A Preliminary Sketch of Chinese
Women and Work in BritishColumbia 1858-1950
TAMARA ADILMAN

I n the study of Chinese-Canadians in general, and in the British
Columbia case specifically, Chinese women have been largely ignored. For
the most part invisible in the formal record, women have been treated as an
afterthought, or as only a demographic statistic. However, Chinese women's
settlement in the province is significant, especially when their labour, wheth,¢r
paid or unpaid, is considered.
From the earliest days of settlement here women participated in both
wage work and unpaid labour. In the Chinese woman's historical setting in
British Columbia these familiar categories of work need to be redefined:
unpaid work in the home was labour performed in the home generally related
to its functioning. Responsibilities included food preparation, cleaning,
childbearing, childrearing, the manufacture of clothing, as well as many other
varied and time-consuming tasks. The majority of Chinese women were
primarily responsible for these tasks even when they were also involved in
additional work. Unpaid work was labour performed for money, although
women did not directly receive money for their labour. Instead, a male in
control of a family business or a male "owner" or "contractor" of women
benefited economically from and controlled the money earned by women.
Paid work was labour for which women received money. This category
included women who received payment for work at home such as home
sewing or laundry. It-also included other women who worked for wages in the
work force and in family-owned businesses.
Given these definitions of work, it is clear that only women who had all
labour performed for them were exempt from work. However, in Canada,
almost all Chinese women worked in the home. A majority of these were also
either in the second category of unpaid labourer who earned a profit for male
family members, bosses, or owners, or were wage workers in the labour force.
Barbara K. Latham and Roberta J. Pazdro, Eds., Not Just Pin Money
Victoria: Camosun College, 1984

54

Chinese Women

Therefore, Chinese women's paid and unpaid labour was indispensable to the
maintenance and continuance of many of the Chinese businesses in which
they worked, and for the economic survival of those few Chinese families who
first settled here.
It is well known that the Chinese people in Canada and in British
Columbia have been subjected to a long history of repressive government
legislation and administrative policy. What usually goes unsaid is that this
legislation and policy severely deterred most Chinese women from coming to
Canada as permanent settlers. That single or independent Chinese women
seldom came to Canada in a period of high demand in the West for women is
entirely overlooked. Yet public policy restricted Chinese women's entrance
to Canada from the 1880s until 1950. Beginning in the 1880s, attempts were
made to restrict Chinese immigration by using a series of head taxes. In 1923,
the passing of the Chinese Immigration Act completely barred the Chinese
from entering Canada as permanent settlers for nearly twenty-five years. Also
known as the Exclusion Act, this legislation culminated a period of intense
discrimination. Between 1920 and 1923, government bodies which became
concerned with the increasing presence of Chinese women in British
Columbia created new policies which affected women after 1923. Finally,
since Chinese women remained in British Columbia after 1923, their work
patterns are of considerable interest. As the first generation of ChineseCanadian women grew up, they continued to work as wage labourers, but in
somewhat different occupations from their mothers.
This history of Chinese women has been gathered from primary
documents, secondary ~ources, and oral histories. 1 The oral history will be
used to enliven information contained in the primary documents. 2 Oral
history also provides authoritative accounts of the past. This aspect of it is
especially important when public archives and secondary sources have few if
any documents pertaining to the subjects.
A stereotype of Chinese women and their work suggests that Chinesewomen were essentially Nei-jen or "inside people. " 3 This stereotype emanates
from centuries of Confucian prescriptive literature which defines women's
ideal place in the domestic sphere. This has influenced adversely the study of
women's work in North America. Recent studies of women's work in China in
questioning the traditional stereotype have much to contribute to an
examination of Chinese women's work in Canada.
For example, recent studies by Elisabeth Croll, Marjorie Topley,
Elizabeth Johnson and Delia Davin 4 conclude that, in addition to work in
the home, southern Chinese women in particular laboured in other spheres.
The importance of woman's labour in agriculture and manufacturing may
account for the relative rarity of bound feet, for the lower suicide rate among
southern women, and for the unusually progressive labour organizations,
such as the marriage resistance movement which centred around silk
manufacturing in the south of China.
Chinese women who settled in British- Columbia came from these
southern Chinese provinces. Failure to examine their work in their adopted
home is to ignore an essential aspect of their heritage. While Chinese women
did not come to British Columbia specifically to farm or to work in silk

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55

manufacture, nevertheless they continued to perform essential work both
inside and outside the home.
From its beginning in British Columbia in 1858, Chinese settlement
characteristically did not include women. Instead, the first settlers were single
men who migrated here from the southern Chinese provinces of Guandong
and Fujian. In 1859, they were followed by larger groups who came from
Hong Kong. Most Chinese male migrants initially came as miners in search of
gold during the Fraser River Gold Rush; few brought their wives.s The first
Chinese ·community was established by 1862 in Barkerville, a northern
interior British Columbia community, where the population reached 3,000
Chinese. 6 Later, the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway provided
the largest influx of Chinese labourers, who initially came up from San
Francisco and Portland. After Onderdonk imported 2,000 Chinese labourers
from Hong Kong in 1881, large-scale migration from China to Canada was
well under way. The centre of the migration was the port of Victoria. From
Victoria, the men travelled to the interior of British Columbia to construct the
railroad.7 In 1880, there were 3,000 Chinese in Victoria, 8 and, in a period of
three and one-half months in 1882, another 8,000 Chinese entered British
Columbia. 9 Between 1876 and 1884, 17,028 Chinese were admitted to British
Columbia. Approximately 17,000 came for the express purpose of working
on the construction of the railway. 10
·
The Canadian government believed that Chinese men came for work in
British Columbia and would eventually return to their homeland. Anthony
Chan has pointed out that
... Prime Minister John A. MacDonald .. .in 1882 told
his colleagues in Parliament that the Chinese were
unlikely to remain as permanent settlers because they
brought neither their wives nor children. He said they
were transients or sojourners whose only role in
Canada was to use their muscle and strong backs in the
aid of frontier progress. 11
The belief that Chinese men were merely temporary workers in British
Columbia remained in the minds of the policy makers until 1923. Such a view
presupposed that single and married Chinese women would remain in China
while Chinese men, both single and married, laboured in British Columbia.
Restrictive policies enshrined this belief to ensure that the majority of Chinese
men would never be able to bring their wives, let alone single women, to
British Columbia. For the most part, even married women were to remain in
China until after 1950.
Perhaps the most important constraint on women's entry to Canada was
the "head tax." The Chinese were the only ethnic group in Canadian history
who had to pay a fee to enter the country. Effectively, the fee predetermined
that the majority of the first Chinese population would be male. Many men
eventually paid the tax for male relatives such as sons or nephews since they
would enter the paid labour force and be able to repay the head tax to their
sponsors. Generally,· women were not viewed as productive workers who
would be able to repay the head tax; instead, they were thought to be
expensive economic liabilities. So the majority of Chinese men who came to

