Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco

by Judy Yung

  The Protestant churches were the first to encourage Chinese women's participation in organized activities outside the home, as evidenced by the small but visible number of Chinese women who attended Sunday services, English classes, meetings, outings, and Christmas programs sponsored by churches in the early r9oos. At a time when respectable women were still seldom seen in public, these regular outings were often the only occasion on which women left their homes. This point was made in a San Francisco Chronicle interview with Foo Tai, "a Christianized Chinese woman." According to the reporter, Foo Tai spent her day at home cooking, sewing, and caring for her baby while her husband worked outside as a cook. An educated woman, she seldom went out except to attend church meetings as president of the Chinese Women's Society of the Baptist Mission or to shop at the local stores.'2' A number of other churches helped organize similar Chinese women's societies to encourage involvement in Christian activities. Members of the (Congregational) Mothers and Daughters Society, (Presbyterian) Circle of the King's Daughters, and (Methodist) Missionary Society met regularly to have lunch or socialize, and paid dues to help support the work of Bible women in their home villages in China.'22

  Chan Fuk Tai, an educated woman who was married to a pharmacist, also seldom went out except to teach Bible study, Chinese language, and embroidery to Chinese girls at the Baptist church. According to her daughter Dora Lee Wong, it was the one chance she had to mingle with other Chinese women, many of whom were the wives of Chinese ministers. "And she had quite a large class of students-girls who came from well-to-do merchant families," Dora added.123 The church thus provided educated, middle-class women such as Foo Tai and Chan Fuk Tai entry into the public sphere, an opportunity to interact with other women of like mind, and a means to develop leadership skills. Indeed, Chinese women committed to the Christian cause were among the earliest women leaders in the community to organize events on behalf of women, the church, and national salvation. For example, Mrs. Ng Poon Chew (a.k.a. Chun Fah), who was brought up and educated at the Presbyterian Mission Home, was indispensable to her husband in his role as minister, CSYP editor, and champion for civil rights and Chinese nationalism. She was also actively involved in the establishment of the Chinese YWCA in 1916, led many fund-raising drives on behalf of China and the Chinese community, and, along with other Chinese Christian wives, took the initiative to sponsor community forums on nationalist and women's issues.124

  Chinese women's involvement in church activities expanded their gender roles, in effect. The Won family, for example, was first exposed to Christianity when a Chinese missionary came to their house to tell them Bible stories. The five daughters in the family were encouraged to attend an embroidery class at the Methodist church, and all were baptized at the Congregational church. They then persuaded their mother, Wong Ho, to attend church as well. "We were very fortunate that mother listened to us and was willing to go to church and to some of the meetings," said one of the five daughters, Won King Yoak. "By associating with other church members, my mother became more open-minded. We were all well read and up-to-date with the latest news."12' The women in the family later became the first Chinese American women to join Dr. Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary party and to be married in the Western tradition.

  One of the earliest Christian organizations to serve Chinese American women, and certainly the longest-lasting, was the Chinese YWCA, established in 1916 and still functioning today in San Francisco Chinatown. 116 Its homogeneous membership, reflecting the segregated living patterns in existence even today, is indicative of a time when Chinese women were excluded from both white female and Chinese male organizations. Unlike YWCA branches in the South, however, the Chinese YWCA worked from the very beginning to garner the involvement and support of Chinese women and the Chinatown community in all aspects of its operations' 27-a strategy more in keeping with the national organization's goals of inclusiveness, local autonomy, and indigenous programs. It also paralleled the YWCA's efforts in China at the time, which sought to improve literacy, health care, and job and leadership skills among women who were assuming new roles because of industriali- zation.12s In San Francisco, Chinese Christians, particularly educated middle-class women like Mrs. Ng Poon Chew, Mrs. Theodore Chow, the wife of a Methodist pastor, and Mrs. H. Y. Chang, the wife of the secretary of the Chinese Legation, were involved in the planning stages of the Chinese YWCA. Although the local branch was headed by white women until Rose Chew was appointed in 193 z, a predominantly Chinese board of directors and bilingual staff set policies, implemented programs, and handled casework. By 192.9, all but one of the board members were Chinese women-the wives of merchants and ministers as well as single women with professional backgrounds.

