community Organizer:
‘I Wanted to Help People, Not Run Their Lives’
Sue Ko Lee and the 1938 National Dollar Stores Strike: ‘It Changed Our Lives’
PART SIX. In Step: The War Years, I9JI-I945
Women’s Role in the War of Resistance: ‘Everyone, Man and Woman,
Has a Responsibility in the Rise and Fall of a Nation’
Lady P’ing Yu on War: ‘Women, Show Your Stuff’
Jane Kwong Lee, Community Worker: ‘To Save Our Motherland and Promote
Our Status as Women’
Dr. Margaret Chung and the Fair-Haired Bastards Club:
‘Necessity Is the Mother of Invention’
Chinese in the United States Today: The War Has Changed Their Lives, by Rose Hum Lee
Marinship Chinese Workers Are Building Ships to Free Their Home Land,
by Constance Wong Uade Snow Wong]
May Lew Gee, Shipyard Worker: ‘I Was a Tacker on the Graveyard Shift’
Ruth Chan Jang, U.S. Air Corps Corporal: ‘I Would Love to Be Buried at Arlington’
Lai Yee Guey and Lorena How, Mother and Daughter: ‘Making Marks for Heaven’
APPENDIX. Giving Voice to Chinese American Women:
Oral History Methodology
CHINESE GLOSSARY
INDEX
Despre autor
Judy Yung is Associate Professor of American Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is the author of the award-winning Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco (California, 1995), Chinese Women of America: A Pictorial History (1986), and Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940 (1980).
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