Society for History Education

Surviving on the Gold Mountain: A Review of Sources about Chinese American Women
Author(s): Huping Ling
Source: The History Teacher, Vol. 26, No. 4 (Aug., 1993), pp. 459-470
Published by: Society for History Education
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Surviving on the Gold Mountain:A Review of Sources
about Chinese AmericanWomen

Huping Ling
NortheastMissouri State University

CHINESE WOMEN were only a small percentage of early Chinese

immigrationto the UnitedStates.Althoughthe ImmigrationCommission
reportedChinese in Americain 1820, the firstwoman to arrivereportedly
was Afong Moy who came to New York City in 1834. Three decades
laterthe numberof Chinese women in Americahad reachedonly 1,784,
mainlydistributedthroughoutCalifornia,NevadaandIdaho.Some worked
as prostitutes in mining areas, but many were the working wives of
farmers,grocers,restaurantowners, laundrymen,cooks andlaborers.The
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 checkedChinese immigration,and statis-
tics show the number of Chinese women immigrants was frozen at
around4,000 for five decades startingin 1870.1During World War II,
and for a brief periodafterthe war,therewas a more sympatheticattitude
in AmericatowardChinaandChineseAmericans.The Chinesebenefited
from Chiang Kai-shek's close relationshipwith FranklinD. Roosevelt.
One by one, anti-Chinese laws were revoked, allowing more Chinese
women to enter the United States. By the 1950s, the numberof Chinese
Americanwomen had increasedto 40,621.2
Duringthe post-warperiod more Chinese Americanwomen than ever
before enteredthe Americanwork force. Most of the immigrantwomen
were confinedto menialjobs while the American-bornwere concentrated
The History Teacher Volume 26 Number4 August 1993

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460 Huping
Ling

in clerical work. Meanwhile, more American-bornChinese women re-

ceived a higher education. Among them, Jade Snow Wong, author of
Fifth Chinese Daughter and a ceramicist,EmmaP. Lum, San Francisco
attorney,and Dr. Rose Hum Lee, historianand chair of the Sociology
Departmentat Roosevelt University,Chicago, distinguishedthemselves
in new fields of endeavor. Some prominentChinese American women
like physicist Dr. Chien-shiung Wu even entered advanced scientific
fields and earned world fame. After the 1960s some Chinese American
women benefited from the civil rights movement, broke discrimination
barriersin many fields, andattainednationalprominence.Connie Chung,
hiredby the ColumbiaBroadcastingSystem in 1971 due to pressurefrom
the Federal CommunicationsCommission demandingthe hiring of mi-
norities and women, now has become one of the most famous and
successful female news anchor in the national television industry. A
numberof other Chinese Americanwomen were politically active and
were appointedto prominentgovernmentposts. Bette Bao Lord,a writer
anddiplomat,was posted in Beijing from 1985 to 1989 with herhusband,
WinstonLord,AmericanAmbassadorto the People's Republicof China
at that time. Elaine Chao [Xizolan Zhao], a first generationimmigrant,
was namedthe AssistantSecretaryof Transportationin 1989.
Although some rose to prominencein America,Chinese women have
been virtually ignored by historians. The historiographyof Chinese
Americans has gone through three periods. In the first, from the late
nineteenthcenturyto the 1960s, Chinese Americanwomen's experiences
were totally neglected. During the second period, from the 1960s to
1970s, historiansbegan to considerChinese Americanwomen's experi-
ences as partof Chinese Americanhistory. In the 1980s historianshave
startedto develop independentworks on Chinese Americanwomen.
In the late nineteenthcenturythe firstworksdealingwithChineseimmi-
grantsappeared.Generally,works publishedin this period analyzedthe
causes of Chinese immigration,discussed early American immigration
policy and describedChineseimmigrantexperiencesin the United States.
Most of them lacked sophisticatedanalysisand the contentswere usually
briefanddescriptive.L. T. Townsend'sTheChineseProblemandMrs.S. L.
Baldwin'sMustthe ChineseGo? aretwo examplesof worksin this period.3
MaryCoolidge's ChineseImmigrationwas the first scholarlystudy of
Chinese immigrationbefore the 1960s.4Relying heavily on local news-
papers and public records, Coolidge arguedthat organized white labor
andwhite racismwere responsiblefor almostall the problemsnineteenth-
century Chinese faced in the United States. Although her work was
criticized soon after publication,the materialsshe collected contributed
greatlyto understandingthe historyof the Chinese in America.5

