The Paper Daughters of Chinatown

by Heather B. Moore

I knew the scope of this project would require carefully selected readers in advance of submitting the manuscript to my publisher. First, I’m grateful to my agent, Ann Leslie Tuttle, who went through the manuscript more than once and sent me significant insights that deepened pivotal scenes. Many thanks to my beta readers, which included Allison Hong Merrill and Angela Sng, both of whom offered needed perceptions into the Chinese culture and traditions.

  Thank you to Taffy Lovell and Julie Wright, who read the manuscript under a tight deadline. And after revision work, Julie agreed to read it again. Extra thanks to Jen Geigle Johnson, who read the manuscript on another tight deadline to offer a fresh perspective.

  Many thanks to Heidi Taylor and Lisa Mangum for the brainstorming sessions. Heidi also read the manuscript more than once, giving me in-depth notes and heartfelt encouragement. Special thanks goes to Chris Schoebinger of Shadow Mountain, champion of the project. I’m deeply grateful for editor Emily Watts, whose careful attention to detail built the bridge from my hands to yours. I’m blessed to work with such a talented group of people at Shadow Mountain throughout the entire publishing process.

  Part of my research included traveling to San Francisco and visiting the Occidental Mission Home, which is now called the Cameron House and is still in operation, offering community and counseling services. Associate Director Cody Lee gave my daughter Kara and me the grand tour, which only drove home the remarkable work of Miss Cameron and her constituents. Kara and I also spent time walking the streets of Chinatown and visiting the places significant to the story. Thanks as well to David Pon, Marketing and Communications Director of the Cameron House, who kindly helped me with many questions.

  My family has been my foundation in my writing career, and I’m grateful for their continued support. Thanks to my husband, Chris, and my children, Kaelin, Kara, Dana, and Rose. My parents, Kent and Gayle Brown, and my father-in-law, Lester Moore, have been my number-one fans.

  And finally, thank you to my readers who have joined me on many journeys into history. The life of Donaldina Cameron has touched me deeply, and I hope that you will feel as moved as I have been while studying her life.

  Why do you think Donaldina Cameron and the mission home employees didn’t have the prejudices or racial biases against the Chinese people that so many people of their era did?

  What do you think about the contrast of Mei Lien arriving in San Francisco to start a new life, only to have it go so horribly wrong, with Donaldina’s arrival in San Francisco and her expectations of working at the mission home for only one year?

  Have you, in your life, made a prayerful decision, only to be faced with extreme challenges because of it? What sort of decisions did Donaldina make that led her to experiences she had never imagined being a part of?

  Considering the era in which this story takes place, when marriage was deemed a pinnacle achievement in life, it might be surprising that Donaldina called off her engagement to Charles. Why do you think she did so?

  Despite the mission home having other capable employees, why do you think it was so hard for Donaldina to take a vacation or time for herself?

  It’s heartbreaking to think that some of the rescued girls and women didn’t accept the help of the mission home. Why do you think some people have a hard time giving up what they know is hurting them?

  How did Donaldina reconcile herself to a life that had so many unexpected events and dangers, versus the traditional path that her sisters and friends took into marriage and bearing children?

  Do you think Donaldina did the right thing by teaching the Chinese girls and women English and requiring that they study the Bible, instead of letting them carry on their Chinese religious traditions?

  Today, women enjoy freedoms only dreamed of in the early 1900s. What are some of the freedoms that you find significantly valuable?

  Does it surprise you that even with all the work Donaldina Cameron and others in her sphere did to fight human trafficking, it is still so prevalent today?

  Chapter One

  Epigraph citation: Will Irvin, quoted in Woman’s Work, June 1916, vol. XXXI, no. 6, 143.

  The Occidental Mission Home for Girls was founded in 1874 by the Presbyterian Church. The mission home’s purpose was to offer refuge to the young Asian immigrants who had been caught in the corrupt “yellow slave trade,” and soon the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act escalated the smuggling efforts (CameronHouse.org).

  Margaret Culbertson was the superintendent of the mission home from 1877 to 1897. For twenty years, she worked tirelessly, often through the night, in rescue work. Culbertson was a champion against prostitution and focused her life’s work on establishing female morality and rescuing women and children from abuse (Yung, Unbound Feet, 34–35).

