by Judy Yung
Grandaunt Wong Shee Chan (left) in front of her beauty parlor and bathhouse in the 1930s. (Judy Yung collection)
It has generally been assumed that women also managed to provide sufficient emotional support to keep the family together during these troubled times. In 1987, however, Lois Rita Helmbold threw that assumption into question. After examining 1,340 interviews with white and black working-class women in the urban North and Midwest that were conducted by the Women's Bureau in the 193os, Helmbold concluded that a significant number of families were in fact torn apart by the financial and emotional strains of the depression. The expectations and actualities of female self-sacrifice resulted in unresolvable conflicts between parents and children, husbands and wives; relatives, it is clear, did not always come to the aid of unattached women. Family and marital breakups became widespread .,6 Moreover, as Jacqueline Jones points out in her study on black women and the depression, federal aid to mothers with dependent children (started in 193 5) may have inadvertently contributed to the disintegration of black families, for by "deserting" their families, unemployed fathers enabled them to qualify for relief. Jones's argument is supported by statistics: in the mid-193os, approximately 40 percent of all husband-absent black families received public assistance; and by 1940, 31 percent of all black households had a female head.57
In contrast, Chinese families held together. Whereas the nation experienced an increase in the divorce rate from the mid-1930s on, the rate remained low among Chinese Americans. Chinese newspapers reported only nine cases of divorce in the 119 3 os, most of which were filed by women on grounds of wife abuse, although three women also cited lack of child support as a reason .18 No doubt, Chinese women experienced their share of emotional stress during the depression, but because of cultural taboos against divorce they found other ways to cope. My grandaunt Wong Shee Chan recalled a number of occasions when her unemployed husband took his frustrations out on her. "I remember buying two sand dabs to steam for dinner," she said. "Because he didn't like the fish, he flipped the plate over and ruined the dinner for the entire family. Even the children could not eat it then. See what a mean heart he had?"59 Having promised her father that she would never disgrace the Wong family's name by disobeying or divorcing her husband, she gritted her teeth and carried on. But when the situation at home became unbearable, Grandaunt would go to the Presbyterian Mission Home for help. "She went there a couple of times, and each time it got ironed out and she came home," recalled her eldest daughter, Penny.60 Jane Kwong Lee, who was coordinator of the Chinese YWCA in the 1930S, noted the added emotional stress that many women unaccustomed to accepting public assistance felt:
There is a family with a father, mother, and five small children. The father was unemployed for several years before he obtained work relief. The family is expressively grateful, for they are no longer afraid of starvation. Outwardly, the mother appears happy. Yet, when I talk with her further, I can sense the struggle within her. She cannot bear the thought of being on the relief roll. Her people in China think she is enjoying life here in the "Golden Mountain." She dares not inform them about the family's sufferings and hardships. If she does, she would "lose face." Although the relief money is enough to feed and clothe the family, it is not sufficient to allow for better living quarters than the two rooms they now occupy, without a private kitchen or a private bath. She can afford no heat in the rooms even when the children are ill in bed. This family is on the bare existence line. As in many other cases, at first she felt humiliated about her surroundings. Later on, she got used to it. Now she regards relief as a matter-of-fact.61
This pragmatic approach to life, kindled by personal initiative and a strong sense of obligatory self-sacrifice in the interest of the family, helped many Chinese immigrant women through the hardships that they faced in America, including the depression.
The adverse impact of the depression was also blunted by the benefit that Chinese immigrant women and their families drew from federal legislation and programs. Many of the New Deal programs discriminated against women and racial minorities in terms of direct relief, jobs, and wages. One-fourth of the NRA codes, for example, established lower wage rates for women, ranging from 14 to 3 0 percent below men's rates. Relief jobs went overwhelmingly to male breadwinners, and significant numbers of female workers in the areas of domestic service, farming, and cannery work were not covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act or Social Security Act. Black, Mexican, and Asian women who were concentrated in these job sectors were thus denied equal protection from labor exploitation and access to insurance benefits. Moreover, under federal guidelines, Mexican and Asian aliens could not qualify for WPA jobs and were in constant fear of deportation.62 Nevertheless, considering their prior situation, Chinese women had more to gain than lose by the New Deal. For the first time, they were entitled to public assistance. At least 350 families were spared starvation and provided with clothing, housing, and medical care to tide them over the depression. In addition, more than fifty single mothers qualified for either Widow Pension Aid or Aid to Dependent Children.63 The garment industry-which employed most of the Chinese immigrant women-was covered by the NRA. At the urging of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU), sweeps through Chinatown were periodically made to ensure the enforcement of the new minimum-wage levels, work hours, banned child labor law, and safety standards.64 NRA codes, however, were insufficient to change sweatshop conditions in Chinatown, as employers circumvented or nullified the imposed labor standards through speed-ups and tampered records. Only when workers took matters into their own hands, as in the case of the 193 8 National Dollar Stores strike, were employers forced to comply with federal labor laws.
