The Response of the WMS to the
Immigration of Asian Women
1888-1942

KAREN VAN DIEREN

1

the 1880s, Victoria's Chinatown was the largest Chinese
community in British Columbia_! With a population of over 1500,
Chinatown, separated by a stream from Victoria's downtown,2 occupied four
city blocks just off the harbour front. All incoming Chinese entered British
Columbia through the port of Victoria. While some stayed, others scattered
throughout th~ province. Chinese men were the first arrivals from China and
San Francisco in the 1860s and 1870s. Later as Chinese labourers left
-employment with the CPR, many returned to Victoria looking for work and
recreation. 3 Those who had wives had left them in China hoping one day to
return or to be able to bring them to British Columbia at a future date. A
series of head taxes which began in 1886 and culminated in the Oriental
Exclusion Act (1923) largely prevented the immigration of Chinese wives of
the labouring class to the west coast. In 1885, 1661 Chinese men lived in
Victoria compared to Jewer than one hundred women, half of them
prostitutes, the rest merchant wives. 4 Chinese merchants, unlike the
contracted labourers, were permitted by the Immigration Department to
settle in British Columbia with their families which often consisted of elderly
parents, wives, sons and daughters and male and female domestic servants.
This small merchant elite exercised authority over the Chinese community
and controlled trade with China, including the illegal immigration of Chinese
women brought for the purpose of prostitution. 5
In China young women were bought, then brought to British Columbia
where they were resold for as much as $1500 6 to Chinese men. These women
were usually forced to sign a contract stating that they agreed to prostitute
themselves for a specified length of time, after which they were free. In China,
the selling of daughters by fathers was an acceptable practice. Usually a
daughter was given to a man to be his wife for an agreed price, but in times of
Barbara K. Latham and Roberta J. Pazdro, Eds., Not Just Pin Mone}'
Victoria: Camosun College, l 984
·

80

Response of the WMS

need a father might explicitly sell his daughter either to a brothel owner or to a
wealthy family to be a domestic servant. 7 Merchant wives brought many girls
under the age of fifteen into the country, pretending to be their mothers.
These domestics, too, were bound to their owners until they were either sold
into marriage or into prostitution. The buying and selling of Chinese girls and
women was in part a transporting of Chinese cultural practices to British
Columbia and in part a response to the shortage to Chinese women in British
Columbia.
Popular racist sentiment in British Columbia toward Chinese women
was typical of the racist response to the Chinese presence in general. ~~JI_
Chinese women were believed to be prostitutes who seduced young white
boys and transmitted venereal disease. C!i_it1ese women, it was argued, posed a
serious threat to Canadian society because they undermined the morals and
health of the white community. 8 In a society that preferred to maintain a
European, and ideally British, ethnic heritage, Chinese women were also
feared because of their potential to increase the Chinese population. It was
also argued that more Chinese would mean greater competition between
whites and Asians for jobs. The 1885 Royal Commission on Chinese
· Immigration was the federal government's response to the perceived threat.
Their solution was the imposition of a $10.00 head tax designed to restrict
Chinese immigration, 9 which in effect retarded only the legal immigration of
Chinese women.
While the white community debated the relative merits of Chinese
immigration at the Royal Commission hearings in 1885, J.E. Gardner began
his personal Christian mission to the Chinese prostitutes in Victoria.
Gardner, born in China to Presbyterian missionary parents, came to Victoria
from San Francisco to act as interpreter for some Chinese involved in a court
case. He had a fluent understanding of Cantonese and was later offered a job
as the Chinese interpreter at the Customs Office. In a short time, Gardner
joined the Metropolitan Methodist Church and became acquainted with the
Chinese community. It seems that he was particularly disturbed by the lack of
attention given to the prostitutes' spiritual lives, and by the bondage in which
they lived. 10 Gardner's decision to set up a Home for Chinese women was
based on his own Christian missionary iJeals and was probably drawn from
his familiarity with a similar kind of project run by the Women's Missionary
Society of the Presbyterian Church in San Francisco. Gardner viewed the
prostitutes as victims of a larger immoral social structure that had enslaved
women in a degrading environment. Changing the environment, he therefore
believed, would provide them with the possibility for personal growth and
salvation. With the assistance of the police, Gardner succeeded in removing
two prostitutes from Chinatown. However, the police refused to intervene
again on behalf of the prostitutes, so Gardner relied on cooperative Chinese
businessmen to introduce him to dissatisfied women. Because Gardner's
effort was not well received among the Methodist congregation in Victoria,
little financial assistance or moral support was given him. Reverend Starr
wrote:
In spite of appeal after appeal only about a dozen
women of my congregation have responded with