56

Chinese Women

British Columbia neither brought women with them nor later sent for them
because of the money involved. The few women for whom the head tax was
paid were single women contracted to come to British Columbia to work in
the paid labour force. Their entry seemed feasible. When the women had
repaid the men who brought them to the province, their period of indenture
was over. It could take ten or more years to repay the interest and the head
tax. In other cases, like those of prostitutes and "slave girls", the situation was different since they did not have the option of paying off their head tax: they
were "owned" unpaid labourers, until they were sold into marriage.
Beginning in 1886, a Chinese immigrant was required to pay a fee to
come to Canada. The ten dollar head tax was increased to fifty dollars from
1896 to 1900, to one hundred dollars from 1900 to 1903, and to five hundred
dollars from 1904 to 1923. In effect, most Chinese men could not bring their
wives or female relatives because of the burdensome head tax. The first
exception occured in 1887, when a Chinese woman was allowed to enter
without paying the tax if her husband was not of Chinese origin. 12 This
legislation probably did not enable many women to immigrate because few
would have been married to non-Chinese men.
Before 1900, the government enabled some Chinese men to enter Canada
without paying a head tax. This created an "exempt" classification.
Merchants entered free. By 1900, the federal government included under the
class of "exempt Chinese" the "wives and children of clergymen and
merchants." 13 Clearly the government believed that the willingness of Chinese
men to do business in Canada would be dependent on their ability to bring
their families without being taxed. So the opportunity for a wife to come to
Canada depended upon her husband's financial status and occupational
classification.
However, the "exempt" category of merchant wives and children was
used to bring many single women to British Columbia. While many legitimate
wives and children entered, the exemption was also used illegally. For
example, young girls who were purchased to be servants to merchant families
were easily disguised as daughters of merchants, 14 and tearoom waitresses 15
who w~re indentured labourers sometimes entered described as merchants'
wives. Due to cultural mores and economic barriers, no single women could
have come to British Columbia independently.
Probably the first women to arrive in British Columbia were truly
merchants' wives. The largest merchant in Victoria, Kwong Lee (Lee Chang),
brought hi_s wife and children sometime before 1860. 16 Around the same time,
Won Alexander Comyow's parents arrived. 17 One of the oral history
respondents, Evelyn, traced her family to the arrival of her grandparents in
Yale in 1854. Another respondent, Ho Gee, believed her mother came to
British Columbia by 1890. 18 All of these women were merchant's wives whose
husbands had established stores or were traders in the Chinese areas of the
towns or cities where they settled. By 1871, with the census counted, fiftythree Chinese women were reported in the province. The ratio was thirty-five
women to every one thousand Chinese men.1 9 Consequently, "women formed
less than one percent of the population.''20 By 1885, small numbers of Chinese
women were scattered throughout the province. 21 Many small towns such as

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57

Quesnel Forks, Soda Creek and Clinton had Chinese prostitutes, who
usually numbered less than five. In addition, both prostitutes and merchant
wives had settled in larger towns such as Victoria, New Westminster and
Nanaimo.2 2
No matter who they were or when they came, Chinese women
participated in paid and unpaid work. As paid labourers, they worked mainly
as home sewers. Evidence suggests that Chinese women also worked as paid
domestics. 23 However, until the 1920s, Chinese women's unpaid work was
more central to their experience in British Columbia.
If Chinese women who came to British Columbia were not merchant
wives who performed unpaid labour in the domestic realm, then they were
usually prostitutes or "slave girls," neither of whom realized any monetary
return for their labour.
In the 1885 Royal Commission on Chinese Immigration, the discussion
of Chinese women is dominated by the subject of prostitution in British
Columbia, especially in Victoria. The prostitutes who arrived in the province
were initially brought from San Francisco. From Victoria they might travel
to cities and towns throughout the province. By 1886, young women from
... poverty-stricken peasant and workers' families in
Guangdong, Jiansi and Zheijiang provinces were
arriving in Victoria and Vancouver direct from
overseas. The most coveted prostitutes were children,
ranging from six years old to the late teens. 24
The practice of buying and selling women into prostitution was
transferred from China to Canada. 25 The women were owned by Chinese men
and brought to the province in large numbers in these early years. 26 At least
100 to 200 Chinese women were imported annually from 1887 until the
beginning of the twentieth century. 27 The women were bought and sold for
prices ranging from $500 to $2,000. "Some Chinese merchants quickly
realized that profits could be made from the sexual needs of Chinese workers
and the curiosity of white pleasure seekers." 28
There were different classes of prostitutes. Those who worked in parlors
catered to merchants and white men. Those who worked as "crib prostitutes"
were by far the poorest, living in the worst conditions in Chinatown. Anthony
Chan vividly described the environment in which these women lived:
The "cribs," each of which held up to six women,
were slatted crates, often located out of doors,
measuring approximately 12 feet by 14 feet with a
curtain, pallet, wash basin, mirror and usually two
chairs. A woman forced into crib prostitution would
work for six to eight years; at the end of her usefulness,
when she was ravaged by disease, physical abuse or
starvation, she was allowed to escape to the Salvation
Army, the hospital, or the gutter. Typically, she would
be dead within six months. 29
In addition to prostitutes, "slave girls" or female servants were imported
to Canada to work as unpaid labourers. The buying and selling of young

58

Chinese Women

women refers to those who were bought in China and then brought to Canada
to work as maids in the homes of Chinese families who usually were well-todo merchants. When Ho Gee was just a girl her family bought two young
women and brought them over from China. These women performed the
household chores and were responsible for childcare duties yet they were
unpaid. Ho Gee recalled "many rich families" in Vancouver's Chinatown had
"slave girls" working for them. 30
The Annual Reports of the Women's Missionary Society, which
managed a hostel for Chinese women and girls in Victoria in this period,
frequently referred to the presence and work of young female servants. The
1902-03 Annual Report made no attempt to include in its informal survey the
number of servants, although it was anxious to tabulate the number of
Chinese women in Victoria: "In Victoria there are about 125 women besides
slave girls."31 Although there were several cases of servants seeking shelter in
the hostel, the maids were not uniformly mistreated: "Several of the homes
refuse me admittance principally because they keep slave girls. But many of
these girls are quite as well cared for, if not better treated, than many
domestics in European homes. "32 In the Annual Report of 1900 the
responsibilities of one such servant were described:
One of these little servant girls came into the school a
few weeks ago. She had with her a couple of two-yearold babies. I asked her if she would like to learn to read
English. She shook her head and said, "m tak ban,"
(no time). I told her if she could find time to come in
for a little while each day, I would try and give her a
lesson. She came the next day, but brought the two
babies. As may be supposed, her lesson was given and
recieved under difficulties, and with alternate
la·ughing, crowing and screaming of the babies the
school was in a high state of chaos. She came in once or
twice afterwards, bringing her young charges with her,
but I could not induce her to attempt a lesson again. 33 ~
Other entries in the Society's Record Book identify less happy situations for·
the servants:
Age: 23. 1901. Ran away from her master, came to
the Home asking for protection as the "old man" was
cruel. This man bought her four years ago for $900.00
and her former mistress had returned to China
wealthy. Slave and prostitute to Chue Cheung.
"Committed to Essondale."
Ages: 15 and 13. 1903. Slave girls belonging to Yuen
Sung. Merchant on Cormorant St. Ran away to Chon
Kong's store asking for the Home ...
Age: 17, 1904. Came to Home of her own accord,
master's son showed her the way.34
The women who ran the Chinese Rescue Home included in their
missionary work some training which would allow the women who came to
them to earn a living. The kind of training they provided was very much

