Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco (25 page)

Although her parents did not instill Chinese nationalism in her, she
was exposed to it during her visits to the San Francisco Bay Area. In another letter to Ludmelia, she wrote about wanting to work in China:
"When I went to `B' [Berkeley] I got loaded with patriotism, and now
my ambition is to graduate from U. of C. [University of California] and
go back and teach. Lucy told me that (she's been back there) teachers
were in terrible demand in China now."3s After graduating from Fresno
Junior College in r9z5, Flora Belle did attend the University of California, Berkeley, but only for six months. To support her college education, she worked first in an ice cream parlor and later as a check girl at
the Mandarin Cafe while writing feature stories for the San Francisco
Examiner-jobs that were not considered respectable by Chinatown
standards. According to her last letter from San Francisco, too much
partying, riding in automobiles, and "scandalous" columns in the San
Francisco Examiner had earned her a bad reputation in the close-knit,
conservative Chinese community of San Francisco. With the help of
Robert E. Park, who had met her in the process of conducting his Sur vey of Race Relations on the Pacific Coast, Flora Belle left San Francisco
to study journalism at the University of Chicago. There she met and fell
in love with a graduate student from China. Upon graduation in 1926
she married him and, a year later, they had their first child. In 1932. she
accompanied him to China, where they made their home for the next
sixteen years.

The life stories of Jade Snow Wong, Esther Wong, and Flora Belle
Jan demonstrate the extent of sexism and cultural conflicts faced at home
by second-generation women of middle-class background. Their stories
also show the different responses that women brought to bear on intergenerational conflicts over gender roles. While some, like Esther, acquiesced and accepted the traditional role for Chinese women, a few,
like Flora Belle, openly rebelled and tried to become liberated women.
Most, however, took the accommodation route, as Jade Snow Wong did.
Caught in the webs of two cultures and the double binds of sexism and
racism, they sought to define their own ethnic and gender identity, to
find their own cultural niche by selectively adopting a bicultural lifestyle
that allowed them to enjoy what they felt was the best of two worlds.

Racial Discrimination at School

The second generation could become Americanized regardless of their parents' wishes, but they could not break down racial
barriers and become accepted as equals in mainstream society. No matter how acculturated, their physical features set them apart, subjecting
them to racial discrimination. Before World War II, Chinese Americans
were denied equal education, employment, housing, and excluded from
mainstream society. Sexism both within and outside of Chinatown compounded difficulties for Chinese American women. As a result, Chinese
Americans were forced to lead a de facto segregated existence in all aspects of their lives. Nevertheless, Chinese American women took advantage of whatever opportunities were opened to them in an effort to
shape new gender roles for themselves. Education was one such accessible avenue of opportunity

The high esteem that Chinese accorded education proved a boon in
America. Because Chinese parents firmly believed that education led to
upward mobility, many willingly sacrificed for their children's education,
putting them through public school, Chinese school, and college if at all possible. An American education would, they believed, prepare their
sons and daughters for gainful employment in America or in China, while
a Chinese education would develop their character, instill in them a sense
of nationalist and cultural pride, and also prepare them for employment
in China should appropriate opportunities in America prove impossible.

With the new emphasis in China on educating women and the free,
public education available to girls in America, many Chinese parents were
encouraged to educate their daughters as well as their sons. However,
few working-class parents could afford to support their daughters beyond elementary school, especially when economic circumstances required them to work or help out at home, as in the case of Alice Sue
Fun. Not until after World War I, when compulsory education became
instituted, did Chinese girls graduate from high school in equal numbers to boys.

Up to that time, Chinese American children were categorically denied an equal education. Until 1884, provisions for the schooling of Chinese were not even included in the California school codes. Of the approximately 1,700 Chinese school-age children in San Francisco in the
1870s, only zo percent received an education, and that was only thanks
to missionary and private efforts. Petitions by clergymen and Chinese
merchants to the San Francisco Board of Education went unanswered
until the school district was sued by Mary and Joseph Tape in the case
of Tape v. Hurley (1884). As a result of that suit, the segregated Chinese Primary School [a.k.a. Oriental Public School] was established as
an alternative to admitting Chinese students to white schools.39 In its
first year of operation, there were only three girls among the thirty-eight
enrolled students. By 1904 this number had increased to twenty, and after the 1911 Revolution, to fifty- eight .40

Some parents chose to send their daughters to classes or schools established for their benefit by Protestant missionaries concerned about
the high illiteracy rate among Chinese women and aware of the strict
Chinese practice of sex segregation. Indeed, Christian institutions were
the first to address the issue of education for Chinese girls and women.
As early as 1903, the Baptist mission started a girls' school in Chinatown
to teach them Chinese, English, and the fine arts. Chung Sai Tat Po announced that tuition would be free and transportation to and from home
provided.4' Also according to CSYP, another girls' school was established in 1913 by Chinese Christians on Clay Street for the purpose of
educating them so that they could "achieve gender equality and become
better mothers of China's future citizens."42 By 192.0, 2.50, or 65 per cent of the population of Chinese girls in San Francisco, were enrolled
in the Oriental Public School (grades K-8), and illiteracy among nativeborn Chinese women had dropped from a high 77 percent in 1900 to
a low 13 percent in 19zo (see appendix table 5 ).43