VAN DIEREN

81

contributions of clothing and their presence at the
home. While among the men I have only received
$36.50. To give you an idea of the prejudice, the first
Sabbath morning the girls were at Church a prominent
female member of the church offered Mrs. Starr a seat
in her pew, remarking "she must be very
uncomfortable" among those Chinese girls ... Another
woman and member of the Church whose house
adjoins the Home threatened to complain against it to
City CQuncil as a nuisance. 11
In 1887, Reverend Starr of the Metropolitan Methodist Church explained
Gardner's concerns to the President of the Women's Missionary Society
(WMS) of the Methodist Church, Mrs. E.S. Strachen of Toronto. His letter
read:
"What shall I do with them?" ... It was a big question-he was at the time unmarried. Save his salary he was
without means--such is the antipathy to the Chinese
among the people of the Pacific Coast. He was without
even sympathy. But at all costs he thought these poor
creatures, Christ's sisters and mine must be saved.
Accordingly he borrowed the money (pledging
installments of his salary to repay it) rented a house-had it equipped with the necessary furniture and
bedding, secured a matron and ... at his own expense ...
maintained and supported, and so originated the
home for rescued Chinese girls in Victoria. 12
Since Starr and Gardner were unable to financially support the project, they
appealed to the WMS: "apart from our faith in God the outlook is dreary
enough unless the women of the Methodist Church of Canada come to the
Home's help."13 Besides running the Home, Gardner was also paying legal
costs which arose from his rescue attempts. The rescue a'ftempts
understandably aroused the animosity of the Chinese community and the
challenged Gardner's right to keep these women by issuing writs of habeas
corpus demanding the appearance ofthe women in court. Usually the women
were given the choice of returning to their Chinese owners or to the Home.
Thus, Starr felt the WMS was financially better able to support the Home and
to pay the legal costs involved in rescue. Furthermore, women working with
Chinese women would be less vulnerable to attack by the Chinese community
than was an unmarried man with incomprehensible motives.
·
The WMS quickly responded to Starr's request that it assume
responsibility ove_r Gardner's Home. In 1888, the Society purchased a house
at 100 Cormorant Street in Victoria, called it the Rescue Home for Chinese
Girls, and appointed Miss Leaky, a missionary from Nova Scotia, as
matron. 14 Seven Chinese prostitutes were brought to the Home by Gardner.
The WMS treasury took over responsibility for funding the Home, and a
board of managers, made up· of five prominent women from Victoria's
Methodist Church, arranged to meet monthly to advise on all its matters. This
marked the beginning of WMS's sole authority over the Home's functions,
agenda and appointments until it closed in 1942.

82

Response of the WMS

The decision by the WMS to run the Rescue Home for Chinese Girls was
made in the context of a Christian reform movement. Much later called the
Social Gospel Movement, it was influenced by Christian evangelical ideology
and sought to solve social problems by converting individuals to a Christian
vision of the moral society. In Canada, the focus of the movement was the
urban poor and ethnic minorities. The Methodist Church was the leading
Protestant denomination actively engaged in mission work because of both
its theology and its history of work among the impoverished in England.1 5
Through the Missionary Society, and especially through the Women's
Missionary Society, established in 1881, boys' and girls' homes were
established across Canada for orphans and delinquents; soup kitchens were
set up for the hungry, and religious and educational facilities were ruri to meet
a host of needs. Most of the reform work dealing with women and children
was undertaken by the WMS.
The establishment of Women's Missionary Societies in most Protestant
denominations in the 1870s and 1880s 16 was indicative of an increased
autonomy and power that women had gained within the Church. The WMS
had responsibility over its own treasury. The active members were backed by
a large group of middle and upper-class women who lent their time to the
cause principally by fund raising. This money financed schools in areas such
as training women missionaries. From these schools women graduated who
were dedicated workers for the church. The graduates were then appointed by
the WMS to staff missions throughout Canada. In the 1880s in British
Columbia, the WMS, in addition to managing the Rescue Home in Victoria,
established three homes for Native children: The Crosby's Girls' School and
Home in Port Simpson, the Kitimat Home and School in Kitimat, and the
Coqualeetza Institute in Sardis.
Paralleling the increased power of women in the Church was a greater
concern about the role of women in society. The ideology of nineteenthcentury Christian reformers emphasized the value of women's role as wife and .
mother, but they also believed that the obligations of mothers extended to
participation in the public sphere. Thus, education was considered to be a
prerequisite for marriage and motherhood, but it also was appropriate for
women in the helping professions, such as nursing, teaching and missionary
work. In the late nineteenth century, the WMS aggressively moved to bring
their ideology to Native and immigrant women and children.
The most common means used to teach their education and values was
the "Home." Designed as a surrogate family, the Home was used to teach girls
a Christian meaning of womanhood coupled with essentially white middleclass behaviour and values. In effect, the missionaries hoped that foreign girls
and women would assimilate the values of the dominant culture and would in
tum raise their children in a Christian and Western home. The ideology,
however, was more idealistic than practical. Experience proved that. The
values of the WMS clashed with the established relations between men and
women in Chinese communities. Resistance to the imposition of Christian
sexual and marital values was inevitable. Nevertheless, the educational
_opportunities offered through the WMS homes provided a way for minority
women to learn about Canadian society.

VAN DIEREN

83

The Rescue Home for Chinese Girls was an example of how one group
of women strove to Christianize foreigners whom they hoped would
ultimately be integrated into society. While the white community's fear of the
Asian presence manifested itself in discriminatory legislation, the WMS
Home tried to amend those fears through education. Although the WMS
never overcame prejudice, their solution was unique.
For fifty-four years, the WMS was involved in the lives of Asian women
and girls. The history of the Home offers a unique opportunity to explore the
personal experiences of many Chinese, and later Japanese,.women who took
refuge in the Home, albeit through the records left by Canadian missionaries.
The WMS carefully recorded in its Registration Books a history of each
woman and child who entered the Home. The Society also recorded in its
Annual Reports its progress and frustrations. The information of the Home is
important because it provides descriptions of the condition of life for Asian
women in British Columbia and of the role that Christian women played in
attempting to reform the personal lives of those who patronized the Home.
The Rescue Home for Chinese Girls, first established as a Home for
Chinese prostitutes, was within a few years sheltering many young Asian
women. The initial aim of rescuing Chinese prostitutes was quickly dropped
when it became clear that they were unwilling or unable to adapt to the Home,
Efforts thereafter concentrated on young domestic servants ( or "slaves" as the
WMS called them). After 1895, Japanese women and children also began
residing in the Home. As the number of residents increased, the WMS added
full-time teachers and evangelistic workers to the original staff of one matron.
Activities quickly expanded. Inside the Home, day school, kindergarten,
Sunday School and weekly prayer meetings were added. Outside the Home
door-to-door evangelism began. Those residing in the Home were prepared
for marriage with ongoing lessons in fancy work, housekeeping, sewing and
manners. Preparation for Christian conversion required English language
lessons and Biblical instruction. Outside the Home, door-to-door evangelism
was seen as a way of expanding the Christian influence and of gaining access
to Asian homes. In 1908, due to the need fora larger home, the WMS built the
Oriental Home and School with a capacity of twenty-three permanent
residents to replace the smaller Rescue Home which had a capacity of fifteen.
Gardner had had definite objectives for the Horne according to Reverend
Starr:
1st - To break up the villainous traffic.
2nd - To Christianize and convert the girls rescued.
3rd - To prepare them for household duties in case of
marriage.
4th -To train and educate such of the~e girls as evince
an aptitude for the work to become Bible women
among the Chinese women either here or in China.17
The WMS closely adhered to the objectives established by Gardner. The
missionaries concentrated first on meeting the physical needs of the Chinese
women and girls and then on their spiritual values. The process of
transformation was slow, but the missionaries tenaciously hung on to their

