Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco (44 page)

In addition to fund-raising activities, Chinese Americans mounted a
propaganda campaign to keep all Americans informed of war developments in China and to appeal for widespread financial and political support. While foreign-born Chinese kept the Chinese immigrant population
informed and involved through Chinese newspapers, street broadcasts,
parades, and rallies, the American-born made a special effort to reach
out to mainstream America, as well as the English-language press and
government officials in Washington, D.C., encouraging them to contribute to China's war fund and to take action against Japan. Everyone,
especially labor organizations, was encouraged to boycott Japanese
products. Chinatown stores that did not comply were fined $500, and individuals, $ 5 or more.20 Chinese Americans in port cities such as Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, and San Francisco organized waterfront picket
lines to protest the sending of scrap iron and war supplies to Japan. Over
two hundred Chinese American aviators also volunteered for service in
China, several dozen of whom are known to have died in battle.21

Women's Role in the War of Resistance

Even more so than with past nationalist causes, immigrant
and American-born women were visibly active in war relief work. They
were concerned about the grave developments in China and especially
outraged by reports of Japanese atrocities against women and children.
News from China constantly reminded them that their motherland was
under brutal attack and that the national crisis demanded the contribution of every son and daughter. Xiang Dingrong, a provincial party representative, reportedly said at an anti-Japanese rally in Hangzhou,
"There is an old saying, `Every man has a responsibility in the rise and
fall of a nation.' Actually, the fate of a country should not rest only on
men. I would change the saying to, `Every woman has a responsibility
in the rise and fall of a nation."122 This slogan became the rallying cry
for women's participation in the war effort both in China and overseas.

For the duration of the war, women were called upon to emulate the
legendary woman warrior Hua Mulan and the revolutionary heroine Qiu
Jin and to shoulder the same responsibilities as men if they were to prove
themselves worthy of equal rights. The Chinese press in the United States
played heavily on the themes of nationalism and feminism in an attempt
to link Chinese American women to the fate of their sisters in China
and to arouse them to action, as exemplified in the following Chinese
Times editorial:

We must understand that the Chinese Women's Movement and the liberation of the Chinese people are inseparable. Chinese women make
up half of the country's population. United they represent a great force.
Women who love their country and who don't want to sell out should
organize and mobilize this force, answer to the call of their leaders, and
use whatever knowledge and abilities they have for the war effort. By contributing to country and humanity, women can thus prove they are
as valuable as men. When women have fulfilled their responsibilities to national salvation, society will naturally give wide support to the women's
movement. 23

Echoing the revolutionary war cry of 19 1r, the message was for women
to put nationalist concerns before feminist ones and, once again, to prove
themselves worthy of equal rights. The lessons of history should have
warned them that there were no sure guarantees. Chinese women did
not gain suffrage or equal rights after the 1911 Revolution. Rather, they
followed the pattern set by Hua Mulan, who, on returning from battle,
donned feminine attire and resumed the traditional role of a woman.
Now, however, fired by Chinese nationalism, women chose to ignore
the past and allow themselves once again to take up the fight.

Given the national emergency, women from all walks of life were encouraged to enter the public sphere and contribute to the war effort,
but only in subordinate or auxiliary roles. According to Madame Chiang
Kai-shek:

We women are citizens, just as much as are our men ... our line of usefulness may be different but each must do what best can be done to contribute our share to rescue our nation from defeat and slavery. While during war time the men are the fighters, it is the women who bear the brunt
of carrying on at the rear.24

