Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco (7 page)

Bound Lives in Old Chinatown

A good number of the Chinese women who came to the
United States in the nineteenth century-despite the social, economic,
and political barriers-settled in San Francisco: 654, or 37 percent of all
Chinese women in the country, lived in San Francisco in 18 6o; z,136,
or 47 percent, in r goo. But they were still grossly outnumbered by men,
who on the average made up 95 percent of the total Chinese population during these years. While women from such European areas as Ireland, Scandinavia, and Bohemia immigrated to the United States on their
own for economic reasons, few Chinese women came alone.27 Most had
either been sold into prostitution or domestic slavery, or they were coming to join their husbands. To a large degree, the legacy of bound feet,
bound lives, continued for these women in San Francisco. Not only were their lives as circumscribed and socially restricted as in China, but alienation and anti-Chinese hostilities in a foreign land compounded the difficulties they faced. Speaking no English, having no independent means
of support, and insulated within Chinatown from alternative views of
gender roles, they continued to abide by the patriarchal values of their
homeland, maintaining a subordinate role to men and confining their
activities to the domestic sphere. In this sense, their early settlement in
America was similar to that of Jewish mothers and Italian women, whose
cultures also dictated that they remain within the house, isolated from
the larger society.28 Regardless of social status-whether prostitute, mui
tsai, or wife-Chinese women were considered the property of men and
treated as such.

As in China, Chinese women stayed close to home and appeared as
little as possible in public. Indeed, the predominantly male and relatively
lawless society of mid-nineteenth-century San Francisco contributed to
their sheltered existence. Moreover, the Chinese kinship system, which
formed the buttress for patriarchal control in Chinatown, successfully
kept them outside the power structure: only men could be members of
the clan and district associations that governed Chinatown, or of the
trade guilds and tongs (secret societies) that regulated both legal and illicit businesses. Footbinding, practiced only among the merchant wives,
was not necessary to stop Chinese women in San Francisco from "wandering"; their physical and social mobility was effectively bound by patriarchal control within Chinatown and racism as well as sexism outside.

Migration from the preindustrial household economy of China to the
industrialized, urban society of San Francisco had little effect on the socioeconomic status of most Chinese women. During the same period,
Arab, Jewish, and Irish immigrant women, for example, often became
more independent through outside employment and exposure to American ideas of individuality and women's rights.29 Chinese women, confined within the home and within Chinatown, did not have these same
opportunities. Even as San Francisco experienced an economic boom
following the gold rush, growing to become a major commercial and
industrial center by the end of the century, Chinese women found themselves at the lowest rung of a labor market stratified by race and gender.
While white men dominated the better-paying jobs in the professional
and skilled trades, Chinese men concentrated in three low-wage industries (cigars, woolen goods, and boots and shoes), engaged in Chinatown enterprises that serviced their own community, or did menial work
as domestic servants and laundrymen.30 Although a few white women found work as schoolteachers and clerks or kept boarders, the majority
competed with Chinese laborers for jobs as garment workers, laundresses,
and domestic servants. Because of the scarcity of well-paying jobs, a number of white women also turned to prostitution. Unlike on the East
Coast, where European immigrant women filled the ranks of factory
workers, in San Francisco women were kept locked out of the city's expanding manufacturing economy. In 1870, out of 1,223 manufacturing establishments, only 5 employed women. By 18 8 5, although the total number of manufacturers had more than doubled, the number
employing women had only increased to 13.31 All the while, Chinese
women fared poorly. In 1885, a municipal report on Chinatown found,
only two women were employed in the factories.32 Most Chinese women
either did piecework at home for subcontractors-sewing, washing,
rolling cigars, and making slippers and brooms-or worked as prostitutes, receiving no wages for their services. While women earned fifty
cents a day sewing, Chinese men earned one dollar a day as factory workers-both far below the standard wage for white men of two dollars per
day in the early 188os.33

Given these conditions, there was little opportunity for Chinese immigrant women to change their subordinate gender role and socioeconomic status in nineteenth-century San Francisco. Yet there was heterogeneity in their class backgrounds, life experiences, and the ways in
which they utilized and adapted their culture and knowledge to sustain
themselves in the new world. Starting from the bottom up, a closer examination of the gender roles of Chinese prostitutes, mui tsai, and immigrant wives within the context of race, class, and gender dynamics in
the nineteenth century will help to illuminate their history and diversity; it will also point to the extent of social change in the lives of Chinese women who came after them in the 1902-45 period.