_84

Response of the WMS

goal of training women missionaries. Their persistence can be explained only
by their belief in the ultimate purpose of their work. Elizabeth Churchill,
teacher and evangelistic worker, stated:
it would be strange ... if, on looking back over a year of
Christian effort and work, we could say that no
shadows had fallen across our pathway; but ... the
consciousness that the Divine approval has rested
upon us and our work more than compensates for all
the rest and has enabled us to go steadily forward,
turning neither to the right nor the left, with a firm
purpose that "none of these things move us. "18
The first prostitutes brought to the Rescue Home were a great
disappointment to the WMS. While a small number married Christian
Chinese men and adopted a Christian lifestyle, most of the twenty-six women
who entered the Home between 1888 and 1917 (the last reported case)
remained only a short time. Repeatedly, the WMS Annual Reports described
the unwillingness of prostitutes to stay in the Home:
A Chinese woman sought refuge with us. We made her
welcome and tried to induce her to stay, but after three
days, she preferred to return to the dark life which had
already claimed six years of her existence.
We had charge of a Chinese woman for nearly three
weeks but she is unimproved in her life, as she is an
inveterate gambler and prostitute. 19
Some of the prostitutes suffered from abuse and addiction to opium. Often
the WMS kept them in the Home for many years. The Annual Reports
recorded that
... Eva, a rescued prostitute, who had been addicted to
opium, and was not bright, thus being constant care
among so many little ones on account of her temper
and morals, was transferred to a Mission Home for
such in China after being in the Home over thirteen
years. 20
In 1941 the Home Matron reported:
Over 50 years ago this Home was founded as a place of
refuge for slave girls. Milly was rescued from the
streets in Chinatown. As she has but the mentality of a
child,. she has never gone out to work, or to be married
but she ought to receive due reward some day for the
thousands of times she has scrub bed floors and
washed dishes. 2 1
Because of their disappointments, the WMS soon restricted their
involvement with the prostitutes to evangelistic visits, although the Home was
always open to any woman wishing refuge.
· Evangelism was an important part of missionary work. Each day, an
evangelical missionary from the Home visited Chinese families, usually with a
Chinese woman from the Home as interpreter. When the missionary was
granted permission to enter a home, usually by the husband, she talked about

VAN DIEREN

85

the Bible. If the Chinese woman could read, the missionary left a copy of one
of the gospels. English, described as" ... often the means by which we gain our
first foothold,''2 2 was taught to women who requested it. The missionaries
recorded both the number of homes entered and the number of homes not
open to them. Regular visits continued and attempts were constantly made to
reach those who denied them entrance. Margaret Sherlock commented:
The Chinatown which has become so familiar to me
scarcely measures up to my idea of mission work. One
evening when the work seemed rather discouraging,
this passage was given me, "Moses stood between the
living and the dead, and the plague was stayed." So
perhaps our presence in Chinatown stays the tide of
evil. A few times I have been told to go away, that they
didn't care to hear about Jesus.23
Nevertheless, door-to-door evangelism appears to have spread .the knowledge
of the Rescue Home among Chinese women and also to have introduced the
missionaries to the domestic circumstances of Chinese women.
Evangelistic visits gave the missionaries an intimate view of Chinese
customs and the lives of these women. In many homes, there was more than
one wife and often as many as four. The circumstances of some second, third
and fourth wives were very unhappy. Eventually, some took refuge in the
Home as a way to escape abusive husbands and first wives. Between 1904 and
1908, one second wife and two fourth wives sought protection from the
Home; one ultimately returned to her husband and two returned to China.
However, the missionaries were more concerned with the young girls who
worked as domestic servants in the homes of the wealthiest Chinese families.
These girls were often brought to Victoria by the merchants' wives who
purchased them in China. The missionaries knew that, in many instances,
these girls were well treated, but they also knew that the girls who were
destined to be sold in marriage lacked the opportunity to be educated.
Probably as a result of the evangelistic visits, the girls often found their own
way to the Home. The missionaries attempted to keep these young girls in the
Home by gaining legal custody over them in the courts. Ida Snyder, Home
Matron, reported two such cases:
We have just got over the excitement of our last rescue
case--that of a young slave girl, Toy King--who sought
our protection and whom the law has given us the right
to protect. The costs, $120.00, may seem large, and yet
can we estimate the value of one human sole in money?
As we hear the house ring with the merry laughter of
these rescued ones and see their bright smiling faces,
we feel, indeed, that God has used us in this work, and
we believe that some day they will sing the song of the
redeemed. 24
The second case of two girls. escaping to the Home showed the intense
reaction of the Chinese community. The following account was reported in
the 1902-03 Annual Report:
In June we had the pleasure of welcoming two slave