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A Review of Sources aboutChinese AmericanWomen 461

The historiographicalbackwardnessthatplaguedthe study of Chinese

Americanhistorylasteduntil the 1960s. Underthe KennedyandJohnson
administrations,the civil rights movementunfoldedin the United States.
Most American minorities,including the Chinese Americans,benefited
from it. As social change occurredmore and more scholarswere encour-
aged to study Chinese Americanhistoryand solid works appeared.S. W.
Kung published Chinese in AmericanLife, Some Aspects of Their His-
tory,Status,Problems,and Contributions in 1962.6Kungcollecteda wealth
of materialaboutmany so-called "old immigrants"who sacrificedthem-
selves in trueChinese traditionfor the benefit of the next generation.He
also revealed that, in the 1950s and 1960s, Chinese scholarsin America
made numerouscontributionsto science and the humanities.He showed
how engineers, scientists, teachers,doctors and nurses, as well as laun-
drymenandrestauranteurs, renderedvaluableservice in meetingcommu-
nity demands, and noted that, in turn,they received many benefits from
the countrythey adopted.He finally arguedthatAmericanshave much to
learn from the Chinese civilization, especially in moral and spiritual
values.
GuntherBarth'sBitterStrength:A Historyof the Chinesein the United
States 1850-1870, was an analysisof restrictivelaws.7For a considerable
period, Barth noted, the Chinese remainedthe only people to be barred
from the New World. He developed a "sojournertheory" of Chinese
immigration.The Chinese newcomers,he claimed, differedsignificantly
from other arrivalsin the United States in motivationand in experience.
They did not intendto forma permanentpartof the Americanpopulation,
but were sojournerswho expected before long to returnto the place of
theirbirth.They did not bringwith them a commitmentto settlementand
this motivationof their migrationleft them incapableof involving them-
selves in the mainstreamculture.
The 1960s also witnessed a majorchange in the male-centeredfocus
of Chinese Americanstudies.The revival of feminism led to the women's
movement in the late 1960s and 1970s. American women rose to chal-
lenge the still male-dominated society. Coinciding with this social
change, historians of Chinese American history have gradually shifted
theirfocus from a purelymale perspectivein Americato includefemales
as well, realizing that Chinese American women's experience was a
centralpartof Chinese Americanhistory.These historianswent as far as
framing entire independentchapters that deal with Chinese American
women. Stanford Lyman's Chinese Americans, Loren W. Fessler's
Chinese in America,StereotypedPast, ChangingPresent, andShih-Shan
Henry Tsai's The Chinese Experiencein America, all reflected this new
trend.8

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462 HupingLing

In ChineseAmericans,sociologistStanfordM. Lymandiscussedvarious
questionsaboutthe "Chinesediaspora"which took them to many partsof
the world, including America.What was the backgroundof communal
organizationsand their transplantingto the New World? How did the
outwardlyviolent anti-Chinesemovementthat lasted from 1785 to 1910
evolve into a subtlerpost-1910 form of institutionalsegregationin cities
acrossthe land?Whatwas theclass structureamongtheChineseAmericans?
Respondingto these and otherquestionsLyman analyzedinternalsocial
problemsandparticularways of coping with themandissues of alienation,
rebellion,new consciousness,and the transvaluation of the term "Yellow
Peril"in recent years. He also discussedthe reasonsfor the shortageof
women in the last centuryandthe firsthalf of this centuryandclaimedthat
prostitution,gambling,and drugswere directconsequencesof the uneven
male-femaleratioamongChineseAmericancommunitiesat this time.
In Chinese in America, StereotypedPast, Changing Present, Fessler
soughtto "lookat whathas been acceptedfromdifferentangles."9He gave
attention to social, economic and political conditions in America and
showed how these affected attitudes toward the Chinese as well as
Chinese efforts to cope with the particularcircumstancesof the times. In
some chaptershe discussed such aspects as sex ratio, marriageand the
family, education,livelihood and housing, all of which were relevantto
Chinese Americanwomen.
Shih-ShanHenryTsai's TheChineseExperiencein Americadiscussed
the experiences of threedifferentChinese Americangroups:sojourners,
the "ABC"(American-bornChinese), and students.The sojournerswere
China-orientedand non-English speaking, and suffered from persistent
inequality,racialconflict, alienationand subordination.Theirexperience
in America was one of tragedy and travail. In the end they remained
"trulyChinese."The ABC constantlyfaced conflicting values andhad to
deal with various assimilationproblems.They generally led a dual life
and bore feelings of ambivalence. Even though most of them were
completely acculturated,they were not fully integrated.The highly edu-
cated studentimmigrants,who are indeed modem China's "creamof the
crop,"have tendedto emphasizeculturalpluralismandnationaldiversity.
They belong to America's middle class, and, in spite of their color and
physical appearance,have been occupationallyintegratedthough some
of them are not yet completely acculturated.Their successful and pleas-
ant experience in America has earnedthem the "model minority"title.
While Tsai treatedChinese women in an independentchapter,his dis-
cussion was relativelybrief and limited.
In the 1980s a group of female historiansemerged and some works
specializing in Chinese American women were published. Chinese

