Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco (64 page)

54. See Jones, Labor of Love, pp. 196-97; Lois Rita Helmbold, "Beyond the Family Economy: Black and White Working-Class Women During the Great Depression," Feminist Studies 13, no. 3 (fall 1987): 636; Scharf, To Work and to
Wed, pp. r 15-16; and McEntire, Labor Force in California, p. 143

55. See Westin, Making Do; Milkman, "Women's Work," pp. 5z0-z8;
Jones, Labor of Love, pp. 221-30; and Rosalinda M. Gonzalez, "Chicanas and
Mexican Immigrant Families, 1920-1940: Women's Subordination and Family
Exploitation," in Decades of Discontent: The Women's Movement, 1920-1940, ed.
Lois Scharf and Joan M. Jensen (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1983),
p. 70.

56. See Helmbold, "Beyond the Family Economy."

57. Jones, Labor of'Love, pp. zz4-z6.

58. CSYP, April 30, 1933; January 17, June 9, August 29, September z5,
1934; March 19, 1937; Chinese Times, August 8, 1936; March ig, 1937.

59. Wong Shee Chan, interview.

6o. Penny Chan Huey, interview with author, November z1, 1988.

61. Jane Kwong Lee, "A Resume of Social Service," Chinese Digest, December zo, 1935, p. 10.

6z. On how the New Deal discriminated against women and racial minorities, see Scharf, To Work and to Wed, chap. 6; Kessler-Harris, Out to Work, pp.
262-71; Jones, Labor of Love, chap. 6; Blackwelder, Women of the Depression,
chap. 7; and Gwendolyn Mink, "The Lady and the Tramp: Gender, Race, and
the Origins of the American Welfare State," in Women, the State, and Welfare,
ed. Linda Gordon (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990), pp. 111-14.

63. Lum, "Chinese During the Depression"; and CSERA 1935 Survey, pp.
40-41.

64. CSYP, July IT, 1933; July 11, 1934; March 13, 1935; March 6, 1939;
Chinese Times, February 16, 17, 1936; and San Francisco News, April z6,
1936, p. I.

65. See CSERA 1935 Survey.

66. Ibid., p. 17. Similarly, Pardee Lowe wrote in 1937 that "in striking, almost bewildering contrast to the preearthquake period, practically all of Chinatown's women are permitted to and do find employment outside of the home"
("Good Life," p. iz8).

67. Frank J. Taylor, "The Bone Money Empire," Saturday Evening Post, December 24, 1933, P. 48.

68. CSYP, November 13, 1933.

69. CSYP, May 31, June 1, 1935.

70. J. Lee, "A Chinese American," pt. II, p. 81.

7 1 . Ibid., p. 91.

72. CSYP, August 15, 1936•

73. J. Lee, "A Chinese American," pt. II, pp. 92-93

74. Ibid., p. 87.

75. Alice Sue Fun, interview with author, February z8, 1982.

76. Chinese Digest, May z9, 1936, p. 14.

77. Gladys Ng Gin, interview with author, November 4, 1988.

78. Lim P. Lee, "The Postal Chinese Club of San Francisco," Asian Week,
January z7, 1984, p. 7.

79. Dare, "Economic and Social Adjustment," pp. 68-69; Lowe, "Good Life," p. iz8; and Chinese Digest, November 1 3, 1936, p. 7; March, 1937,P. 14.

8o. Ethel Lum, "Young Woman, Are You Looking for a Job?" Chinese Digest, March z7, 1936, p. ii.

81. Chinese Times, July z9, 1936.

8z. Jones, Labor of Love, pp. zo6-7.

83. Scharf, To Work and to Wed, p. 114.

84. Chinese Digest, March 27, 1936, p. 1 i.

85. Broussard, Black San Francisco, p. 1zz.

86. Chinese Digest, October 16, 1936, p. 10.

87. CSYP, March z9, 1934.

88. CSYP, November 5, 7, 1935; and Chinese Digest, December 13,
1935, P. 5.

89. Chinese Digest, February 14, 1936, p. z.

go. Gladys Ng Gin, interview.

91. Quoted in Forbidden City, U.S.A.: World Premiere Benefit (San Francisco,
1989).

9z. Quoted in Dexter Waugh, "Forbidden City," Image sec., San Francisco
Examiner, October z9, 1989, P. 20.

93. Bertha Hing, interview with Kirk Fong and Valerie Fong, March 1991,
Kirk Fong private collection.

94. Quoted in Lorraine Dong, "The Forbidden City Legacy and Its Chinese American Women," Chinese America: History and Perspectives 1992, p. 13 8.

95. Ibid., p. 140.

96. Bertha Hing, interview.

97. Waugh, "Forbidden City," pp. 19-z4, 34; and Jim Marshall, "Cathay
Hey-Hey!" Collier's, February z8, 194z, PP. 13, 53.

98. Business Week, March 12, 1938, p. 28.

99• Chinese Christian Student, April 1939, P. 5; Chinese Digest, May-June
1939, P. 3.

