Historical reading response paper

CHAPTER 4

Long Strides The Great Depression) I9JOS

Women in this community are keeping pace with the quick changes of the modern world. The shy Chinese maidens in bound feet are forever gone, making place for active and intelligent young women.

Jane Kwong Lee Chinese Digest, June I 9 3 8

We will fight our fight to the end, and hope to raise the living conditions not only for ourselves but for the other workers in Chinatown as well . ... <<The ILGWU is behind us. We shall not be moved. "

Chinese Ladies' Garment Workers' Union letter to the ILGWU membership, April 1938

The prosperous years of the Roaring Twenties in Amer- ica came to an abrupt halt on Black Thursday, October 24, 1929, when the stock market crashed. By the end of that year, stock prices had dropped 50 percent. Investment funds dried up, factories closed, and workers lost their jobs. In the next three years, 40 percent of the na- tion's farms were mortgaged, industrial production was cut in half, thir- teen million Americans-one-quarter of the work force-became un- employed, and over five thousand banks went out of business. With little savings and no government relief, many Americans across the country found themselves homeless, without any means of support. In Seattle, it was reported, families unable to pay for electricity spent their evenings by candlelight or in the dark. One couple in New York City lived in a cave in Central Park for half a year. Many others lived on the outskirts of towns in shacks made of tar paper, cardboard boxes, orange crates, or rusted car bodies-in settlements that became sardonically known as

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Hoovervilles. Starving families subsisted on stale bread, potatoes, and even dandelions. Farmers who lost their homes and crops in the dust storms packed their families into dilapidated cars and drove west, hop- ing to find work in the orange groves and lettuce fields of California. In desperation, one old man who found himself unemployed came home and turned on the gas. His widow sat alone for three days and then did the same.l

The devastating impact of the Great Depression on the American pop- ulation has been well documented in books, photographs, and films . 2

More recent studies have explored its negative effects on the lives of the women and minority groups hardest hit by the economic crisis. 3 What is missing from this larger picture is a sense of how the depression af- fected Chinese American men and women in different parts of the coun- try. Pertinent to the present investigation is a narrower question: What impact did race, class, gender, and nativity have on the economic sur- vival of Chinese women in San Francisco, and how did their experiences differ from the experiences of other groups of Americans during this period?

Although little has been written about how Chinese Americans weathered the depression, oral history interviews indicate that many faced the same hardships as the rest of America's population. By the time the depression was in full swing, the Chinese American work force had long since been driven out of the better-paying jobs in the Western states and was concentrated in either domestic and personal services or retail trade in urban areas of the country. Many Chinese families, eking out a living in small laundry, restaurant, and grocery businesses, were hard hit by the depression . Wong Wee Ying, the only Chinese woman in the steel- mill town of Midland, Pennsylvania, recalled seeing people sleeping out in the streets and standing in line for government permits to sell apples or shoelaces. "If you can see no smoke from the factory chimneys, you know things are bad for everyone," she said.4 The bad economy affected her family laundry business: "We just had a few collars to wash. There was no work, so how can people afford to send out their laundry to wash?" 5 Like many other resourceful American women, Wee Ying made clothes out of old rice sacks for her six children, reinforced their shoes with tin cans to make them last longer, and made a lot of thin soup out of rice or oatmeal and vegetables from their family garden.

Helen Hong Wong, who in 1928 had just arrived in Fort Wayne, In- diana, as a young bride, also saw her husband's restaurant business de- cline because of the depression. "The restaurant used to make over two

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hundred dollars a day with the lunch meal alone," she said. "During the depression we were lucky to make two or three dollars a day. People had no jobs and of course no money. The department stores were all empty. You couldn't find a single person in there ." When they couldn't pay the rent anymore, the Wongs closed their restaurant and moved to Chicago. Too intimidated to stand in the food lines, her husband finally went to the Chinatown gaming tables to borrow "lucky money" from the win- ners. The winter months were the hardest because the family couldn't afford heat. "A bushel of coal would have to last us a whole week. I would wrap my two daughters in blankets and heavy coats all the time and only burn the coals at night. But even at that, it was still down to forty de - grees at night. " 6

Americans across the country were hard hit by the Great Depression. The Chinese community in San Francisco, however, was not only spared some of the worst hardships, but in some ways, Chinese women came out ahead . Ironically, the segregated economy and community resources of Chinatown-developed as an outcome of Chinese exclusion and ex- ploitation in America- protected residents from the worst effects of the economic downturn. And for the first time in their history, Chinese Americans, who had always been marginalized, became beneficiaries of federal relief programs and were welcomed into the rank and file of the growing labor movement. Although hundreds of Chinese men lost their jobs as cooks, seasonal laborers, and laundrymen, most Chinese women continued to find employment in the female-dominated areas of sewing, domestic service, and sales and clerical work. Less affected by unem - ployment than their men and encouraged by the political conditions of the depression era, Chinese American women were able to improve their circumstances as well as to assume a larger share of responsibility for their families and community. Thus, the depression both required and allowed them to make long strides during a time of setbacks for most other Amer- icans.

Ironies of the Depression: San Francisco Chinatown

The silver lining in the Great Depression for the Chinese in San Francisco should be viewed in its proper perspective; that is, given their low socioeconomic status, Chinese Americans had less to lose by

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the economic catastrophe and more to gain by government assistance than the average American. In a strange way, it might be said that the Chinese benefited from past discrimination. Even during the worst years of the Great Depression, before President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal went into effect, there were no breadlines or traces of Hoovervilles in Chinatown; nor were Chinese violently scapegoated by white workers as happened in the depression of the r87os. Overall, be- cause their ethnic economy afforded them some protection against un- employment, the Chinese in San Francisco did not suffer as severely as Chinese, black, and Mexican Americans in other parts of the country. Almost all the Chinese in the city lived in Chinatown, which provided them with essential foods and services as well as jobs that relied primar- ily on trade with China. They were not in competition with white work- ers for work, nor were they greatly affected by plummeting agricultural prices or the closure of industrial plants. In contrast, blacks in San Fran- cisco suffered the highest rate of unemployment among all groups throughout the depression because they were concentrated in those oc- cupational areas-unskilled labor and the service sector-most vulner- able to unemployment ? Likewise, because few Chinese invested in stocks and bonds, were able to own property, or had accumulated much sav- ings in banks, they were less affected by the stock market crash, prop - erty foreclosures, and bank runs than the rest of the country. China- town was also blessed with its own backup support of local district and family associations. In combination with churches and other charitable organizations, the kin network provided a stopgap resource for most Chi- nese in need. 8 The unemployed could always count on their family or district associations to hoi fan-provide dinner for a nickel-while fam - ilies relied on the tradition of wan fan-the taking of leftovers from the dining tables of Chinatown businesses that provided meals to their work- ers. It was not unusual for six to eight single men to share one room and to chip in for food . Fong, a laborer, described how this worked in the documentary study Longtime Californ):

Now during the Depression I was so broke, quite often I was with no money in my pocket . . . . You wonder how I lived? ... . We got a room, there's five or six of us and sometimes we pay rent, sometimes we don't. We got a sack of rice for a coupla dollars and we all cook every day and we eat there . Sometimes one night you see forty or fifty guys come in and out, the old guys go to each's place, sit down, talk all night long before they go to sleep the next day .. . . So we got our food one way or the other, lots of vegetables real cheap at the time, and that's how I passed by. 9

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As the depression deepened and the Chinese kin associations and com- munity charities found themselves no longer able to handle the situa- tion, the Chinese discovered a new source of relief in the local, state, and federal governments.

Accustomed to solving the community's problems in their own au- tocratic and patriarchal way, the merchant elites that ruled Chinatown did not seek outside assistance. But as conditions for the Chinese work - ing class deteriorated, the unemployed found a new political voice in the Huaren Shiyi Hui (Chinese Unemployed Alliance), a group formed by the Chinese Marxist left in January I 9 3 I to organize the working class and aid the unemployed. Reflecting the rise in radical politics throughout the country, the Shiyi Hui joined with the Unemployed Council of the U.S.A. (organized by the U.S. Communist Party) to call for racial and class unity on unemployment issues and to demonstrate for relief aid from the U.S. government. In March I93 I, the Shiyi Hui reported that there were 3,ooo to 3,500 unemployed Chinese in the city, I 2 percent of whom were women and more than I ,ooo of whom wece heads of households with an average of three dependents. Those below the poverty level amounted to 20 percent of the unemployed. 10

The alliance then organized several hundred unemployed Chinese work- ers to march on the Chinese Six Companies and demand immediate re- lief, thereby challenging the ruling merchant class. At the end of the march, a mass meeting was held, at which Eva Lowe, the only female member of the Shiyi Hui, presented the organization's demands for (I) shelter and food for the unemployed, ( 2) free hospital services for the ~nemployed, ( 3) free education for unemployed women, and ( 4) an em - ployment office, to be administered by a board selected by the Shiyi Hui. Later, many participants also joined a massive demonstration of the un- employed in San Francisco's financial district, marking one of the earli- est instances of Chinese involvement in a political event outside China- town.l1

Response-albeit slow-came first from the city government. Ac- cording to one analyst, compared to other cities San Francisco took bet- ter care of its unemployed citizens during the first two and a half years of the depression because of its sturdier economy, strong banks and credit rating, skillful budget balancing, effective relief programs, and gener- ous citizens who not only gave to charities but also repeatedly voted for relief bonds.l 2 In November I930, the city and county of San Francisco made its first appropriation for relief in the amount of $2oo,ooo. Three months later, it passed a bond issue of $2.5 million for work relief (pri -

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marily to construct the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges ). In the four years from 1929 to 1932, the public portion of contributions to Associated Charities, a humanitarian organization that provided for the poor, rose from 8. 5 percent to 84 percent, and the city government distributed$ 3. 8 million worth of aid in work or direct relief.

