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Articles

Vol. 19 (2005 Fall)

Inscription on the Past from Present Inquiries: Historiography of Nineteenth Century Chinese Immigrant Public Women

  • Carol Huang
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21423/awlj-v19.a192
Submitted
June 19, 2017
Published
2017-06-12

Abstract

Chinese immigrant women arrived in America's West in the mid nineteenth century. Their arrival marked the beginning of Chinese American women in the United States of America [1]. They left very few documents of their own. They were assumed to have followed the Chinese men to the West after the gold rush to serve the men. A majoritity of them were called "One Hundred Men's Wives" or prostitutes [2]. In the Western construction and conceptualization of Chinese women of this particular time, they have been portrayed as victims of patriarchy and the capitalist system.