The Paper Daughters of Chinatown
Page 37
Chapter Sixteen
Epigraph citation: M. G. C. Edholm, “A Stain on the Flag,” Californian Illustrated Magazine, February 1892, 162.
Not only were the paper daughters exploited for their bodies, many of them succumbed to venereal diseases. “Once hopelessly diseased, they were discarded on the street or locked in a room to die alone” (Yung, Unbound Feet, 29).
Chapter Seventeen
Epigraph citation: Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 65 (quoted from California Historical Society with Donaldina Cameron House, 1931).
Dolly was called Mama by many of the Chinese girls in the mission home. The scene in this chapter where Dolly is questioned by another woman on the ferry truly happened. Part of the conversation was documented by author Mildred Martin. Dolly later said of the incident, “I hope my Creator will forgive me. But I told the legal truth, you know. Can’t you imagine the head shaking that went on when those easterners took home their tale about cosmopolitan San Francisco?” (Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 60).
Chapter Eighteen
Epigraph citation: Asbury, Barbary Coast, 179.
Herbert Asbury informs us that the two types of brothels in San Francisco’s Chinatown included the parlor house and the crib. The parlor houses were upscale and limited in number. They attracted wealthier patrons and were furnished in relative luxury. The women dressed in expensive and alluring clothing. Cribs littered the streets of Chinatown, sometimes lining both sides of an alley. The crib was meagerly furnished and consisted of a “small, one-storey shack some twelve feet wide and fourteen feet deep, divided into two rooms by heavy curtains of coarse material” (Barbary Coast, 175–76).
Chapter Nineteen
Epigraph citation: Donaldina Cameron, quoting the Apostle Paul, Philippians 4:13 (cited by Wilson, Chinatown Quest, 26).
When President William McKinley visited the mission home late one night, he brought his wife, Ida, with him. Ida had been ill, and so their trip had been delayed. In Mildred Martin’s book, she lists the president as President Theodore Roosevelt (Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 62–63). But Julia Siler corrects the information in her publication, The White Devil’s Daughters (167–68).
Several interpreters assisted at the mission home over the years. Yuen Qui had a close bond with Tien, and when Yuen Qui died, everyone grieved. When Tien saw how much Donaldina grieved, it put the director in a more human light, and Tien’s heart began to soften (Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 66–67).
Chapter Twenty
Epigraph citation: Annual Reports of the Mission Home.
Women working in brothels did not get to keep their babies. Frequently, the babies were stolen so that they could become part of a human trafficking ring. Other times, the poor health of the mother prevented a live birth. Babies were left on the doorstep of the mission home because the mothers knew it was a safe place. Babies were also kidnapped in China and brought over to San Francisco, as was the case with an elderly woman who purchased a baby in Hong Kong for ten dollars, then tried to pass it off as a grandchild. Donaldina was called by Colonel Jackson to come take that baby (Wilson, Chinatown Quest, 30). Another tragic case centered on Yoke Wan, who had her baby snatched away from her and sold to a woman slaver. Despite Donaldina and her legal team helping Yoke Wan in a total of forty-seven court appearances, spanning a year and a half, Yoke Wan was never granted parental rights (Wilson, Chinatown Quest, 50–52).
Chapter Twenty-One
Epigraph citation: Annual Reports of the Mission Home.
Although not highlighted much in this book, Donaldina’s siblings were a great support to her, writing letters and exchanging visits. When she met and fell in love with Charles, it was her siblings’ hope that she had fully recovered from the heartbreak of her first broken engagement. Author Mildred Martin shares the sweetness of the courtship between Donaldina and Charles in Chinatown’s Angry Angel (72–76).
Chapter Twenty-Two
Epigraph citation: Nee and de Bary, Longtime Californ’, 83–90.
In this chapter, Donaldina shares with Charles the success story of Yute Ying’s courageous testimony in front of the grand jury. But not every court appearance had a favorable outcome. Yoke Hay was rescued from being sold to a brothel, and as Donaldina and her rescue team drove Yoke Hay to court, she told them how her owners were not her parents, as they claimed to be. But when she stood before the judge, her angry master and his group of Chinese friends intimidated her, so she refused to tell the true story. The judge ruled that Yoke Hay had to return to her “father” (Wilson, Chinatown Quest, 31).
Chapter Twenty-Three
Epigraph citation: Annual Reports of the Mission Home.
In one of Donaldina’s darkest moments, she wrote: “The Chinese themselves will never abolish the hateful practice of buying and selling their women like so much merchandise. . . . Enactment by law does not reach this evil as it is impossible to get any Chinese evidence into court on account of the danger of life and property involved by incurring the enmity of the powerful and revengeful Highbinder Tongs” (Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 85). Thus, Donaldina felt she was justified in her seizure and holding of minors until the legal system could make a decision.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Epigraph citation: Inspector John J. Manion, “‘Lo Mo,’ Mother of Chinatown,” Women and Missions, January 1932.