  Chinese YWCA Board of Directors, 19zos. Emily Fong (Mrs. B. S. Fong) and Chun Fah (Mrs. Ng Poon Chew) arc in the first row, second and third from left; Won King Yoak (Mrs. Daniel Wu) is in the back row, fourth from left. (Courtesy of Chinese YWCA, San Francisco)

  The YWCA was well regarded by progressive elements in the Chinese community because of the organization's promotion of Chinese nationalism. According to an editorial in CSYP, "The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.... By helping our women develop morally, intellectually, physically, and socially . . . the YWCA is benefiting the family and the future citizens of tomorrow and, therefore, the Chinese community as well as our country."129 The YWCA nurtured this positive image by making extensive use of the Chinese press to publicize its programs and by maintaining direct involvement in community and fundraising activities, such as Red Cross work, benefits for Chinese Hospital, famine and war relief work for China, receptions for Chinese dignitaries, and Chinese Independence Day parades. The YWCA also took the leadership role in promoting better housing, health, and child care services and countering negative images of Chinese Americans in movies and Chinatown tours. Its repeated successful drives for new members, the Community Chest, and the YWCA capital fund speak well of the relentless efforts of Chinese women who were committed to the organization and reflect the wide support the YWCA enjoyed in the community. During the first year of its operation, 19 16, the organization attracted z8o members. By 19zo it had grown to Soo members, and five years later, to 699 members. But its programs and services reached beyond these numbers, serving an average of r 5,ooo persons a year in the 19zos. Even in the midst of the depression, women who were earning only $1.25 a day gave $i.oo to renew their annual membership, and the community came through with $zs,ooo to help build a new facility at the organization's present site on Clay Street.

  During its first fifteen years, and before the emergence of the second generation, the Chinese YWCA focused on serving immigrant women with home visits, English classes, advice on household sanitation and baby care, interpreting services, and help with employment, immigration, and domestic problems. Similar to the YWCA's program in China, the purpose of these services was less to convert souls than to Americanize the foreign-born and improve their working and living conditions. At a time when social workers were not yet on the scene, the YWCA, along with the Mission Homes, was an important resource for women in need. As the following case shows, Chinese staff were sensitive to the needs of their clients and effective in helping them resolve their problems. During the time that Florence Chinn Kwan was associate secretary of the Chinese YWCA, from 192-1 to 192-3, she encountered a young woman who had been forced into an arranged marriage. The husband had died of tuberculosis early on in the marriage, and the mother-in-law was intolerable. The widow asked Florence to help her escape to the Presby terian Mission Home. "So, little by little, when she came to the YWCA for English class, she'd bring her jewelry to me and I would keep it for her. Then one day I took her to the home. She taught Chinese there, became a Christian, and never remarried."130 Immigrant women also came to the YWCA for help when they needed an interpreter or when they felt unfairly treated at work.

  Participants in Well Baby Contest sponsored by Chinese YWCA and Department of Public Health, i9z8. (Courtesy of
Chinese YWCA, San Francisco)

  Americanization efforts on the part of the YWCA were directed much more strongly at second-generation daughters than at immigrant mothers. Yet one area where the American way was pushed was child care, as exemplified by the Well Baby Contest that the YWCA co-sponsored with the city's Public Health Department in 192-8. Part of a national campaign promoted by the National Council of Mothers to lower infant mortality by educating mothers about infant hygiene, the contest was distinctly American.13' Even so, Chinese women responded enthusiastically because of the pride they took in their children's well-being as well as the community effort that went into the event. Over sixty mothers entered 176 babies ranging in age from six months to five years in the contest. Three babies were chosen as the healthiest by physicians of Chinese Hospital and awarded prizes. Follow-up workshops were held at the YWCA on baby care, and the book used by the winning baby's mother, Baby Diet, was translated into Chinese for the benefit of other immigrant mothers. Through such cooperative programs and the dayto-day services it offered immigrant women, the Chinese YWCA succeeded in helping them with their personal problems, changing their attitudes toward Western institutions, and drawing some out of their homes into the public arena for self-improvement and social interaction.