100. Jane Kwong Lee, interview with author, October zz, 1988.

ioi. CSERA 1935 Survey, p. 9.

1o2. Eva Lowe, interview with Genny Lim.

103. Henriette Horak, "New Chinatown: Modernity Creeping Into Section," San Francisco Chronicle, July 9, 1936, p. 7.

104. Lowe, "Good Life," p. 12 8. In this article, Lowe provides detailed notes
of the bicultural lifestyle he found in San Francisco Chinatown but makes no
mention of any poverty conditions caused by the depression.

105. Jane Kwong Lee, "Chinese Women in San Francisco," Chinese Digest,
June 1938, P. 9.

1o6. See Sanchez, Becoming Mexican American, chap. u.

107. Eva Lowe, interview with Genny Lim.

Io8. According to Him Mark Lai, "To Bring Forth a New China," pp.
I z-14, the Chinese Students Association supported the Guomindang left faction and was strongly against any foreign domination in China. In T929 the group
was raided by the San Francisco Chinatown Police Squad and closed down for
alleged Communist activities.

109. Eva Lowe, interview with author, July 15, 198z.

1 io. Eva Lowe, interview with Genny Lim.

i i i. The following account is derived from my interview with Alice Fong
Yu, March 31, 1986.

iiz. Chinese Times, March 16, 1936.

113. Alice Fong Yu, interview with Gordon Chang, June 29, 1987.

114. Chinese Digest, March 13, 1936, p. 11; "A Summary of Proceedings
of the Sixth Annual Chinese Young People's Christian Conference Held at
Zephyr Point, Lake Tahoe, August 1-14, 1938," Him Mark Lai private collection; and Alice Fong Yu, interview.

115. CSYP, April I, 1938; and Chinese Digest, July 1937, PP. 14, 19•

116. CSYP, April 11, 193 5 . As government pressure mounted against Chinatown factories that violated NRA codes, other articles appeared in CSYP beseeching owners to consolidate and improve working conditions in Chinatown
(e.g., March 18, z2, 1936).

117. Time, March z8, 1938, pp. 54, 56.

118. In other words, the employer was underreporting the hours that employees worked in order to pay them at the piece rate and giving work to women
who sewed at home even though homework was illegal. Sue Ko Lee, interview
with author, October z6, 1989.

i i 9. "Jennie Matyas and the ILGWU," oral history conducted 19 5 5 by Connie Gilb, Regional Culture History Project, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 1957, p. 172 (hereafter cited as Matyas interview).

120. Chinese Digest, July 1937, P. 19.

121. Sue Ko Lee, interview.

1z2. See Rose Pesotta, Bread upon the Waters (New York: Dodd, Mead,
1944), chap. 6; titled "Subterranean Sweatshops in Chinatown," the chapter
describes her investigation of conditions in Chinatown garment factories and
how she comes to understand the difficulties involved in organizing Chinese
workers.

1z3. San Francisco Chronicle, May 17, 1934, P. 1; Chinese Times, February
16, 1936; CSYP, March 13, 15, 22, 1936; and San Francisco News, April z6,
1936, p. i.

124. Pesotta, Bread upon the Waters, pp. 74-76.

125. Him Mark Lai, "To Bring Forth a New China," pp. io-zo; and Matyas
interview, pp. 127-28, 173-74.

1 z6. Sue Ko Lee, interview.

127. Kessler-Harris, Out to Work, p. 262; and Scharf, To Work and to Wed,
PP. 130-32.

128. Ware, Holding Their Own, p. 4z; Jones, Labor of Love, p. 212; Blackwelder, Women of the Depression, pp. 135-39; and Sanchez, Becoming Mexican
American, pp. 23 2-3 5.

129. Matyas interview, pp. 163-77; "Good News!!! Chinese Workers Are
in the Union!" Sue Ko Lee scrapbook (in my possession); Chinese Digest, March
193 8, p. 15; and Jennie Matyas, letter to William Green, President of the American Federation of Labor, March 7, 1938, Labor Archives and Research Center, San Francisco State University.

130. Chinese Digest, April 1938, pp. 10-12; Jennie Matyas, "History and Background of Dispute Between Chinese Ladies' Garment Workers, Local 341,
and Dollar Stores," Labor Archives and Research Center, San Francisco State
University; and San Francisco Chronicle, February 27, 1938, P. 4.

131. "A Letter to the Public Regarding the Strike," February z6, 1938, Sue
Ko Lee scrapbook.

132. "A Statement to the Public Regarding the Damages Done to Business
by the Chinese LGWU Strike Against National Dollar Store," March z, 1938,
Sue Ko Lee scrapbook.

133. "Another Letter to the Public from Local 341, the Chinese Chapter
of the ILGWU," March 5, 1938, Sue Ko Lee scrapbook.

134. "A Statement by Golden Gate Company," March 7, 1938, Sue Ko Lee
scrapbook.

13 5. "An Explanation Regarding the Strike Against National Dollar Stores
by Workers of the Golden Gate Company," Sue Ko Lee scrapbook.