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A Reviewof SourcesaboutChineseAmericanWomen 463

WomenofAmerica, A Pictorial Historyby Judy Yung of San Francisco,

was the first scholarly study of Chinese Americanwomen's history.0oIn
her book, Yung found importantregional variations in the degree of
Chinese women's acculturation.In a multiracialsociety such as Hawaii,
where there was less discrimination,Chinese women appeared to be
more assertive, assimilated and economically successful. In the rural
southern states such as Arkansasand Mississippi, Chinese women re-
mained more submissive and complacent, maintaininga middle status
between whites and blacks. In metropolitanareas such as San Francisco
and New York, Chinese women were largely foreign-born.They spoke
little or no English, lived in substandardconditions,and were less accul-
turatedthanthe middle class Chinese Americans.Yung's study provided
abundantmaterialsandinspiredotherscholarsto conductfurtherresearch
on Chinese Americanwomen.
Stacey Guat-HongYap's GatherYourStrength,Sisters: TheEmerging
Role of Chinese Women CommunityWorkersprovided evidence that
women's public participationin the communitywas political when they
mobilized themselves to set goals, implement actions and accomplish
resultsin planningfor the community.In addition,theirparticipationwas
shownto have a historicalprecedent,for Chinesewomenhave participated
actively in political causes since the 1940s."
In the past decade there have also been some edited collections of
works on Asian Americanwomen published.Asian and Pacific Ameri-
can Experiences: Women'sPerspectives, edited by Nobuya Tsuchida,
focused on various aspects of Asian and Pacific American women's
experiencesandincludedsome groundbreakingcontributionsto the study
of Asian American women.12 For instance, Lucie Cheng Hirata's essay
"Chinese ImmigrantWomen in Nineteenth-CenturyCalifornia"dealt
with Chineseprostitutesin nineteenth-century Californiawho were, Hirata
believed, not merely victims of sexual oppression, but also objects of
economic and class exploitation. She argued that Chinese prostitution
played a vital role in maintaininga bachelor society and a convenient
source of cheap laborfor Americancapital.Hirata'spaperunearthedthe
fact that many Chinese entrepreneursutilized prostitutesnot only for
sexual services but also for the garmentindustryduringthe day in order
to amass capital for undertakinglargerventures."3
Besides essays in collections, a numberof dissertationshave discussed
ChineseAmericanwomen's experiencesin social,racialandpsychological
terms. Lydia Liang Chang's "Acculturationand Emotional Adjustment
of Chinese Women Immigrants"found thatthe youngerthe women were
when entering the country, the more acculturatedthey became and the
less they suffered from emotional maladjustment.She also concluded