It was not until mid-I932, however, that any attention was paid to the needs of the Chinese community. After the city passed another bond issue, funds were finally made available to open a Chinese-staffed office for family relief in Chinatown, enabling needy Chinese families to go on relief for the first time. It took another year before the city estab- lished a Chinese Single Men Registry in the building of the Chinese Six Companies so that Chinese bachelors, who were the hardest hit by un - employment, could also begin applying for relief. That same year, the Chinese Six Companies, working with the city government, opened a shelter with forty beds and a reading room for unemployed Chinese men. Free showers were provided at the Chinese YMCA, where Chinese cooks were hired to cook two free meals a day for two hundred needy persons, and Chinese Hospital began providing free medical care to the unem - ployed.13

Just as the city's relief funds dried up, Congress passed the Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA), allocating $500 million for the unem - ployed . Word began to spread in Chinatown about the benevolence of wongga (literally, "imperial family"; that is, the U.S. government), and the Chinese learned to swallow their pride and accept the concept of public assistance as an individual's right in America- at least for the du - ration of the depression. By I 9 3 5, approximately 2,3 oo, or I 8 percent, of the Chinese population in San Francisco (as compared to 22 percent of the total U.S. population) were on government assistance. This num - ber included approximately 3 50 families, 25 unmarried women, and 500 unmarried men. The relief initially took the form of groceries that were delivered by a local Chinese grocery store to the families . Then, begin- ning in I934, the government issued a weekly check to each family for food, rent, utilities, and clothing, supplemented by free medical care at a local clinic. 14 Lim P. Lee, who served as postmaster of San Francisco from I966 to I98o, was a social worker during the depression; here - called : "Where the Chinese Recreation Center is today used to be the Washington Gral?mar School. They had a backyard there, and on pay- day, when they came to get their relief checks, we had lines of four to six deep." 15

Both Lim P. Lee and Ethel Lum, also a social worker, emphasized

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that there was no discrimination in the distribution of unemployment relief to the Chinese in San Francisco. "Because of language difficulties and differences in habits and customs, the Chinese on relief have always received special consideration, and have been treated fairly and justly, wrote Ethel Lum in 193 5. "They receive identically the same allowances for food as do the white families; whereas in several counties in Califor- nia, Chinese and other racial groups, Filipino, Mexican, etc., are accorded •lower food budget, a difference of from ro to 20 per cent, on the be - lief that these racial groups have less expensive diets. " 16 This egalitarian treatment may have been due to accusations that had circulated in the community a year before charging the authorities with providing Chi- nese families less relief because of their lower standard of living. In re- sponse, FERA officials had assigned a bilingual social worker to investi- gate and correct the matter.17 As it was, "the unemployment relief checks were hardly enough for bare existence for the single men," said Lim P. Lee. "The families had more allowance, but there were more mouths to feed." 18 Monthly relief for the Chinese in San Francisco was averaging $r6-43 per single person and $69.79 per family, far below the $30 a month needed to support one Chinese person or the $r2o required to sustain an average -sized Chinese family of eight for a month.19

Then in October r 9 3 5, when the Works Progress Administration (WPA) went into action, 3 31 single men and r 64 families were trans - ferred from the relief rolls to the federal work program. The idea was to shift the unemployed from direct relief to work relief before family relations eroded any further and men became too dependent on public assistance. 20 WPAjobs required U.S. citizenship and benefited both blue- collar and white -collar workers. Because most unemployed Chinese men fell into the former class, they were employed by WPA mainly as un - skilled labor on public projects-constructing public buildings, parks, roads, bridges, and airports. Pong was one of the "lucky" ones hired . under the WPA program . As he put it,

Then Roosevelt come out and he created the word NRA [National Re- covery Administration], gave work to people, a Iotta guys, but later on it got so sour. Like they got jobs, for instance I went in on one of them, a railroad job inside Elko . They paid seventy-two dollars, I think, and they give you jobs like that so you can make a living, and I worked there a few months . It was awfully hot, hot like everything! In fact you could see the blaze mavin' around hotly. And people come back workin' in the railroad, they come back for dinner they practically stink because their clothing been in that sunlight so damn long. And that's the way it

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is, I lived out there. You don't go nowhere, it's right out in the middle of the desert, see, that's the way it is. There's quite a few jobs similar like that that Roosevelt put out later on. 21

But not everybody who needed a job qualified for relief work. Because U.S. citizenship was required, many Mexicans, Chinese, Japanese, and Filipinos could not apply, which explains their low percentages on the WPA employment rolls as compared to blacks. In 1940, for instance, only 7 percent of unemployed Japanese in California, 12 percent of Chi- nese, and 14 percent of Filipinos were employed by WPA, as compared to 6o percent of all unemployed blacks in the state. 22 The monthly wage of $6o for a minimum of 120 hours of work was four times the sum granted in direct relief for single men, but there was no supplementary assistance in cash, medical services, surplus clothing, or food. Since each family could have only one WP A worker, for large families of six to eleven persons WPA employment resulted in less money per month than direct relief; thus wives were forced to look for work in order to make ends meet. 23 Over 70 percent of racial minorities on relief projects did hard work as semiskilled and unskilled labor. 24 Whether one was considered "lucky" in landing a WPA job was therefore debatable, according to Fang:

They're always trying to push you down to these jobs, no matter how much or how good you are. Like that NRA was like all the other things, at first you don't realize, but nevertheless, in due time and in the long run, you find out it will never have any advantage toward the Chinese. The thing is that they do it in such a close way, undercover way, that you barely notice it. So, as I said, that NRA, "Never Rebuffed Ameri- can," pretty soon the thing went sour all around and people began to sneer at it. 25

However, over 20 percent of racial minorities employed by WP A were · in the white-collar sector.26 Chinese American men like LimP. Lee and

women like Ethel Lum were hired as social workers, recreation aides, teachers, and clerks at prevailing professional rates to dispense financial aid to the needy, extend services to individuals and families, and help improve living conditions in the community. Aside from earning this group of white-collar workers a salary, their services assisted individuals through the depression and were instrumental in procuring a public health clinic, nursery schools, improved housing and street lighting, and English and job training classes for the Chinatown community. Over- seeing a staff of twenty-five, LimP. Lee headed the Real Property Sur-

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vey in r 9 3 9, which resulted in the construction of low-cost public hous- ing in Chinatown after World War II.

Chinese Americans also had the option of returning to China to es- cape the depression. As Jade Snow Wong wrote in her second autobi- ography, many Chinese did just that, which explains the uncongested streets and vacancy signs on Chinatown apartment buildings she recalled seeing as an eleven-year-old. 27 China was at the time also in the thick of fighting the Japanese on its soil and in need of any help that overseas Chinese could give. One editorial in CSYPrecommended that Chinese with technical skills consider returning to China to work and that those with capital use it to develop industries in China. 28 Another article pro- vided instructions on how Chinese Americans could reclaim their assets in their ancestral villages. 29 This was also the time when the Chinese Di- gest published the winning essays on "Does My Future Lie in China or America?" From 1930 to 1934, 7,ooo Chinese departed from the port of San Francisco, while only 2,500 entered. 30 Most had sufficient per- sonal resources to return with their families, but at least twenty-five older men took advantage of the U .S. government's offer of a one-way ticket to go home alone in 1936. 31 According to the Chinese Digest, most of these men were hard-working laborers in their senior years and now on relief. The periodical interviewed four of the repatriates, "all [of whom] had wives, children, and grandchildren in China and were glad to be sent back to their families to spend their remaining years ." 32

In contrast, large numbers of unemployed Mexicans and Filipinos were pressured to return home. Between 1929 and 1939, approximately half a million Mexicans, or close to one-third of the Mexican popula- tion in the country, were either deported or repatriated, even though many had been born in the United States. 33 In 193 5, in response to the demands of exclusionists on the West Coast, Congress passed the Repa- triation Act, which offered Filipinos on the mainland free transporta- tion back to the Philippines on the condition that they not return to the United States. Only 2,190, or approximately 7 percent of the Filipino population, took up the offer and repatriated. 34

Chinese workers actually came out ahead after Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act (a.k.a. the Wagner Act) in 1935, which granted organized labor the right to collective bargaining. Between 19 3 6 and 1941, as a result, the strength of the labor movement doubled in numbers. Communist Party organizers and the Congress of Industrial Organizations were particularly instrumental in promoting industrial unionism and recruiting minority and women workers into unions .

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Strikes became commonplace across the country as workers successfully fought for improved hours and wages in the needle trades, coalfields, steel and rubber industries, and agriculture. Chinese and black workers in San Francisco, who had historically been excluded from the labor movement, joined white workers in picket lines during the maritime strike of I 9 3 4 and the hotel strike of I 9 3 7, after which they became welcomed members in major labor unions such as the International Longshore- men and Warehousemen's Union, Culinary and Miscellaneous Workers' Union, and Apartment and Hotel Union. 35 Chinese and black workers were also involved in picketing the Alaskan Packers' Association, which resulted in the abolition of the contract system and the establishment of the Chinese Workers Mutual Aid Association. 36 Given the overall lib- eral temper and China's alliance with the United States at the time, lo- cal unions openly solicited Chinese members and worked with them to protest fascism abroad. 37

Because of the foresight of the younger generation of Chinese American businessmen, who were quick to take advantage of the repeal of prohibition laws and promote tourism, recovery for San Francisco Chi- natown came earlier than for the rest of the country. Chinese import trade, which had declined precipitously since I 9 3 I, recovered to about a fourth of the I929level by I935. 38 To encourage tourism, entrepre- neurs renovated stores, invested in modern bars, restaurants, and coffee shops, and created an atmosphere of "Old Chinatown" to attract out- of-towners attending conventions and the I939 International Exposi- tion at Treasure Island. As Fang observed:

Then around the middle of the Depression the change come along and everything goes zoom! The whole place begins to look different because they start building it up .... Before that, no.t that there wasn't any bars in Chinatown, but they weren't noticeable nowhere. They were just down, beatup places, the bars for low-down people and drunks and all that. But during the Depression a bar changed names to some kind of a club, and then all those fancy names comes. Then the same thing happens with the restaurants .... In fact, maybe Chinatown is the place that start every- thing rumbling during the Depression. Such as like these dance halls, the bars, and all that. 39

Taking note of the brisk bu~iness these newly established enterprises were enjoying, the Chinese Digest concluded in I936 that Chinatown had "passed its winter" and was "now greeting the loveliest of all seasons, the season of gentle awakening and of growth. " 40 As the New Deal con- tinued to provide jobs for the unemployed and as business improved in

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Chinatown, the number of unemployed Chinese dropped from 2,300

in I9 3 5 to 700 in I 93 7. 41 For the rest of the country, however, recov- ery was delayed by a recession in I 9 3 7-3 8 and was not fully achieved until the United States entered World War II in I94I.

Ironies of the Depression: Immigrant Women

Compared to their men and the rest of the country, Chi- nese women in San Francisco were relatively unaffected by unemploy- ment. Following the national pattern-in which the unemployment rate for men, who were concentrated in hard- hit production jobs, was almost twice as high as for women, who tended to work in protected clerical and service occupations-Chinese immigrant men who had been chiefly employed as seasonal workers, laundrymen, and cooks were the first to lose their jobs. Immigrant women, however, who worked primarily in the garment industry, continued to find employment. This situation made some immigrant wives the breadwinners, albeit marginal ones, during a time when their husbands were unemployed and relief funds were ei- ther unavailable or inadequate to support their families. While a signif- icant number of urban black and white working-class families experi - enced discord and disintegration during this time, Chinese women were able to keep their. families together by providing them with emotional support, stretching family means, and tapping resources in the commu- nity. And while the reversal of gender roles proved controversial in many parts of the nation,42 the social status of Chinese women in San Fran- cisco was elevated as a result of their indispensable contributions.