  Christian organizations such as the YWCA were not the only force having an impact on Chinese women's lives during this time; the intense nationalistic spirit that took hold in the early twentieth century also affected Chinese women in far-reaching ways. Not only did the call for modernization include the need to improve conditions for Chinese women, but reformers also solicited women's active participation in national salvation work. Fund-raising for disaster relief and the revolution in China opened up opportunities for women to become involved in the community, develop leadership abilities, and move into the male-dominated public sphere. In 1907, for example, CSYP printed an article about flood and famine in the lower Yangtze River area, appealing specifically to Chinese women in the United States to follow the example of American women in other cities who had already donated over $430,000. The article encouraged the growing numbers of literate Chinese women to take heed and help spread the word among women everywhere .131 When the same area was hard hit by another natural disaster in the early part of 19 11, women participated in a program of songs and drama sponsored by the Presbyterian Church and, later, by the Chinese Six Companies to raise money.133 These efforts on the part of Chinese women established a pattern of community involvement that would repeat itself each time a nationalist or community cause demanded their help, thus furthering women's participation in public affairs.

  Chinese American women first entered the political arena in support of the 1911 Revolution. The Tongmenghui, the revolutionary party founded by Dr. Sun Yat-sen to overthrow the Qing dynasty and establish a republic in China, was the earliest organization to accept them into its ranks. Several dozen women-primarily relatives of Tongmenghui men-are known to have joined the San Francisco branch in 1910, making it the first sexually integrated organization in San Francisco Chinatown. 114 Among them were Wong Ho and her five daughters, who had harbored Sun in their home during one of his secret visits to San Francisco. Wong Ho's son, Won Hongfei, was one of the founding mem bers of the San Francisco branch of the Tongmenghui, and he later served as Dr. Sun's personal secretary in China. It was he who encouraged his mother to allow all the girls to attend church, become educated, and contribute to the revolutionary effort. Despite the objections of relatives who believed that women should not be seen in public, Wong Ho later allowed her daughters to sit on a decorated float during the 19 12celebration of the founding of the Chinese Republic. Soon after, Lilly King Gee Won, one of the daughters, followed the revolution to China, where she spent the next sixty-eight years of her life helping to build a new China.13s

  In support of the revolution, women in China participated in benefit performances, enlisted in the army, and engaged in dangerous undercover work. Although far from the war front, Chinese women in San Francisco, gripped by the same patriotic fervor, moved into the public arena to do their share. They made "speeches of fire and patriotism" that called for the destruction of the Manchu dynasty and for woman's suffrage in China; they donated money and jewelry for the cause; and they helped with Red Cross work-doing fiend-raising, preparing bandages and medicines, and sewing garments for the war effort-sometimes under the auspices of Protestant churches, other times under the banner of the Women's Young China Society.136 A core group of women, including the Won sisters, attended political rallies, helped roll bandages at the Congregational church, and made handcrafted items to sell at fund-raising events.

  The national crisis encouraged changes in gender roles for women in China and America, inspiring them to become "new women" like Qiu Jin. Born into the gentry class, Qiu Jin was an accomplished poet, horseback rider, and fencer. In response to the failure of the 1898 reforms and the Allied sacking of Beijing during the Boxer Rebellion, she resolved to help save China and to fight for women's rights. When her arranged marriage proved a failure, she left her conservative husband and went to study in Japan. There she became involved in radical politics and the Tongmenghui.137 Like Sieh King King, she was both a nationalist and a feminist, as evidenced in her actions and her writings. For example:

  Women's Rights

  We want our emancipation! For our liberty we'll drink a cup, Men and women are born equal, Why should we let men hold sway? We will rise and save ourselves, Ridding the nation of all her shame. In the steps of Joan of Arc, With our own hands will we regain our land.13s

  While organizing for the revolution in Zhejiang, Qiu Jin was arrested and put to death; she was only thirty-two. Newspapers in both China and the United States expressed outrage over her execution; she was equally mourned by revolutionaries on both sides of the Pacific Ocean. 139 Dr. Sun, in his many talks to overseas Chinese, often pointed to Qiu Jin as a role model for Chinese women-a fair cry from the traditional model of passivity and subservience. His words did not go unheeded. A few women in San Francisco followed her example and cut their hair as a revolutionary gesture; others redoubled their commitment to the revolutionary cause.140

  Although the success of the revolution and the establishment of a republic in China failed to bring peace and prosperity to the country, it did have a lasting impact on the lives of Chinese American women. Jane Kwong Lee later commented, "After the establishment of the Republic of China, Chinese women in this country picked up the forward-looking trend for equality with men. They could go to school, speak in public places, have their feet freed from binding, and go out to work in stores and small factories if they needed to work. 11141

  Indeed, the ultimate symbol of subjugation-the crippling practice of footbinding-was brought to an end. The new republican government, linking the elimination of footbinding with women's emancipation, halted the practice by issuing prohibition orders against it and by promoting women's education. Following the example of women in China, Chinese women in America also began to unbind their feet (a process that was often just as painful as having the feet bound) and to stop binding their daughters' feet. By the I9zos, the only trace of footbinding that remained was the unnaturally small feet of older women encased in specially made leather shoes. 141

  Women also began to leave the confines of the home for wage work, community activities, and political involvement. The following story of how the 1911 Revolution changed one woman's life in Butte, Montana, is applicable to Chinese women's experience in San Francisco:

  When I came to America as a bride, I never knew I would be coming to a prison. Until the Revolution, I was allowed out of the house but once a year. That was during New Year's when families exchanged New Year calls and feasts. We would dress in our long, plaited, brocaded, handembroidered skirts. These were a part of our wedding dowry brought from China. Over these we wore long-sleeved, short satin or damask jackets. We wore all of our jewelry, and we put jeweled ornaments in our hair.

&nbs
p; The father of my children hired a closed carriage to take me and the children calling. Of course, he did not go with us, as this was against the custom practiced in China. The carriage would take us even if we went around the corner, for no family women walked. The carriage waited until we were ready to leave, which would be hours later, for the women saw each other so seldom that we talked and reviewed all that went on since we saw each other.

  The women were always glad to see each other; we exchanged news of our families and friends in China. We admired each other's clothes and jewels. As we ate separately from the men, we talked about things that concerned women. When the New Year festivals were over, we would put away our clothes and take them out when another feast was held. Sometimes, we went to a feast when a baby born into a family association was a month old. Otherwise, we seldom visited each other; it was considered immodest to be seen too many times during the year.

  After the Revolution in China, I heard that women there were free to go out. When the father of my children cut his queue he adopted new habits; I discarded my Chinese clothes and began to wear American clothes. By that time my children were going to American schools, could speak English, and they helped me buy what I needed. Gradually the other women followed my example. We began to go out more frequently and since then I go out all the time.143

  Meanwhile in San Francisco, Mrs. Owyang and Mrs. Chu Chin Shung, wives of the outgoing and incoming Chinese consuls, respectively, caused quite a stir when they attended a Chinese banquet with their husbands. "The fact that women were present was taken as an indication of the democracy of the new China," the reporter covering the event wrote. 144 A year later, the same newspaper found it newsworthy to report that Chinese women had not only marched in a parade through Chinatown for the first time, but at a banquet hosted by the Chinese Nationalist League of America "they made speeches just as the men did."145 Because of the changes wrought by the Revolution, Chinese women in San Francisco were beginning to flex their political muscles.