86

Response of the WMS

girls who escaped from their masters. The elder one
had been in Victoria three years and the younger only
eight months; but as they lived in adjoining houses
they had become friends. The only way of escape was
through the store ... They first went to the home of one
of our Christians and were refused help; but Elsie, who
happened to be there, after sending the woman of the
house downstairs to see how many men were in the
store (only as an excuse), told the girls to go out as if
they were returning home, but to wait at a certain place
for her. She soon joined them; and led them by a
circuitous route to the Home. The men were after them
four minutes after they arrived. The next day we were
besieged by Chinese ... Day after day we had visitors-men, women and children-all tempting the girls to
return; when we told them we did not bear expenses
alone, and mentioned the names of our Advisory
Board, the masters made personal appeals to two of its
members; failing there, they sent a lawyer demanding
the return of the girls. We explained the situation to
them as best we could, and after he had seen and
questioned the girls, he said he would not take up the
case against us. But the Chinese were not discouraged
even yet ... an attempt to buy the matron with the
promise of two large presents if the girls were allowed
to go. Of course this failed ... The two girls we named
Hope and Joy. Hope is fifteen years old and Joy
thirteen. 25
Because the rescue of domestic servants was not accepted by the Chinese
community, the missionaries were often refused entrance into the homes
where the girls ·were kept. Margaret Sherlock stated, "When a new (slave) girl
comes to. the Home it prevents me from entering some home for a time at
least, if not altogether and thus it would seem to hinder the preaching of thegospel. "26 Despite opposition from the Chinese community, the missionaries
persisted in evangelizing Chinese women. Their efforts succeeded in inducing
a small number of dissatisfied women and girls to come to the Home. At any
one time, however, there were never more than five or six Chinese women and
girls registered in the Home.
Life in the Rescue Home was designed to educate, convert and instruct
women in household duties in preparation for marriage. Unlike the
prostitutes who were older and less likely to change, the rescued girls were
young and impressionable. Each girl was required to attend the Home school
which functioned regularly from September to June. The curriculum
included reading, writing, arithmetic, physiology, history, grammar and
music. The primary aim of the education, however, was Christian instruction,
as Elizabeth Churchill, teacher and evangelistic worker, explained:
My pupils have made very satisfactory progress in
English; and have committed to memory a large
number of scripture texts, which I hope by God's
blessing, will find a permanent lodging place in their
hearts, and some day bear fruit into eternal life.27

VAN DIEREN

87

The missionaries also concentrated on teaching domestic skills such as sewing
European clothes and cooking, to prepare the girls for marriage and
motherhood. Deportment and personal cleanliness were also stressed as
Sarah Bowes suggested when she reported "I have been, during the year,
endeavouring to teach the girls to take pleasure in keeping clean and neat, the
outside as well as the inside. ''28
The missionaries promoted marriage between residents and Christian
Chinese men by inviting men from the Chinese Mission for social gatherings
at the Home, where under the watchful eye of the missionaties, introductions
were made. Sarah Bowes described one such meeting, "At 8:30 in the evening
the young Chinese men of the missions, with their teachers and ministers, to
the number of 34, filed into our large school-room, where social conversation
and singing were the order of the evening. ''29 The missionaries, being the legal
guardians of many of the residents, ensured as far as possible that the women
made appropriate choices, as Ida Snyder suggested when she wrote, "We have
many suitors for the two girls, Bell and Jena, but find it very difficult to make
a choice; and indeed we wish to keep them with us as long as possible, that
they may be more settled in their habits. "30
In 1896, the WMS organized a day school in Chinatown to expand their
influence among Chinese children. They were hopeful that the rudiments of
Christianity could be imparted to the children, for, as Ida Snyder wrote" ... in
them lies our brightest hope for the future. ''3 1 Through their evangelistic
efforts, the missionaries convinced parents to send their children, both boys
and girls, to the school. Although many families were non-Christian, they
wanted their children to have the same educational opportunities as their
Canadian peers. The WMS complained, however, that few girls were sent to
the school because Chinese girls were educated traditionally only in
household duties and in submission to men. In fact, the WMS Home and day
school provided the only alternative educational opportunities for Chinese
girls in Victoria. In 1900, the Chinese Benevolent Association built a school
for Chinese boys as a way of asserting traditional Chinese values in reaction to
the incursions made by Christians into spiritual and cultural life of Chinese
children. The Chinese school did not, however, drastically affect attendance
at the WMS day school which averaged approximately thirty students a day.
In conjunction with the day schools, a Sunday School was started in the
Home. The teachers attempted to persuade the students from the day school
to attend Sunday School. They were not always successful, as Kate Morgan
explained: "Our Sunday School has registered 35 but the average attendance
is much lower as bright Sundays and Chinese feast days deplete our
numbers. "32 The WMS hoped that the children who learned the Christian
message would take it home to their parents. It appears that in some cases this
did occur: after one of their pupils accidentally drowned, her parents "asked
for a Christian burial, because they said Toshia loved the school and Sunday
School, and when she came home often showed them how to sing
and pray."33
The WMS also organized meetings to bring together the small number of
Chinese women, married and single, who had adopted Christianity. These