The New Deal did have a positive impact on the living environment of Chinese families. A 19 3 5 study of Chinatown's social needs and problems sponsored by the California State Emergency Relief Administration (CSERA) indicated that housing was woefully substandard, playground space and hours of operation inadequate, and health and day child care sorely lacking.65 Federal programs, staffed by Chinese American social workers in cooperation with churches and community organizations, were instituted to deal with these specific problems. Families were moved out of tenement houses to apartments and flats close by. Playground hours were extended and street lighting improved. Immigrant mothers learned about American standards of sanitation and nutrition, particularly the importance of milk in their diet, and had access to birth control and health care at the newly established public clinic in the community. They were also entitled to attend English and job-training classes and, as in the case of Law Shee Low, enroll their children in nursery school. As a result, not only did some immigrant women receive direct relief, but their overall quality of life was somewhat improved by the New Deal.
Although in many quarters of the nation the issue of working wives was controversial, it was not a problem in San Francisco Chinatown, where wives and mothers had always had to work to help support their families. On the contrary, as their economic and social roles expanded and their families grew increasingly dependent on them during the depression, the community's attitude toward working women took a turn for the better. According to the 1935 survey conducted by CSERA, women's place in the work world outside the home was no longer questioned:
The Chinese women of today are much more fortunate and certainly more independent than they were ten or twenty years ago. They are now permitted by their husbands to work outside their homes and the fear of mockery by their neighbors has ceased since it has become the vogue to work, whether to help out the family finances or to have a little pin money. Generally speaking, to help the family finances, since most of them are hard pressed.66
Gender relations also improved in their favor, as reflected in newspaper reports. In 1933, for instance, the Chinese Six Companies sided with a widow whose relatives were trying to rob her of her inheritance and force her to marry a man of their choice.67 CSYP published articles appealing to husbands to treat their w
ives better: "Don't be a tyrannical lord over her, but respect her opinions, speak to her gently, and involve her in all your affairs."68 In another editorial, after praising Jane Addams's exemplary work with the poor and her involvement with the women's and peace movements, the newspaper encouraged the modern Chinese woman to be aware of her rights, become physically fit, satisfy her domestic duties, attend to the children, and serve the community.69
Jane Kwong Lee was one of the few Chinese women who fulfilled this role of the modern woman in the 19 3 os. After becoming the mother of two and upon graduation from Mills College, she decided to go back to work, even though her husband still had his meat market in Oakland. "To stay home and take care of my children was, of course, my primary concern," she wrote in her autobiography, "but in the midst of the depression period, it was necessary for me to seek employment."70 Unable to find work in white establishments because of racism, Jane finally secured a part-time job at the Chinese YWCA, at a time when bilingual community workers were sorely needed. It was her responsibility to make home visits and to provide assistance to immigrant women regarding immigration, health and birth control, housing, domestic problems, and applications for government relief. Until she was offered a full-time job as coordinator two years later, she also taught at a Chinese school in the evenings. How did she manage it all?
In these two years of my life, I actually divided my attention in three different directions-my family, the YWCA, and the Chinese Language School. Aside from providing the necessary care for nay children, I did not have any other worries for my family as they were healthy; my husband left for work in the East Bay every morning without asking me to prepare breakfast and came home after work to look after the children. I considered myself lucky to have his cooperation in raising two normal children and maintaining a normal family life.
With her husband's support and cooperation, Jane was able to raise a family and devote herself to her work at the YWCA, which she called "my JOB, in capital letters."" Because of her leadership skills and hard work, the YWCA soon broadened its services, grew in membership, moved into a new building, and garnered the respect and support of the community.
To meet the diverse needs of Chinese women who crossed generational and class lines, Jane organized clubs, classes, and programs with specific groups of women in mind. To dispel the mistrust of the older generation and to attract immigrant women to the YWCA, she utilized the Chinese newspapers and personally distributed Chinese leaflets to publicize events that catered to their interests: lectures and plays in Chinese on history, politics, culture, and the status of women; workshops on nutrition (including how to cook with relief food distributed by the government) and health issues; and field trips to take women out of the community to visit local bread and milk factories. Her newspaper articles helped to promote the YWCA's services while at the same time advocating women's liberation. In one front-page editorial titled "Why Chinese Americans Should Support the YWCA" she wrote:
The degree of success of the YWCA is a reflection of the development of our society. Why do I make such a statement? It is because women constitute half of the human race. If women, who make up half of the human race, do not unite and improve themselves in the areas of character, intellectual, physical, and social development, then no matter how high-minded and knowledgeable the men-the other half of the human race-arc, the entire society will not advance. In old China, men were held to be better than women. Men had ambitions to be educated so that they might roam the world and bring glory to their family. Women, on the other hand, were not educated, so that they might remain virtuous. They were slighted and confined to their bedchambers, ignorant of the world and its affairs. That is why the Chinese people have become weak and it is so difficult to help them. Yet those with foresight have long realized that liberating women so that they may develop and improve themselves is something that should not be delayed.71
Aware that many immigrant women were illiterate, Jane devised a strategy of going door-to-door to personally publicize the YWCA's services. In this way she gained firsthand knowledge of family conditions and women's needs that later proved useful in her plans for programs and services. The personal contact also made her a familiar figure and the YWCA an accepted institution in the community. On behalf of the Chinese YWCA she ventured out of the local community as well, giving talks on Chinese American culture and attending national conventions in Colorado Springs and Atlantic City. These occasions allowed her not only to visit such places as the Grand Canyon and see snow for the first time, but also to meet with a diverse range of women of common interests and, more important, to promote goodwill and understanding on behalf of Chinese Americans.