  When Donaldina Cameron arrived in San Francisco in 1895 to work at the mission home, Sacramento Street was named China Street. I’ve kept the name as Sacramento Street throughout the story for consistency (Wilson, Chinatown Quest, 12). The conversation between Donaldina Cameron and Mary Ann Browne is referenced in Wilson, Chinatown Quest, 6–7.

  Lorna E. Logan, staff member of the mission home, explains that the rescued girls were educated in English and Chinese, as well as sewing, maintaining a home, and Bible study. As their only opportunity for education, the mission home provided a service not found anywhere else in San Francisco (Logan, Ventures in Mission, 10).

  Chapter Two

  Epigraph citation: B. E. Lloyd, Lights and Shades in San Francisco, 219.

  Yuen Qui’s full name is Leung Yuen Qui, but I refer to her as Yuen Qui in this book so as not to confuse her with Leung Kum Ching. In addition, Tien Fuh Wu, the precocious little girl in this chapter, was called Teen Fook or Tai Choie before her rescue. The record from the mission home reads: “Jan. 17/94. Tai Choie alias Teen Fook was rescued by Miss Houseworth, Miss Florence Worley and some police officers from her inhuman mistress who lived on Jackson St. near Stockton St. The child had been very cruelly treated—her flesh pinched and twisted till her face was scarred. Another method of torture was to dip lighted candlewicking in oil and burn her arms with it. Teen Fook is a pretty child of about ten years old, rosy cheeked and fair complexion” (Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 46). Cody Lee, associate director of the Cameron House, said, “Miss Cameron called her Tien, the girls called her Auntie Wu. At Cameron House, we usually refer to her by her whole name or Auntie Wu” (conversation with author).

  The Chinatown squad consisted of the policer officers who aided Margaret Culbertson: Jesse B. Cook, John T. Green, George Riordan, James Farrell, George W. Wittman, George Patrick O’Connor, and T. P. Andrews. These men used break-in tools such as wedges, hatchets, crowbars, and sledgehammers (Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 48–49).

  Chapter Three

  Epigraph citation: Ban Zhao, Lessons for Women. 80 CE. Reference found: Sun Jiahui, ed., “Ancient China’s ‘Virtuous’ Women: Three Obediences and Four Virtues.” 风流中国, 21 Aug. 2017, https://culture.followcn.com/2017/08/21/ancient-chinas-virtuous-women-three-obediences-four-virtues/.

  The character Wang Foo is based on Wong See Duck, a notorious slave owner who arrived in San Francisco in 1908. Wong See Duck was part of a major smuggling ring with Kung Shee, Jew Gwai Ha, and Yee Mar. The four of them were deported after the 1935 Broken Blossoms court case was won, indicting them for illegal importation for immoral purposes (Edward Wong, “The 1935 Broken Blossoms Case”).

  Mei Lien is a character created by the author, but her experiences are based on actual events that happened to the Chinese girls and women rescued by Donaldina Cameron and her associates.

  Chapter Four

  Epigraph citation: Annual Reports of the Mission Home (quoted in Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 44).

  Hong Leen and her husband Woo Hip both met tragic ends, yet their children, raised at the mission home, continued their parents’ legacies. It wa
s Hong Leen’s greatest wish for her daughter to become a medical missionary and her son a minister (Wilson, Chinatown Quest, 13). I was not able to uncover the names of these children, thus Kang and Jiao are fictitious.

  The detention shed that was used to detain Chinese people immigrating to America was in operation until 1908. Conditions were rough, and the immigrants were treated as prisoners while awaiting for their papers to be processed (San Francisco Call, vol. 104, no. 64, 3 August 1908).

  The rescue story of Sing Leen is based on the rescue story of Sing Ho that took place on August 15, 1892. Heartbreakingly enough, not all the rescued women remained at the mission home, due to the power of addiction, trauma, or fears that came from believing the tong’s threats and promises of curses (Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 44).

  Chapter Five

  Epigraph citation: Forty-Seventh Congress. Sess. I. Ch. 126. Chinese Exclusion Act, approved May 6, 1882, 61.

  The criminal tong member names are fictional in this chapter, but their actions are patterned after deeds done by tong members Wong See Duck, his wife, Kung She Wong, moneylender Fong She, and procuress Kwai Ying (Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 256–57).