Statistics from the I930 U.S. census indicate that many more men than women became unemployed at the beginning of the depression. Nationally, the unemployment rate was 7. I percent for men and 4. 7 per- cent for women; in San Francisco, 8.3 percent for men and 4·3 percent for women. 43 A5 a number of studies have pointed out, women experi- enced a lower unemployment rate owing to the rigid sex segregation in the labor force. Clerical, trade, and service occupations, in which women dominated, contracted less than the male manufacturing occupations.44

The same held true in San Francisco, where men employed in the man - ufacturing and mechanical industries suffered the highest rate of un- employment.45 Because the Chinese were concentrated in ethnic enter- prises instead of in large-scale industrial occupations, they were less

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affected by these citywide contractions than other groups. The major- ity of the unemployed Chinese, in fact, had worked outside the China- town economy, as reported in a I 9 3 5 study of the occupational history of Chinese men on relief. Single men who became unemployed came from the ranks of farm and seasonal workers ( 25.5 percent ), laundry- men (2r.3 percent), family and hotel cooks (I 5.2 percent), and restau- rantworkers ( J4.I percent) . Among the family men, the hardest hit were family and hotel cooks (20.4 percent), clerks and salesmen (J7.I per- cent ), and semiskilled workers (I6.8 percent). 46

An industrial survey of women workers, by contrast, reveals that in I 9 3 5 approximately 5 64 Chinese women (a 54 percent increase over I93o ) were employed in sixty-five factories (forty -nine of which were garment factories), though I9 percent of their husbands were unem - ployed at the time. 4 7 The majority of these women were foreign-born and married with young children. A second survey of living conditions in Chinatown in I 9 3 5 shows that among families on relief, unemployed men outnumbered unemployed women. Of I63 families, 29 percent (48 families) were found to be on some form of relief; 3 7 of these families had an unemployed male head of the household . Of the 22 families with - out fathers, only half of the mothers were on relief; the remaining half were reportedly supporting their families with their earnings as garment workers .4 8 It should be noted that the larger number of unemployed males relative to females among families on relief was due in part to the preferential treatment accorded male -headed households by relief pro- grams. As Linda Gordon points out in her study on the welfare state, most welfare programs have been designed to shore up male -breadwin- ner families and keep women subordinate in the male -dominated fam- ily wage system. 49

The stories of Law Shee Low and Wong Shee Chan (my maternal grandaunt ) illustrate how the depression affected Chinese immigrant women with large families, as well as the strategies some women em - ployed to cope with the hard economic times. Law recalled, "Those were very poor and tough years for us. When my uncle who became penni- less died and we were all asked to help with the funeral expenses, we could only afford to give a few dimes. We were so poor, we wanted to die. " Her husband, who had been working twelve hours a day at a Chi- natown restaurant for $6o a month, lost his job. For a brief period, he lived and worked in the city of Vallejo. "Just made $40 at a restaurant. He gave me $20 and kept $20 for himself. I sewed and made another $30 or $40 . So we struggled on ." 50 When he was laid off again, she be-

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came the chief wage earner. There was still sewing to keep them going, and her husband helped her sew at home and did the shopping. But when even sewing became scarce for a spell, they had to dip into their small savings and seek outside help. "Joe Shoong [the owner of a large gar- ment factory and Law's clansman] was giving out rice, so my husband went and carried back a fifty-pound sack. Food was cheap then. A dime or two would buy you some sung [vegetable or meat dishes to go with the rice]. " 51 With an unemployed man and four dependents in the house, the family qualified for free milk and food rations from the federal gov- ernment. And when FERA established a much-needed nursery school in Chinatown, two of their children were among the first to enroll.

Wong Shee Chan recalled similar hard times. Betrothed when ten years old and married at seventeen to my great-grandfather Chin Lung's eldest son, Chin Wing, she was admitted to the United States in I920 as a U.S. citizen's v.rife. They initially farmed land that Great-Grandfather had pur- chased in Oregon but, soon after, returned to San Francisco and worked at Chin Lung's trunk factory on Stockton Street. In I93 2, Great-Grand- father decided to retire to China to avoid the depression, leaving what business assets he had left to his sons. Chin Wing tried to maintain the trunk factory, but to no avail. The family had to pawn Grandaunt's jew- elry in order to make ends meet. "Those were the worst years for us," recalled Grandaunt, who by then had six children to support. "Life was very hard. I just went from day to day." They considered themselves lucky when they could borrow a dime or a quarter. "A quarter was enough for dinner," she said. "With that I bought two pieces of fish to steam, three bunches of vegetables (two to stir-fry and the third to put in the soup), and some pork for the soup. " 52 For a brief period, while her hus- band was unemployed, the family qualified for federal aid; but after he went to work as a seaman, Grandaunt was left alone to care for the chil- dren. She had to find work to help support the family. Encouraged by friends, she went to beauty school to learn how to be a hairdresser. At that time, there were sixteen beauty parlors in Chinatown-the only busi- nesses in the community to be run by Chinese women. 53 After she passed the licensing examination, which she was able to take in the Chinese lan- guage, Grandaunt opened a beauty parlor and bathhouse in Chinatown, working from 7 A.M. to I I P.M. seven days a week. She kept the children v.rith her at the shop and had the older ones help her v.rith the work. Thus she was able to keep the family together and make it through the de- pression.

Women across the country likewise found ways to "make do." When

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Grandaunt Wong Shee Chan (left) in front of her beauty parlor and bathhouse in the 1930s. (Judy Yung collection)

their husbands and sons became unemployed, many white women en- tered the labor market for the first time, finding work in female-domi- nated occupations-clerical work, trade, and services. In the decade be- tween 1930 and 1940, the number of married women in the labor force increased nearly 50 percent despite mounting public pressure that they not compete with men for jobs. Often, in fact, it was not men who were edged out of jobs by white women, but black women-particularly do- mestic workers-who were already at the bottom of the labor ladder.

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Concentrated in the marginal occupations of sharecropping, household service, and unskilled factory work, black women suffered the highest unemployment rate among all groups of women. 54 Most other working- class women were able to keep a tenuous hold on their jobs in the in- dustrial and service sectors even as their husbands became unemployed. Women's marginal wages thus often kept whole families alive. Women also learned to cut back on family expenditures, substituting store-bought items with homemade products. They planted gardens, canned fruits and vegetables, remade old clothing, baked bread, raised livestock, rented out sleeping space, and did odd jobs. Pooling resources with relatives and neighbors provided mutual assistance in terms of shared household duties and child care . As a last resort, some women turned to prostitu- tion. And among those who qualified, many went on relief. 55

It has generally been assumed that women also managed to provide sufficient emotional support to keep the family together during these troubled times. In I987, however, Lois Rita Helmbold threw that as - sumption into question. After examining I ,340 interviews with white and black working-class women in the urban North and Midwest that were conducted by the Women's Bureau in the I93os, Helmbold con- cluded that a significant number of families were in fact torn apart by the financial and emotional strains of the depression. The expectations and actualities of female self-sacrifice resulted in unresolvable conflicts between parents and children, husbands and wives; relatives, it is clear, did not always come to the aid of unattached women. Family and mar- ital breakups became widespread. 56 Moreover, as Jacqueline Jones points out in her study on black women and the depression, federal aid to moth- ers with dependent children (started in I935) may have inadvertently contributed to the disintegration of black families, for by "deserting" their families, unemployed fathers enabled them to qualifY for relief. Jones's argument is supported by statistics: in the mid-I930s , approxi- mately 40 percent of all husband -absent black families received public assistance; and by I 940, 3 I percent of all black households had a female head. 57

In contrast, Chinese families held together. Whereas the nation ex- perienced an increase in the divorce rate from the mid - I930S on, the rate remained low among Chinese Americans. Chinese newspapers re - ported only nine cases of divorce in the I 9 3 os, most of which were filed by women on grounds of wife abuse, although three women also cited

· lack of child support as a reason. 58 No doubt, Chinese women experi- enced their share of emotional stress during the depression, but because

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of cultural taboos against divorce they found other ways to cope. My grandaunt Wong Shee Chan recalled a number of occasions when her

unemployed husband took his frustrations out on her. "I remember buy- ing two sand dabs to steam for dinner," she said. "Because he didn't like the fish, he flipped the plate over and ruined the dinner for the entire family. Even the children could not eat it then. See what a mean heart he had?" 59 Having promised her father that she would never disgrace the Wong family's name by disobeying or divorcing her husband, she gritted her teeth and carried on. But when the situation at home became unbearable, Grandaunt would go to the Presbyterian Mission Home for help. "She went there a couple of times, and each time it got ironed out and she came home," recalled her eldest daughter, Penny. 60 Jane Kwong Lee; who was coordinator of the Chinese YWCA in the I930s, noted the added emotional stress that many women unaccustomed to accept- ing public assistance felt:

There is a family with a father, mother, and five small children. The father was unemployed for several years before he obtained work relief. The family is expressively grateful, for they are no longer afraid of star- vation. Outwardly, the mother appears happy. Yet, when I talk with her further, I can sense the struggle within her. She cannot bear the thought of being on the relief roll. Her people in China think she is en - joying life here in the "Golden Mountain." She dares not inform them about the family's sufferings and hardships. If she does, she would "lose face ." Although the relief money is enough to feed and clothe the family, it is not sufficient to allow for better living quarters than the two rooms they now occupy, without a private kitchen or a private bath. She can afford no heat in the rooms even when the children are ill in bed. This family is on the bare existence line. As in many other cases, at first she felt humiliated about her surroundings. Later on, she got used to it . Now she regards relief as a matter-of-fact.61

This pragmatic approach to life, kindled by personal initiative and a strong sense of obligatory self-sacrifice in the interest of the family, helped many Chinese immigrant women through the hardships that they faced in America, including the depression.

The adverse impact of the depression was also blunted by the bene- fit that Chinese immigrant women and their families drew from federal legislation and programs. Many of the New Deal programs discriminated against women and racial minorities in terms of direct relief, jobs, and wages. One-fourth of the NRA codes, for example, established lower wage rates for women, ranging from 14 to 30 percent below men's rates .

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Relief jobs went overwhelmingly to male breadwinners, and significant numbers of female workers in the areas of domestic service, farming, and cannery work were not covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act or Social Security Act. Black, Mexican, and Asian women who were con- centrated in these job sectors were thus denied equal protection from labor exploitation and access to insurance benefits. Moreover, under fed - eral guidelines, Mexican and Asian aliens could not qualifY for WPA jobs . and were in constant fear of deportation .62 Nevertheless, considering their prior situation, Chinese women had more to gain than lose by the New Deal. For the first time, they were entitled to public assistance. At least 3 50 families were spared starvation and provided with clothing, housing, and medical care to tide them over the depression. In addition, more than fifty single mothers qualified for either Widow Pension Aid or Aid to Dependent Children. 6 3 The garment industry- which em - ployed most of the Chinese immigrant women-was covered by the NRA. At the urging of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU), sweeps through Chinatown were periodically made to ensure the enforcement of the new minimum-wage levels, work hours, banned child labor law, and safety standards. 64 NRA codes, however, were insufficient to change sweatshop conditions in Chinatown, as employ- ers circumvented or nullified the imposed labor standards through speed-ups and tampered records. Only when workers took matters into their own hands, as in the case of the I 9 3 8 National Dollar Stores strike, were employers forced to comply with federal labor laws.

The New Deal did have a positive impact on the living environment of Chinese families. A 193 5 study of Chinatown's social needs and prob- lems sponsored by the California State Emergency Relief Administration (CSERA) indicated that housing was woefully substandard, playground space and hours of operation inadequate, and health and day child care sorely lacking. 65 Federal programs, staffed by Chinese American social workers in cooperation with churches and community organizations, were instituted to deal with· these specific problems. Families were moved out of tenement houses to apartments and flats close by. Play- ground hours were extended and street lighting improved . Immigrant mothers learned about American standards of sanitation and nutrition, particularly the importance of milk in their diet, and had access to birth control and health care at the newly established public clinic in the com- munity. They were also entitled to attend English and job-training classes and, as in the case of Law Shee Low, enroll their children in nursery school. As a result, not only did some immigrant women receive direct

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relief, but their overall quality of life was somewhat improved by the New Deal.