88

Response of the WMS

women participated in Friday meetings, the Mission Band and eventually the
Chinese Women's Auxiliary to the WMS. The groups were devoted to
reading scriptures and praying. For the most part, these women had spent
some time in the Home and, through the guidance of WMS, had married
Christian Chinese men. Ida Snyder wrote: "Of course it is our own girls who
come regularly, but occasionally we have some of the heathen women drawn
in by their desire to see the inside of the Home. "34 One Chinese woman, on the
other hand, was so determined to get permission from her husband to attend
church and the Friday meetings that she took refuge in the Home for five days
until her husband agreed to allow her to attend.
In the final analysis, the WMS's attempt to implement their ideology
among Chinese women in Victoria between 1888 and 1908 proved only
marginally successful. Sixty-five women and girls registered in the Home, yet
success, measured by Christian marriage, baptism or missionary work, was
almost exclusively with young girls who spent many years in the Home.
However, the WMS persisted in nurturing their small groups of converted
women and in providing for those women who sought shelter in the Home. In
Chinatown, evangelical efforts had been met with considerable resistance
mainly because of the disruptions caused by the rescue efforts. The
willingness of Chinese parents to send their children to day school and their
reluctance to send them to Sunday School showed that the Chinese vvere
most interested in educational opportunities, especially for their sons. Also,
their reluctance to send their daughters to school indicated an unwillingness
to tamper with traditional male/ female roles. The WMS met this challenge by
placing greater emphasis on education for both boys and girls, with the hope
that education would lead to conversion. Thus, despite their lack of success,
the missionaries continued to consider evangelism the correct social priority.
Ida Snyder wrote, "While labour unions are exercised about the influx of so
many foreigners, we are more alarmed because of the very inadequate efforts
toward their evangelization. ''3 5 Evangelism meant full cultural and religious~
conversion and assimilation.
By 1907, the Chinese in the Rescue Home were outnumbered by
Japanese women and girls. Between 1895 and 1907, 121 Japanese women and
girls were registered in the Home. Most were sent by Immigration officials to
await permission to enter Canada or to proceed to the United States and most
stayed in the Home for only two or three days. Some were deported on

suspicion that they were prostitutes, others because of various diseases. The
missionaries considered it "a great opportunity to have these women in the.
Home even for a few days or weeks, as they can give their undivided attention
to what we have to tell them."36 A Bible written in Japanese was given to each
woman upon her departure from the Home.
Many of the Japanese women came to British Columbia as "picture
brides." They arranged, through correspondence, to marry men already living
in British Columbia. Their marriages were registered and celebrated in Japatj
before the women set out to meet their husbands.37 Because the Immigration
Department insisted that the couples marry under Canadian law as SOOil
the women were allowed legal entry, there was an urgent need for a place to

a~

VAN DIEREN

89

hold the ceremony. The WMS offered to hold weddings in the Home and
reported that between 1903 and 1915, 697 weddings were performed. Each
couple was given a Bible written in Japanese as a wedding gift.
Japanese women became acquainted with the Rescue Home after having
stayed or having been married there. Some of these same women sought the
protection of the WMS from abusive husbands. No doubt the uncertainties
involved in arranged marriages and the struggle to live in a hostile, foreign
society resulted not only in disappointment but in wife abuse. A typical set of
circumstances was reported by Ida Synder:
Three Japanese married women have sought our aid
during the year. One of them returned to Japan, taking
her little daughter with her, but leaving her dissolute
husband in Vancouver. Another ... returned to her
husband. The last one put her little girl in the Home
and is at service. 38
The circumstances experienced by most Japanese women in British Columbia
were markedly different from that of Chinese women. Immigration policy
regarding the Japanese did not bar the free immigration of women, as was the
case with the Chinese. 39 Consequently, the population of Japanese women
quickly outnumbered that of the Chinese women. According to official
statistics, 1074 Chinese women arrived in British Columbia between 1906 and
1942, compared with 8037 Japanese women. 40 The large number of Japanese
women in British Columbia was reflected in their predominance in the Home.
Yet the missionaries responded to the Japanese women as they had to the
Chinese. By 1907, however, the Rescue Home for Chinese Girls could not
accommodate all the Asian women and girls who sought shelter. An article
entitled "Build New Chinese Girl's Mission Home" in the Victoria Daily
Colonist, April 3, 1908, contained the follo\ving description:
The new building will be of solid brick on stone
foundation and of good appearance. The basement
will be occupied by a large laundry and drying room,
store rooms and furnace room. On the first floor will
be a large school room, girls' and teachers' dining
rooms, parlor office, a play room and a large reception
room in the front and ample kitchen accommodation
will be provided. The second floor will contain two
large dormitories for the girls, bedrooms for the
teachers, a sick room, sewing room and other
necessary departments. 41
The WMS named this building The Oriental Home and School. The name
reflected the changes that had taken place during the twenty years of
operation of the Rescue Home for Chinese Girls. The Home, which was no
longer strictly for Chinesewomen, included Japanese women and girls and it
was no longer a Rescue Home. Rather, the Home served more as a temporary
shelter for women. Inclusion of the word "school" also reflected the greater
emphasis placed· on education. The growth of the Rescue Home into the
larger Oriental Home and School suggests that Asian communities were
expanding and that women were accepting and using the Honie.