  Chinese girls and women brought over under false papers were taken to a slave market of sorts, which amounted to standing on a table or chair where they could be inspected by prospective buyers. They were made to undress so that the buyers could assess their overall health and appeal to the purposes they would be forced into, whether it was for domestic chores or prostitution (Yung, Unbound Feet, 27).

  Chapter Six

  Epigraph citation: Annual Reports of the Mission Home.

  Donaldina’s clothing in the board meeting scene is described by author Mildred Martin, as well as the names of the Presbyterian Women’s Occidental Board of Foreign Missions, which included Mrs. P. D. Browne, Mrs. E. V. Robbins, Mrs. Sara B. Cooper, and Mrs. Phoebe Apperson Hearst (Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 51).

  The case of the missing apples and Tien’s tearful confession is based on an incident in the mission home that demonstrates that although the young residents had their needs provided for, they often resorted to survival tactics learned on the streets of Chinatown (Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 45–46).

  With Miss Culbertson’s retirement and the changing of the guard, so to speak, Donaldina began to receive more threats and warnings than usual, and they became a constant nuisance. But Donaldina didn’t cower. She believed that if someone truly meant her violent harm, they wouldn’t send a warning in advance. Threats included the incident of finding a hanging effigy of herself in a room when she was tricked into following a note’s direction to rescue a girl (Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 53–54).

  Even when Donaldina was sent directions to a rescue, others were in place to thwart her, including police officers who were bribed and watchmen and informers hired by the slave owners. The informers would warn the brothels of impending raids, and Donaldina’s team would then have to outsmart them. Another challenge came in the form of the legal system, which was faulty. Tong members paid corrupt lawyers to file false claims and obtain warrants for the slave girls’ arrests, accusing them of theft. Of course, if a girl was recovered after a raid on the mission home, the girl would be transported out of San Francisco and never seen again (Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 54).

  The scripture quote from the Apostle Paul was particularly dear to Donaldina, as she relied on her religious beliefs, prayer, and scriptures to give her courage and strength (Wilson, Chinatown Quest, 26).

  The record of Dong Ho and how she showed up at the mission house with her bundle of treasures is recorded in Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 53.

  Chapter Seven

  Epigraph citation: Asbury, Barbary Coast, 176.

  Ah-Peen Oie Kum was a beautiful courtesan who began to deal opium in order to buy her freedom back. She was clever and considered the “toast of Chinatown.” She worked closely with the tong and became part owner of other girls. She became a feared leader in a system that she had once been a victim of. Her brothel was raided multiple times by Donaldina’s team, and there was no love lost between the two women (Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 238–39).

  Chapter Eight

  Epigraph citation: Annual Reports of the Mission Home.

  Donaldina also dealt with challenges from the leadership in the mission home. Mary H. Field was not as devoted to the betterment of the Chinese women and girls. Her reading of Kipling’s new poem was only a slice of her attitude toward them. She lumped them together by claiming that “Mongolian women presented a harder problem—‘more conscienceless, more suspicious, more fiery and voluble, more utterly bereft of reason—half-devil and half-child’” (Wilson, Chinatown Quest, 17).

  Jean Ying’s parents were contacted about her survival in San Francisco. They sent money for Jean Ying’s passage home, and she traveled with a group of associates connected with the mission home in order to secure her safety. Many weeks later, Donaldina received word from Canton that Jean Ying had been reunited with her overjoyed parents (Wilson, Chinatown Quest, 18–19).

  Chapter Nine

  Epigraph citation: Frank Moore, ed., “The Chinese to the President,” Record of the Year, Volume 1 (New York: G. W. Carleton & Co., Publishers, 1876), 601.

  The character of Huan Sun is based on the true story of Sin Kee. Sin Kee fell in love with a woman he met at a brothel on Mah Fong Alley. The woman confided how she must earn enough money each month for her expenses plus pay back three hundred dollars to her owner. Sin Kee helped her escape, but then the tong captured her and demanded one thousand dollars from Sin Kee. It was then that Sin Kee went to Donaldina Cameron for help (Wilson, Chinatown Quest, 37–38).

  Chapter Ten

  Epigraph citation: Rev. Ira M. Condit, The Chinaman as We See Him: And Fifty Years of Work for Him (Chicago, New York, Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1900), 140–41.

