The Chinese in Mexico, 1882-1940

4. Gender, Interracial Marriage, and Transnational Families

4 Gender, Interracial Marriage, and Transnational Families Born in the Tew Lin village of the Taishan region of Guangdong on February 6, 1906, Ramon Wong Fong Song immigrated to Mexicali, Mexico, in 1924 and became a dry-goods merchant and restaurant owner.1 In 1932, Wong made his first return visit to China and married Chin Yuk Lin. Following a two-year matrimonial visit, Wong returned to Mexico, leaving his wife behind in his native village and rejoining his brother and business partner, Samuel Wong Muy. Ramon and Samuel’s parents, Wong Tow Chong and Fong Shee, as well as their six sisters and two other brothers, resided in the family village of Tew Lin. Like Ramon and Samuel, the vast majority of Chinese immigrants to Mexico were male. Despite this gender imbalance, the Chinese community of Mexico was far from a “bachelor society.” As exemplified by the life story of Ramon, significant numbers of Chinese male immigrants in Mexico maintained transnational marriages with Chinese women residing overseas in their home villages, and a few of the most privileged brought Chinese wives to live with them in Mexico. In addition to the maintenance of transnational and local marriages with Chinese women, Chinese men also intermarried with native Mexican women at relatively high rates. In contrast with the Chinese diasporic community of the United States, such high rates of racial intermarriage were a distinguishing feature of the Chinese of Mexico. This chapter explores the topic of Chinese immigrant cultural adaptation by examining gender, marriage, and family patterns of the Chinese community of Mexico during the early twentieth century. In particular, it emphasizes the transnational nature of Chinese immigrant family life and looks at the transnational families that Chinese immigrant men formed with both Chinese and Mexican women. This chapter also analyzes the vehement opposition that Chinese-Mexican families faced in northern Mexico and examines popular cultural representations of ChineseMexican intermarriage through the lens of comedy sketches, cartoons, poetry, and corridos from postrevolutionary Mexico. Interracial Marriage and Transnational Families 67 Gender Patterns Like the Wong brothers, most Chinese who immigrated to Mexico were male. Between 1911 and 1928, some 22,319 Chinese male emigrants and nationalized Mexican citizens were registered as entering Mexican ports from China, as compared with only 307 women during these same years.2 Mexican national census and governmental records for the years 1895, 1900, 1910, 1921, 1926, and 1930 further highlight the gender imbalance between male and female Chinese immigrants during these years (see table 4.1). The 1895 national census recorded only 27 Chinese female nationals out of a total Chinese immigrant population of 1,023 persons.3 By 1910, although the Chinese overseas community in Mexico had grown to a size of 13,118, only 85 female Chinese nationals were registered as part of the census that year.4 In 1926, at the height of Chinese settlement in Mexico, only 1,772 women were registered as Chinese foreign residents of Mexico, as compared with 22,446 men.5 An examination of the 1930 national census manuscripts for the municipalities of Chihuahua City, Chihuahua, and Hermosillo, Sonora, underscores this similar trend favoring male immigration.6 The review of a comprehensive sampling of 417 persons residing in Chinese households in Chihuahua City in 1930 revealed the presence of only two Chinese-born adult women. In the Table 4.1. Comparison of male and female Chinese immigrant populations, 1895, 1900, 1910, 1921, 1926, 1930. Year Number of males Number of females 1895 996 27 1900 2,647 13 1910 13,118 85 1921 14,227 245 1926 22,446 1,772 1930 16,254 2,711 Sources: Mexico, Ministerio de Fomento, Censo general de la República Mexicana verificado el 20 de octubre de 1895, resúmen del censo de la república (Mexico, D.F.: Dirección General de Estadística); Mexico, Secretaria de la Economía Nacional, Quinto censo de población 1930, resúmen general (Mexico, D.F.: Dirección General de Estadística); Mexico, Secretaría de Gobernación, ElServiciodeMigraciónenMéxico (Mexico: Talleres Gráficos de la Nación, 1930), 36–38. 68 The Chinese in Mexico, 1882–1940 1930 census manuscripts for the Sonora state capital of Hermosillo, only twelve Chinese-born adult women are recorded out of a comprehensive sampling of 408 persons living in Chinese households. A comparison of the number of registered Chinese female immigrant entrances into Mexico...