Unbound voices : a documentary history of Chinese women in San Francisco / Judy Yung.

ISBN:

9780520922877

9780585329802

Title:

Unbound voices : a documentary history of Chinese women in San Francisco / Judy Yung.

Author:

Yung, Judy.

Personal Author:

Yung, Judy.

Publication Information:

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xv, 543 pages) : illustrations

Contents:

Lessons from My Mother's Past: Researching Chinese Women's Immigration History -- Chin Lung's Affidavit, May 14, 1892 -- Leong Shee's Testimony, April 18, 1893 -- Leong Shee's Testimony, July 24, 1929 -- Jew Law Ying's Coaching Book -- Jew Law Ying's and Yung Hin Sen's Testimonies, April 2-3, 1941 -- Oral History Interview with Jew Law Ying -- Bound Feet: Chinese Women in the Nineteenth Century -- Images of Women in Chinese Proverbs: "A Woman without Talent Is Virtuous" -- Kwong King You, Sau Saang Gwa: "If I Could Just See Him One More Time" -- A Stain on the Flag / Confession of a Chinese Slave-Dealer: How She Bought Her Girls, Smuggled Them into San Francisco, and Why She Has Just Freed Them / The Chinese Woman in America / Worse Than Slaves: Servitude of All Chinese Wives / Mary Tape, an Outspoken Woman: "Is It a Disgrace to Be Born a Chinese?" -- Unbound Feet: Chinese Immigrant Women, 1902-1929 -- Sieh King King, China's Joan of Arc: "Men and Women Are Equal and Should Enjoy the Privileges of Equals" -- Madame Mai's Speech: "How Can It Be That They Look upon Us as Animals?" -- No More Footbinding (Anonymous) -- Wong Ah So, Filial Daughter and Prostitute: "The Greatest Virtue in Life Is Reverence to Parents" -- Law Shee Low, Model Wife and Mother: "We Were All Good Women--Stayed Home and Sewed" -- Jane Kwong Lee, Community Worker: "Devoting My Best to What Needed to Be Done" -- The Purpose of the Chinese Women's Jeleab Association

Local Note:

eBooks on EBSCOhost

Subject Term:

Chinese American women -- California -- San Francisco -- History -- Sources.

Chinese American women -- California -- San Francisco -- Social conditions -- Sources.

Women immigrants -- California -- San Francisco -- History -- Sources.

Chinese American women -- California -- San Francisco -- Biography.

Geographic Term:

San Francisco (Calif.) -- Social conditions -- Sources.

San Francisco (Calif.) -- Ethnic relations -- Sources.

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

Click here to view

Publication Date:

1999

Publication Information:

Available:*

Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
979.46100495100922 21	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ONLINE	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Unbound Voices brings together the voices of Chinese American women in a fascinating, intimate collection of documents--letters, essays, poems, autobiographies, speeches, testimonials, and oral histories--detailing half a century of their lives in America. Together, these sources provide a captivating mosaic of Chinese women's experiences in their own words, as they tell of making a home for themselves and their families in San Francisco from the Gold Rush years through World War II.

The personal nature of these documents makes for compelling reading. We hear the voices of prostitutes and domestic slavegirls, immigrant wives of merchants, Christians and pagans, homemakers, and social activists alike. We read the stories of daughters who confronted cultural conflicts and racial discrimination; the myriad ways women coped with the Great Depression; and personal contributions to the causes of women's emancipation, Chinese nationalism, workers' rights, and World War II. The symphony of voices presented here lends immediacy and authenticity to our understanding of the Chinese American women's lives.

This rich collection of women's stories also serves to demonstrate collective change over time as well as to highlight individual struggles for survival and advancement in both private and public spheres. An educational tool on researching and reclaiming women's history, Unbound Voices offers us a valuable lesson on how one group of women overcame the legacy of bound feet and bound lives in America. The selections are accompanied by photographs, with extensive introductions and annotation by Judy Yung, a noted authority on primary resources relating to the history of Chinese American women.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 2000.

Unbound Voices brings together the voices of Chinese American women in a fascinating, intimate collection of documents--letters, essays, poems, autobiographies, speeches, testimonials, and oral histories--detailing half a century of their lives in Am

Author Notes

Yung Judy :

Judy Yung is Associate Professor of American Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is the author of the award-winning Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco (California, 1995), Chinese Women of America: A Pictorial History (1986), and Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940 (1980).

Reviews (1)

Choice Review

Yung's collection of documents on the Chinese and Chinese American women of San Francisco from the late 19th century to 1945 effectively captures the variety of life experiences open to these women. Though their numbers were few (only 2,000 in 1900 and c.4,000 by 1930), some were wives and mothers while others were community workers (the Chinese YWCA was formed in 1916). Yung builds on the research she had done for her earlier narrative study Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco (CH, Apr'96); as a result, the reader hears the voices of these women gleaned from oral interviews as well as archival sources. Though patriarchal tradition prevailed, these women, like other ethnic women, sometimes broke out. Contrary to common assumptions, during the Depression of the 1930s many found work within the Chinese community as seamstresses, sales clerks, and clerical workers. The Chinese community was also treated better during WW II, when the Japanese became the evil Asians. This documentary collection offers readers a fine opportunity to study the similarities and differences between Chinese women and all other women. General readers; upper-division undergraduates and above. J. Sochen; Northeastern Illinois University