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59

women's work, but it was understood that to earn money was necessary and
respectable. The Annual Report of 1895-96 noted that one of the Chinese
women at the Home who was being trained in dress-making was living with an
English family for whom she worked as a domestic. 35 The report records that
out of eight women resident in the Home "two have gone out to service." The
Annual Report of the Home is proof that as early as 1896 some Chinese
women were doing work similar to male domestic servants. The Missionary
Record Book of the time notes that one Chinese woman was forced into
employment to support her family because her husband was not "strong"
enough to work in 1889.36
Before 1900, the majority of Chinese women who were paid labourers
worked as home sewers. In this period woman's sweated labour was common
in Eastern Canada, but it is often supposed that British Columbia was free of
it. ·christine Stansell referred to home workers as outside workers, a term
commonly used in the nineteenth century. They were called outside workers
because they "worked for wages in their own households, outside a shop or
factory." 37 Home work enabled women "to do their jobs as wives, mothers
and daughters" 38 while also shutting them "away from the comprehension of
the economy equal to that of the men with whom they lived."39 Stansell
concluded:
The system masked women's involvement in wage
labour; they appeared to be peripheral to industrial
production and their identity as workers seemed
secondary to their roles as wives and mothers. In
actuality their wage work was not marginal, either in
their own lives or in the development of metropolitan
industry. 40
Chinese women and girls worked long hours for low pay for Chinese
tailors in urban centres. The actual number of females who participated in
home sewing is not known, but the evidence overwhelmingly suggests that
many did.
Although Chinese women's work as home sewers probably began before
1900, the Women's Missionary Annual Reports of the Chinese Rescue Home
discussed it for the first time in 1902-03: "Many of the boys attend public
school, but few of the girls; they remain home to sew buttonholes."41
Female sewers were obviously in high demand in Chinese areas made up
mostly of men. Sing Lim, in an article printed in The Sun in 1979, recalled that
his sister
... was a great help to mother. She cleaned the house,
shopped and picked up clothing from the local tailor
shops for mother to alter or mend. Mother used her
Singer sewing machine when she could, but did most
of the work by hand. The extra income helped feed the
family. 42
In a 1910 newspaper article, the interviewer discussed women in Vancouver's
Chinatown working as home sewers:
As well as making their own clothes--and how cleverly

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Chinese Women

embroidered were the Oriental patterns on their
simple print coats--they do the button holes and much
of the handwork for their own tailors. In this way they
earn a considerable amount of pocket money.43
Finally, Ho Gee recollected that her mother sewed in their home which
was located above their tailor shop. She was paid 10¢ per buttonhole which
required feather-stitching. She thought her mother began sewing before 1900.
Ho Gee remembered their "slave girls" would have to do the housework and
look after the children so her mother could sew constantly. Although her
family had these servants, Ho Gee confided that her family was not "rich."
Her mother's labour was a necessity in the family business.44 Because there
was no language barrier, women were able to work for Chinese tailors who
would pay them for piecework. While many women spent much of their time
sewing buttonholes, the sewing trade included other occupations such as
seamstresses, tailoresses, and dressmakers.
Between 1906 and 1910, Chinese women took up jobs in other areas.They
worked as general labourers, clerks, and in unclassified capacities. 45
Although the specific jobs these women performed, their working conditions,
and pay are not known, it is clear that Chinese women were working for
wages.
It is difficult to attach numbers to groups of Chinese women in British
Columbia in this early period, desirable though that would be and revealing
as that might be. The Women's Missionary .Society through 1902, 1903, and
1904tabulated numbers of women in Victoria, Vancouver, New Westminster,
Steveston, and Nanaimo, but after recording numbers such as 125, 30, 14, 2,
and 10, the Reports invariably concluded that such numbers were merely
rough guesses since "there is no way at present of obtaining correct statistics
as to the number of Chinese women ... "46 Not even the figures provided by the
Immigration Department Records and the Canada Census are useful since
they do not resemble each other in their estimates of the number of Chinese
women arriving in the province and the number of resident Chinese females. 47
Since it is impossible to trust the figures, all that can be said is the obvious: the
ratio between the sexes remained highly unbalanced. Women were a tiny, tiny
minority in a male society. Wickberg may say that "After 1911 there were
many more women, and with them, many more small children,"48 but this
influx of women brought only relatively more women. The imbalance
between the sexes was not even remotely righted.
The history of Chinese women's arrival in British Columbia is, in some
ways, a history of the "exempt" merchant status. Women and children who
were not family members still entered as dependents of merchants but, in
addition, because "the qualifications for 'merchant' status were not clearly
defined,"49 Chinese men who wanted to bring women to Canada defined
themselves as "merchants" for that very purpose. Because of the ambiguity of
the definition of "merchant," women entered the province as "merchant
wives" even though their husbands operated very small businesses. The
operators of tailor shops, laundries, restaurants and small grocery stores were
not the "merchants" originally intended to be provided with exemptions.
Women often worked in these family-run businesses. Oral histories indicated

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61

that female family members were unpaid workers in these operations.so
In the years prior to the passing of the 1923 Chinese Immigration Act,
government officials took up the subject of Chinese women's labour and
reproduction. The Department of Immigration, the House of Commons and
the Senate determined policy about the Chinese in Canada, yet in its concerns
the Department of Immigration differed from Parliament. The Immigration
Department was concerned that Chinese women were coming to the province
illegally as labourers. However, MPs and Senators believed that Chinese
• women's exclusion from Canada was necessary to contain the growth of the
Chinese population and also to discourage polygamous practices among
what was thought to have been a large proportion of the Chinese merchant
community. Although the Immigration Branch was explicitly concerned with
women's labour and Parliament with population control, the Exclusion Act
was the outcome of both views.
The subject of Chinese women restaurant workers was important in the
Immigration Reports of the feder~l government from 1919 to 1922. More
than any other issue relating to Chinese women, it received serious
consideration by government officials. By 1919, Chinese women were coming
to British Columbia to take up labouring occupations in the province. Yet
their work in such capacities was illegal. The federal government in 1919
passed an Order-in-Council (P.C. 1202) which excluded all skilled and
unskilled labourers from entering Canada. 51 Although male and female
labourers were excluded from entering Canada from 1919 onward, wives of
labourers in Canada were still legally admitted upon payment of the $500.00
head tax. Labourers wives could enter only as "wives," not as labourers.
In a letter dated May 20, 1922, the Assistant Chief Controller of
Immigration, Percy Reid, wrote that "a percentage" of women admitted to
Canada in the past few years had been found working as "labourers."' 2 Some
of the women who were refused admission appealed to the court under a writ
of Habeas Corpus. 53 It seems clear that the women were being refused entry
because the Immigration Department thought that the women were not
legally married and the Controller of Immigration had the power to decide
which women could enter. The women had to prove that they were in fact
"housewives" rather than labourers. Women had to be "dependents" of men.
Chinese women seeking to enter Canada were, by government decree, to be
relegated to the home and its functions.
In 1925, N.L. Ward, in a book entitled The Oriental Missions in B.C.,
confirmed that the Immigration Department made very sure that women
were the legal of "bona fide" wives of the men they came to join:
Young women coming over to Canada to be married
went through the ceremony at the Immigration offices
.before being allowed to leave. Careful investigation
was made into each case, to ensure that the man
wanted the woman as a "bona fide" wife, and was not
merely going through the ceremony in order to secure
admission for her to be engaged in some other manner.
There have been cases where this has been done, and
the girl has been merely a slave, hired out by the man as

