Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco (28 page)

Don't you know by now that as long as you are a woman, you can't compete for an equal salary in a man's world? If I were running a business,
of course, I would favor a man over a woman for most jobs. You're always taking a chance that a woman might marry or have a baby. That's
just a biological fact of life. But you know that all things being equal, a man will stay with you, and you won't lose your investment in his training. Moreover, he's the one who has to support a wife and family, and
you have to make allowance for that in the larger salary you give him.
It's not a question of whether he's smarter than a woman or whether a
woman is smarter than he. It's just plain economics!R"

Aware of both racial and sex discrimination in the job market, Jade Snow
took the accommodating route by pursuing writing and ceramics, two
fields in which she thought she would not have to compete with men
or be judged by her race. These creative channels also allowed her to
meld unique styles of expression that utilized both her Chinese and Western sensibilities. Her books, Fifth Chinese Daughter and No Chinese
Stranger, addressed her experiences as a Chinese American woman; her
pottery combined Chinese classic lines with Western functional forms.
She also chose to set up shop in Chinatown, where she could attract the
tourist trade. By making the best of her circumstances, she found an economic niche and became both a recognized writer and ceramicist.

Their experiences paralleling those of black professional women, Chinese American women who were the first to enter professions had trouble establishing careers for themselves, even in female-dominated occupations like teaching and nursing. When Alice Fong Yu appeared before
the examination board of the San Francisco School District, they asked
her pointed questions not usually asked of white candidates, such as
"How [in what language] do you dream? ,82 Although she was hired as
a schoolteacher, she was deliberately kept out of the classroom and assigned the tasks of an assistant principal, but without due recognition
or compensation. In addition, she was overworked and asked to perform
duties beyond her classification. As the only Chinese-speaking teacher,
Alice was called upon to counsel, translate, and act in the capacity of
clerk, nurse, and social worker to the ioo percent Chinese student population at Commodore Stockton Elementary School.

Her sister Mickey Fong also faced difficulties in entering and advancing in the nursing profession. First, her application to the Stanford
School of Nursing was rejected because at the time Asians were not permitted to enroll. Next, upon graduation from the San Francisco Hospital School of Nursing, she was discouraged from taking the public
health nurses' examination: "they said I was Chinese and how would I
get along with the white community." Then, a minimum height requirement of 5 feet 2 inches stopped Chinese women like her who were
short from taking the examination for field nursing. Only after protests
by both European and Chinese American doctors, the Chinese Six Com panics, and Chinese American Citizens Alliance was the requirement
waived for her and then stricken from all examinations. Finally, when it
came time for Mickey to take the supervisor's examination, she had an
equally hard time with the Civil Service Commission. "The Commission people were quite prejudiced," she recalled. "They didn't seem very
friendly or encouraging. One of them said, `How do you think that you
could supervise American nurses!' in that tone of voice." With a great
deal of pluck, Mickey retorted, "Well, if I'm qualified, and if I pass the
examination, I don't see why not." Mickey did pass the examination,
but chose to continue working as a public health nurse in Chinatown
until she moved to Washington, D.C., with her husband in 1945.83

Racial and gender barriers also made it difficult for the first Chinese
American women who chose medicine as their profession. Considered
"men's work," being a doctor was popular among Chinese Americans
for status reasons and also because they could work as doctors in their
own communities should their services not be welcome in the larger society. The few Chinese women who held medical degrees inevitably had
to establish their practices in Chinatown, though even there they were
not always accorded the same respect as male doctors. Dr. Bessie Jeong,
for example, had to omit her first name in public listings in order to attract patients who might be prejudiced against female doctors. "If they
see `Bessie,' they hesitate, even women sometimes, to go to a woman
doctor," she said. "So I put B. Jeong' and before they know it-it's
kind of embarrassing to turn and run, you know-they sit down and I
try to make them feel at home with me."84 Dr. Margaret Chung initially
moved to San Francisco to escape discrimination in Los Angeles against
single women, although she also wanted to serve the Chinese community. Being young, female, and non-Chinese-speaking, however, she
found it difficult to gain the trust of Chinese patients there. Not until
she proved her surgical skills and commitment to community service did
Chinese patients begin coming to her.85 Dr. Rose Goong, an obstetrician/gynecologist, had less trouble finding Chinese clients, largely because Chinese women were still reluctant to see male physicians. But she
was also popular because she was known for being available around-theclock to her patients and for providing free postnatal care to mothers
and their babies.86

An alternative to unemployment or underemployment in America for
the second generation was to seek work in China. Many middle-class
parents, fired by nationalist sentiment and aware of discrimination in
America and of China's need for professional and skilled personnel, en couraged their children in this direction. Jade Snow Wong's father tutored all his children in Chinese studies because he believed that "a Chinese could realize his optimum achievement only in China. "87 Although
Jade Snow never fulfilled his plan, her older half-sister Esther spent a
number of years teaching in China. Similarly, Alice Fong Yu was encouraged by her parents to pursue college with China in mind. "We were
all told to get an education and go back to help the people in China.
They knew we weren't wanted here," she said.18 Alice did not go to
China either, but a handful like Florence Chinn Kwan, Lilly King Gee
Won, Rose Hum Lee, and Flora Belle Jan did. Florence found work
teaching English and also served on the board of the YWCA; Lilly was
professor of English at the Shanghai Foreign Language Institute for sixteen years until she retired in 1974; Rose worked for government bureaus and American corporations in Canton until the escalating war with
Japan forced her to return to America; and Flora Belle found work as a
journalist with a number of English-language publications.