Although in many quarters of the nation the issue of working wives was controversial, it was not a problem in San Francisco Chinatown, where wives and mothers had always had to work to help support their families. On the contrary, as their economic and social roles expanded and their families grew increasingly dependent on them during the de - pression, the community's attitude toward working women took a turn for the better. According to the I 9 3 5 survey conducted by CSERA, women's place in the work world outside the home was no longer ques- tioned:

The Chinese women of today are much more fortunate and certainly more independent than they were ten or twenty years ago . They are now permitted by their husbands to work outside their homes and the fear of mockery by their neighbors has ceased since it has become the vogue to work, whether to help out the family finances or to have a little pin money. Generally speaking, to help the family finances, since most of them are hard pressed .66

Gender relations also improved in their favor, as reflected in newspaper reports. In I933, for instance, the Chinese Six Companies sided with a widow whose relatives were trying to rob her of her inheritance and force her to marry a man of their choice. 67 CSYP published articles appealing to husbands to treat their wives better: "Don't be a tyrannical lord over her, but respect her opinions, speak to her gently, and involve her in all your affairs." 68 In another editorial, after praising Jane Addams's ex - emplary work with the poor and her involvement with the women's and peace movements, the newspaper encouraged the modern Chinese woman to be aware of her rights, become physically fit, satisfY her do- mestic duties, attend to the children, and serve the community.69

Jane Kwong Lee was one of the few Chinese women who fulfilled this role of the modern woman in the I 9 3 os. After becoming the mother of two and upon graduation from Mills College, she decided to go back to work, even though her husband still had his meat market in Oakland. "To stay home and take care of my children was, of course, my primary concern," she wrote in her autobiography, "but in the midst of the de- pression period, it was necessary for me to seek employment. " 70 Unable to find work in white establishments because of racism, Jane finally se - cured a part-time job at the Chinese YWCA, at a time when bilingual community workers were sorely needed. It was her responsibility to make

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home visits and to provide assistance to immigrant women regarding im- migration, health and birth control, housing, domestic problems, and applications for government relief. Until she was offered a full-time job as coordinator two years later, she also taught at a Chinese school in the evenings. How did she manage it all?

In these two years of my life, I actually divided my attention in three dif- ferent directions-my family, the YWCA, and the Chinese Language School. Aside from providing the necessary care for my children, I did not have any other worries for my family as they were healthy; my hus- band left for work in the East Bay every morning without asking me to prepare breakfast and came home after work to look after the children. I considered myself lucky to have his cooperation in raising two normal children and maintaining a normal family life.

With her husband's support and cooperation, Jane was able to raise a family and devote herself to her work at the YWCA, which she called "my JOB, in capitalletters." 71 Because of her leadership skills and hard work, the YWCA soon broadened its services, grew in membership, moved into a new building, and garnered the respect and support of the community.

To meet the diverse needs of Chinese women who crossed genera- tional and class lines, Jane organized clubs, classes, and programs with specific groups of women in mind. To dispel the mistrust of the older generation and to attract immigrant women to the YWCA, she utilized the Chinese newspapers and personally distributed Chinese leaflets to publicize events that catered to their interests: lectures and plays in Chi- nese on history, politics, culture, and the status of women; workshops on nutrition (including how to cook with relief food distributed by the government) and health issues; and field trips to take women out of the community to visit local bread and milk factories. Her newspaper arti- cles helped to promote the YWCA's services while at the same time ad- vocating women's liberation. In one front-page editorial titled "Why Chi- nese Americans Should Support the YWCA" she wrote:

The degree of success of the YWCA is a reflection of the development of our society. Why do I make such a statement? It is because women constitute half of the human race. If women, who make up half of the human race, do not unite and improve themselves in the areas of char- acter, intellectual, physical, and social development, then no matter how high-minded and knowledgeable the men-the other half of the human race-are, the entire society will not advance. In old China, men were held to be better than women . Men had ambitions to be educated so that they might roam the world and bring glory to their family. Women,

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on the other hand, were not educated, so that they might remain virtu - ous. They were slighted and confined to their bedchambers, ignorant of the world and its affairs. That is why the Chinese people have become weak and it is so difficult to help them . Yet those with foresight have long reali zed that liberating women so that they may develop and im - prove themselves is something that should not be delayed.72

Aware that many immigrant women were illiterate, Jane devised a strategy of going door-to-door to personally publicize the YWCA's ser- vices . In this way she gained firsthand knowledge of family conditions and women's needs that later proved useful in her plans for programs and services. The personal contact also made her a familiar figure and the YWCA an accepted institution in the community. On behalf of the Chinese YWCA she ventured out of the local community as well, giv - ing talks on Chinese American culture and attending national conven - tions in Colorado Springs and Atlantic City. These occasions allowed her not only to visit such places as the Grand Canyon and see snow for the first time, but also to meet with a diverse range of women of com - mon interests and, more important, to promote goodwill and under- standing on behalf of Chinese Americans.

Reflecting on her important role as a community activist, a role that often took her away from her family, Jane wrote years later:

In turning my attention to the position of Community Worker, I had a varied spectrum- a link between persons , between individuals and groups, between groups and groups, and between country to country, even . For instance, when I interpreted for a Mrs. So and So, this was a connection between her and her physician; when I asked a girl to be a member of a club, I acted as a link between this girl and the YWCA; when I went out on a financial campaign for a school house, I acted as a link between the school house and the community in which the school house was to be erected; and when I volunteered to get help from America for flood victims in China, I acted as a link between China and America. Thus, I considered my job as a very important and bene- ficial one, and I was doing it with deep dedication and zeal. Later on, I might be accused of being too career-minded, but I could not help in shaping my professional attitude of devoting my best to what was to be done. I might have to apologize to my children that I should have given them more of my time and care, but I have to admit that my love for them has never diminished an iota, no matter how deeply involved I was in community affairs. 73

Jane's dedication and effectiveness as a community leader did not go unnoticed. Whereas the community had once disapproved of women in the public arena , she found that her role as a female activist was respected

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by the Chinatown establishment. Once her bilingual speaking abilities and organizational skills became known, she was courted by Chinatown churches and invited to speak before the Chinese Six Companies and other Chinatown organizations on behalf of the Chinese YWCA and for various nationalist causes. She considered these requests "a good omen for me to take part in the Chinese community life of San Fran- cisco."74 Even as she was proving useful to the community, she was paving the way for other bilingual social workers, who were sought after by agen- cies with federal funding to expand their services. Already a prominent figure in the community, Jane was asked to serve on the civil service ex- amination board that helped hire the first Chinese-speaking social work- ers for the city.

Ironies of the Depression: Second-Generation Women

Even more so than immigrant women, second-generation women-who made up 69 percent of the Chinese female population in San Francisco in 1930-had more to gain than lose from the depres- sion. Their occupational niches were relatively safe from the threat of unemployment. Moreover, many were able to take advantage of new opportunities and favorable federal policies and make strides in terms of

· their work, family, and political lives . This is not to say that second- generation women were all spared hardships during the depression. They, more than the first generation, tended to bank their money, and some even invested in stocks and bonds. Among those who lost their life sav- ings in the stock market crash were Alice Sue Fun and Chew Pong Low. After returning from her trip around the world with the actress Lola Fisher, Alice had remarried and was operating a corner grocery store with her husband in Oakland. With their savings, they had purchased a house, a car, and some $3 ,ooo worth of stocks. "That was a lot of money in stocks," she recalled. "But I didn't have to jump off the building, be- cause I had paid for them in full and wasn't in debt. It's when you owe money and don't know where to raise it that you'd be in trouble." 75

They recovered, and after her husband died she continued to speculate in real estate and invest her money in "safe stocks," the proceeds of which allowed her to retire comfortably and maintain an independent lifestyle until she died at the age of ninety. Chew Pong Low, who had built the

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luxurious Low apartment building for Chinese Americans in I 9 2 7, did not fare as well. Having invested a fortune in stocks and bonds, she lost heavily. The shock was too much for her frail health, and she passed away in I 9 3 6 at the age of sixty-seven? 6

Some second-generation women, like Kathy Ng Pon, had to go on relief. Her sister Gladys Ng Gin recalled that although she and her mother remained employed, Kathy, who had seven children and a husband with heart trouble, qualified for public assistance. "Instead of money, she was given fifty, a hundred pounds of potatoes, a sack of flour, butter, and things like that. Every six months, she would go buy shoes from Bally's shoestore," said Gladys. Because their dwelling was considered sub- standard and unsanitary, they were also assisted in moving to a three - bedroom apartment close by. After her husband passed away, Kathy worked at home so she could take care of her young children. "She would make bean paste and take it to the vegetable market to sell; crochet purses for $4 that I would take to work and sell for $20. Sold like hotcakes . So that's how she raised the seven children," said Gladys ? 7

Such cases among the second generation appear to be in the minor- ity. For the most part, the race - and sex-segregated labor force protected Chinese American women from unemployment, while the New Deal and the entertainment and tourist industries offered them new opportuni- ties. Although discrimination in the labor market continued to bar them from white-collar jobs outside Chinatown, their concentration in the op- erative, service, and clerical sectors of the economy meant continued em- ployment. Jobs such as housekeeping, picking and sorting fruits at close by ranches or canneries, sewing in Chinatown garment shops, wait- ressing in downtown restaurants and teahouses, running elevators in de- partment stores, and professional, sales, and clerical work in Chinatown were available to them throughout the depression years . In the middle of the depression, too, federal civil service jobs opened up to Chinese Americans for the first time. Mary Tong, for instance, became the first Chinese American woman to be hired by the U.S. Post Office.78 As Chi- nese Americans became more acculturated and recognized as potential consumers, department stores downtown also began to hire Chinese American women as salespersons.79

Thanks to the New Deal, those who had lost their jobs could seek help at the employment offices set up at the Chinese YWCA and the Chinese Catholic Center, although most of the job referrals were for household employment at exploitive wages . According to case worker Ethel Lum in I936, "Private families, realizing that Chinese girls can

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usually be employed at a wage scale lower, but an efficiency level higher, than the average white girl, show a preference for engaging Oriental help."80 At that time, according to advertisements in the Chinese news- papers, a live-in nanny earned only $r 5 a month; a housekeeper who worked eight hours a day, $25 a month; and a live-in housekeeper, $r2 a month. 81 Although these wages were far better than those paid to black domestic workers in the North and South-ro to r 5 cents an hour82 - they were not considered desirable jobs by Chinese American womeri who had better options. Part of the problem was that the occupational category of domestic service was exempt from the NRA codes because it was not an interstate commerce industry. The YWCA tried to work around this loophole by lobbying the federal government to implement a code specifYing a ten-hour day, six-day week, $9 minimum for live-in servants, and hourly and overtime rates for day help, but to no avail. 83

The Chinese YWCA also tried to ensure a minimum work rate for Chi- nese women in domestic service. Together with the Emanu-El Sister- hood, which looked after the interests of Jewish working girls, it estab- lished the Institute of Practical Arts to train women in household employment. Graduates of the course were guaranteed a job at mini- mum wages. 84 However, no followup reports were issued to suggest how successful the program actually was.