136. "A Letter to Fellow Union Members by Local 341, the Chinese Chapter of the ILGWU," Sue Ko Lee scrapbook.

137. Ware, Holding Their Own, p. 4z; Scharf, To Work and to Wed, pp.
13 2-33; and Elaine Leeder, The Gentle General: Rose Pesotta, Anarchist and Labor Organizer (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993), pp. 53-57.
See Dana Frank, Purchasing Power: Consumer Organizing, Gender, and the Seattle Labor Movement, 1919-1929 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1994), pp. 117-z6, for a discussion of the sexual division of labor in the Seattle trade union movement; and Vicki L. Ruiz, Cannery Women, Cannery Lives:
Mexican Women, Unionization, and the California Food Processing Industry,
1930-1950 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1987), for an example of a union formed and run by Mexican women workers.

138. Sue Ko Lee, interview.

139. Matyas interview, pp. 183-84.

140. Sue Ko Lee, interview.

141. According to Him Mark Lai, "A Historical Survey of Organizations of
the Left Among the Chinese in America," Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 4, no. 3 (fall 1972): 1o-zo, organizations such as Ping Sheh and Chinese
Workers Mutual Aid Association developed in the 192os and 193os as part of
a leftist movement among Chinese Americans committed to supporting the Chinese revolution and fighting exploitation and discrimination in America. Ping
Shch was an anarchist organization that advocated worker solidarity through the
publication of pamphlets, a monthly magazine, and leaflets it distributed in support of workers' struggles in Chinatown. The Chinese Workers Mutual Aid Association was established in 1937 following a successful strike against the
Alaskan Packers Association to unite Chinese workers for the purposes of improving working conditions and raising their status in labor unions.

142. "A Letter to the Public Regarding the Strike," February z6, 193 8; "Another Letter to the Public From Local 341, the Chinese Chapter of the ILGWU,"
March 5, 1938; and "The Opportunity for Chinese Workers' Liberation Has
Arrived," February z7, 1938; all in Sue Ko Lee scrapbook.

143. Sue Ko Lee, interview.

144. Matyas interview, pp. 19o-9z.

145. Sue Ko Lee, interview.

146. Matyas interview, pp. 184-91; Matyas, "History and Background of
Dispute"; and "Labor Strike in Chinatown Official Statements."

147. None of the strikes by Chinese laborers in San Francisco prior to the
1938 National Dollar Stores strike lasted more than a week or two: construction workers at the Parrot building (185z), garment workers 0875), shoemakers
(1877), cigarmakers (1884), and laundry workers (1929).

148. "Local 341 Letter to the Public Regarding Strike Settlement," June
11, 1938, "The Chinese Local Extends Greetings," Sue Ko Lee scrapbook; and
Agreement Between Golden Gate Manufacturing Company and ILGWU, Chinese Ladies' Garment Workers, Local No. 341," June 8, 1938, Labor Archives
and Research Center, San Francisco State University.

149. David Dubinsky, president of ILGWU, telegram to Jennie Matyas, May
31, 1938, Labor Archives and Research Center, San Francisco State University.

150. Matyas interview, p. 19z.

151. Handwritten note, Labor Archives and Research Center, San Francisco
State University.

1152. Sue Ko Lee, interview.

153. G. N. Wong Low, Golden Gate Mfg. Co., letter to International
Ladies' Garment Workers Union, Chinese Ladies' Garment Workers Local No.
341, May 6, 1939, Labor Archives and Research Center, San Francisco State
University.

154. Sue Ko Lee interview; and Matyas interview, pp. 193-204, z89.

155. Patricia M. Fong, "The 1938 National Dollar Strike," Asian American Review z, no. 1 (1975): 196. Douglas Monroy makes a similar argument
about the 1933 Mexican Dressmakers' Strike in Los Angeles: "Consistent with
its corporate ideology, the ILGWU leadership was not so much interested in assisting Mexican workers in establishing their own strength in the dress factories,
as it was interested in establishing its own strength in the garment industry";
see Monroy, "La Costura en Los Angeles, 1933-1939: The ILGWU and the
Politics of Domination," in Mexican Women in the United States: Struggles Past
and Present, ed. Magdalena Mora and Adelaida R. Del Castillo (Los Angeles:
Chicano Studies Research Center, University of California, Los Angeles, 1980),
p. 176.

156. Sue Ko Lee, interview.

157. Jennie Matyas, "Chinatown Turns Union," Sue Ko Lee scrapbook. At
the time, the ILGWU had been dismissed from the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and San Francisco Labor Council for supporting the Congress of Industrial Organizations. In 1940, the union reaffiliatedwith the AFL. See Matyas
interview, pp. 291-3o6.

158. Sue Ko Lee, interview.

159. Ibid.

16o. "Statement in Support of the Strike by Employees of the Emporium
and Other Department Stores," September z1, 1938, "Chinese Local Carrying
on Battle for Economic Freedom Against Odds," "Boycott Japanese Goods,"
Sue Ko Lee scrapbook; and Chinese Times, December 2 4, 1938.