Not every rescued woman accepted her good fortune or new way of life. Their traumas ran deep, and women and girls arrived with addictions and ingrained behavior. In some cases, the rescued girls refused to leave their lives of squalor and abuse. The former slaves had been threatened by their owners with death or punishment if they tried to escape, and many times those threats became reality. Other women, such as courtesans accustomed to luxury clothing and accommodations, refused to dress in basic cotton dresses, eat the simple meals, or study and do chores (Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 44).
Chapter Twenty-Five
Epigraph citation: Annual Reports of the Mission Home.
Donaldina spent an immense amount of time dealing with the courts. Some of the judgments that were handed down infuriated her, and she was held in contempt of court more than once. Her determination led to a new bill being passed by the state legislature that enabled a temporary guardianship of a child until a hearing—this Donaldina used to its full effect (Wilson, Chinatown Quest, 86).
Chapter Twenty-Six
Epigraph citation: Charles Shepherd, The Ways of Ah Sin: Composite Narrative of Things as They Are (Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell, 1923), 87.
In 1880, California’s civil code was amended to prohibit marriage between a white person and a “Negro, Mulatto, or Mongolian,” which meant many Chinese immigrants were without a way to marry. As a result, the trafficking of Chinese women became hugely profitable (Yung, Unbound Feet, 29–30).
The incident in this chapter of Huan Sun being shot by the tong is based on the true story of Foon Hing, who was targeted by the tong because he brought his cousin to the mission home. Foon Hing had been followed by a highbinder, and as soon as he left the mission, he was shot on the sidewalk (Wilson, Chinatown Quest, 37).
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Epigraph citation: Annual Reports of the Mission Home.
Donaldina took a year-long furlough after working at the mission home for nine years, four of them as the director. With the assurance that the mission home would be in good hands under the direction of temporary director Wilmina Wheeler and housekeeper Frances Thompson, Donaldina set off. She traveled across the United States, visiting former residents of the home, met Charles Bazatas in Pennsylvania, visited her sister Isabella for the first time in Scotland, then finally visited China (Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 74–76, 88–95).
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Epigraph citation: Annual Reports of the Mission Home.
During Donaldi
na’s absence from the mission home, Miss Wheeler and Miss Thompson fended off the usual shenanigans of intruders. A slave owner pretended that he was an upstanding citizen and wanted to marry Kum Ying, then had a false marriage license created. In another situation, slave owners acted as devoted parents who had lost their child and showed up at the mission home asking for her. Although the power of the criminal tong groups was stronger than ever, Miss Wheeler was able to rescue nine Chinese girls and eight Japanese in addition to harboring thirty more women (Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 95–96).
When Donaldina returned from her year-long travels, she was elated to see her Chinese daughters again—daughters who would go on to become influential women. Tiny, or Tye Leung, became the first Chinese woman to work at the US Immigration Service as the Chinese matron on Angel Island. Margaret would attend the University of Arizona in Tucson, and Lonnie would become the first Chinese nurse at the Presbyterian Hospital in Philadelphia (Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 156).
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Epigraph Citation: Annual Reports of the Mission Home.
Ah-Peen Oie bought her own freedom from slavery from her original owner through opium sales. But she was blamed for the loss of a slave girl, which meant she now owed that price to the tong leaders (Wilson, Chinatown Quest, 110–11). After Ah-Peen Oie asked Donaldina for help, she changed her name to Amy and began the process of renouncing her former ways. She underwent a true conversion to Christianity (Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 238–39).
Chapter Thirty
Epigraph citation: Annual Reports of the Mission Home.
After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, transporting such a large group of girls and women was an ordeal for Donaldina and the mission home employees. Not only did they have to seek shelter and provide food, but danger still lurked, with opportunists looking to capitalize on misfortune.
Chapter Thirty-One
Epigraph citation: Donaldina Cameron, report of events following the 1906 earthquake (quoted in Wilson, Chinatown Quest, 78).
Miracle after miracle happened to get the girls out of San Francisco, and Donaldina’s ragtag group finally secured passage at the Ferry Building. In her own words: “It was a thankful, though a completely exhausted company that sank down amid bundles and babies on the lower deck of the steamer, too weary to walk to the saloon. . . . But tired and homeless, knowing not where that night we were to lay our heads, our only feeling was one of gratitude for deliverance as we looked over the group of more than sixty young faces and realized how God had cared for His Children” (quoted in Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 107).