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464 HupingLing

that the more acculturatedChinese women were, the more egalitarian

their marital relationships tended to be and the better the emotional
adjustmentthey tended to make. She suggested, further,that physical
health was an importantindicatorof emotionaladjustment.14
Carol Rita lu's "Ethnicand Economic Correlatesof MaritalSatisfac-
tion and AttitudeTowardsDivorce of Chinese AmericanWomen"sug-
gested thatChinese Americanwomen who were strongin ethnic identity
were more likely to hold a conservativeopinion on divorce, were more
likely not to consider divorce in marital conflict situations, and were
more likely not to choose divorce as an alternativeto resolve marital
conflicts. lu's study also concluded that the Chinese American women
who were economically independentrelative to those less so were more
likely to give a higher priority to divorce as an alternativeto resolve
maritalconflicts." In "Chinese-AmericanWomen:A Phenomenological
Studyof Self-Concept,"Kay-SunWong hypothesizedthatfirst-generation
Chinese American women's self-concepts reflected an emphasis on
ChineseculturalvaluesoverWesternor Americanvaluesof self.16Though
precise in their specific analyses, these dissertationspaid little attention
to the specific historical context in which Chinese women lived or to
changes in their lives over time.
Similar to their study in a proliferationof academic works, Chinese
American women have also become visible in American literature.In
past decades, especially in the 1970s and 1980s, some excellent bio-
graphical novels about Chinese American women, usually written by
Chinese American women, appeared.Combining historical facts and
familial stories, these novels have narratedChinese Americanwomen's
experiences in a realisticand powerfulway. They have closely observed
the transitionfrom an old cultureto a new one as experiencedby first-
generationChinese immigrantwomen. In Maxine Hong Kingston's The
WomanWarrior,Chinese immigrantwomen confronta strangeenviron-
ment,hardwork,culturaldifference,andeven desertionby long-separated
husbands.17Brave Orchid,the heroineof the novel, set out for Americain
1939 to assume the statusof the illiterateimmigrantwife of a New York
laundrymanand to begin, at the age of forty-five, the task of bringingup
six children."Her sisterMoon Orchid,at the age of sixty-eight, came to
the United States to join her husband who had become a successful
neurosurgeonin Californiaand had marrieda young AmericanizedChi-
nese woman. Culturalshock and emotionalhurttogethermade the older
sistercollapse and she eventuallydied in an insaneasylumin California.19
These novels also reveal the high expectations Chinese immigrant
women had for themselves and their children when they headed for
America.In TheJoy LuckClubby Amy Tan, a best selling book in 1989,

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A Review of Sources aboutChinese AmericanWomen 465

a mothercooed on herjourney: "In America I will have a daughterjust

like me. But over there nobody will say her worth is measuredby the
loudness of her husband'sbelch. Over there nobody will look down on
her, because I will make her speak only perfect American English."20
Thoughhaving high aspirations,these first generationChinese American
women were often frustratedby the dissolution of their dreams and
alienationfrom their American-borndaughters.Amy Tan continuedher
story, "Now the woman was old. And she had a daughterwho grew up
speakingonly English and swallowing more Coca-Colathan sorrow."In
orderto tell herdaughterhergood intentions,"shewaited,year afteryear,
for the day she could tell her daughterin perfectAmericanEnglish."21
Generationaland cultural conflict was another common subject of
these novels. Jing-mei Woo, a daughter in The Joy Luck Club, was
drafted to take her mother's place to play mah-jong with other aging
Chinese women afterher motherdied. Made uncomfortableby the older
generation'sinsistence on maintainingold customs and parochialhabits,
she yearnedto lead an independent,modem and Americanlife free of the
burdenof her parents'Chineseness and the overweening hopes for their
childrenpoorly expressed in theirfragile English. One of the reasonsfor
the misunderstandingbetween generations,Amy Tan argued, was the
loss of theirnative languageamongthe American-borngenerations."My
mother and I," claimed Jing-mei Woo, "never really understandone
another.We translatedeach other's meanings and I seemed to hear less
than what was said, while my motherheardmore."22
A moretypical case of generationalandculturalconflict can be seen in
Jade Snow Wong's autobiography,Fifth Chinese Daughter. Jade Snow
Wong is the fifthdaughterof a Chineseimmigrantfamilyof San Francisco.
Since her childhood she had been taughtall traditionalChinese values of
chastity, obedience and submission that were supposed to be preserved
by Chinese women. When she first decided to date a boyfriend of her
choice and laterdeterminedto obtaina highereducation,she had twice to
confront her parentswho did not believe that a girl should choose her
own mate or get as much educationas a boy.23
Thoughmanyperceptiveworkshave appearedin recentdecades,there
remainsa need for full scholarlyworkson Chinese Americanwomen. As
the field of Asian American studies is growing rapidly, there will un-
doubtedlybe more solid work on Chinese Americanwomen in the near
future. A good starthas been made, but there is still a long way to go.
Anothervaluablesource of informationaboutChinese Americanwomen
and how they have been seen by other Americans is to be found in
popular culture media. Since the first arrival of Chinese women in
America, they have been stereotypedby the American public as exotic