Although WPA jobs went mainly to unemployed men over women, women fortunate enough to be placed in relief jobs often experienced a degree of upward mobility as a result. Of the 4,215 women (as op- posed to 10,272 men) in San Francisco who held "emergency" jobs in 1937, the majority were in the professional, clerical, skilled, and semi- skilled sectors of the labor market. Whereas black women workers thereby gained access to semiskilled jobs that had been previously closed to them,85 Chinese American women now entered the profession of so- cial work for the first time. As bilingual social workers, they made home visits, dispensed financial aid, and helped Chinese clients adjust to the economic situation. In 1936, Lily K. Jean passed the civil service exam- ination to become San Francisco's first Chinese American social worker. An editorial in the Chinese Digest hailed her appointment as "a forward step in public social service on behalf of the large Chinese population in this city and county." 86 A number of Chinese American women were also hired by the WPA to work in the community as teachers, recreation aides, and assistants in conducting community surveys, which led to im- provements in social services and living conditions in the community.

Because the entertainment industry continued to thrive, thanks in part

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to the depression-movies and radio shows were inexpensive diversions for the American public-Chinese American women found some work, albeit in limited and often stereotypical roles, in show business. In 1934, CSYP announced that a local theater was auditioning Chinese Ameri- can talent and that at least ten girls had come to demonstrate their singing and acting abilities. 87 A year later, Hollywood's Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer ran announcements in the same newspaper, looking for Chinese Amer- ican extras, women in particular, for the filming of Pearl Buck's The Good Earth. 88 Although the movie was about peasant life in China, all of the major Chinese roles went to white actors . Even Anna May Wong, who was at the pinnacle of her acting career, was turned down for the lead role of 0 -lan, which went instead to Luise Rainer. Some Chinese Amer- icans, discouraged by racism in the film industry, began to star in and produce their own films. In 19 3 6, Cathay Pictures announced the re- lease of Heartaches, a film about an aviation student in America who falls in love with an opera star. Except for the well-known Chinese ac- tress Wei Kim Fong, all the other players in the production were said to be "American-Chinese. "89

That same year, soon after prohibition was lifted, Chinatown's first two cocktail bars opened-Chinese Village and Twin Dragon; they pro- vided Chinese American women with a new, better-paying, but contro- versial line of work as cocktail waitresses and nightclub entertainers. Gladys Ng Gin was among the first to try out for these jobs. She was making $7 5 a month running an elevator when a friend encouraged her to become a waitress at the Chinese Village . As she recalled, "I didn't know the difference between gin to rum, scotch or bourbon, but it was good money. Ten dollars a week but great tips ." Being illiterate in both Chinese and English, she found it difficult to take orders. "I had to mem - orize over one hundred kinds of alcohol because I couldn't write," she said. "You ordered and I told the bartender. Then the bartender made the drink and I served it. But you have to remember what each customer is drinking. And sometimes you go for another order and then come back for the first drink. "90 After two years at the Chinese Village, Gladys followed the owner, Charlie Low, to Forbidden City, one of Chinatown's first nightclubs. Although her mother did not object to her working in a bar, many other people in the conservative community considered such work immoral. As it turned out, most Chinatown women were so in- hibited by their social upbringing that the nightclubs had to recruit the large part of their talent from outside.

When he first opened Forbidden City on the outskirts of Chinatown,

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Charlie Low recalled, he was determined to present a modern version of the Chinese American woman, "not the old fashioned way) all bun- dled up with four or five pairs of trousers," he said. "We can't be back- wards all the time; we've got to show the world that we're on an equal basis. Why, Chinese have limbs just as pretty as anyone else! "91 Purported poble intentions aside, Charlie Low, the son of Chew Fong Low, was known to be a shrewd businessman. Capitalizing on the end of prohi- bition and the beginning of the nightclub era, he invested in Forbidden City, an oriental nightclub with an American beat. What gave Forbid- den City instant fame was Charlie Low's publicity skills and his ability to showcase Chinese Americans in cabaret-style entertainment-doing Cole Porter and Sophie Tucker, dancing tap, ballroom, and soft-shoe, parodying Western musicals in cowboy outfits, and kicking it up in cho- . rus lines. Besides challenging Hollywood's misconceptions of Chinese American talent, the novelty acts broke popular stereotypes of Chinese Americans as necessarily exotic and foreign. Most important, Forbidden City provided Chinese American women employment and a rare op- portunity to show off their talents. "It was a beginning," said Mary Mammon, a member of the original chorus line. "There was just no way you could go to Hollywood [which J had a low regard for Chinese Amer- ican talents. We [supposedly] had bad legs, spoke pidgin English, and had no rhythm."92 Bertha Hing, who needed a job to support herself through college, was one of the few local Chinatown women to join the chorus line. "Chinatown mothers wouldn't let their daughters do any- thing like that. But what they didn't realize was that we all just loved to dance. And we didn't particularly care for drinking or smoking or any- thing like that. It was just another way of earning a living," she said. 93

From the beginning, the Chinese community felt that no respectable parents would want their daughter to be seen in such an establishment. As dancer Jadin Wong recalled, "Chinese people in San Francisco were ready to spit in our faces because we were nightclub performers. They wouldn't talk with us because they thought we were whores. We used to get mail at Forbidden City-'Why don't you get a decent job and stop disgracing the Chinese? You should be ashamed of yourself, walk- ing around and showing your legs!"'94 Mter Charlie Low added nude acts to boost business, however, his sexploitation tactics became clear, and the nightclub's reputation plummeted to a new low. Although many of the female performers would have preferred not to bare their bodies, most went along with it to keep their jobs.95 Years later, when asked in an oral history interview if she had ever felt exploited while working at the Forbidden City, Bertha Hing replied:

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Chorus line of the Gay Ninety Revue, Forbidden City, 1942. From left to right: Lily Pon, Ginger Lee, Connie Parks, Diane Shinn, Dottie Sun, and Mei Tai Sing. (John Grau collection)

I tell you, those of us who started in together really loved to dance and we liked what we were doing. I never felt like I was exploited, because I felt that I had a choice of whether I danced or go into something else. It was my choice and the other girls felt the same way. But I think that we were exploited this way: We were underpaid. The waitresses were get- ting a lot of money from tips and what-not, than we did in dancing. But then, we loved dancing and how are you going to dance when there ·are no opportunities to, except that .96

Despite the Chinese community's condemnation and the compro- mises they had to make, Chinese American women continued to work at the Forbidden City and other nightclubs through the r 9 3 os and 1940s. During its best years, the Forbidden City attracted one hundred thousand customers a year, including senators, governors, and Holly- wood stars like Ronald Reagan. By the time the World War II economy

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set in, more than a hundred Chinese American women were employed in Chinatown's dozen nightclubs, and the composition of the audience had changed from all white to half Chinese, indicating the attraction that nightclub entertainment now held for middle-class Chinese Amer- icans.97

In 1938, tourism in Chinatown was bringing in $5 million annually and keeping many Chinese American women employed. 98 The traffic from the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition added to the Chi- natown coffers and provided additional jobs for Chinese Americans. Mer- chants invested $r.25 million to build a replica of a Chinese village at the Treasure Island fairgrounds and organized parades and festivals in Chinatown to attract tourists into the community. Two hundred posi- tions opened up at the fairgrounds and another fifty,in Chinatown. Young women were particularly sought after to provide "atmosphere" during the fair, serving as hostesses, secretaries, "cigarette girls," and waitresses.99

Even after the exposition ended in 1940, there was no decline in the tourist trade in Chinatown. Moreover, the booming war economy that followed not only ended the depression but also provided unprecedented job opportunities for Chinese American women outside the local econ- omy.

The depressed economy and government relief ultimately led to im - proved conditions for second-generation Chinese American women in a number of other ways. Because of deflation, those who remained em- ployed were able to stretch their salaries during the depression. "For a dollar, my husband, myself, and my two children could enjoy a full din - ner at the Far East Cafe," said Jane Kwong Lee .100 Modern and afford- able housing on the fringes of Chinatown was also more available to the growing numbers of second-generation families . According to the CSERA,

Since the economic depression of 1929, many of the houses of the Nob Hill District were left vacant. The Chinese were willing to pay more than the previous rent for houses in this district. As a result many a landlord was willing to set aside prejudice for economic gain. Consequently, a large number of residents are moving rapidly towards Nob Hill district. Forty- eight per cent of the properties occupied by Chinese west of Stockton Street are owned by them.101

This is not to say housing discrimination vanished during the depres - sion years . Eva Lowe, for one, was rebuffed a number of times when she tried to rent an apartment with her white girlfriend during the early

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I930S. They would say yes to her girlfriend, but when they saw that Eva was the roo111mate in question, they would renege, saying, "We don't rent to Orientals." They finally found a place on Russian Hill-but only after Eva claimed to be her friend's maid.l 02

Less affected by unemployment, a certain segment of the second gen- eration continued their quest of the good life. As one Stanford student told a news reporter in I 9 3 6, "Certainly we want to live American lives; we eat American foods, play bridge, go to the movies and thrill over Clark Gable and Myrna Loy; we have penthouse parties, play football, tennis and golf; attend your churches and your schools." 103 The social, fashion, and sports pages of the Chinese Digest in the I 9 3 os give the im- pression that the depression was not an issue for the growing middle class of young Chinese Americans. As the rest of the country recovered from the hard times, certain young Chinese women in San Francisco were competing in tennis, basketball, bowling, and track, learning the latest dance, the Lambert Walk, going to the beauty parlor, and worrying about what to wear to the next formal dance. Investigating the social life of San Francisco Chinatown as a WPA worker, Pardee Lowe-a second- generation Chinese American himself-remarked on the good life he saw in Chinatown, reflected in the "sleek-looking automobiles" that crowded Chinatown's streets and the "flivvers operated by its collegiate sons and daughters. " 104

While local newspapers expressed concern about the second genera- tion's fast pace of acculturation and self-indulgent ways, the need for gender roles to keep up with modern times was also recognized. As Jane Kwong Lee wrote in the Chinese Digest,

In spite of their frivolities in many ways, they (American-born Chinese] show keen interest and thought in weighty questions of their age. Girls no longer take marriage as the end of their career; they want to be fi- nancially independent just as much as all other American women. They prepare themselves to meet all future emergencies. They study Chinese in addition to English so that in case they go to China some day they will be able to use the language .... Women in this community are keeping pace with the quick changes of the modern world. The shy Chinese maid- ens in bound feet are forever gone, making place for active and intelli- gent young women. 105

To guide them in making the necessary family and social adjustments, Jane reoriented the YWCA program to serve their specific needs, just as she had done for immigrant women. Adolescents were able to enjoy sports, crafts, drama, dancing, and parties and take advantage of voca-

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tiona! guidance and job training classes. Business and professional women as well as young wives participated in Chinese language classes, social dinners, recreational sports, and group discussions on topics such as race prejudice, Chinese culture, current events, marital ethics, and child rearing. Through these kinds of activities, the YWCA fulfilled its goal of helping second -generation women develop socially, physically, morally, and intellectually. The YWCA also encouraged them to expand their pub- lic roles by helping to raise funds for the Community Chest and partic- ipate in the Rice Bowl parades and opening celebrations of the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges.