Only Flora Belle, the most Americanized of the four women, had difficulties adapting to life in China. Although her husband's salary as a
professor provided her and their three children a comfortable lifestyle,
Flora was never happy there. Her elder daughter explained:

The years in Peking were good ones for my father but not particularly
for my mother. Mainly because she was an American and she did not like
China. She could neither read or write the language.... She thought it
[China] was filthy. She boiled everything. She was always interfering in
the kitchen because she thought the servants were too dirty for her stan-
dards.89

Flora insisted on speaking English at home, dressing the children in Western clothes and taking them to see American movies, cooking and eating American food, and inviting only English-speaking diplomats, business people, and students to parties that she hosted.

Compounding her problems was the discrimination she faced as a
Chinese American and woman in journalism. Because of her language
limitations, she could only seek work with English-language publications.
Her letters to Ludmelia were filled with complaints about white male
supervisors who treated her unfairly in terms of work assignments, wages,
and promotional opportunities. While at the Office of War Information,
she wrote:

My education and previous experience were not considered when I came
here. I was given a stenographic test like any China born and I was paid like them. Although after one month of work as a permanent staff member, I was given a $24 raise U.S. because I had shown efficiency. I am
still getting a smaller salary than four other girls, two of whom have never
been out of China. All around me are staff members who are no older
than I, and, who are no better educated, who hold executive positions
with four times my salary, good living quarters, and a living allowance.
You wonder I am dissatisfied? It is hard to be born a woman but hopeless to be born a Chinese. There is nothing to hold me here. I shall go
at an instance's notice.90

Her life in China proved to her that she was too Americanized ever to
fit in. As hardships during the war years took their toll on her and she
watched others less worthy reap benefits and rewards because they were
white men or because they were women who knew how to flatter the
boss, she became more cynical and determined to return home:

I have become philosophic about life and somewhat of a social recluse.
I don't have the acute enthusiasm of my youth, nor the abysmal disappointments. I have learned to control my temper and am generally calm
and collected. Often I wonder about what pays off in this mortal world
and what price, talent and ability and conscientious effort? Our values
are all wrong. What usually counts most is hidden and unrecognized.
What pays off is vulgar, shallow, and cheap.... Somewhere, Ludy, there
are green hills, calm blue skies, a musical running brook, a cow grazing
contentedly on the pasture, and a clean white cottage where peace and
goodness dwell. I shall not give up until I find this place on this awesome, other earth. I cannot say when I am coming back to America, but
I shall come if it is just to die.91

In 1949, she finally came home with her two daughters and high hopes
of fulfilling her literary aspirations. After a brief visit in Fresno, they went
to live with Ludmelia in Yuma, Arizona, where Flora Belle found work
as a secretary and spent all her spare time composing at the typewriter.
But her health never recovered from the hardships she had suffered in
China. A year later, at the age of forty-three, Flora Belle Jan died of
high blood pressure and kidney failure. Her children had inscribed on
her gravestone: "A journalist and feminist before her time. A talent and
beauty extinguished in her prime. Our beloved mother."

Chinese Americans who could speak Chinese and who were more acculturated in the Chinese lifestyle had an easier time in that country.
Rose Hum Lee, for example, felt she had found her niche in China, and
she would have stayed except for the war. She had less trouble finding
work and adjusting to life in China because her mother had insisted on educating all her daughters and instilling in them a love for China and
a deep appreciation for Chinese culture. Like Flora Belle, Rose grew up
outside San Francisco-in Butte, Montana. But unlike Flora Belle, Rose
was well versed in Chinese language and art. Writing as a sociologist years
later, she expressed an understanding of the second generation's mission in China that Flora Belle lacked. China's need for manpower and
the discriminatory practices of the dominant American society, she
pointed out, had motivated many of the second generation to seek economic improvement and political expression in China. And for the most
part, China did not disappoint them.

Flora Belle Jan in the 1930s.
(Courtesy of Flora Belle Jan's
daughters)

The men could effect more rapid social and occupational mobility in
China as teachers, professors, foreign firm representatives, minor consular
officials, junior executives of foreign branch offices, engineers, doctors,
dentists, salesmen, business men, manufacturers, chemists, physicists, etc.
The girls could find work in foreign and Chinese firms, government offices, educational institutions, and churches. They lived in better residential areas, often peopled entirely by American-born Chinese and so journers, and could maintain a lifestyle and a standard of living far above
that of the local population.92

Such opportunities were unavailable to them in America. In addition,
they were able to enjoy a high social status and sense of belonging in
China. When the war against Japan escalated, Rose did her part by organizing emergency social services for refugees and war orphans in Canton and serving as a radio receptor and interpreter of Tokyo broadcasts.

Upon return to the United States and a booming war economy,
second-generation Chinese Americans like her were able to put their experiences in China to good use, achieving occupational mobility and social acceptance. Rose herself continued to help in the war effort, lecturing across the country through the United China Relief Speakers
Bureau and participating actively in the American Women's Volunteer
Services. With the support of her mother, she went on to college and
became the first Chinese American woman to earn a Ph.D. in sociology
(from the University of Chicago) and to head a department at an American university (the sociology department at Roosevelt University). At
the time of her death in 1964, Rose had earned a national reputation
for her pioneering work on urban development and the assimilation experience of Chinese Americans and had just received the Woman of
Achievement Award of B'nai B'rith for her contributions to ecumenical cooperation.93