THE RISE OF CHINESE PROSTITUTION

The scarcity of women in the American West, the suspension of social and moral restraints, and the easy access to wealth during the early years of the gold rush attracted women from different parts
of the world. The first prostitutes to arrive were women from Mexico,
Peru, and Chile; these were followed by women from France and other
European countries, as well as women from American cities such as New
York and New Orleans.34 According to one writer in 1851, "To sit with you near the bar or a card table, a girl charges one ounce [of gold; $i6]
an evening ... and if you wanted anything more from these nymphs,
you had to pay 15 to zo ounces 1$ z40 to $3 zo]."35 In contrast, a woman
working as a domestic servant made $50 to $75 per month. Consequently, many women, particularly those with only a rudimentary education and few marketable skills, drifted into prostitution as a matter of
economic survival or profit.36

Whereas the majority of white prostitutes came to San Francisco as
independent professionals and worked for wages in brothels, Chinese
prostitutes were almost always imported as unfree labor, indentured or
enslaved. Most were kidnapped, lured, or purchased from poor parents
by procurers in China for as little as $5o and then resold in America for
as much as $ i,ooo in the 18 70s . One young woman testified in r 89z:
37

I was kidnapped in China and brought over here [eighteen months ago].
The man who kidnapped me sold me for four hundred dollars to a San
Francisco slave-dealer; and he sold me here for seventeen hundred dollars. I have been a brothel slave ever since. I saw the money paid down
and am telling the truth. I was deceived by the promise I was going to
marry a rich and good husband, or I should never have come here.38

Upon arrival in San Francisco many such Chinese women, usually between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five, were taken to a barracoon,
where they were either turned over to their owners or stripped for inspection and sold to the highest bidder. Few women could read the terms
of service in the contracts they were forced to sign with thumbprints.
A typical contract read:

An agreement to assist the woman, Ah Ho, because coming from China
to San Francisco she became indebted to her mistress for passage. Ah Ho
herself asks Mr. Yee Kwan to advance for her six hundred and thirty dollars, for which Ah Ho distinctly agrees to give her body to Mr. Yee for
service of prostitution for a term of four years. There shall be no interest on the money. An Ho shall receive no wages. At the expiration of
four years, Ah Ho shall be her own master. Mr. Yee Kwan shall not hinder or trouble her. If Ah Ho runs away before her time is out, her mistress shall find her and return her, and whatever expense is incurred in
finding and returning her, Ali Ho shall pay. On this day of agreement
Ali Ho, with her own hands, has received from Mr. Yee Kwan six hundred and thirty dollars. If An Ho shall be sick at any time for more than
ten days, she shall make up by an extra month of service for every ten
days' sickness. Now this agreement has proof-this paper received by Ali
Ho is witness. Tung Chee [dated 18 7 3 ].39

In principle, these contracts were similar to those signed by the large
number of white migrants recruited to the American colonies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In exchange for passage, they agreed
to work without wages for a period of four to seven years. At the end
of their indenture, they were promised new clothes, tools, seed, arms,
provisions, and land. Until the Alien Contract Labor Law of 1885 forbade the importation of workers under contract, indentured servants
were protected by law from breach of contract and flagrant abuse.40 The
same was not true for Chinese prostitutes like Ah Ho. As she later probably realized, the allowable ten days of absence in her contract were insufficient to cover failings due to menstrual periods, illness, or pregnancy;
thus, such contracts could be extended indefinitely. Nor did she have access to legal protection. Most Chinese prostitutes were subjected to such
physical and mental abuse that few could outlive their contract terms of
four to six years .41 As Lucie Cheng Hirata points out in her definitive
article on Chinese prostitution, "In reality, . . . the contract system offered very little advantage over the outright sale or slave system and was,
in a number of ways, more brutal because it raised false hopes."42