90

Response of the WMS

The WMS responded to the increased work in the Home by intensifying
its educational and religious programs and by responding to the needs of
women seeking short-term assistance. They worked almost exclusively with
Japanese and Chinese Christian women, leaving evangelistic work largely to
the newly established Oriental Christian Missions. The consolidation of work
into educational and religious organizations suggests that the Society was
satisfied that concentration on these activities would result in their long-held
desire to see Chinese and Japanese women make a commitment to missionary
work.
The regular appearance of women, often with their children, seeking
protection through the WMS between 1908 and 1942 is striking. A total of
thirty-seven Chinese women, ninety-two Japanese women and one American,
one Swiss and one English woman, each married to Asian men, came to the
Home for temporary shelter. Sometimes women simply needed a place to rest
from stress and illness, or a place to stay while waiting for a boat to return
them to their home country. In most cases, however, women were escaping
abusive husbands or families. Of the many cases described by the WMS, the
following are typical examples of Asian women who sought protection:
... a young Japanese woman, whose home relations
had been very unhappy turned to us for help. Her
husband was addicted to drink and this led to much
trouble between them. When he threatened to send her
back to Japan, she fled from his home ... Through the
help of a Christian family in Vancouver, she got a
position. 42
.. .in answer to an S.O.S. call, I went a day's journey
into the mountains and brought back with me a bright,
attractive Chinese girl of 19 years. She was in
surroundings quite unfitted to develop the best in her
and threatened with being forced to marry a man who
already had a wife in China and who was many years
her senior. 4 3
Once at the Home, the women chose either to return to their home country or
to take a job in the city, usually as domestic servants. Other women went to
the shelter while they negotiated better conditions in their own homes. The
WMS reported that
... two Japanese women each with a daughter 10 or 12
sought our sympathy and protection both tired with
the strain of work, financial difficulties and
unsympathic treatment in their homes. Japanese
friends succeeded in adjusting their affairs and
restoring more happy conditions. 44
Another q1inese woman, second wife of a prominent
merchant m Vancouver, was dissatisfied with the
treatment she received from her husband and his first
wife and came to our Home with her daughter seven
years old ... her husband was very anxious to have her
return home as he felt keenly the disgrace of her
leaving him. He made many and favourable promises,

VAN DIEREN

91

assured her of financial consideration and just
treatment and she finally decided to return. 45
The use of the Home as a refuge suggests that no social structures existed in
the Asian communities to address the grievances of women. No Asian
organizations existed to counter men's power over women. This was
especially true of the first generation of Japanese women who were cut off
from the family support groups which traditionally arbitrated disagreements
between couples.
The WMS expanded its educational and religious work. Between 1908
and 1942, over 200 girls and a few boys were registered in the Home. To over
fifty of the girls the missionaries were virtually mothers. Girls were often
placed in the Home by their fathers because their mothers had died or by
parents who were unable to care for them. Others were placed by the
Children's Aid Society. Some were brought from as far away as Toronto and
Nova Scotia. Still others lived only temporarily at the home while attending
school. The following example is typical of the many circumstances under
which children came to the Home:
Three have been bereft of both parents, two have been
deserted by the one who should be their best friend,
their mother, and the other three have the sad
experience of being separated from home and parents
because their father is completely disabled and their
mother is forced to become bread winner for a family
of seven. 46
Many children were left only temporarily in the Home while their parents
were absent or while they arranged their affairs:
The ten who left us during the year are as follows: A
.Japanese girl of 7 years, who was left in our care for 4
months during her mother's absence in Japan ... two
little Japanese children who lost their mother, the
elder returned home when his father secured a
housekeeper and the baby went to board in an English
home for a year.47
A number of girls and women were also sent to the Home by their parents or
husbands to attend school and to acquire the habits of Christian living. The
WMS always accepted these boarders because their appearance indicated the
Home's acceptability among the Asian community:
We are very glad to have with us all year a little
Chinese girl of 10 years, daughter of a Chinese
merchant of Steveston. This is the first Chinese girl we
have ever had as a boarder. This shows how differently
our Home and School is looked upon by Chinese
people now. 48
The willingness of the Home and the WMS to care for, and sometimes rear,
girls attests to their ability to respond to the needs and conditions of the Asian
community. In turn, these communities must have viewed the Home as an
appropriate place of care and education for their girls.
Once a part of the Home, residents were required to participate in the

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Response of the WMS

domestic activities required to maintain a family of as many as thirty.
Elizabeth Staples, Domestic Science teacher, explained:
In looking on the surface of my work it might be said
to be teaching the girls the art of caring for dining
rooms, kitchen, pantries and store rooms; the
preparation and cooking of foods ... the purchasing
and taking care of all food and supplies used in my
department; the planning and serving of six meals a
day ... One of these meals is Oriental ... Besides these
meals, the youngest each has one pint of milk every
day .. Then there are many extras, such as canning
fruit ... preparations for Hallowe 'en, Thanksgiving,
Christmas ... When you take into consideration that
there are eight girls under my supervision, and that
every week there is a different girl on each part of the
work assigned to one, and that my ambition is not
merely to teach the regular routine of work but even
more to emphasize the importance of being
trustworthy, dependable, upright, fair and just in all
our dealings ... you may in a degree understand my
responsibility along these lines. 49
The WMS kept the Japanese and Chinese educational activities
separate, giving each group specialized attention. Lessons in English as well
as Chinese or Japanese were given to each group. For the Japanese children,
kindergarten operated each day in the Home, whereas one for Chinese
children operated at the Chinese Mission, Chinatown, where children from
the Home and from the community met each day. The WMS used their
kindergarten educational program to teach the Bible to the young and to gain
the confidence of the old. Annie Martin, Home Matron, reported that the
Chinese kindergarten
... has opened new homes to us, largely among the
better class. Then as we have won the love of these little
ones we have gained the strong confidence of their
parents and are warmly welcomed into their homes,
and where indifference was before shown to the gospel
message, in several cases we find a gratifying interest. 50
As the number of advanced students increased, additional grades were added
until levels from kindergarten to high school were taught in the Home. In
1915, the WMS reported that the first two girls from the Home successfully
passed the provincial high school entrance examination.
Between 1908 and 1942, the WMS concentrated less on evangelistic work
and more on consolidating both younger and older women into religious
organizations. Sunday School for children was vigorously promoted as the
first step; then, as the girls matured, a Chinese and Japanese Canadian Girls
in Training was organized along with groups of Young Women's Christian
· Temperance Union, Young Peoples and Blue Birds. For married women,
Friday meetings, women's prayer meetings, Chinese and Japanese Mission
Band and Auxiliaries met regularly. The missionaries viewed the young
women as potential spiritual leaders of their communities. They hoped that