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466 HupingLing

and seductivedolls. When Afong Moy arrivedin New YorkCity, she was
exhibited as "a Chinese lady in native costume,"and was used to show
"New Yorkbelles how differentladies look in widely separatedregions,"
accordingto the CommercialAdvertiser.24 An articleon Chinese women
that appeared Harper's Weekly, January30, 1858, describedin de-
in on
tail the appearanceof "celestial ladies" with their supposedly grotesque
hair styles, bound feet, and strange mannerof dress. Early images of
Chinese women as exotic curios were also derivedfrom travelingshows,
such as P. T. Barnum's Chinese museum. One broadside declared:
"Barnum'senterprisestops shortof nothingthatis strangeor wonderful....
Miss Pwan-Yekoo,the Chinesebelle, with herChinesesuiteof attendants,
is drawing all Broadwayto the Chinese collection. She is so pretty, so
arch, so lively, and so graceful, while her minute feet are wondrous!"25
This early public image of Chinese Americanwomen continues in some
currentmagazines.In one contemporaryadvertisementof a stocking sale
in the feminist magazineMs., Chinese Americanwomen today still seem
stereotypedand exploited for theirexoticism.26
In motionpictures,ChineseAmericanwomenhaveoftenbeenportrayed
as seductive creatures. Even in recent movies, film makers are still
affected by this stereotype. In Michael Cimino's Year of the Dragon,
Stanley White, a Vietnam veteranand a memberof the New York City
Police Department,appearsto be a saint, trying to stem an eruptionof
youth-gang violence, while Tracy Tze, a celebrity Chinese American
newscaster,is picturedas both an assertivecareerwoman anda sexy doll.
In China Girl, a new version of Romeo and Juliet set in Canal Street in
New York, the indisputableborderlineseparatingthe opposingworlds of
Little Italy and Chinatown,Tyan, a lovely Chinese girl, falls in love with
Tony, a second-generationItalian. The film, like others in the past, is
plaguedby stereotypedimages: exoticism, seduction,and feebleness.
Contraryto the above movies Wayne Wang's Dim Sum depicts Chi-
nese American women in a more realistic and positive light. In it,
Geraldine Lum, though a second-generationChinese woman, inherits
many Chinese traditional virtues and exposes her beautiful intrinsic
humanvalue, ratherthanthe seductivemysteriousworldthathas appeared
in many other motion pictures.
Along the same lines a new multiculturalartsorganizationpromotesa
different outlook on Asian American women. Founded in 1980, the
National Asian American TelecommunicationsAssociation (NAATA)
has the primary goal of educating the public about the Asian/Pacific
American experience to replace stereotypedimages of Asians with ac-
curate,realisticportrayals,andto promotethe artisticqualityandmeritof
Asian/Pacific Americanmedia productions.Liru, producedand directed

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A Review of Sources aboutChinese AmericanWomen 467