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Chinese Women

a waitress or professional entertainer, and turning
over her wages to him. s4
In a 1922 letter, Percy Reid discussed one woman, Jew Shee, who took
out Habeas Corpus proceedings. 55 He explained that she was granted
"exempt entry" by the court because she was considered married by the court
and her husband, a "restaurant keeper," was classified under the merchant
category. 56 However, after the court case, Jew Shee ·
.. .laid a criminal charge against her alleged husband
and told our officials that the man had compelled her
to work in a labouring occupation in restaurants, and
in addition, was trying to force her into a life of
shame. 57
The Immigration Records indicated that a restaurant was a common
place of work for Chinese women. A letter of May 12, 1922 referred to women
at work: ''Chinese labourers ... in the guise of housewives ... have secured
admission to Canada and have subsequently been found working in
restaurants and laundries." 58 Several of the oral history respondents
discussed Chinese women working in restaurants. They differentiated
between the women who worked in the restaurants and those who worked in
the teahouses. Teahouse work was not respectable since, as one woman said,
the workers were "to serve men." Ying went on to say that
... they have to be able to carry a good conversation
and of course ladies in those days didn't get all painted
up and these ladies were all painted up and we could
tell the difference ... some would have been brought
,over just to make the dollars because the gentlemen
would have the foresight to know that they could make
money off the ladies. Some were prostitutes; some
weren't. There were many classes of them, and you
could see from their mannerisms. They were bad
because they were there especially to cater to the
whims of men and they have to live by their wits to get
their earnings from the men and this is known as bad.
Whether they were totally prostitutes or just earning a
living working as a waitress it makes no difference at
that time.59
/The lengths to which people went to circumvent the law suggest that women's
f labour had the ability to affect the survival or success of Chinese businesses.
The number of unpaid and poorly paid women who performed essential
labour in laundries, restaurants and tailoring shops can only be surmised, but
a 1922 letter from the Immigration Department revealed that Chinese
businessmen attempted to keep the possibility of immigration to Canada
open:
The present enforcement of the regulations is being
systematically opposed by a certain element of
Chinese in Canada, and money is being spent...in an
endeavour to break down the barriers now preventing
the admission of coolie labour, both male and
female.60

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63

Wong Shee was a Chinese woman who entered British Columbia from
the United States in 1921. She was refused admission on the grounds that she
came within the labouring class. Because of Wong Shee's test case, the
Immigration Act was amended. She was brought before a Board of Inquiry
under the jurisdiction of the Department of Immigration, where evidence was
declared by "Miss Cameron, Superintendent of the Chinese Mission Home in
San Francisco, that Wong Shee had been an inmate of a Chinese house of ill
repute and that she was a woman of very low moral character."61 After a writ
of Habeus Corpus was heard before Chief Justice Hunter, Wong Shee was
released and allowed to remain in British Columbia," ... the decision being that
under the Chinese Immigration Act we can only deport to place from which
the person came to Canada. It is, of course, impossible to return Wong Shee
to the United States as she is a citizen of China." 62 Chief Justice Hunter,
deciding she was the wife of a merchant, and not a labourer herself, as was
alleged by the Immigration Department, admitted her exempt from the head
tax. The Immigration Department became increasingly concerned that the
courts had jurisdiction in this area. The decision was appealed. The British
Columbia Court of Appeal was asked to decide "whether the immigration
officials or the courts ... decide who is, or who is not, to be admitted to
Canada ... " 63 Hunter's decision was overturned in favour of the Department
of Immigration.
The Chinese Immigration Act was amended to prevent recurrence of
the situation. The amendment required that immigrants establish their
identity and marital status to the Controller of Immigration so the courts
were not to have any power to decide who was or who was not eligible to enter
the country. Now the courts were unable to interfere with the Board of
Inquiry's decision if the immigrant did not have Canadian domicile or
citizenship. In the case of Chinese women trying to enter, the Immigration
Controller would have the only say. Because the Board of Inquiry had
deemed the marriage of Wong Shee to her "alleged" husband to be "untrue,"
and because . the BC Court of Appeal had upheld the Immigration
Department ruling she was not eligible to remain in Canada under any
circumstances. 64 After a brief stay, she was deported.
In 1923, after many attempts at restricting Chinese immigration, the
federal government denied the Chinese entry to Canada. According to
Mackenzie King, then Prime Minister, the Act was a necessary solution to a
problem of labour competition: " ... oriental labour come[s] into competition
with our labour."65 But a closer look at the Parliamentary debates revealed
that many MPs and Senators were motivated by more pernicious attitudes
than fear of labour competition. While Mackenzie King said Chinese
exclusion was necessary to limit labour competition, the general debate really
revolved around racist attitudes which were probably intensified because of
British Columbia's economic/labour difficulties resulting from war's end.
Certainly Chinese women were not discussed in terms of labour competition.
Instead, women were discussed solely in terms of polygamy and population
control.
A major concern of the white population in British Columbia was that
" .. .if Chinese were allowed, without restriction, to bring their wives to

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Chinese Women

Canada, they would reproduce at an alarming rate and [might] eventually
out-number whites ... " 66 Interestingly, as Sampat-Mehta points out in
International Barriers, although whites did not want the Chinese population
to increase, the fact that most Chinese men did not have families here was
considered immoral. Yet white Canadians would not alleviate what they
themselves considered to be the problem. Similarly, Charles J. Woodsworth
noted:
Far more drastic than any measures which had
preceded it, the proposed Act excluded wives and
children · of Chinese residents... The House of
Commons, however, found little to criticize in it
... From the moral and humanitarian standpoint, one
or two members argued that the exclusion of wives and
children of Chinese would create a serious social
situation, but, on the whole, little attention was paid to
this aspect. 67
It is clear that a kind of "hysteria" prevailed among much of the white
population in the province. This fear dominated discussions of Asian
immigration. For example, Mr. McBride, an MP from British Columbia
stated, "In my opinion their (Chinese] object is to get control of the Pacific
coast, including all British Columbia."68 So a remedy for the existent hysteria
was to end all Chinese immigration to Canada and to control the growth of
resident Chinese populations by limiting reproduction, which meant that
Chinese women in particular had to be excluded. Only four classes of
immigrants could enter Canada; all were categorized as temporary settlers:
1. University students.
2. Merchants - clearly defined and included only
those engaged in large scale trade.
3. Native horns - returning from several years of
education in China.
4. Diplomatic personnel. 69
No women were likely to be in any of these categories.
It is important to point out that in the House of Commons debates
women were not central to the discussion about the Chinese. In fact, the
subject of women was mostly ignored. Only "merchant wives" were
discussed and even then the debate was only whether or not Chinese
merchants should be granted the "privilege" of bringing their wives.
Mackenzie King believed that only those merchants who came under the new
definition of "merchant" should be allowed to bring wives. He stated:
I do not think we should take the position that we will
allow a merchant, a man of high business standing, to
come to our country and start up in business, and
subject him to the indignity of not being permitted to
bring his wife and children with him. 70
The opposition which greeted King's opinion centred on the supposed
polygamous practices of Chinese merchants. Mr. McBride responded:
... there are very few Chinese merchants in Canada
that have not two or three wives. Would the Prime