VAN DIEREN

93

through these organizations development of leadership qualities would take
place. The WMS reported that gains were being made of a
... physical, mental, [and] social... nature, as evidenced
during our meetings in their proficiency in playing
basketball and other games, their abilities to debate
and give a speech when required.5 1
These organizations also addressed practical questions such as the contrast
between the Christian-Canadian lifestyle and that of communities to which
they belonged. Young women found themselves estranged from their
communities, yet not fully accepted by Canadian society. This was a serious
and perplexing identity issue. 52 The missionaries, however, through their
religious groups, attempted to provide Asian women with an alternative: a
self-supporting peer group, designed to be an example of Christian living
among their communities.
The educational and religious programs in the Home finally resulted in
the first pupils making life commitments to missionary work. In her 1920-2 l
Report to the WMS, Home Matron, Annie Martin, reflected over her
fourteen years of service at the Home:
... there come back the thoughts to which I then gave
expression "How splendid it would be if this Home
could train girls who would go out as missionaries to
their own people either here or in their own home
lands across the sea." The realization of that desire did
not seem a very near possibility at that time, but today,
the hearts of the workers past and present, are lifted in
a great thanksgiving to God, for from the little group
who greeted their new teacher that day, three have
consecrated their lives to the service of God as
missionary workers. Hara Uyohara ... has already
given two years of splendid service among her own
Japanese people in Seattle. Victoria Chung is
preparing for medical missionary work and Annie
Nakabayashi, who graduated from the Normal School
in May, has entered upon her duties as public school
teacher of our Home ... We are happy also to have 4 or
5 others who are studying with the thought of
missionary work. 5J
Every woman who made a commitment to missionary work had spent most of
her childhood under the influence of the WMS. The missionaries were not
nearly so successful with those who had spent only a short time in the Home.
By 1942, the WMS had assisted in training and supporting eleven
missionaries: one doctor, five graduate nurses, three trained kindergarten
teachers and two teachers. While Gardner had envisioned the transformation
of Chinese prostitutes into missionary women, the WMS recognized that
such a possibility lay only with girls adopted and raised in its Christian
educational community. Success, especially after 1920, was a testament to the
strength and devotion of the missionary workers. While only a few Home
women actually became missionaries, many others supported Christian ·
causes. Also, the Asian community's acceptance of the educational

94

Response of the WMS

opportunities offered to girls resulted in a generation of Asian women better
equipped to cope with their adopted society.
By 1942, national and international political tensions brought an abrupt
end to the Oriental Home and School. The war between Japan and China
created animosity between the two communities in British Columbia.
Furthermore, after Pearl Harbor, Canadian-Japanese relations drastically
deteriorated and in May, 1942, the Government of Canada ordered all
Japanese on the west coast transported to internment camps in the interior of
British Columbia. The eviction order included eighteen young Japanese girls
living in the Oriental Home and School. Elsa Daniels, Home Matron,
reported in 1942:
There is one and only one major event to report for the
first half of 1942, namely the evacuation of the
Japanese children from the Oriental Home in Victoria,
B.C. to the Girls' Residence in Assiniboia, Sask. But
we are very proud of that accomplishment. When war
was declared between Canada and Japan these
eighteen Canadian-born Japanese children, through
no fault of their own, became a sudden liability to our
society, in that they had to be removed from the
Defence Area... Our children were motherless, and
any fathers living had already been removed to labour
camps. Eleven of the children were under twelve years
of age. It was no time to "let them down" when they
needed our care and love more than ever before. After
a great deal of negotiation, it was decided that they
should be moved to a partially empty school home in a
southern Saskatchewan town ... Of course there were
many prejudices to be broken down, but the children
won their own way just by being the loveable,
attractive, personalities that they are. Assiniboia
referred to our coming as the "Invasion." "But" they
added, referring to the shiny-haired, dark-eyed little
folk ... "they came, we saw, they conquered."54
In June, 1942, when only six Chinese girls were left in the Home, the long
arm of World War II transformed the Home to a service club for men in the
forces. At the request of the government, the WMS leased the building to the
Knights of Columbus. 55 In September, the WMS created a Centre for Chinese
Christian Work, with one woman in charge who would also manage a small
Home for Chinese Girls. The evacuation of the Japanese from the west coast
removed not only the majority of residents in the Home, but also the whole
Japanese community which the WMS had served. Consequently, the
missionary role of the WMS in Victoria diminished abruptly.
The events of 1942 are clearly a part of the historical white racist
sentiment in British Columbia. Beginning with the Chinese and expanding
with Japanese immigration, racist sentiment was opposed to the immigration
of Orientals to British Columbia. Within the context of anti-Asiatic
immigration the WMS pursued their goals of evangelism and education. The
Christian ideology received opposition from both the Asian and white