by Henry Chow, is one of the productsdistributedby the NAATA. An

Academy Award-nominateddrama, it portrays a Chinese American
woman's search for ethnic and personalidentity. Liru grappleswith the
strainedrelations she has with her mother and her boyfriend. She must
decide whetherto stay in San Franciscoto look afterher mother,orjet off
to Yale to be withherKoreanJapaneseboyfriend.Finally,afterreminiscing
about the closeness she had with her mother as a child, Liru becomes
comfortable with the idea of displaying affection instead of aggression
towardher mother.
Some documentariesdistributedby the NAATA also shatterthe ste-
reotypes of Asian American women. Based on Wayne Wang's feature
film Dim Sum,Dim Sum Take-Outtells a fast-pacedstorywith the feel of
a music video. In this film, five Chinese American women explore
personal issues of ethnicity, independence,and sexuality by comparing
their individualmethodsof dealing with theirculturalandclass legacies.
Slaying the Dragon, produced and directed by Deborah Gee, traces
Hollywood's recycling of inaccurateimages of Asian Americanwomen
over the past sixty years. Throughfilm clips and interviews with media
criticsandactresses,it shows how today'smediastereotypeshave changed
little from those of bygone days.
With Silk Wings, Asian American Womenat Work portrays Asian
Americanwomen's variousexperiencesby combiningfourshortdocumen-
taries.The first,Four Women,producedanddirectedby Loni Ding, focuses
on the lives of four Asian Americanwomen. Heidi is a communitysocial
worker;Sarais a tenuredprofessorandpracticingarchitect;Shirleydirectsa
community health clinic; Pat is a union business agent. Courage and
uncompromised idealismoftendrivetheinvisibleworkof womenin America.
The second,Loni Ding's OnNew Ground,shows how ten Asian American
womenbrokethebarriersof suchtraditionalmalejobs as stockbroker, police
officer,and welder.They discusswhatthey have learnedaboutconfronting
the conflicts between traditionalexpectationsand personalaspirations.In
Loni Ding's third documentaryFranklySpeaking,high school students,
teachers,employersand counselorsdiscuss the challengefaced by young
Asianwomenas they move fromadolescenceto adulthood.Finally,Talking
History,producedanddirectedby SpencerNakasako,tells the storiesof five
outspokenwomenandtheirjourneyto America.Japanese,Chinese,Korean,
Filipino, and Laotian women thoughtfullyreveal a mosaic of feminist,
ethnicandimmigrant"herstories" throughpersonalinterviewsandpoignant
historicalfootage.
Among the newly produced films by and about Asian Americans,
ArthurDong's ForbiddenCity, U.S.A.drew wide attentionin the media
circle. Gold AwardandSpecialJuryAwardwinnerForbiddenCity,U.S.A.

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468 HupingLing

is a provocative,exuberantdocumentarythattouchesthe heartandpacks
a tremendousamount of entertainmentinto a fond glance back at the
fabled all-Chinese"ForbiddenCity"nightclubon San Francisco'sSutter
Street,which became an internationalhot spot in the 1930s and 1940s. As
Dong explains, "WeChineseAmericansarenotjust hardworkers,we are
not just concernedaboutthe critical issues of Asian Americans,we also
have leisure time, have fun," as evidenced by the film's showing that
Chinese Americansventuredout to nightclubsfor their entertainmentin
the 1930s and 1940s and some of them even became performersthem-
selves.27Throughpersonalinterviewswith Chinese Americanwomen in
the entertainmentbusiness, ForbiddenCity, U.S.A.reveals how cultural
barriersand racism were challengedby the younger generationof Asian
Americansin these decades.
Sewing Womenis anotherexcellent productionby ArthurDong. This
film documents a woman's experience of immigrationand her determi-
nation to survive - from war-tornChina to a new life in America. It
displays a sensitive treatmentof the confusion and fear which is very
much a partof the immigrantexperience.It providesfirst handmaterials
for a discussion of issues involving the family, culturaldifferences and
the role of women.

Notes

1. Judy Yung, Chinese Womenof America,A Pictorial History (Seattle:Univer-

sity of WashingtonPress, 1986), p. 118.
2. Ibid.
3. L. T. Townsend, The Chinese Problem(Boston: Lee and Shepard,Publishers,
1876; reprint, San Francisco, CA: R and E Research Associates, 1970); Mrs. S. L.
Baldwin, Mustthe ChineseGo?An Examinationof the ChineseQuestion(New York:The
Press of H. E. Elking, 1890; reprint,San Francisco,CA: R and E ResearchAssociates,
1970).
4. Mary Coolidge, Chinese Immigration(New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1909;
reprint,New York: Arno Press, 1969).
5. H. A. Millis, review of Chinese Immigration,by Mary Coolidge, in American
Historical Review 15 (July, 1910), p. 897.
6. S. W. Kung, Chinese in AmericanLife, SomeAspects of TheirHistory,Status,
Problems and Contributions(Seattle:Universityof WashingtonPress, 1962).
7. GuntherBarth, Bitter Strength:History of the Chinese in the United States
1850-1870 (Cambridge,MA: HarvardUniversityPress, 1964).
8. StanfordM. Lyman, ChineseAmericans(New York: RandomHouse, 1974);
LorenW. Fessler,ed., ChineseinAmerica,StereotypedPast, ChangingPresent(New York:

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A Review of Sources aboutChinese AmericanWomen 469

Vantage Press, 1983); Shih-Shan Henry Tsai, The Chinese Experience in America
(Bloomington, IN: IndianaUniversityPress, 1986).
9. Fessler, Chinese in America,p. xix.
10. Yung, Chinese WomenofAmerica, A Pictorial History.
11. Stacey Guat-HongYap, Gather YourStrength,Sisters: The EmergingRole of
Chinese WomenCommunityWorkers(New York: AMS Press, 1989).
12. Nobuya Tsuchida, ed., Asian and Pacific American Experiences: Women's
Perspectives (Minneapolis:Universityof Minnesota, 1982).
13. Lucie Cheng Hirata,"ChineseImmigrantWomen in Nineteenth-CenturyCali-
fornia,"in ibid., pp. 38-55.
14. Lydia Liang Chang, "Acculturationand Emotional Adjustment of Chinese
Women Immigrants"(Ph.D. diss., ColumbiaUniversity, 1980).
15. Carol Rita Iu, "Ethnic and Economic Correlatesof Marital Satisfaction and
Attitude Towards Divorce of Chinese American Women" (Ph.D. diss., University of
California,Los Angeles, 1982).
16. Kay-Sun Wong, "Chinese-AmericanWomen: A PhenomenologicalStudy of
Self-Concept"(Ph.D. diss., The WrightInstitute,1983).
17. Maxine Hong Kingston, The WomanWarrior,Memoirs of Girlhood Among
Ghosts (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977).
18. Ibid., p. 104.
19. Ibid., pp. 113-160.
20. Amy Tan, TheJoy Luck Club (New York:G. P. Putnam'sSons, 1989), p. 17.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid., p. 37.
23. JadeSnow Wong,FifthChineseDaughter(New York:Harper& Brothers,1950).
24. Fessler, Chinese in America, p. 6.
25. New YorkExpress, 22 April 1850.
26. Yung, p. 114-115.
27. Arthur Dong's speech at the Seventh National Conference Association for
Asian AmericanStudies, University of California,SantaBarbara,May 18-20, 1990.

A Note on Films and Documentaries

I. Films

Dim Sum, producedand directedby Wayne Wang, 100 min., color video, 1985. Portrait
of mother-daughterrelationshipin a Chinese Americanfamily.
Dim Sum Take-Out,producedand directedby Wayne Wang, 12 min., color video. Five
Chinese American women explore issues of ethnicity, independence,and sexuality.
National Asian American TelecommunicationsAssociation (NAATA), 346 Ninth
Street, Second Floor, San Francisco,CA 94103.
Forbidden City, U.S.A., produced and directed by ArthurDong, 56 min., color/black
and white video, 1989. Story of a Chinese nightclub of San Francisco in the 1930s
and 1940s. DeepFocus Productions22D Hollywood Ave., Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey
07423.

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470 HupingLing

Liru, producedand directedby HenryChow, 25 min., color video, 1991. Dramaabout a

Chinese Americanwoman's searchfor ethnic and personalidentity. (NAATA)
Sewing Women,producedand directedby ArthurDong, 14 min., black and white video,
1982. A Chineseimmigrantwoman'sstoryfromwar-tornChinato America.(NAATA)
Slaying the Dragon, producedanddirectedby DeborahGee, 60 min., color video. Images
of Asian Americanin the media. (NAATA)
WithSilk Wings:AsianAmericanWomenat Work,a seriesof fourfilms: Four Women,On
New Ground,and FranklySpeakingproducedanddirectedby Loni Ding, and Talking
History produced and directed by Spencer Nakasako, 30 min. each, color video.
(NAATA)

II. Documentaries

Center for Immigration Studies, Washington, D.C. Five areas of concern include
immigration'sefforts on national,social, economic, demographicand environmental
interests.
ChinaInstitutein AmericanLibrary,125 East65 Street,New York,NY 10021. Collection
on Chinese immigration,heritageand contributionsto America.
ImmigrationandNaturalizationServiceRecords.NationalArchivesandRecordsService,
Washington, D.C., and Pacific SierraRegion, San Bruno, CA. Contains records of
generalimmigration,Chinese immigration,passengerarrival,Americanization,natu-
ralization,field office, and alien internmentcamps.

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