ADILMAN

65

Minister admit to Canada only the children of the
merchant by one wife, or would he let in the whole of
them? 71
The discussion of polygamy obscured the facts of the matter. Very few women
would fall under the "merchant wife" category, since not many men would be
eligible as merchants. Such small numbers of women and children would
hardly be a threat to white supremacy or labour security. However, in
implicitly excluding all Chinese women from Canada, it is clear that the Bill's
intent was to control the reproductive life of the Chinese population. Chinese
families in British Columbia were large; many had from six to·ten children.72
Any influx of women meant the real possibility of many more Chinese. The
myth that Chinese merchants as a rule had more than one wife only provided
a convenient excuse for the exclusion of women.
No real defense of Chinese women in their own right was raised,
although Labour Member of Parliament, J.S. Woodsworth, argued on behalf
of Chinese family life. Unlike Mackenzie King, he thought all the Chinese
men who resided in the province should have the right to bring their wives.He
stated:
.. .it seems to me we are nothing less than hypocritical if
we talk about the immoralities of the Chinese and yeti
permit them to come under conditions that would
breed immorality. We object to their coming because
they make poor citizens, and then take from them the
very things that are necessary to make them good
citizens--that is, the presence of their wives and
children with them.73
Woodsworth was the only one to expose the racial antagonism so prevalent
among MPs:
... there is an immense amount of prejudice towards the
orientals. For example, not only on the floor of the
House but in the West we have complaints about the
low sanitary standards of the Chinese, and yet a year or
two ago the oriental nurses or girls who wished to train
as nurses were excluded from the Vancouver General
Hospital. 74
Woodsworth was quick to see the contradictory attitudes which the House
would not address. No one remarked upon Woodsworth's plea and the
discussion ended with the passing of the 1923 Chinese Immigration Act.
The Senate Debates were more explicit on the subject of women. An
enlightened Senator from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, A.B. Willoughby,
moved that the Bill be amended to allow the admittance of any wife and minor
children of any merchant legally in Canada and of any naturalized Canadian
citizen. Some Senators believed that the majority of women would not be
..legal wives." Rather, as the Hon. Mr. Crowe stated, they believed that
Chinese men would bring " ... the best-looking and the youngest and perhaps
those that can best bear children ... " 75 Such a prejudiced view was commonly
accepted among both the policy makers and the general white population. By
limiting
male access to fecund women,
policy makers clearly saw their role as
·,
.

66

Chinese Women

having to subvert the intent of the Chinese who they believed were
systematically striving to outnumber and inevitably overpower white
Canadians.
The topic of polygamous practices rose again in the Senate. Because the
common notion was that most Chinese men had more than one wife the
.
'
question of which wife might be eligible to enter Canada posed a difficulty.
As this aspect of the subject was discussed, two speakers clearly identified that
they were concerned only about women's fertility. Needless to say, birth
control information and practices were not taken for granted. The Hon. Mr.
Dandurand suggested that only wives of fifty and over be admitted, because
"there would be less danger of the Chinese population increasing. "76 The
Hon. Mr. Fowler agreed:
Here we have a population largely adult, and largely
male, who are without wives, and in the interest of
social purity and morality would it not be better to
allow the wives to come in? Following out the
honourable leader's idea, we might restrict those wives
to the age of 50--and I think that is a safe age--and say
that wives of 50 or over should be permitted to come
into the country. I think that would be a good
suggestion, and would prevent the unnecessary
increase of the population to which the honourable
members from British Columbia object, and would
also fulfill the ideas of the social uplift and moral
reform element of this country, which is very strong. 77
Clearly, young women's reproductive capacities made them the subject
of exclusion. Older women might gain entry because their childbearing years
were over. Women's labour was not at issue here. Fowler's proposition was
supposed to solve two problems. First, the population would not increase,
and secondly, the white population would no longer feel guilty about
restraining Chinese family life since older Chinese men would be allowed to
have wives. Also, controls on the number of young women might have been
interpreted to mean that polygamous practices would el'.}.d too since young
female marriage partners would be ineligible for entry to British Columbia.
The topic of women labourers was only briefly brought up in the Senat~.
The Hon. Mr. Dandurand stated as fact that " ... a number of those women
who have been brought in have simply gone into service to earn money for
themselves, or have really come in as bona fide wives, or they come under that
cloak to obtain entry into Canada." 78 Dandurand's matter-of-factness about
Chinese women's illegal entry suggests it was common knowledge. The
women who he said were earning money for themselves were probably paying
back "loans" to males who brought them here as indentured workers. His
alluding in passing to women coming here to work was probably to remind
the Senators that women had been entering the province not as "housewives"
but as workers.
Members of Parliament did not discuss women's labour. They did not
have to since women were not to be admitted unless they fell into the four
exempt categories and that was exceedingly unlikely. By excluding merchant

ADILMAN

67

wives and children (and by tightening the definition of "merchant"), they
closed loopholes by which many more women and girls might have entered.
Since Chinese women would no longer have the possibility of coming to
British Columbia, their labour was a non-issue. Merchant wives, the only
women considered for exemption, were denied it because of the
determination on the part of the legislators to control the Chinese population.
Finally, an aspect of population control which was not discussed but
most certainly must have been in the minds of policy makers was the
possibility that young men deprived of wives would leave Canada. As long as
Chinese women could not come as permanent settlers to Canada, single
Chinese men might go back to China. Then the "problem" ultimately would
be solved. Despite the lack of women, the majority of Chinese men remained
in Canada.
The Chinese Labour Association of Vancouver was one of many Chinese
organizations to oppose the Chinese Immigration Act. They proposed a fivepoint response to the government's intention of excluding all Chinese from
Canada. Implicit in their opposition was that· all Chinese now in Canada
should have the right to bring their families from China. 79 Their opposition
went unheeded. From 1923-1947, the Exclusion Act was in effect.
The 1923 Act contained the Chinese population and the imbalance
between the sexes was further reinforced. Population figures which can be
cited provide only a rough estimate of the actual number of Chinese women in
the province. According to the Report on Oriental Activities in the Province
(1927), in 1921, out of a total Chinese population of 39,587 there were 2,424
females in the whole of Canada. 80 Of these women, 1,713 lived in British
Columbia, where the Chinese population was 23,533. 81 By 1941, the number
of females rose only to 2,399. This is hardly a striking increase. By 1925,
Chinese family settlement in British Columbia was not substantially different
from the previous decade. Of 1,000 Chinese families in all of Canada, the
majority were located in British Columbia. 82 In Vancouver alone there were
about 200 Chinese families. 83 In 1921, 173 births were reported by Chinese
women in British Columbia. 84 By 1931, in spite of the high birth rate among
Chinese women, the number of births was small, averaging less than 200 per
year and steadily decreasing. 85 The ultimate goal of the 1923 Exclusion Act of
stopping the Chinese population from substantially increasing was effectively
reached. It is clear from the demographic data that the Chinese population
could not propagate because of the lack of Chinese women in the province.
It remains to be seen what effects the 1923 Act had on several generations
of Chinese women. Did they have to work harder than ever? Was a
marriageable woman more valuable to her family as a worker or more
valuable to her community as a mother? Did scarcity raise her status and free
her from restrictions or lower it and bring about new constraints?
After 1924, Chinese women's participation in the labour force increased
and much of their work experience changed as the first generation of
Canadian-born Chinese women entered new fields of work while their
mothers worked in past spheres of activity. Like their mothers, the first
generation of Canadian-born Chinese girls generally remained in Chinese, operated businesses, although some entered fields run by white employers.