Spurred by economic and political conditions in the 1930s, the sec- ond generation did indeed assume a larger leadership role in the Chi- nese community, paralleling that of second-generation Mexican Amer- icans in Los Angeles during this same period. 106 The Chinese Digest, founded in I 9 3 5 by Thomas W. Chinn and Chingwah Lee as the voice of this new generation, served as the clarion for social action. During its five years of existence, the Chinese Digest unified Chinese Americans across the country, encouraging them to act on the many social prob- lems their community faced: poverty, health care, housing, employment, child care, recreation, education, and political and workers' rights. For its time, the Chinese Digest held a progressive perspective, advocating tourism as a viable economic base for Chinatown and the ballot as the political means by which to fight racial discrimination and improve .liv- ing conditions . It also supported the war effort in China.

In contrast to CSYP, the Chinese Digest included many more news and feature stories of interest to second-generation women. Clara Chan had a regular column on women's fashion; Ethel Lum wrote on socio- logical topics, including women's issues; and P'ing (Alice Fang ) Yu's "Jade Box" featured women's fashions, recipes, and social as well as po- litical news. Taken as a whole, the articles reflected the effects of accul - turation on the social consciousness of second-generation women, some of whom became political activists during the depression years. Tracing the development of two such women, Eva Lowe and Alice Fang Yu, sheds light on how some Chinese American women, inspired by the po- litical temper of the 19 30s, became more active in community reform, electoral politics, and Chinese nationalism.

Eva Lowe, who had followed her brother-in-law and sister to China in 1919 at the age of ten, returned to San Francisco a changed person four years later. "In China," she said, "I went to Chinese school and I learned about Chinese history, from the Tang dynasty through the end

LONG STRID ES 2 07

of the Qing dynasty and how the imperialist countries took over China. Like Dr. Sun Yat-sen said, China was cut up like a watermelon and each European imperialist country had a piece of it. I remember thinking, you know, China used to be so strong, and now this; and I cried in class ." 107 Other incidents- the mistreatment of her mother by her grandmother because she did not bear sons, the banning of her step- mother from the village because a man was seen entering her room, and a chance meeting with' a female scholar who first introduced her to fem - inism and socialism-alerted her to the unfair treatment of Chinese women and the need to fight back by becoming politically active.

Upon her return to San Francisco she attended high school and be- came involved with the Chinese Students Associati<:m, which claimed a membership of three thousand .108 What appealed to her was the group's anti-imperialist stance and concern for China's future. She did not hes - itate to join in making "soap box" speeches in Chinatown condemning Japan.ese aggression in China. "People still recall the slogan I coined, 'If you have money, give money. If you have muscles, give muscles. I have neither money or muscles, but I can give my voice [to the cause],'" she said. 109 Wanting to do her part to help the disadvantaged, Eva assisted families in applying for relief during the depression and joined the Huaren Shiyi Hui in demanding action from the Chinese Six Compa- nies on behalf of the unemployed. She also supported the longshore- men's strike and participated in the hunger march in San Francisco, shouting, "We want work! We want work!" with the masses of people pouring down Market Street to City Hall. Because these groups were ostracized by the community as Communist, her friends dropped out one by one owing to parental pressure, but Eva remained active in left- ist politics until she married and left for Hong Kong with her husband and son in r 9 3 7. "I always believed in fighting for the underdog,'' she reflected years later.ll 0

While Chinese nationalism was what motivated Eva Lowe to engage in politics, Alice Fong Yu, the first Chinese American schoolteacher in the San Francisco public schools, was influenced to contribute to the community by her family upbrin~ing as well as Christianity.l 11 "Ho ga gow [good family training]- that's what my parents gave me," said Al- ice . Growing up in Washington (Nevada County), California, she be- came aware early on of racial discrimination:

It is surprising, isn't it, that [in] just a small one-room school and [among] just a handful of children, they still thought we were queer. They would sing, "Ching Chong Chinaman" and all those things to make fun of us

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and make you feel like nobody, and then when we would play games, they wouldn't hold our hands, as if they would be contaminated by our hands, and so they wouldn't accept us.

The Fong children, disappointed and hurt, sought comfort from their parents, who told them, "You shouldn't let those things bother you, be- cause they are just barbarians; that's why they treat you like that. You have culture. Our people have a long history. Wait until you get your education and go back to China, where they will look up to you. But these people are barbarians; don't let them worry you.'?

Although their white classmates shunned them and the teachers made them feel inferior, the church welcomed them into its fold, sending a Sunday school teacher to Vallejo Chinatown, where the family had moved in 1923, to teach the children the Bible and take them to Christian re- treats. "The Christians were the ones who accepted us in the early days," Alice said, and "gave us a chance to intermingle with other races." En- couraged both by her parents and by her involvement in the YWCA Girls Reserve, Alice became a community activist after she moved to San Fran- cisco. During the 1930s, Alice was involved with many Chinatown or- ganizations, including the Square and Circle Club, YWCA, Chinese Needlework Guild, and Tahoe Christian Conference. A founding mem- ber of the Square and Circle Club, Alice helped raise funds for Chinese orphans, the elderly, and needy families. She also worked with other com- munity organizations to register American-born Chinese to vote, cam- paign for the reelection of Congresswoman Florence Kahn, and lobby for improved housing and recreational facilities in Chinatown. Alice be- came particularly well known in the community for planning and coor- dinating Square and Circle fashion shows as fund-raisers and leading the boycott against the wearing of silk stockings during the War of Resis- tance Against Japan (1937-45). In her capacity as a teacher at Com- modore Stockton Elementary School, she also helped found the Chi- nese chapter of the Needlework Guild, which provided clothing and shoes to needy children in Chinatown. 112 "The mothers couldn't speak English well enough to join the P.T.A., so we started our own group," she explained. "We got together to sew and talk about things. When- ever we found out about an impoverished family, we would help them get on welfare." 113

In r 9 3 3, Alice joined with Ira Lee and Ed war Lee to organize the first Lake Tahoe Chinese Young People's Christian Conference, in which second-generation Chinese from all over California came together to discuss common problems and concerns. According to Ira, he, AI-

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ice, and Edwar hoped to duplicate the social gospel spirit and fellowship that so moved them at YMCA conferences. They also wanted to pro- vide a place for young Chinese Americans from . different church de- nominations to meet outside of Chinatown. What started as an experi- mental retreat at the Presbyterian conference grounds at Zephyr Point, Lake Tahoe, continued as an annual conference until the r96os. At the beginning, topics of discussion focused on Christianity and the situa- tion in China. Then in the later 1930s, as the group grew to more than one hundred participants, including some non-Christians, interest turned to discrimination, marriage and family life, political involvement, com- munity problems, and the question of serving China. Resolutions were passed calling for increased social integration, vocational guidance, in- volvement in American politics, adoption of Western -style marriages and family life, and recreational interests beyond mah-jongg and dancing. Although the discussions lacked structure or follow-through, the retreats provided the second generation with an opportunity to socialize, share views, and vent frustrations . The benefits accrued were less to the church or the community as to the individual participants, who learned new or- ganizational skills and carried the ideas for and commitment to social change back to their respective communities. One offshoot of the Tahoe Conference was the Chinese Young People's Forum, an interdenomi- national group started by Alice that met weekly at Cameron House to continue discussing ways to solve the community's problems. 114

Thus, although the depression was a time of economic strife for most of America, for a significant number of Chinese women in San Fran- cisco it was a time of stable employment, social growth, and political ac - tivism. This positive side became even more evident when Chinese women went on strike for the first time against the National Dollar Stores, the largest garment factory in Chinatown.

Joining the Labor Movement: The 1938 Garment Workers' Strike

Chinese women's hard-won victory in their strike against National Dollar Stores was due as much to their determination for so- cial change in the workplace as to the economic and political circum- stances of the depression that nurtured their union activism. Their abil - ity to sustain a strike for 105 days, supported by a white labor union as

2ro LONG STRIDES

well as left organizations in Chinatown, proved that Chinese women could stand up for themselves and work across generational, racial, gen- der, and political lines to gain better working conditions in Chinatown . Although little was gained in terms of higher wages and job security (the factory closed a year after the strike), the experience moved women well beyond the domestic sphere into the political arena: it raised their po- litical consciousness and organizing skills, allowed them to become part of the labor movement and to find jobs outside Chinatown, and, most important, marked their first stand against labor exploitation in the gar- ment industry. The strike also provides insights into the class and gen - der dynamics of ethnic enterprises and the possibilities of organizing Chi- nese women workers in the garment industry.

In I93 8, when the strike against National Dollar Stores was launched, the garment industry was the largest employer in Chinatown. More than one thousand women worked in sixty-nine garment factories in China- town. Most of these factories were small, with fewer than fifty employ- ees toiling under sweatshop conditions : poor lighting and ventilation, long hours, low wages. All were nonunion and operating on a piece- rate basis, earning wages ranging from $4 to $I 6 a week-as compared to union workers who received from $I 9 to $3 o a week for a shorter workweek. 115 Ben Fee, a labor organizer and Communist Party mem- ber, stated in CSYP that Chinatown's garment industry had reached a crisis situation in part because of the depression, but more so because small contractors with inadequate capital and unsound management prac- tices persisted in underbidding each other and cutting workers' salaries in order to compete in the highly seasonal industry. As a result, he pointed out, there was a high turnover and shortage of skilled labor, the stiff market competition allowed jobbers to keep contract prices low, and fac - tories proved unable to meet NRA labor standards. He advocated that Chinese contractors unite to eliminate competition among themselves and that workers organize to improve their own lives . He also had the foresight to call for ethnic unity across class lines: "Overseas Chinese, be they factory owners or workers, are all living under the economic re- pression of another race, so we should work together to come up with a long-term plan that will enable us to co-exist with each other."116 Need - less to say, he was not heeded.

Unlike other Chinatown garment shops, National Dollar Stores, which employed I 2 5 Chinese workers, mostly women, was vertically in- tegrated; that is, it controlled all aspects of production, from manufac- turing to contracting out to retailing. Owned by Joe Shoong, one of the

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Garment workers in San Francisco Chinatown. (Courtesy of Labor Archives and Research Center, San Francisco State University)

wealthiest Chinese businessmen in the country, the National Dollar Stores factory specialized in women's light apparel for exclusive distri- bution to National Dollar Stores' thirty-seven retail outlets on the West Coast. In I 9 3 7, gross sales for the chain amounted to $7 million, and profits to about $I7o,ooo. Joe Shoong's salary that year was $qi,ooo, with dividends earning him another $4o,ooo. Known as a generous phil- anthropist in the Chinatown community, he lived in a large stucco house in Oakland, had five cars, and was a Shriner as well as a thirty-second- degree Mason.I 17

In all of Chinatown, Joe Shoong's factory was the cleanest and most modern, and it offered the best wages-supposedly $I 3. 3 3 for a forty- eight-hour week, the minimum rate in California. The strike came about only after many frustrating attempts by workers to negotiate steady em- ployment and increased wages. "Wages was the main issue," recalled Sue Ko Lee, who was a buttonhole machine operator at National Dollar

2I2 LONG STRIDES

Stores before the strike. "That time the [minimum] wage law was al- ready in, but we weren't getting that. We didn't keep the hours according to law. And there was already a homework rule but they were sending work out to homeworkers." 118 According to Jennie Matyas, labor or- ganizer for the ILGWU at the time, the workers first approached the

union for help in r 9 3 7.