According to a 19z.1 study by Mary Bo-Tze Lee, the quality of education at the Oriental Public School was not equal to that of other city
schools. Graduates of the Oriental Public School experienced difficulties in both academic standards and social interactions when they moved
on to an integrated high school. Lee recommended that the Oriental
Public School be given an increased budget, more conscientious teachers, and special courses to help the foreign-born learn English.44 Some
parents, aware of the inferior educational standards, tried to send their
sons and daughters to other schools in the city. They succeeded only so
long as there were openings and white parents did not object. When objections were raised, Chinese parents took the case to court but inevitably
lost. In contrast, when Japanese students were ordered to attend the Oriental Public School in 1905, the Japanese government interceded on
their behalf and President Theodore Roosevelt himself pleaded with the
school district to allow Japanese students to attend the white public
schools. Having just defeated Russia in the Russo-Japanese War, Japan,
unlike China at the time, was an international power to be respected and
feared. In exchange for allowing Japanese students to continue attending white schools, the Japanese government signed the Gentlemen's
Agreement in 1907, restricting the further immigration of Japanese laborers. Finally, in 1926, as increased numbers of Chinese students graduated from the Oriental Public School and the school became overcrowded, Chinese students were allowed to attend Francisco Junior High
School, but only after another major battle was waged by Chinese community leaders against Italian parents who wanted to keep the Chinese
out.45 The victory paved the way for Chinese Americans to attend public schools outside of Chinatown. In 1928, 11 Chinese girls graduated
from Francisco Junior High School along with 15 boys. Ten years later,
Chinese Americans made up more than half of the graduating class: there
were 37 Chinese girls and 61 Chinese boys, among a total of 172 grad-
uates.46

Although Chinese American students were finally allowed to sit in
the same classroom with white students, they were not always readily accepted by their white classmates or white teachers. A 19 3 7 study of Chinese high school students in San Francisco by Shih Hsien-ju indicated
that Chinese students were participating in social activities as much as their white counterparts, but their activities were more limited in variety and tended to be segregated. While Chinese boys gravitated toward
Chinese school clubs and the Chinese YMCA, Chinese girls joined club
activities at the Chinese YWCA.47 The situation did not improve in college. Often treated as foreign students, Chinese Americans were not permitted to join fraternities and sororities. Chinese students at Stanford
University, expelled from the dormitory by white students, had to establish their own residential Chinese Club House. In the face of social
exclusion, most participated in segregated organizations on campus, such
as the nationwide Chinese Students' Alliance and the Sigma Omicron
Pi Chinese Sorority, which was founded by Chinese women at San Francisco State Teachers' College in 1930.

Their segregated social life stemmed from deep-seated racial prejudice. As Eva Lowe, who attended Francisco Junior High and Girls' High
School in the r9aos, recalled:

We used to have streetcars on Stockton Street. After school, some kids
would ride streetcars home, instead of walking home. And those Italian
boys pulled them down from the streetcars. Chinese and Italian boys always had fights. Then when we had lunch period, even in high school, if
we sit in the dining room at a certain table, next day the Caucasian girls
won't sit there. They see a Chinese sitting there, they moved.41

Jade Snow Wong had similar experiences when she began attending a
white public school at the age of eleven. She was never invited to any of
the homes or parties of the other students. "Being shy anyway, she quietly adjusted to this new state of affairs; it did not occur to her to be
bothered by it," she wrote in her autobiography. But one day she was
delayed after school, and Richard, a white boy, took advantage of the
situation. "I've been waiting for a chance like this," he said. With malice he taunted her, "Chinky, Chinky, Chinaman." Jade Snow was astonished but decided to ignore him. As she attempted to leave, he threw
a blackboard eraser at her, which left a white chalk mark on her back.
Although the act hurt her sense of pride and dignity, she chose to overlook it, reasoning, as her parents had taught her, that Richard lacked
proper home training. "She looked neither to the right nor left, but proceeded sedately down the stairs and out the front door." Richard followed and danced around her, chortling: "Look at the eraser mark on
the yellow Chinaman. Chinky, Chinky, no tickee, no washee, no shirtee!"
But still Jade Snow ignored him, and he finally went away, puzzled by
her lack of response. "When she arrived home, she took off her coat and brushed off the chalk mark," as if to erase it from her mind.49 Her
passivity was a defense stance of accommodation that the second generation had been taught to assume when confronted by racial conflict.

Access to quality education for Chinese Americans was further marred
by insensitive teachers and vocational tracking into undesirable jobs. Until 192.6, when Alice Fong Yu was hired by the San Francisco public
schools, all of the teachers were white. Many Chinese American women
recalled teachers who took an interest in them and regarded them stereotypically as model students-quiet, diligent, attentive, and obedient.
Daisy Wong Chinn, who attended the Oriental Public School in the early
rgaos, has fond memories of one of her teachers. "My eighth-grade
teacher was a wonderful woman named Agnes O'Neill," she said. "She
really drilled English, spelling, and grammar into us, and she always sat
me in the front of the first row." One of the highlights in Daisy's life
occurred when Miss O'Neill selected her essay for a citywide Community Chest contest. Daisy placed first, and her photograph and essay
appeared on the front page of the San Francisco Call.50

Some women, however, also remembered teachers who were condescending in their attitudes or who were blatantly racist. Esther Wong,
for instance, will never forget how she was mistreated by her French language teacher:

All my teachers had been good to me, kind and helpful, but this one was
an Englishwoman, and she did not like Orientals, and none of them could
stand her, they always got out of her class, all but one Japanese girl and
me, and I stood her the longest, for 15 months, then I had to get out of
her class, although I lost credits by doing so.... Towards the last I had
to do some sight-reading for her, and I was very much frightened. She
was a very stern teacher, with very strict rules about everything. You had
to stand just so far from your desk, hold your back just so, and everything. Well, I read for her, and there were no mistakes. She just looked
me over, from head to foot, for a minute, and I did not know what was
coming, but was frightened. Then she said very slowly, "Well, you read
all right, but I don't like you. You belong to a dirty race that spits at mis-
sionaries."51