68

Chinese Women

Due to cultural antagonism, Chinese businesses would seem the most likely
place for Chinese women to work. Cultural norms of what was considered
acceptable work for Chinese women in terms of their social role also
influenced this positioning.
Commonly, Chinese women worked as clerks in vegetable and fruit
businesses. 86 Their work in this area continued untilJ950 and remains today
an area of employment for Chinese women. Ward discussed this kind of
employment for Chinese women in 1925:
Within the last year or two there have been signs that
... the opening of the shops ... will provide employment
for ... as many girls as are available. This is a
tremendous advantage for the girls especially, as they
are no longer considered a liability, a profitless source
of expense to their parents, to be married off as soon as
possible, but as a financial asset; a fact which increases
their self-respect and greatly improves their position. s7
His comment is interesting. He believed Chinese women's work as clerks in
shops was a trend which effectively improved their position in the family. He
indicated that their earning capacity raised their status: a seeming liability to
the family was now considered a financial asset. Needless to say, his view
overlooked the fact that Chinese women had long been an economic asset to
their families since they regularly performed both paid and unpaid labour.
Discrimination defined work opportunities. Ward reported that due to
racial discrimination, Chinese women at this time were not accepted into the
professions which included teachers and nurses. 88 The Women's Missionary
Society Annual Report for 1926, however, did record that one Chinese
woman from the Home was training as a nurse. 89 Jan, an oral history
respondent, recalled the difficulty of women gaining access to jobs in whiteowned businesses at this time. She said," Well, I knew that the type of work
Chinese women had available to them was all we could get. Thinking of going
elsewhere or doing other things was just a little bit beyond our thinking. Like,
we would never go apply for a job at Woodward's [department store] say.
They wouldn't even look at you."90
H owev~r, wages were welcome in most families. Young women regularly
turned over their earnings as clerks to their mothers. Their wages added to the
combined family incomes. The shops employed large numbers of Canadianborn Chinese females who worked both full- and part-time. In their work, the
women were responsible for many functions related to the stores. One woman
recalled: "When I was 17 [1935] .. I was working in a vegetable market selling
fruits and vegetables ... them days ... you don't say what you were, like a sales
clerk or a cashier, it was all rolled into one. You looked after the store, your
boss brings in the vegetables and you hose them and then you bring them up
to the front and you display them and then the people come in and you serve
them and you take their money." 91
Another recalled her work as a clerk: "We have to lift the vegetables by
the cases and you wash them. They have laundry tubs that you wash your
vegetables to keep 'em nice and and fresh, 'cause ones that come from the
farm, they just spray it with water and it's still dirty. So you'd put it in the tub

ADILMAN 69

and wash it off nice and fresh and in winter time your fingers are almost
frozen. Some of the girls wore two or threP- pairs of socks because the floors
are wet, on cement floors, and washing the vegetables, it';; icy cold while you
wash. That's why the Chinese vegetable store looks so tempting, the
vegetables nice and clean and piled so nicely and all arranged. " 92
Although many women were paid workers in Chinese stores not run by
their families, Waiking,Leeworked in her family's store. She recounted how
important her labour was to the store. In fact, her labour was so needed that
her mother tried her hardest to stop her from marrying because her fiance
could not pay Waiking Lee's mother $600.00 for the privilege: "I work for ten
years and all I get was $250.00 from my dad. I worked until I got married for
them, but then I had to run away. My mom was the one who ran the whole
house. If I get married, there was no one helping her. Then I come to thinking
about myself... there's no future for me because I know my mother would tie
me down for the rest of my life to the store and the house chores. " 93
From the BC Department ofl.Abour's Annual Report, it is apparent that
from 1923 Chinese women began entering the industrial sector of the work
force even though their total numbers remained low. 94 Until the late 1930s,
Chinese women were most represented in only three main industries: the
manufacture of food products; laundries, cleaning and dying; and garment
making. During the war years, Chinese women, like many other women in
British Columbia, increasingly entered occupations other than those in which
they had been previously employed.
Industry probably employed the least number of Chinese women
workers, but the statistics for it are unreliable because the numbers reflect
only full-time workers. 95 Furthermore, domestic labour and farm labour
and unpaid workers in family businesses were also not included. A woman
who worked in a garment factory which was one of the few, if not the only,
Chinese-owned factory in Vancouver remembered that "In I 941, I worked in
a garment factory where they made men's shirts and work pants. Mostly
Chinese women worked there. We were paid by piecework and I would
roughly earn about $25.00 per month and I worked hard, too. The job that
I had at the garment factory entailed just sitting constantly at the machine and
there was always this lint that was flying around." 96
Also, Chinese women worked as seasonal farm labourers between 1924
and 1950. References to this do not exist in primary sources, but many of the
oral history respondents discussed the experiences of Chinese women
working on farms. The majority of oral history respondents verified that
Chinese women who laboured as seasonal farm-workers always worked on
farms owned by the Chinese. The women went to the farms together, never
alone, and then travelled home together at the end of the day. Ruth said, "The
women used to take me to the farms when I was four or five in the summers.
My mom weeded for 10¢ an hour in the 1920s." While Ruth went with the
women to the farms, Ying laboured on the farms when she was a teenager with
others her own age. She recalled: "When I was about 14(1938] these uncles
[what "bachelors" were called] who operate farms and they know people that
was bringing children down to pick beans and I remember working two
summers picking beans. We get up at 5:00. We stand at a certain corner and