Japan and China were at war. Most of the Chinese here had relatives back home. They all felt very loyal to their home relatives and wanted to sup- port them. [Yet) the workers in the National Dollar factory found them- selves underbid by other workers in Chinatown. They found that the work went to other Chinese contractors who did the work cheaper than they did . . .. They decided to supplicate the owner to remember that they needed money to send home to China and wouldn't he provide them with more work. 119

Unable to get a positive response from the factory owner, garment work- ers decided to organize themselves. This was the moment the ILGWU had been waiting for, because up to that point they had been unsuc- cessful in organizing the Chinese.

In San Francisco, where Chinese dominated the garment industry and often underbid union shops on contracts with downtown manufactur-, ers, the strategy the ILGWU adopted was to organize and control the Chinese or drive them out of business. "The situation is getting more desperate," Matyas told the Chinese Digest, "and if the Chinese con - tractors and dressmakers do not heed the writing on the wall and orga- nize, it is possible that the American garment workers, backed by the ILGWU, may declare war on the Chinese garment industry." The Di- gest, recognizing the veiled threat behind the labor union's determina- tion to organize Chinatown workers, stressed that the community could no longer afford to remain outside the labor movement:

With the tide of the labor movement as it is in the United States today, Chinese who work in any big scale industry cannot remain aloof from the trend of unionization .... As the situation stands now, failure on the part of the Chinese to organize will mean that they will only continue to work for low wages and long hours . Eventually, as we have already hinted, it may mean that the American garment workers' unions may take dras- tic measures to combat the competition of the Chinese in this industry. In such an event the Chinese, in all probability, will be the losers .120

Historically, however, Chinese workers had been regarded by white workers as unfair competition, scapegoated and attacked during hard eco-

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nomic times, relegated to unskilled, low-wage, and dead-end jobs, and actively excluded from the larger labor movement; it was therefore not surprising that they resisted the ILGWU's attempts to unionize them . If Chinatown garment shops were to have any work at all, they had lit- tle choice but to bid low on contracts and cut into their workers' wages to make up the difference. Chinese workers who did not speak English, had few marketable skills, and faced racial discrimination in the labor mar- ket had little choice but to accept the poor working conditions in Chi- natown . To compound matters, they were usually also beholden to their employers, who in most cases were kin.

Chinese workers at the National Dollar Stores factory were aware of the union's motives. "They wanted to organize us," said Sue Ko Lee, who became involved in the I 9 3 8 su-ike. "They tried and tried, but they couldn't break the barrier. The white shops were already organized and they were clamoring that the contractors were sending work out to the Chinese workers, and that was a thorn in their sides. So they had to or- ganize the Chinese." 121 This was indeed the situation in I934, when Rose Pesotta, a committed labor organizer for the ILGWU, blew the whistle on the deplorable working conditions in the Chinese "subterranean sweatshops" in an attempt to bring Chinatown into the union's fold.l 22

NRA code enforcers were called in, and a number of Chinese garment shops were cited or shut down for code violations. 123 But try as she did, Pesotta was not successful in unionizing Chinatown shops. She simply could not convince Chinese employers or employees that the ILGWU could protect them from racial discrimination in the open market. Nor could she get other trade unions to support her on the issue. 124

Next Ben Fee was hired by ILGWU to organize garment workers in Chinatown. The son of an American-born Chinese interpreter, hear- rived in the United States in I922 when he was thirteen years old. He was one of the first Chinese to be recruited into the U.S . Communist Party and was active in such leftist organizations as the Chinese Students Association, the Alaska Cannery Workers Union, and the Chinese Work- ers Mutual Aid Association. Neither the Chinatown establishment nor the ILGWU appreciated his radical views . Shortly after his appointment, he was forced out of the ILGWU because of his Communist back- ground. In I 9 3 8, Ben Fee left San Francisco for New York because of marital problems that had destroyed his credibility in the Chinese com- munity.125

Jennie Matyas, who next took on the challenge, had more success . A dedicated Socialist and union organizer, she was able to gain the trust of the Chinese workers because of her gender, strorig personality, and

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cultural sensitivity. According to Sue Ko Lee, "She's not Chinese, but she's a woman. She's dedicated and she's honest. Now you read about the corruption in the unions. I don't think you could corrupt her. She really wanted to help us .... Everyone trusted her within the group. " 126

Jennie Matyas, moreover, arrived on the scene when the legal protec- tions accorded by the Wagner Act were bolstering the greatest organizing drive in the history of the American labor movement. Whereas in I 9 3 3 only 6 percent of American workers were unionized, by I 9 3 9 a full I 7 percent were; female membership in unions grew from 2oo,ooo in I924 to 8oo,ooo in I 9 3 8. Women strikers were now highly visible in the pecan fields of Texas, the garment plants of Michigan, and retail stores throughout Ohio. 127 In I933 alone, the ILGWU, which had been on the wane since the I92os, increased its nationwide membership 400 per- cent (from 4o,ooo to 2oo,ooo strong) after mounting a massive orga- nizing drive in sixty cities. Operating on the principle of racial equality, it welcomed large numbers of black and Mexican American women into its rank and file. 128 But organizing Chinese workers proved more diffi- cult-until frustrated workers at the National Dollar Stores factory de- cided enough was enough.

With Matyas's assistance, eighty workers at the National Dollar Stores signed certification cards favoring a union shop, and in November I93 7 Local 341 of the Chinese Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (LGWU) was chartered under the ILGWU. In response, the factory fired four of the active union members and demoted Willie Go, the chief organizer. (Later, however, under pressure from the ILGWU, which threatened to call a strike during the Christmas season with support from the Retail Department Store Employees' Union, which had jurisdiction over em- ployees at Shoong's retail stores, National Dollar Stores reinstated the men.)l29

National Dollar Stores then insisted that a vote be taken to prove that the workers wanted the ILGWU as their collective bargaining agent. The bilingual-ballot election, supervised by the regional National Labor Re- lations Board on January 24, I938, endorsed the ILGWU, and an agree- ment was reached the next day berween factory and union representa- tives. Wage increases, to be agreed upon at a later date, would be paid retroactively to January 24, I 9 3 8, and the factory would become a closed shop (all employees had to join the union), with all hiring to be done through the union. Two weeks later, National Dollar Stores announced that it had sold the Chinatown factory to Golden Gate Manufacturing, though it was keeping the retailing sector. The garment workers saw this

LONG STRIDES 215

move as a subterfuge to freeze them out and break up the union. Now having to negotiate with the new owners, G. N. Wong and Hoo Joe

Sun-the former foreman and manager of the National Dollar Stores,

respectively-the ILGWU demanded that National Dollar Stores buy all its manufactured goods from Golden Gate and that Golden Gate guar- antee work for a minimum of eleven months of the year and ensure this JUinimum with a $ro,ooo bond. These demands were in addition to recognition of a union shop and $20 wages for a thirty-five-hour work- week. National Dollar Stores and Golden Gate Company refused to com- ply with any of these demands, and on February 26, 193 8, at 8 A.M., the Chinese LGWU officially called a strike and began picketing the factory and three National Dollar retail stores in San Francisco. 130

According to the Chinese LGWU's official releases and flyers directed at the public, the unscrupulous practices of the National Dollar Stores were the catalyst that caused ro8 workers to go on strike:

We are on strike for increased wages to support our livelihood .... We have tried repeatedly to negotiate in good faith with our employer, but he has consistently used the oppressive tactics of the capitalist to delay us. He forced us to have an election supervised by the National Labor Relations Board which resulted in recognition of our union. His legal representatives signed an agreement with ours, but he continued to use all kinds of unscrupulous tactics to try and break up our collective effort, even to the point of changing the ownership of the factory. His goal is to break our ricebowl strategy. We have no choice but to strike for fair treatment. 131

National Dollar Stores, also seeking support from the community, re- sponded that since the factory had been sold, the workers were illegally picketing the retail stores; the factory had in the past always complied with the law; and the Chinese community needed to unite in the face of hard times. 132 To this, the Chinese LGWU replied:

If National Dollar Stores is really interested in the national welfare, they should negotiate with the workers in good faith and allow workers to make a decent living so that they can afford to buy war bonds to sup- port the war effort in China. How can we survive on $ r 3. 3 o a week and still contribute to the war effort? The worker's welfare is the nation's wel- fare.l33

When the Golden Gate Company pointed out that even white factories did not guarantee work or ensure it with a bond deposit, 134 the Chinese LGWU replied that its demands were not unreasonable. During the ne-

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gotiations with Golden Gate, the local union explained, the employer had reduced work to one or two days a week, thus applying economic pressure to control the workers. The union had no choice but to de- mand steady work for its members. The stipulation of eleven months of guaranteed work in a year was based on the average amount of work at National Dollar Stores in its past sixteen-plus years of existence. The $Io,ooo bond request was based on Golden Gate's purchase of the fac- tory from National Dollar Stores on a$ 5 ,ooo deposit and agreement to make monthly payments of $s,ooo. Workers needed the assurance that the new owners would be able to cover salaries for more than one hun- dred employees, or $I 3 ,ooo a month, which is why the bond was set at $Io,ooo. Furthermore, the Chinese LGWU said, contrary to a previous story of the benevolent treatment accorded workers at the National Dol- lar Stores-that they got an annual bonus at the end of the year as well as presents of new clothes-such favors were given out only in I 9 3 5 and I 9 3 6, and then only to men who had worked at least one full year. "Women who had worked over ten years did not get a dime or half a dollar extra, and they make up 8o percent of the workforce in the fac- tory," the union stated. 135 The workers, angered by these injustices, vowed "to fight our fight to the end, and hope to raise the living con- ditions not only for ourselves but for the other workers in Chinatown as well." 136

At the time, most of the women workers were foreign- born and spoke no English. Although they were in the majority at the rank-and-file level, they elected men to be the key officers to speak on their behalf. Much the same situation held in the ILGWU and most other unions as well. 137

Sue Ko Lee said that although Chinese women did not usually speak up at the union meetings, which were conducted in English and Chinese, they understood the issues. More important, they were quite visible in the picket lines. The old and the young, the foreign- and the American- born, all did their share. "The ones on the picket line were all together," Sue emphasized. "We never mentioned anything about why we were do- ing this. But what is there? Maybe they won't reopen the shop for us. There was no other recourse. There was nothing else. We were deter- mined to close them down if necessary." 138

Jennie Matyas recalled, ''This was one strike I had in which I was able to turn almost everything over to the Chinese members themselves. They arranged their picketing schedules; they arranged who was to be on what shift. It was all very democratically done. They took turns, they lived up to it completely." 139 The first shift met at the ILGWU headquarters each