She instructed women to combine the principles of the New Life Movement, which promoted the Confucian ethics of propriety, loyalty, integrity, and honor, and the Christian values of clean living, education,
and charitable activity, with war work. Although hundreds of women
did fight heroically at the front lines, thousands more were mobilized
to serve behind the lines in China, raising funds for military spending,
sewing and providing supplies for the soldiers, caring for the wounded,
refgees, and war orphans, contributing to production, and doing propaganda work.25 Back in the United States, Chinese women's activities
in war work were also limited to female tasks such as fund-raising, conducting propaganda campaigns among women, and engaging in Red
Cross work, all under the male-dominated leadership of the CWRA. Nevertheless, as in China, national salvation work drew Chinese American
women into new public activities, giving them an opportunity to develop
leadership skills, learn to work cooperatively, and gain confidence and
respect as active participants in a political movement. In this sense, it
brought them closer to the promise of women's emancipation in the
overall process of social change.26

ORGANIZATION AND MOBILIZATION

Soon after the Mukden Incident, women's organizations
formed across the country-in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, and Portland-to support the war effort. One of the earliest and
most outspoken groups was the Chinese Women's Association in New
York. As early as October 14, 1931, it fired off letters to newspaper
editors who had been advocating that the United States take a "handsoff policy" with respect to the war in China. Calling this stance "immoral" and "cowardly" in view of the intense human suffering caused
by Japanese war atrocities, the women argued that the United States
should uphold the pledge it had made in the Nine-Power Treaty27 and
the Kellogg-Briand pact: to help settle all international disputes by peaceful means. Then, in a letter dated February 18, 1932, the association
appealed to "Chinese womanhood in the U.S.A." to boycott Japanese
products, publicize China's just cause, and help raise $25,000 for the
relief of war victims. Arguing that women must unite against the Japanese, the letter concluded: "With Manchuria already under the complete
domination of Japan; with Shanghai and other cities being bombarded,
killing thousands of civilians-mostly women and children; with China's
millions still in the aftermath of a devastating flood, it is high time that
the Chinese Womanhood should rise as ONE in order to put an end to
these inhuman atrocities and wanton massacres."28 Within a year, the
Chinese Women's Association raised $ 3 0,000 for the war effort by sponsoring a parade and street festival, a week-long charity bazaar, and a fundraising campaign that lasted nine days. When General Tsai Ting-kai came
to New York to thank the Chinese community for their support, the
Women's Association independently sponsored a testimonial dinner in
his honor, which was attended by an enthusiastic crowd of two hundred
members and friends.

More numerous and diverse than Chinese women in New York, Chinese women in San Francisco contributed to the war effort by participating in one or more of seven women's groups organized on the basis
of nativity, class, age, and cultural and political orientation. Whereas
middle-class immigrant women belonged to the Funu Ju Ri Jiuguo Hui
(Women's Patriotic Club) and Funu Xinyun Hui (New Life Association),
working-class immigrant women participated in the activities of the Funu
Zhanqu Nanmin Chouzhen Hui (Women's War Zone Refugee Relief
Committee) and Funu Xie Hui (Women's Council). The Women's Patriotic Club and Women's Council were politically left of the New Life Association and Women's War Zone Refugee Relief Committee and
tended to be more autonomous and critical of Chiang Kai-shek and his
Nationalist Party. As for American-born women, the young ones were
attracted to the Chinese YWCA, while business and professional women
in their thirties were drawn to the Square and Circle Club. Fidelis Coteri stood apart as an organization of well-to-do matrons in their fifties.
Although all these organizations performed gendered tasks dictated by
the CWRA, each group's choice of activities reflected the class and cultural background of its members. Middle-class immigrant women, for
example, concentrated on door-to-door solicitation and propaganda
work in the Chinese language; working-class immigrant women favored
sewing projects; and American-born women organized dance and fashion show benefits, volunteered for Red Cross work, and did outreach in
the non-Chinese community.