70

Chinese Women

the truck would come up and pick us up and we'd go down and pick beans. It
was for 3ci: a pound. I was able to pick I 00 pounds at least per day. I remember
feeling very proud being able to carry that sack to the end of the road so they
could pick it up. We'd make roughly $3-$5 per day." 97
Restaurant work for women continued into the 1920s and 1930s. Some
women employed in this area objected to poor working conditions and the
pressure of prostitution that was sometimes part ofthe job. In a 1925 letterto
the Women's Missionary Society, a woman told of her experience as a
restaurant worker: "you have asked me to drop my work and ask my husband
to work because where I am working is a place of temptations ... besides, I
don't like working in this old chop suey houses ... my only hope now is to be a
nurse."98 Her dream points out the lack of opportunities for many Chinese
women.
The Women's Missionary Annual Reports discussed women in
restaurant work. Three lengthy excerpts follow. An example from 1929 read:
"Another case was a Chinese girl brought in to serve in a restaurant. She
entering illegally and the man who brought her in, to cover up his crime,
married her by Canadian law, although he already had two wives, one here
and one in China, to whom he was married by Chinese custom."
A second restaurant worker's case: "1931-32 - Early in March our
Immigration authorities telephoned, asking if we could take a Chinese girl of
17 years who had been brought from China, as they believed, illegally, and for
restaurant work. With no money and little education or training, it was not
easy for her to find a way of earning a living."
A third case was of" ... a bright Chinese girl of eighteen years [who] rang
our doorbell and asked to be admitted. She readily told us she was from the
Pekin Restaurant, but disliked the life and wanted to leave it...She had come
from China when sixteen years of age. The man who brought her in had
forced her to sign a contract to pay him $3,000 with interest at 12 percent.
Later he seemed to relent and promised to free her from paying interest.
Another man had put in a claim for money, too, and two men quarreled over
it. This helped to intensify her dislike for the whole situation and led her to
decide to leave everything and come to the Horne for help." 99
•...
In 1939 and 1941 there were references to Chinese women still having
difficulty gaining entry into professions. A 1934 newspaper article record~d
that
Professional opportunities for the Chinese girl in
Vanr:ouver are limited. However, there is one Chinese
nurse on the staff of the Vancouver General Hospital,
while St. Joseph's Catholic Hospital for Chinese
patients is staffed by the Catholic Sisters. 100
In 1941, the missionary women reported a similar trend:
Only the occasional girl is fortunate enough to be able
to train as a nurse or teacher, partly because of the
expense involved, and partly because public opinion is
not yet educated to the place of accepting the Orientals
in the professional world. 10 1
By the mid-1940s the situation had marginally improved. Accordi.~~!~i!l

ADILMAN

71

Carol Lee, "Toward the end of the war, for the first time a college-educated
Chinese-Canadian woman in Vancouver could obtain a job in an office rather
than a fruit and vegetable store."10 2
Discrimination continued, however, so women continued to work under
the constraints which limited their job opportunities greatly. Chinese women
were not readily accepted as skilled workers. As Lee points out, perhaps a
Chinese woman could gain entry into an office by the mid-1940s,but this was
the exception rather than the rule. Not until the 1950s and 1960s were Chinese
women more fully accepted in white-dominated and white-run businesses and
government bureaucracies.
Finally, the federal government repealed the 1923 Chinese Immigration
Act. There was much support for the repeal which included the National
Council of Women. 103 However, the new legislation still contained implied
restriction on women. The government, instead of allowing any Chinese
resident in Canada to bring his dependents, which was the case for other
immigrants, allowed only those Chinese men who were Canadian citizens to
bring their wives and children. Once again, the number of women eligible to
enter the country was contained. The "Committee for Repeal" of the 1923 law
publicly opposed the discriminatory nature of the new law:
... the law says on the one hand--you can bring your
wife and children into Canada provided that you are of
European, South American, or United States
parentage, so long as you are a resident of the country
(Order in Council 695). And, on the other hand--you
must be a Canadian citizen before you can bring your
wife and children into the country if you are of the
Chinese or Asiatic race (Order in Council 2115). 104
The Committee went on to explain why many Chinese men were not citizens;
namely, the discriminatory policies of the Canadian government made it
difficult for them to become citizens. The protests were in vain: the
government's policy was not changed. The 1951 Canada Yearbook still
reported that Chinese men had to be Canadian citizens in order to bring their
families to Canada. '° 5 In 1956 this policy was finally abandoned so that
Chinese men who were not Canadian citizens could bring their families to
Canada. 106
Chinese women settled in British Columbia over one hundred years ago.
Yet, compared to the proportion of Chinese men in the province, their
numbers remained small well into the 1950s. What consequences this had for
women and for the development of the Chinese community remains to be
closely studied. However, since women were in high demand as both paid
laboure!'s and unpaid workers in the home, family business, or non-family
business, they were certainly economically indispensable to the settlement of
the Chinese. Their contribution as workers enabled the men they worked for,
or with, to survive and succeed economically.

72 Chinese Women

Footnotes
Chinese history is a new area of study for me, In addition, as a non-Chinese
woman, I have had some difficulties doing Chinese history. Because it is new and lam
outside of Chinese culture, I may have failed to see both historical processes and
cultural codes which are relevant to this discussion. It is vital for Chinese women to do
their own history. (Dora Nip has begun this search at the University of Toronto. She is
presently at the University of Hong Kong continuing her doctoral studies.) And yet, I
feel I too have something to offer. As a feminist, I want to trace, interpret and
recognize aspects of women's life experiences which up until now most male historians
have missed. Several Chinese women who participated in my oral history research told
me they would never talk to Chinese male researchers about the things they openly and
candidly discussed with me. They were willing to share with me aspects of their lives
they had not shared with any one before and to all of them I remain gratefully
indebted. Others too numerous to mention were also of material assistance, for which
I am appreciative.
2. I conducted ten oral histories with Chinese-Canadian women who were born in
British Columbia between 1895 and 1924. Whenever I discuss my oral history
material, I state the woman's name to whom I am referring. The names are either
pseudonyms or their proper Chinese names. They are:
Ho Gee, born in Vancouver, 1895
Waiking Lee, born in Ladysmith, 1909
Ruth, born in Vancouver, 1912
May, born in Ladysmith, 1913
Doris, born in Vancouver, 1918
April, born in New Westminster, 1920
Evelyn, born in Vernon, 1920
Jan, born in Vancouver, 1921
Nancy, born in Victoria, 1921
Ying, born in Vancouver, 1924
All oral history tapes are being held permanently at the BC Provincial Archives in the
Sound and Moving Images Section.
3. I wish· to acknowledge Louise May's contribution for her work on women in
China for this essay.
4. Elisabeth Croll, Feminism & Socialism in China, (New York: Schocken, 1978):
12-44.
Marjorie Topley, "Marriage Resistance in Rural Kwangtang," in Women in
Chinese Society. Edited by Margery Wolf and Roxane Witke, (California: Stanford
University Press, 1975): 67-89.
Elizabeth Johnson, "Women and Childbearing in Kwan Mun Hau Village: A
Study of Social Change." in Women in Chinese Society. Edited by Margery Wolf and
Roxane Witke. (California: Stanford University Press, 1975): 215-242.
Delia Davin, "Women in the Countryside of China, "in Women in Chinese
Society. Edited by Margery Wolf and Roxane Witke. (California: Stanford
University Press, 1975): 243-276.
5. Anne M. Davison, "An Analysis of the Significant Factors in the Patterns of
Toronto Chinese Family Life as a Result of the Recent Changes in Immigration Law
Which Permitted the Wives of Canadian Citizens to Enter Canada." M.A. Thesis.
University of Toronto, 1952.
6. Edgar Wickberg, From China to Canada: A History of the Chinese
Communities in Canada (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1982): 7.
7. Ibid. : 13.
8. Ibid.: 25.
1.