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Two generations of garment workers joining efforts in the 1938 National Dollar Stores strike. (Chinese Digest; Judy Yung collection )

morning at six o'clock. After donuts and coffee provided by the union, workers would be on the picket line by seven. Then at the end of the day, they would return to the union hall for meetings. During the strike ILGWU gave each worker$ 5 a week from its strike fund. "That won't pay your rent," said Sue Ko Lee. "I don't know how we managed on that, but when you're young, you don't think about those things." 140

Aside from an offer to mediate by the Chinese Six Companies, no help was forthcoming from any of the established Chinatown organi- zations, local restaurants, or stores. In fact, stores stopped extending credit to the strikers. Although sympathetic, the community was hesi - tant about condemning Joe Shoong, who was not only one of their own

218 LONG STRIDES

but also one of the most generous contributors to community and na- tionalist causes. Since Chinatown was still under the control of the mer- chant elite class, it didn't help matters that the strike was openly sup- ported by such leftist organizations as the Ping Sheh (Equality Society) and Chinese Workers Mutual Aid Association. 141 Leftist influence was obvious from the political rhetoric of the union literature: the labeling of Joe Shoong as a "capitalist," the argument that "the worker's wel - fare is the nation's welfare," and the call for workers to "arise and dare to struggle for an equallivelihood." 142 These groups' names often ap - peared in the campaign literature to win public support for the strike . Not surprisingly, Sue Ko Lee noted, established Chinatown organiza- tions "didn't do anything [against us], but they didn't show us any sup- port because we were all called troublemakers." Although the strikers were not avowed Marxists, they were well aware of the class rift. "Ire- member we were on the picket line and here came Mrs. [Joe] Shoong and she said, 'Nidi sui tong yun!' [These rotten Chinese] . So she's not Chinese, right?" Sue was indignant even years later. 143

Workers like Sue and her husband, Lee Jew Hing, who was vice - president of the Chinese LGWU and, prior to the strike, bookkeeper for National Dollar Stores, had savings to fall back on . Others, such as Edna Lee, a presser, went hungry during the strike, but still they did not waver in their commitment to the cause . Jennie Matyas described the situation:

I t was one of t11c mosc inspiring cxpcrien ces I've ever h ad .. .. W e had one girl, her name was Edna Lee. Pretty as could be. No parents, she was an orphan, and she had younger sisters or brothers. Anyhow, she was sort of the head of the family. I was told one day that she couldn't be on picket duty because she was sick, so I went to her house to see whether I could do anything. I saw the house in which she lived. It was one room somewhere on Grant Avenue, a kitchen was shared by the other tenants on the floor. When I went in to see Edna, she was in bed . I asked her how sick she was. "Oh," she said, "I'm not sick at all." I said, "Well, why are you in bed if you're not sick at all?" "Well , you know, it's funny, but if I stay in bed I don't get hungry. And so I often stay in bed because then I don't get hungry." Now, the International helped with strike re- lief, but it was just relief, it wasn't wages. This girl, Edna, said, "You see, before the strike I could buy groceries on credit. Now, none of the mer- chants will give us credit ." . . . I gave her a little more [money], but she wouldn't take it. She was very proud. She said that if that was all the oth- ers got, that's all she got .144

Although the Chinese LGWU and the I 9 3 8 strike were initiated and sustained by determined garment workers like Edna Lee, credit must also

LONG STRIDES 219

go to the ILGWU, and Jennie Matyas in particular, said Sue Ko Lee . "We knew the union was behind us. We all worked on it, the schedules and all, with the Chinese leadership and advice from the top because we didn't know anything . . . the legal stuff they had to do it for us." 145

The ILGWU not only took care of legal matters, conducted the nego - tiations, provided relief monies, and sponsored English classes for the workers, but it also sought the sanction of the San Francisco Labor Council and the cooperation of the Retail Department Store Employ- ees' Union. Only when the white retail clerks refus~d to cross the picket line at the three local National Dollar Stores, thus closing down the stores for two weeks, did Joe Shoong feel compelled to deal with the situation. He filed an injunction against picketing at his stores, then sued the ILGWU and the Employees' Union for $ 50o,ooo in damages . In re- sponse, the union went to the National Labor Relations Board and charged National Dollar Stores with unfair labor practices, arguing that the sale of the garment factory had been made for the express purpose of circumventing collective bargaining . On March 19, 1938, the Supe- rior Court of San Francisco granted National Dollar Stores a restrain- ing order, and pickets were removed from the three retail stores but al- lowed to remain at the factory. 146

The 105-day strike against National Dollar Stores was at the time the longest strike in the history of San Francisco Chinatown. 147 Thanks to the support of the ILGWU and the determination of the Chinese work- ers to win, an agreement was finally reached on June 8, 193 8. National Dollar Stores withdrew its $ soo,ooo damage suit, and the union dropped its charges with the National Labor Relations Board. The factory would be a closed union shop . In addition, there would be a 5 percent raise (to $14 per week minimum except for apprentices); a forty-hour workweek, with time-and-a-half for overtime; a paid holiday for Labor Day; en- forcement of health, fire, and sanitary conditions; a guaranteed half-day of work whenever workers were called in; a shop steward authorized to collect dues and deal with grievances; the right to a hearing before an arbitration committee in the case of a dispute over the contract or a ques- tionable discharge; and a price committee to step iri whenever piece rates did not yield the miriimum wages for 7 5 percent of the factory work- ers . The National Dollar Stores also agreed to continue contracting at least some work to the Golden Gate Company. 148

The ILGWU felt that while not a complete victory, the settlement was fair; it therefore urged workers to accept the terms. 149 The Chinese LGWU was divided on the contract. "I had the time of my life to get the workers to accept that settlement," recalled Matyas . "Some of the

220 LONG STRIDES

members upon whom I relied very greatly and who had become per- sonal friends left the union because they thought the acceptance of such a settlement was a hurt to their pride, it was so much less than they had hoped to get." 150 The debate was intense, and the vote was close: thirty- one for the agreement, twenty-seven against. 151 "Some of the militant members were against it. It wasn't good enough for them," recalled Sue Ko Lee. That's when she spoke out. "I said, 'At least that's something

· to begin with."' After all, she explained, "You had to start someplace. There was nothing, right? At least you got something for one year. And maybe something better would come out of it. If you take longer, peo- ple are not going to stand around. They can't afford to." 152

Workers went back to their jobs a few days later, and although the National Dollar Stores continued to contract work out to other shops, there were enough orders to keep the Golden Gate factory open. When the year was up and the contract expired, the factory conveniently went out of business, claiming "financiallosses." 153 Despite a long history of Chinese workers not being hired at the white shops downtown, the ILGWU was eventually able to find jobs for many of its Chinese mem- bers. With the closing of the factory and the dispersal of its workers, membership in the Chinese LGWU dwindled from more than one hun- dred to less than forty. The remaining members finally voted to disband and join the predominantly white Local ror. 154

Patricia M. Fong has argued in her study of the r 9 3 8 National Dol- lar Stores strike that everyone gained from the strike except the work- ers: "Who received the most satisfaction from the outcome? Probably the ILGWU, the National Dollar Stores Ltd., and the Golden Gate Man- ufacturing Company. The workers were (sold out by the union?) dis - satisfied with the terms of the contract, they all lost their jobs within two years, and the union could not really help them much after- wards."155 Sue Ko Lee disagreed with this opinion. In her view, the ex- perience changed the course of history for Chinese American women like herself.l 56 For · the first time in their lives, Chine~e American women-both foreign- and American-born-banded together, sup- ported by the ILGWU and Chinese leftist organizations, to challenge unfair labor practices in the Chinatown garment industry. Determined to win, they were able to sustain a strike for fifteen weeks despite eco- nomic hardships to themselves and their families and with little support from the local community. Complicating matters, they were constantly harassed by American Federation of Labor (AFL) organizers, who were in competition with the ILGWU to recruit Chinese workers into their

LONG STRIDES 221

union. But as Matyas proudly wrote, the Chinese LGWU refused to desert the ILGWU. "Can these Chinese stick together? Can they build a Union?" she asked . "In the face of heartbreaking adversity they have shown that they can stick together, fight together and build together." 157

Moreover, Sue pointed out, the ILGWU was able to help the Chi- nese workers break the racial barrier and find jobs in white shops down- town after the Golden Gate Company closed the factory. This was no easy task. A5 if the language barrier, the different sewing machines used by the Chinese workers (with horizontal instead of vertical stitching), and the reluctance of Chinese workers to venture outside Chinatown were not enough, there was also the problem of racial discrimination. Jennie Matyas had to convince white employers that Chinese workers were just as good as white workers. "They didn't want any Chinese be- cause of the reputation that the Chinese will work for nothing and cut the wages down," Sue recalled. "Finally she got Edna [Lee] in, and she proved her worth. And after that, the door was open and employers be- gan asking for Chinese workers . ... And that was how the Chinese work- ers got out of Chinatown to work elsewhere." She concluded emphat- ically: "The strike was the best thing that ever happened. It changed our lives. " 158

Sue and her husband were successfully placed as machine operator and cutter, respectively, in union shops outside Chinatown. "You made more money and you had set hours," she said in comparing the work- ing conditions in shops downtown with those in Chinatown. "It was still piecework, but the price had to come up so that you made your min - imum . It's controlled that way. So the faster ones can make more but at least the slowest one made the minimum ." 159 In her new job, she also had the benefits of holiday and vacation pay and, later, health benefits and a pension . When Koret Corporation took over the small shop in which she worked, Sue was promoted to quality control. A loyal union supporter, she became secretary of both Local ror and the San Fran- cisco ILGWU Joint Board.

While the Chinese LGWU was active, Chinese American women proved themselves stalwart members of the labor movement and sig- nificant contributors to the anti-Japanese war effort. When downtown

· department store employees went on strike, these activists beseeched the Chinese community not to cross the picket lines, and they contributed 2 percent of their earnings to the strike fund. They also campaigned against antilabor legislation, participated in the drive protesting the U .S. shipment of war materials to Japan, and supported the boycott of non -

22.2 LONG STRIDES

union-made lisle stockings, which women wore in lieu of silk stock- ings.160 The National Dollar Stores strike and its aftermath, however, did not go far enough in sustaining Chinese women's involvement in the labor movement or improving labor conditions in Chinatown. In the final analysis, the ILGWU lost its chance to organize Chinatown ef- fectively as the labor movement dissipated with the coming of war, the end of the depression, and the repression of the left following World War II.

Ironically, Chinese women in San Francisco stood to gain more than lose by the depressed times precisely because they had been discriminated against on the basis of race, gender, and class. Their low position in the rigid race - and sex-segregated labor market kept them employed even as Chinese men lost their jobs. Experienced survivors of multiple forms of oppression, they proved resourceful, becoming the temporary bread- winners and providing the necessary support to pull their families through the depression. Nor did they hesitate to take advantage of New Deal opportunities to change working and living conditions for them - selves <!-nd their families. Thus, at a time of great economic strife for most of America, Chinese women in San Francisco were able to take long strides to improve their socioeconomic status and work for the bet- terment of the community. World War II would afford them further chances to expand their gender roles and fall in step with the rest of the country.