A selected number of young women were sold to wealthy Chinese in
San Francisco or outlying rural areas as concubines or mistresses and sequestered in comfortable quarters. As long as they continued to please
their owners, they were pampered and well cared for. But if they failed
to meet their masters' expectations, they could be returned to the auction block for resale. The remainder of the women either were sold to
parlor houses that served well-to-do Chinese or white gentlemen or
ended up in cribs catering to a racially mixed, poorer clientele.43

Parlor houses were luxurious rooms on the upper floors of Chinatown establishments that were furnished with teakwood and bamboo,
Chinese paintings, and cushions of embroidered silk. Here, anywhere
between four and twenty-five Chinese courtesans, all richly dressed and
perfumed, were made available to a select clientele. The "exotic" atmosphere, the relatively cheap rates, and the rumor that Chinese women
had vaginas that ran "east-west" instead of "north-south" attracted many
white patrons.44 Other parlor house women, known as "sing-song
girls," whose livelihoods depended on their abilities to sing, converse,
drink, and flatter, were available for hire as well. According to one newspaper account, Chinese clients paid for the company of these women at
the theater, followed by an elaborate dinner with friends.45 Another
newspaper account stated that no Chinese banquet was complete without their presence: "They sing, they play, they light and hold the pipes, and after the banquet is finished they join in the games. For a few hours
of such work they get from $3 to $5 each."46 Savings from this money,
as well as the jewelry and rich gifts the women often received from their
clients, were sometimes enough for them to buy back their freedom
or to send money home to support their families. Those redeemed
by wealthy clients were considered fortunate. The majority "were there
to be fondled or misused, one day loaded with jewels, then next day to
be stripped and sold to the highest bidder, if it were the desire of her
master."47

In contrast, the cribs-considered the end of the line-were shacks
no larger than twelve by fourteen feet, often facing a dimly lit alley, where
prostitutes hawked their wares to poor laborers, teenage boys, sailors,
and drunkards for as little as twenty-five cents. The cribs were sparsely
furnished with a washbowl, a bamboo chair or two, and a hard bed covered with matting. The women took turns enticing customers through
a wicket window with plaintive cries of "Two bittee lookee, flo bittee
feelee, six bittee doee!" Harshly treated by both owners and customers
and compelled to accept every man who sought their business, most
women succumbed to venereal disease.48 Once hopelessly diseased, they
were discarded on the street or locked in a room to die alone.49 Thus,
Chinese prostitutes in San Francisco, exploited as they were for their bodies by men who had control over their fates and livelihoods, were the archetype of female bondage and degradation.

Various studies of the manuscript schedules of the U.S. population
censuses indicate that a high percentage of the Chinese female population in San Francisco worked as prostitutes: from 8 5 to 97 percent in
i 860; 71 to 72 percent in 1870; and 21 to 50 percent in r 880.50 There
were reasons for these high percentages. Race and class dynamics created the need for Chinese prostitutes in America, while gender and class
made poor Chinese daughters the victims of an exploitative labor system controlled by unscrupulous men denied gainful employment in the
larger labor market. Certain sectors of the American capitalist economy
called for a mobile male labor force unencumbered by women and families. Chinese cultural values and American immigration policies that discouraged the immigration of women resulted in a skewed sex ratio that,
when combined with anti-Chinese prejudice and antimiscegenation attitudes (institutionalized in i88o when California's Civil Code was
amended to prohibit the issuance of a marriage license to a white person and a "Negro, Mulatto, or Mongolian" ),51 forced most Chinese immigrants to live a bachelor's existence. Stranded in America until they could save enough money to return home, both married and single Chinese men found it difficult to establish conjugal relations or find female
companionship. Some married other women of color-black, Mexican,
or Native American; a few cohabited with white women; but the majority sought sexual release in brothels.52 The demand for Chinese prostitutes by both Chinese and white men intersected with an available supply of young women sold into servitude by impoverished families in
China. What resulted was the organized trafficking of Chinese women,
which proved immensely profitable for the tongs that came to control
the trade in San Francisco.