Reflecting on her important role as a community activist, a role that often took her away from her family, Jane wrote years later:
In turning my attention to the position of Community Worker, I had a varied spectrum-a link between persons, between individuals and groups, between groups and groups, and between country to country, even. For instance, when I interpreted for a Mrs. So and So, this was a connection between her and her physician; when I asked a girl to be a member of a club, I acted as a link between this girl and the YWCA; when I went out on a financial campaign for a school house, I acted as a link between the school house and the community in which the school house was to be erected; and when I volunteered to get help from America for flood victims in China, I acted as a link between China and America. Thus, I considered my job as a very important and beneficial one, and I was doing it with deep dedication and zeal. Later on, I might be accused of being too career-minded, but I could not help in shaping my professional attitude of devoting my best to what was to be done. I might have to apologize to my children that I should have given them more of my time and care, but I have to admit that my love for them has never diminished an iota, no matter how deeply involved I was in community affairs.73
Jane's dedication and effectiveness as a community leader did not go unnoticed. Whereas the community had once disapproved of women in the public arena, she found that her role as a female activist was respected by the Chinatown establishment. Once her bilingual speaking abilities and organizational skills became known, she was courted by Chinatown churches and invited to speak before the Chinese Six Companies and other Chinatown organizations on behalf of the Chinese YWCA and for various nationalist causes. She considered these requests "a good omen for me to take part in the Chinese community life of San Fran- cisco."74 Even as she was proving useful to the community, she was paving the way for other bilingual social workers, who were sought after by agencies with federal funding to expand their services. Already a prominent figure in the community, Jane was asked to serve on the civil service examination hoard that helped hire the first Chinese-speaking social workers for the city.
Ironies of the Depression: Second-Generation Women
Even more so than immigrant women, second-generation women-who made up 69 percent of the Chinese female population in San Francisco in 193o-had more to gain than lose from the depression. Their occupational niches were relatively safe from the threat of unemployment. Moreover, many were able to take advantage of new opportunities and favorable federal policies and make strides in terms of their work, family, and political lives. This is not to say that secondgeneration women were all spared hardships during the depression. They, more than the first generation, tended to bank their money, and some even invested in stocks and bonds. Among those who lost their life savings in the stock market crash were Alice Sue Fun and Chew Fong Low. After returning from her trip around the world with the actress Lola Fisher, Alice had remarried and was operating a corner grocery store with her husband in Oakland. With their savings, they had purchased a house, a car, and some $3,000 worth of stocks. "That was a lot of money in stocks," she recalled. "But I didn't have to jump off the building, because I had paid for them in full and wasn't in debt. It's when you owe money and don't know where to raise it that you'd be in trouble."75 They recovered, and a
fter her husband died she continued to speculate in real estate and invest her money in "safe stocks," the proceeds of which allowed her to retire comfortably and maintain an independent lifestyle until she died at the age of ninety. Chew Fong Low, who had built the luxurious Low apartment building for Chinese Americans in 1927, did not fare as well. Having invested a fortune in stocks and bonds, she lost heavily. The shock was too much for her frail health, and she passed away in 1936 at the age of sixty-seven.76
Some second-generation women, like Kathy Ng Pon, had to go on relief. Her sister Gladys Ng Gin recalled that although she and her mother remained employed, Kathy, who had seven children and a husband with heart trouble, qualified for public assistance. "Instead of money, she was given fifty, a hundred pounds of potatoes, a sack of flour, butter, and things like that. Every six months, she would go buy shoes from Bally's shoestore," said Gladys. Because their dwelling was considered substandard and unsanitary, they were also assisted in moving to a threebedroom apartment close by. After her husband passed away, Kathy worked at home so she could take care of her young children. "She would make bean paste and take it to the vegetable market to sell; crochet purses for $4 that I would take to work and sell for $zo. Sold like hotcakes. So that's how she raised the seven children," said Gladys.77
Such cases among the second generation appear to be in the minority. For the most part, the race- and sex-segregated labor force protected Chinese American women from unemployment, while the New Deal and the entertainment and tourist industries offered them new opportunities. Although discrimination in the labor market continued to bar them from white-collar jobs outside Chinatown, their concentration in the operative, service, and clerical sectors of the economy meant continued employment. Jobs such as housekeeping, picking and sorting fruits at closeby ranches or canneries, sewing in Chinatown garment shops, waitressing in downtown restaurants and teahouses, running elevators in department stores, and professional, sales, and clerical work in Chinatown were available to them throughout the depression years. In the middle of the depression, too, federal civil service jobs opened up to Chinese Americans for the first time. Mary Tong, for instance, became the first Chinese American woman to be hired by the U.S. Post Office .78 As Chinese Americans became more acculturated and recognized as potential consumers, department stores downtown also began to hire Chinese American women as salespersons.79
