Newspapers and the "Cunning Oriental" Stereotype

      Elsie Sigel, a young white woman who helped teach English to Chinese men in New York's Chinatown, was murdered in 1909 and found stuffed in a steamer trunk in the apartment of a Chinese, Leon Ling.  A nationwide search for him for several months was unsuccessful despite "sightings" of him, real or imagined, reported around the country. Many Chinese men of his age were stopped and interrogated since "all Chinese look the same" to nonChinese.

The failure to find him was not attributed in newspapers to shortcomings of the authorities but rather to the "Oriental cunning," of Leon Ling.

    I was curious to see how pervasive this stereotype of Orientals as "cunning" was using newspaper articles. A cursory archival search showed 150,749 occurrences over many decades from the late 19th century until the mid-20th century in newspapers across the U.S.  A small sample of snippets of these articles is shown below.

      The high number does not reflect separate stories since articles about major issues were reprinted in many newspapers across the land. Nonetheless, the negative image of the "cunning Oriental" fostered and reinforced the prevalent xenophobia. Fears and suspicions, once activated, are resistant to disconfirmation because they create social and physical distancing from the Chinese.

The Case of 22 Lewd Chinese Women: Chy Lung v. Freeman, 92 U.S. 275 (1876).

Chy Lung was one of 22 Chinese women on the Pacific Mail steamer Japan that sailed from China to San Francisco in 1875. The immigration commissioner decided that Chy Lung and the other 21 women were "lewd and debauched women," because they were traveling alone. The captain of the ship refused to post a $500 bond for each woman to allow her to land and detained them on board. They sued and filed a writ of habeas corpus to allow them to disembark under the custody of the Sheriff of the County and City of San Francisco.

The women appealed the decision to deport them. The California High Court upheld the constitutionality of the statute used to deny them entry and upheld their deportation. The women appealed the decision and won their freedom.  One of the women, Chy Lung, was the plaintiff in the first case with a Chinese litigant to appear before the United States Supreme Court, and win.  In Chy Lung v. Freeman, 92 U.S. 275 (1876), the United States Supreme Court ruled that the power to set rules surrounding immigration rested with the United States Federal Government rather than with the states.

Interesting, no one knows what happened to the 22 "lewd and debauched" women after they were allowed to enter the U.S. Although most of them claimed they were going to join their husbands, it was suspected that some, if not all, were indeed prostitutes.

In 2014, Judge Denny Chin, the circuit court judge who in 2009 sentenced sentenced Bernie Madoff, to 150 years imprisonment for his defrauding clients of their fortunes, arranged for the enactment of a courtroom trial about the historic case. It was the first Supreme Court case with a Chinese litigant, and also one where the court ruled in favor of the litigant at a time when sentiment against Chinese and immigration was rising in the 1870s.

A performance using trial transcripts, "22 Lewd Chinese Women: Chy Lung v. Freeman," was created by The Trial Reenactment Team of the Asian American Bar Association in collaboration with the New York City Bar Association on May 21, 2014, to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

A second re-enactment of the trial was sponsored by a Washington, D.C. legal firm, McDermott Will & Emery.

Pioneer Chinese American Boxer, Georgie Washington Lee

When I was researching the rise of Chinese restaurants in the 1920s, I stumbled upon a 1921newspaper article about a boxing match featuring a bantamweight Chinese boxer named Georgie Lee.  He received enthusiastic crowd support for his vigorous performance even though he lost the match.

Lee started boxing in Sacramento at an early age of 10 in 1910 (and lived to a ripe age of 92) and became popular on the East Coast and American South even though his record was modest, at best. 

Despite his limits as a boxer, his manager marketed George as the "Yellow Peril of the Prize Ring," and added a theatrical gimmick by having George wear an Oriental robe and false pigtail when he entered the ring.

Typical of the racism against Chinese for many decades, the journalists often made condescending and mocking comments.  At least the audiences did show some admiration for the spunky fighter that George was even though he was never more than mediocre as a boxer.

George and his brother Raymond had boxing matches outside the U.S, as well.  They had boxing matches all over the world— Canada, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Australia, Germany, France, and the British Isles.  

Below is George's Immigration Form 430 which under the Chinese Exclusion Act all Chinese had to file if they left the country and planned to reenter later.

What Happened to 20,000 Chinese The U.S. Betrayed in 1888?

By the middle of the 19th century as increasing numbers of Chinese came to the western part of the U.S. in search of gold, the Chinese were increasingly demonized as threats to white labor. They were vilified further with a major recession in 1873. Eventually, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in 1882 to prohibit the entry of Chinese laborers for 10 years. However, it was renewed for another decade with the Geary Act in 1892, and would not be repealed until 1943.
Chinese who were already in the U.S., either immigrants or American-born who wanted to make visits to China had to complete a Form 430 as the one for actress Anna Mae Wong in 1935 shown below certifying their status so they could reenter the U.S. without going through the procedures used for new immigrants.

              

  Unlike the better known 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act that blocked entry of Chinese, in 1888 the Scott Act denied reentry of around 20,000 Chinese who had left the U.S. to visit China even though they had obtained Certificates of Return before they departed that were not honored.

Chae Chan Ping (n.d.) traveled to China to attend to his father’s death before the Exclusion Act. Ping acquired a Certificate 38 and, on June 2, 1887, he sailed for China after having been a California resident for twelve years. Ping returned on October 7, 1888, and presented his certificate when his ship arrived in San Francisco.