ADILMAN

73

9. R. Sampat-Mehta, International Barriers (Ottawa: Harpell's Press, 1973): 28.
10. Peter S. Li, "Immigration Laws and Family Patterns: Some Demographic
Changes Among Chinese Families in Canada, 1885-1971," Canadian Ethnic Studies,
Vol. XXI, No. 1, 1980: 61.
11. Anthony Chan, Gold Mountain (Vancouver: New Star Books, 1982): 127-28.
12. Davison : 4.
13. Ibid. : 5.
14. Letter by Rev. Starr to Mrs. E.S. Strachen, President of the Women's
Missionary Society, September, 1887. United Church Archives, Vancouver School of
Theology, U.B.C.
15. Immigration Records, Ottawa, RG File, B-828, Telegram May 11, 1922.
16. Wickberg : 14.
17. Report of the Royal Commission on Chinese and Japanese Immigration, 1902, :
234.
18. Oral history, see footnote 2.
19. Wickberg : 14.
20. Chan : 50.
21. Report of the Royal Commission on Chinese Immigration 1885, pp. 363-365.
22. Ibid.
23. Annual Report of the Women's Missionary Society, 1896, p. 23. United Church
Archives, Vancouver School of Theology. U.B.C.
24. Chan : 82.
25. It is clear that prostitution as it was in China was transplanted to both British
Columbia and California. That is, poor Chinese girls and women were bought and
sold as sexual commodities to work as servants and prostitutes in China. For a
comprehensive study of prostitution in China, see Sue Gronewold, "Beautiful
Merchandise: Prostitution in China, 1860-1936," in Women and Historv, Number
One, 1982. For a discussion of Chinese prostitution in California, see Lucie Cheng
Hirata, "Chinese Immigrant women in Nineteenth-Century California," in Women in
America: A History, Edited by Carol Ruth Berkin and Mary Beth Norton, (Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 1979): 223-224.
26. H.C. Pratt, The Story of the Years 1881-1906, 1908, p. 106.
27. Chan : 81.
28. Ibid.
29. Ibid.
30. Oral history, see footnote 2.
31. Annual Report of the Women's Missionary Society, 1902-03.
32. Ibid., 1903-04 : xxvii-xv.
33. Ibid., 1900 : xcvii.
34. From the Oriental Home Record Book and Register. Vancouver: United
Church Archives.
35. Annual Report of the Women's Missionary Society, 1895-96, p. 23. United
Church Archives, Vancouver School of Theology, U.B.C.
36. From the "Oriental Home Record Book and Register 1889." United Church
Archives, Vancouver School of Theology, UBC.
37. Christine Stansell, "The Origins of the Sweatshop: Women and Early
Industrialization in New York City." in Working Class America: Essay on Labor
Community and American Society. Edited by Michael H. Frisch and Daniel J.
Walkowicz. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983): 78. See also Laura Johnson,
The Seam Allowance; Industrial Home Sewing in Canada (Toronto: Women's
Educational press, 1982).

74

Chinese Women

38. Ibid.
39. Ibid. : 96.
40. Ibid. : 95.
41.
Women's Missionary Society Annual Reports, 1902-03. United Church
Archives, Vancouver School of Theology, U.B.C.
42. The Vancouver Sun, December 6, 1979, clipping.
43. The Vancouver Province, February 5, 1910, p. 4.
44. Oral history, see footnote 2.
45. W.A. Carrothers, "Oriental Standards of Living," in Japanese Canadians.
Edited by H.A. Innes. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1938): 264-265.
46. Annual Report of the Women's Missio,,ary Society, 1902-03.
4 7. Probably the most frustrating aspect of my research was the vast discrepancies in
statistics given by different sources. For example, the Department of the Interior and
Immigration and Colonization assessed the number of women who arrived from
China to be close to nine hundred between 1911 and 1923. This is cited in WA
Carrothers, 1938, pp. 264-265. In contrast, the Canada Census from 1931, records less
than four hundred Chinese women arriving for the same period. So it is difficult to
accurately identify the Chinese female population in B.C. However, a rough estimate
is that in 1911, there were 2,790 men to every one hundred Chinese women. See Peter
s. Li, 1980, p.63.
48. Wickberg : 94.
49. Ibid. : 136.
50. Oral history, see footnote 2.
51. Immigration Records, Ottawa, RG 76, B-828, February 7, 1922.
52. Ibid., May 20. 1922.
53. Ibid.
54. N.L. Ward, The Oriental Missions in British Columbia. (Aberdeen: University
Press, 1925): 49.
55. Immigration Records, May 20, 1922.
56. Ibid.
57. Ibid.
58. Ibid., Telegram May 11, 1922.
59. Oral history, see footnote 2.
60. Immigration Records, Ottawa, February 7, 1922.
61. Ibid., May 23, 1921.
62. Ibid.
63. Ibid., February 20, 1922.
64. B. C. Reports: Reports of Cases Determined in Supreme and County Courts of
Appeal, 1922-1923, p. 145: 152 Vol. 31.
65. Debates of the House of Commons, 1923, Vol. 3 pp. 2312-2313.
66. Sampat-Mehta : 74.
67. C.J. Woodsworth, Canada and the Orient. (Toronto: MacMillan, 1941): 108.
68. Debates of the House of Commons, Ibid. : 2326.
69. Wickberg : 141.
70. Debates, : 2314.

ADILMAN 75

71. Ibid. : 2318.
72. Oral history, see footnote 2.
73. Debates, : 2384-2385.
74. Ibid.
15. Debates of the Senate, 1923
1123.
76. Ibid. : 1125.
77. Ibid.
78. Ibid.
79. Wickberg : 139.
80. Report on Oriental Activities in the Province, 1927: 9.
81. Ibid.
82. Cheng, Tien Fang, Oriental Immigration in Canada, (Shanghai: Commercial
Press, 106.
83. Ward : 66.
84. Report on Oriental Activities in the Province, 1927
8.
85. Woodsworth : 125.
86. Cheng : 196.
87. Ward : 70.
88. Ibid. : 69.
89. Women's Missionary Society Annual Report, 1926
341. United Church
Archives, Vancouver School of Theology, U.B.C.
90. Oral history, see note 2.
91. WMS. Annual Report, 1926.
92. Ibid.
93. Ibid.
94. B. C. Department of Labour Annual Report: 1920-1934.
95. Ibid.
96. Oral history, see note 2.
97. BC Department of Labour Annual Report: 1920-1934.
98. A letter in the Women's Missionary Records .. United Church Archives.
Vancouver School of Theology, UBC.
99. Women's Missionary Society Annual Reports. 1929, 1931-32. United Church
Archives. Vancouver School of Theology, UBC.
100. The Vancouver Sun, February 9, 1936. Mamie Moloney, "Mother-in-Law
Trouble Not Known in Chinese Families."
IOI. The Women's Missionary Annual Reports, 1941-42, p. 115. United Church
Archives. Vancouver School of Theology, UBC.
102. Carol Lee, "The Road to Enfranchisement: Chinese and Japanese in B.C." BC
Studies, 30(Summer, 1976): 51.
103. Wickberg : 206.
104. Immigration Records, RG 76, B-829, "Minutes of Evidence, Standing
Committee," May. IO, 1948.
105. Canada Yearbook, 1951 : 51.
106. Wickberg: 212.

76

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