Unsubmissive Women: Chinese Prostitutes in Nineteenth Century San Francisco (review)

542 China Review International: Vol. 3, No. 2, Fall 1996 Despite the fragmented presentation and the constant reiteration, the author has a sharp eye for the niceties of Chinese painting. This ranges from noticing in one painting that two figures meant to be depicted as walking down a path are facing the wrong direction and are really striding directly into the solid wall ofan adjacent hill, thus disclosing an incompetent hand, to a careful analysis ofhow a devoted collector of Chinese painting and calligraphy lovingly affixes his seals in careful pressings so that they are properly aligned vertically and horizontally and not just haphazardly stamped on. Her descriptions ofpaintings and brushwork are models of clarity and aptness ofword. Unfortunately, the author also has a sharp tongue, and her diatribes against the contemporary collector ofChinese painting (both private and public) and the supporting American academic community are couched in blunt terms certain to offend ifnot antagonize. There is much that is controversial in this book, but there is also much ofvalue, and it should be read by all serious scholars, beginning or established, in the field. Ellen Johnston Laing Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan Benson Tong. Unsubmissive Women: Chinese Prostitutes in Nineteenth Century San Francisco. Norman and London: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994. xix, 203 pp. Hardcover $24.95, isbn 0-8061-2653-1. A small but significant body of academic and literary works is emerging that is dedicated to giving a "voice" to the Asian women who immigrated to the United States and to successive generations ofAsian American women. Recent examples include the much noted novel Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan, the collection of social science and literary essays in Making Waves, by Asian Women United of California , and the historical discussion on "The Exclusion ofChinese Women, 1870-1943," by Sucheng Chan.1 One common thread among these works is the woman's perspective , which is meant to dispel the old but still popular characterizations ofthe exotic, submissive, and obliging "China doll," and to demonstrate the ways in which women have adapted or actively resisted the Asian traditions ofpatriarchal© 1996 fry University oppression and the hostile, sometimes violent, racism in the United States. ofHawai'i PressTong's historical analysis of the lives of Chinese immigrant prostitutes fits within this genre, and represents an important contribution to the study ofgender , power, and the Chinese in the United States. Given the proportion of Chi- Reviews 543 nese male sojourners in the United States at that time and what can be found in the available historical records, it is not surprising that most studies have focused largely on reconstructing the lives and struggles ofthe male gum saan haak (travelers to the Gold Mountain). This book, however, creatively draws from a wide range ofsources and is among the few works that is devoted to looking specifically at the experiences ofChinese women during the second halfofthe nineteenth century.2 As the title ofhis book suggests, Tong is concerned with uncovering and demystifying the stereotyped portrayals of early Chinese immigrant women, particularly those who were typically indentured workers forced into prostitution in the frontier areas of the American West. In the Introduction, he specifically questions common assumptions about these women's passive acceptance of their circumstanced and their victimization, and their ready acquiescence to the "rule of their master." Instead, he argues, "theywere actors in the chaotic world ofprostitution " (p. xviii), and, survived and adapted to their oppressive environment in different ways, depending on available resources and choices. Accordingly, this is a study on the "interaction ofwomen's oppression and women's power" (p. xix). The six chapters of the book are devoted to developing this thesis. In chapter 1, Tong sets the stage for understanding these women's lives by examining the gender disparities among Chinese who immigrated to the West, and the isolation ofprostitutes due in large part to the Victorian climate that pervaded American society. He draws from census data, newspaper articles, and numerous secondary sources to trace the demographic and geographical patterns ofChinese male and female immigration to the West from 1849 up until 1882, the year of the Chinese Exclusion Act. The gender ratio was quite clearly unbalanced...