Donaldina told the story of Yuen Kum and Henry Lai in her own words, a remarkable event considering the devastation of the earthquake: “Long before the eighteenth of April the cards were out for a wedding at the Home. Yuen Kum, a clear, bright girl who had been with us several years, was to be the bride of Mr. Henry Lai of Cleveland, Ohio. The date set for the wedding was April twenty-first. And to prove the truth of the old adage ‘Love will find a way’ let me tell you that the wedding did take place on that very date! The ceremony was performed by Dr. [Warren H.] Landon in the beautiful, ivy-covered chapel at San Anselmo, and notwithstanding all the difficulties the young man had gone through in finding his fiancée, on his arrival from the East the day of the earthquake, and all the trying experiences through which Yuen Kum had passed, they were a happy couple as they received the congratulations of those present. Just after the wedding, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Lai started for their home in Cleveland amidst showers of California roses and the best wishes of their many friends. So romance with its magic touch helped us for a time to forget our great losses” (SFMuseum.net).
Chapter Thirty-Two
Epigraph citation: Poem by Imperial Chinese Consul-General Huang Zunxian in San Francisco, translated by J. H. Laughlin, cornerstone ceremony for new mission home, August 1907. Poetry collection found in J. D. Schmidt, Within the Human Realm: The Poetry of Huang Zunxian, 1848–1905 (Cambridge Studies in Chinese History, Literature and Institutions, Cambridge University Press, 1994).
The need for rescue work continued even when Donaldina left San Francisco after the earthquake. The underground slave trade of women and girls unfortunately shifted from San Francisco to surrounding communities. Donaldina went on rescues not only in the cities she lived in, but in other locations as well. During her two years living in Oakland and San Rafael, she helped to rescue sixty more women. Some of them were losses, and in those cases Donaldina left blank spaces below ledger entries, with the hope that a later rescue would prove successful (Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 114).
Joyous was the day when Donaldina and her daughters entered the rebuilt mission home on 920 Sacramento Street. The Presbyterian Foreign Mission Board had been allotted $11,000 toward the new structure, and all other funds were raised through donations (Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 111).
An article in Woman’s Work magazine described the interior of the newly finished mission home: “The whole furnishing of the Home is eloquent with love. . . . Each dormitory is a memorial gift either in the memory of those ‘gone before,’ or to the zeal and love of auxiliaries and young people’s societies. Chinese friends have lavished bronzes, brass ornaments, embroideries, carvings. . . . Oh, that dear friends everywhere might catch an echo of the laughter and song that floated down the halls, or see the happy faces of these jewels of great price rescued from the filth of sin! Then would you know that your gifts have not been in vain” (quoted in Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 118–19. Original reference: Woman’s Work magazine, vol. XXIII, 168).
Chapter Thirty-Three
Epigraph citation: E. French Strother, “Setting Chinese Slave Girls Free,” The California Weekly, February 26, 1909, 213, 216.
The dedication of the new mission home at 920 Sacramento Street took place on April 14, 1908. Well wishes came from all over the country in the form of telegrams and letters. The chapel filled with guests, and reporters eagerly took notes for their articles (Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 121), and the portion of Donaldina’s speech is recorded by Martin (Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 122). Although the day was filled with celebration and visiting dignitaries, the rescue work was far from over. The rebuilding of Chinatown included the reestablishment of human trafficking.
Sai Mui, a paper daughter forced into prostitution, ran away from her captors, only to run into rival tong men. Donaldina’s interference was both courageous and dangerous. With the help of the police and her interpreter, Donaldina was able to secure the girl. To Donaldina’s surprise, she was cheered in the streets as they hurried to the mission home. The victory was sweet, but the journey was far from over for Donaldina. Children, teenagers, and women were still being trafficked, and Donaldina felt the need to be ready to aid where she could (Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 125–27).
Tien’s education sponsor was Horace C. Coleman, who paid for all six years of her schooling. She attended four years in Germantown, Pennsylvania, and two years at the Bible Training School in Toronto, Canada. Tien kept her promise to Donaldina and returned to the mission home, playing an integral role in guiding the work forward (Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 153).
Annual Reports of the Mission Home to the Woman’s Occidental Board of Foreign Missions, written by Directors Sarah M. N. Cummings, Margaret Culbertson, Mary H. Field, and Donaldina M. Cameron, and their assistants, matrons, and housekeepers. San Anselmo, CA: San Francisco Theological Seminary, 1874–1920.
Asbury, Herbert. The Barbary Coast: An Informal History of the San Francisco Underworld. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1933.
“Cameron House.” Cameron House, https://cameronhouse.org/.
Donaldina Cameron’s San Francisco Mission Home for Chinese Girls—1906, http://www.sfmuseum.net/1906/ew15.html.
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Wilson, Carol Green. Chinatown Quest: One Hundred Years of Donaldina Cameron House. San Francisco: California Historical Society with Donaldina Cameron House, 1931.
Woman’s Work magazine. Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Presbyterian Church. New York: Presbyterian Building, 1908.