  Chinese slave owners, especially members of the criminal tong groups, used the legal system to fight back against Donaldina Cameron and the mission home. When the Chinese owners arrived with an accompanying police officer or lawyer, Donaldina took her time opening the many deadbolts on the mission home door. A brass gong was rung to signal that a search was about to be performed on the house, giving the girls warning (Wilson, Chinatown Quest, 19).

  There is some discrepancy in the accounts of how Kum Quai arrived at 920 Sacramento Street. Author Carol Wilson said that she came of her own accord, escaped from her master (Chinatown Quest, 19). Author Mildred Martin, who called her Kum Qui, said that she was rescued from Baker Alley and rushed to the mission home through a heckling crowd (Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 55).

  Chapter Eleven

  Epigraph citation: Women’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Presbyterian Church, Annual Report, 1902, 38.

  Few of the Chinese women smuggled into San Francisco could read or write, which meant they signed their contracts with their slave owners with an X or a thumbprint. The typical contract included the money owed for passage across the ocean, the number of years to be worked (four to six), and a stipulation that if the woman was sick for more than ten days, she had to make up an extra month of work (Yung, Unbound Feet, 27). These contracts were often extended indefinitely because days not worked due to menstrual cycles, illnesses, or pregnancy were counted against the women. As Judy Yung pointed out, “Most Chinese prostitutes were subjected to such physical and mental abuse that few could outlive their contract terms of four to six years” (Unbound Feet, 28).

  Chapter Twelve

  Epigraph citation: San Francisco Chronicle, April 3, 1900 (as quoted by Wilson in Chinatown Quest, 22).

  When Kum Quai calls Donaldina “Lo Mo,” it’s meant as an affectionate term that bonds two women together, or a child to her mother. Although the technical translation is “old mama” or “old mother,” in Donaldina’s case, it w
as adopted with love throughout Chinatown (Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 61).

  Chapter Thirteen

  Epigraph citation: San Francisco Call, 1898 (quoted in Asbury, Barbary Coast, 181).

  Judy Yung writes, “Whereas the majority of white prostitutes came to San Francisco as independent professionals and worked for wages in brothels, Chinese prostitutes were almost always kidnapped, lured, or purchased from poor parents by procurers in China for as little as $50 and then resold in America for as much as $1,000 in the 1870s” (Unbound Feet, 27). By the 1920s, the price reached from $6,000 to $10,000 in gold (Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 239).

  Chapter Fourteen

  Epigraph citation: “Palo Alto Resolution,” San Francisco Chronicle, April 3, 1900.

  Attorney Henry E. Monroe spent over thirty years working in behalf of the mission home. And no matter where his career took him, he continued to donate countless hours to legal work that benefited the mission home residents. He led an honorable career and earned a high reputation (Wilson, Chinatown Quest, 49).

  When Kum Quai was abducted from the mission home in March 1900, Donaldina would not back down. These events led to the fiasco of Kum Quai and Donaldina spending the night in jail, only to have Kum Quai abducted again and tried in the middle of the night on the roadside. Public upheaval led to indictments of the justice of the peace, the deputy constable, and the two Chinese abductors Chung Bow and Wong Fong (Wilson, Chinatown Quest, 19–25; Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 55–57).

  Chapter Fifteen

  Epigraph citation: “A Science Odyssey: People and Discoveries: Bubonic Plague Hits San Francisco,” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/dm00bu.html.

  In March 1900, Chinatown was put under quarantine against the bubonic plague. The upheaval in the city was immediate, with travel restricted for those living on both sides of the barriers. Leung Kum Ching (later called Ah Ching) knocked on the mission home door when she was nine years old, crying about her dying sister. Her sister had been cast onto the street, as per pagan custom, during the bubonic plague. Since Chinatown was under quarantine, Donaldina had to go through skylights and cross rooftops in order to pass the barriers. Unfortunately, the sister died of appendicitis after the rescue (Wilson, Chinatown Quest, 29–30). Leung Kum Ching continued to live at the mission home, and when she was older she aided in more rescues (Wilson, Chinatown Quest, 38; Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 77). Many Chinese were skeptical of the inoculations against the plague, and one girl in the mission home panicked, jumped out of the second-story window, and broke her ankle, all to avoid the shot (Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 78).