Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco (38 page)

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 after 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

Thanks to the New Deal, those who had lost their jobs could seek
help at the employment offices set up at the Chinese YWCA and the
Chinese Catholic Center, although most of the job referrals were for
household employment at exploitive wages. According to case worker
Ethel Lum in 1936, "Private families, realizing that Chinese girls can usually be employed at a wage scale lower, but an efficiency level higher,
than the average white girl, show a preference for engaging Oriental
help."80 At that time, according to advertisements in the Chinese newspapers, a live-in nanny earned only $i5 a month; a housekeeper who
worked eight hours a day, $z5 a month; and a live-in housekeeper, $iz
a month.81 Although these wages were far better than those paid to black
domestic workers in the North and South-r o to 15 cents an hour82-
they were not considered desirable jobs by Chinese American women
who had better options. Part of the problem was that the occupational
category of domestic service was exempt from the NRA codes because
it was not an interstate commerce industry. The YWCA tried to work
around this loophole by lobbying the federal government to implement
a code specifying a ten-hour day, six-day week, $9 minimum for live-in
servants, and hourly and overtime rates for day help, but to no avail.83
The Chinese YWCA also tried to ensure a minimum work rate for Chinese women in domestic service. Together with the Emanu-El Sisterhood, which looked after the interests of Jewish working girls, it established the Institute of Practical Arts to train women in household
employment. Graduates of the course were guaranteed a job at minimum wages.84 However, no followup reports were issued to suggest how
successful the program actually was.

Although WPA jobs went mainly to unemployed men over women,
women fortunate enough to be placed in relief jobs often experienced
a degree of upward mobility as a result. Of the 4,215 women (as opposed to 10,272 men) in San Francisco who held "emergency" jobs in
1937, the majority were in the professional, clerical, skilled, and semiskilled sectors of the labor market. Whereas black women workers
thereby gained access to semiskilled jobs that had been previously closed
to them," Chinese American women now entered the profession of social work for the first time. As bilingual social workers, they made home
visits, dispensed financial aid, and helped Chinese clients adjust to the
economic situation. In 1936, Lily K. Jean passed the civil service examination to become San Francisco's first Chinese American social worker.
An editorial in the Chinese Digest hailed her appointment as "a forward
step in public social service on behalf of the large Chinese population
in this city and county."s" A number of Chinese American women were
also hired by the WPA to work in the community as teachers, recreation
aides, and assistants in conducting community surveys, which led to improvements in social services and living conditions in the community.

Because the entertainment industry continued to thrive, thanks in part to the depression-movies and radio shows were inexpensive diversions
for the American public-Chinese American women found some work,
albeit in limited and often stereotypical roles, in show business. In 1934,
CSYP announced that a local theater was auditioning Chinese American talent and that at least ten girls had come to demonstrate their singing
and acting abilities.87 A year later, Hollywood's Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
ran announcements in the same newspaper, looking for Chinese American extras, women in particular, for the filming of Pearl Buck's The Good
Earth.88 Although the movie was about peasant life in China, all of the
major Chinese roles went to white actors. Even Anna May Wong, who
was at the pinnacle of her acting career, was turned down for the lead
role of 0-lan, which went instead to Luise Rainer. Some Chinese Americans, discouraged by racism in the film industry, began to star in and
produce their own films. In 1936, Cathay Pictures announced the release of Heartaches, a film about an aviation student in America who
falls in love with an opera star. Except for the well-known Chinese actress Wei Kim Fong, all the other players in the production were said to
be "American-Chinese."89