The involvement of immigrant women, who understandably felt closer
to China than the second generation, was particularly notable during
the war years. Among the first organizations to speak up in San Francisco was the Women's Patriotic Club in the winter of 193z. Choosing
to align themselves with the Communists rather than the Nationalists,
group members publicly addressed a letter to Soong Ching-ling (Madame Sun Yat-sen) in which they wrote: "In the face of the destruction
of our country and home, calamity and danger, how can we not give
voice to our grief and anger?"29 They were moved by General Ma's resistance in Heilongjiang, Manchuria, and angered by Chiang Kai-shek's
passive stance:

The situation threatening China is getting worse every day, and the ambition of the Japanese keeps increasing. Yet all that the authorities in
charge do is keep making compromises and retreating. Even so, that has
not satisfied the appetite of the Japanese. Sometime in the future, China
will have to take a stand and fight.

The club members firmly believed that the rise and fall of a nation was
the responsibility of women as well as men. Using examples of heroic
women in Chinese history, they tried to mobilize other Chinese women
to join their cause:

Liang Hongyu beat the drums and enemy soldiers were slaughtered.
Hong Xuanjiao took the bracelets off her own wrist to give to the troops.
These women can serve as our models. All that we are saying is the result of long and deep reflection. Won't you sisters who share a love for
China rise up and join us?30

Unlike the Chinese Women's Association in New York, however, the
Women's Patriotic Club gained few members-only forty were on the
rolls in 194z. Nonetheless, the organization was effective in raising
funds through direct solicitation, drama benefits, selling handmade flowers, and collecting clothes and medical supplies to send to Shanghai and
Canton.

In contrast, the New Life Association, an official branch of Madame
Chiang Kai-shek's Women's Committee for the New Life Movement,
had a large membership; it also reflected a conservative point of view.
Thanks to the efforts of Wu Minchi, the principal of Hong Kong's Mei
Fang Girls' Middle School who was sent by Madame Chiang to organize and mobilize overseas Chinese women, the New Life Association
grew to become a prestigious women's organization with chapters in Los
Angeles, Chicago, Sacramento, New York, Boston, Portland, and Seat-
tle.31 Most of the members were Chinese-born, middle-class, married
to businessmen, ministers, or community leaders, and already active in
charitable work. Under the leadership of Emily Lee Fong (the wife of
B. S. Fong, CWRA chairman) and King Yoak Won Wu (the wife of Rev.
Daniel Wu), the San Francisco chapter wrote to President Roosevelt urging him to break off trade with Japan. It also sponsored talks on the war
and the New Life Movement, receptions for dignitaries from China, and
classes to learn Mandarin (the official Chinese language). Fund-raisers
to benefit war orphans and wounded soldiers in China included raffles,
dramatic plays, and the selling of confetti on New Year's Eve.32

In contrast to the middle-class background of the Patriotic Club and
New Life Association members, the Women's War Zone Refugee Relief
Committee and the Women's Council drew support from the working
mass of immigrant women. Soon after the CWRA was formed in 1937,
the Refugee Relief Committee came into existence as a women's auxiliary with the primary purpose of mobilizing women to collect clothing
and supplies for refugees in China and participate in the various parades
and demonstrations. Donations and materials were solicited from the
community through the sales of "lucky coins" (Chinese coins tied with
a red-white-and-blue ribbon to be worn on lapels), patriotic scarves
(made of a material other than silk, since Japanese silk was being boycotted), confetti on New Year's Eve, and raffle tickets. Group members
as well as seamstresses in the community were asked to help with sewing.
Employees at the National Dollar Stores factory, for example, volunteered
one and a half days to sew winter clothing for refugees in China. In this
way, the committee was able to send fourteen crates of supplies in 1937, another two in 19 3 8, and one hundred sets of cotton clothing in 19 3 9
all for the relief of war victims in China.33 Like the Women's Patriotic
Club, the Women's Council, established in 1936, chose to align itself
with the left, but it was less active and outspoken. Among the group's
most publicized events was a program held at CWRA headquarters on
September z6, 193 8, which featured speeches by China's representatives
to the Second International Youth Conference and a movie on Japanese
war atrocities. According to CSYP, garment workers were particularly
encouraged to attend.34