VAN DIEREN

95

community. Although the WMS reports are unable to clearly recount the
opinions of the Asian communities, it appears that they were slow to approve
of the fundamental changes that the WMS was attempting to make in
relations between women and men. It is evident that a split occurred between
the traditionalists and those who supported western education and
Christianity. The white community also opposed the WMS largely becau~e it
was reluctant to accept Asians as an integral part of British Columbia's
political, economic and social community.
The WMS pursued their goals virtually alone. In the Rescue Home, in
the Oriental Home and School and in the Chinese and Japanese communities,
the WMS attempted to impart values consistent with their own. The society
successfully met its objectives by providing educational opportunities for
Asian girls and equipping some of them with the values of Christian marriage
and motherhood, and inspiring others to missionary work. The unexpected
closure of the Oriental Home and School in 1942 ended the era of Christian
charitable missions throughout Canada. This era predates and overlaps with
the establishment of government agencies dealing with welfare and
education. The course of events in the Home clearly showed that a shift in
emphasis from religion to social welfare and education occurred. This shift
took place not because of ideological change, but because of the pressing need
for a shelter and an orphanage. This essay only begins to show the response of
white women to the immigration of Asian women to British Columbia and
the development of these communities in an hostile environment.

96

Response of the WMS

Footnotes
1. Chuen- Yan Lai, "The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association in Victoria:
its Origins and Functions," BC Studies 15 (Autumn 1972): 55.
2. Market Square Historical Background (Pamphlet distributed by Market
Square, Victoria, BC): 3.
3. Stanford M. Lyman, "Contrasts in the Community Organization of Chinese and
Japanese in North America," in BC Historical Readings, ed. W. Peter Ward and
Robert A.J. McDonald (Vancouver: Douglas and McIntyre, 1981): 647.
4. Government of Canada, Report of the Royal Commission on Chinese
Immigration 1885 (Ottawa: Report and Evidence, 1885): 363. Needless to say, these
abolute numbers are questionable.
5. lvfarket Square, p. 3.
6. See J.E. Starr, "A Report upon 'The Home' for Rescued Chinese Girls in
Victoria.BC.: The Origin" (United Church of Canada, BC Conference Archives.
Vancouver School of Theology), and L.C Hirata "Chinese Immigrant Women in
Nineteenth-Century California" in Women of America, ed. C.R. Berkin and M.B.
Norton (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1979): 240.
7. See I. Pruitt, A Daughter of Han (California: Stanford University Press, 1967)
and Sue Gronewald, "Beautiful Merchandise: Prostitution in China, 1860-1936,"
Women and History 1 (Spring, 1982): l-11 l for descriptions of the selling of
daughters.
8. Royal Commission, see evidence by C.T. Bloomfield, p. 48; P. Crowley, p.24; J.
Flewin, p. 50.
9. Anthony B. Chan, Gold ll,1ountain (Vancouver: New Star Books, 1983): l I.
10. S.S. Osterhoust, Orientals in Canada (Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1929): 173.
1I. J.E. Starr, letter, United Church Archives, Vancouver School of Theology,
UBC.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. S.S. Osterhoust, p. 172.
15. W. Mitchinson, " Canadian Women and Church Missionary Societies in
Nineteenth Century: A Step Toward Independence," Atlantis 2 (Spring 1977): 68,.
and George N. Emery, "The Origins of Canadian Methodist Involvement in the Social
Gospel Movement, 1890-1914," Journal of the Canadian Church Historical Society
XIX (March-June, 1977): 116.
·
·
16. Ibid.
17. J.E. Starr, letter. United Church Archives.
18. Women's Missionary Society of the Methodist Church of Canada, Annual
Reports (Toronto: Nillian Briggo, 1897-98): lxxxiii.
19. WMS, Annual Reports, 1898-99: lxxxiii, and 1901-02: xxxiv.
20. Ibid., 1912-13: xcix.
21. Ibid., 1941-42: 114.
22. Ibid., 1907-08: xciv.
23. Ibid., 1902-03: lxxxii.
24. Ibid., 1900-01: XCV.
25. Ibid., 1902-03: lxxxiv.
26. Ibid., 1903-04: lxxxvii.
27. Ibid., 1898-99: lxxxix.
28. Ibid., 1895-96: 23.
29. Ibid.: 24.

VAN DIEREN

97

30. Ibid., 1900-01: XCV.
31. Ibid., 1906-07: lxxvi.
32. Ibid., 1898-99: lxxxvii.
33. Ibid., 1906-07: lxxviii.
34. Ibid., 1900-01: xcvi.
35. Ibid., 1906-07: lxxvii.
36. Ibid., 1904-05: lxxxiv.
37. Ito Kazuo, Jssei: A History of Japanese Immigrants in North America (Japan:
Japan Publications, 1973): 188-191.
38. WMS, Annual Reports, 1903-04: lxxvi.
39. Stanford M. Lyman, p. 647.
40. Minorities of Oriental Race in Canada, Canadian Institute of International
Affairs, Paper No. l (Toronto: CHA, December 1942): 5-7.
41. Victoria Daily Colonist, April 3, 1908: 7.
42. WMS, Annual Reports, 1933-34: 346.
43. Ibid., 1924-25: cliii.
44. Ibid.
45. Ibid., 1925-26: 188-189.
46. Ibid., 1929-30: 348.
47. !hid., 1918-1919: cviii.
48. Ibid., I917-18: ex.
49. Ibid., 1926-27: 330-331.
50. Ibid., 1913-14: xclx.
51. Ibid., 1920-21: cxxii.
52. Charles H. Young and Helen R.Y. Reid, The laJ!anese Canadians (Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, I 938): 90-91.
53. WMS, Annual Reports, 1920-21: cxxiv.
54. !hid., 1942-43: 121.
55. Victoria Dai(v Colonist, November 14, 1942: 15.