However,  a few days before his arrival, Congress passed yet another amendment to the Chinese Exclusion Act that declared “every certificate heretofore issued in pursuance [of the law] is void and of no effect, and the Chinese laborer claiming admission . . . shall not be permitted to enter the United States.” Ping's attorneys submitted a habeas corpus petition and challenged the decision arguing that Congress could not deport a Chinese citizen entitled to reside in the U.S. under the Burlingame Treaty of 1868 which guaranteed the right of Chinese and U.S. citizens to immigrate between the two countries and outright rejected any attempts to restrict this immigration. The circuit court of northern California denied his entry so the case was taken to the U.S. Supreme Court, Chae Chan Ping v United States, which also denied Ping's right to reenter the U.S. despite the fact he owned property in the U.S.  

On May 13, 1889, Justice Stephen Jay Field, writing the decision for a unanimous court, portrayed Chinese immigrants as a threat to American civilization, since they refused to assimilate into American culture and were outcompeting white laborers. He argued that immigration policy was a right of the federal government free from judicial review since a strict immigration policy, especially in regards to Chinese immigration, was vital to the national interest. Therefore any certification held by Chinese immigrants prior to the passage of the Scott Act, “is held at the will of the government, revocable at any time, at its pleasure.” 

This so-called Chinese Exclusion Case gave rise to the "plenary power doctrine" as the Supreme Court transformed congressional power over immigration “into a power of national self-defense derived from the nation’s inherent sovereignty.” Justice Stephen Field said that the government must “give security against foreign aggression and encroachment,” whether it came “from the foreign nation acting in its national character, or from vast hordes of its people crowding in upon us.”

But what happened to the more than 20,000 Chinese who returned from China in 1888,  only to find the U.S. had slammed the door in their faces.  Not being allowed reentry meant no access to their property  in the U.S. 

Hopefully many or most filed petitions of habeas corpus and found a way to gain reentry, but as far as I could find, no one has documented their fate.

https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/130/581/

Chop Suey and Marital Conflict

Married couples fight over many issues,  but it would seem unlikely that chop suey might be one. In 1910, Wing Lee, a Chinese physician married to a Norwegian for six years, felt his obligation to feed her was limited to Chinese food, and did not include "bread and butter" or in other words,  American foods. Mrs. Lee, however, "fed up" with her "chop suey diet," took him to court, which proved a bit embarrassing for her because the testimony revealed some negative or questionable aspects of her behavior such as her arrest for stealing money from another "Chinaman" or giving birth to a child in Norway before they married.  The judge ignored these tangential matters and ruled that the doctor must provide his wife with food "such as white people eat" or pay her $4 each week.

 In 1913 Birdie Eill, the wife of  Jacob Eill, a trucking contractor, sued for separation and alimony on grounds that he abandoned her in favor of going to dances to be with "soubrettes" or flirtatious women. He countered that she deserted him, did not cook for him,  and was "fond of chop suey beyond expression."  
The judge ruled in favor of Mrs. Eill, although he only awarded her a third of her alimony requested.

A more dramatic story of marital discord that involved chop suey was a 1922 Long Island murder case in which a husband "accidentally" shot his wife fatally. 

William and Celia Stenger had argued in a restaurant over his refusal to buy chop suey for her. When they got home, Celia exclaimed rather melodramatically she was going "to end it all" and went to her room. Mr. Stenger then entered her room and wrestled with her in an attempt to take a pistol from her but it accidentally discharged, killing her.  As there were no witnesses, the quick-thinking husband wrote a suicide note and forged her signature.  

Nonetheless, he was convicted of first-degree manslaughter.  

One lesson to be learned from these three unhappy marriages: don't fight over a dish of chop suey, it ain't worth it!

Worry Over Rumors in 1906 That The Chinese Were Coming to Brooklyn and the Bronx

The threat in 1906 of replacing New York's unsanitary and crime-ridden Chinatown in lower Manhatten was real. As a hedge against this development, some forward-looking Chinese began to explore alternative sites for their businesses and residences.

Word that the Red Hook section in Brooklyn and the Bronx were being considered by some Chinese created fears that the yellow peril was going to invade their part of town. The acronym, nimby, was not coined until around 1980, but the phenomenon was certainly present in the reactions of whites to the impending invasion of "Orientals."

Interestingly, one Bronx resident had no objection to the presence of some Chinese laundries but he objected to having a large body of Chinese as they would be a menace.  Another resident was more accepting of Chinese, at least in comparison to an influx of Italians into the Bronx.

A Tale of Two Chinatowns in 1906

The two largest Chinatowns in the U.S. in 1906 were in San Francisco and New York.  Both faced major threats to their existence in 1906 but survived and still are iconic in 2019 even though now they are threatened by gentrification and the move by many Chinese residents with resources to suburban areas.

The 1906 disaster of a major earthquake and fire in San Francisco is well known and needs no detailed description.  The photograph by Arnold Genthe says it all. Amazingly, Chinatown, like the rest of the city, rose from the ashes and its Chinese merchants became an attraction for tourism.

Less well known is the 1906 threat to the existence of New York's Chinatown which was not due to natural forces but to social and political factors.  The Mayor and some powerful civic and religious leaders wanted to replace Chinatown, reviled for its filth and vice, with a park.

Feb. 28, 1906 "Tear Down the Dens of Chinatown and Make a Park...

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Chinese and their supporters strenuously objected to the proposal and numerous public hearings were held in the spring of 1906.

On March 21, 1906, p. 3, The Evening World, which strongly advocated for the park plan exclaimed that the battle was "good as won."

A search of archival newspapers for the rest of 1906 did not turn up any definitive date for ending the proposal. But support for it died out and it was argued that health and police departments would be a less costly way to deal with the filth and vices than to purchase the land for the park. And so, Chinatown in lower Manhattan dodged its demolition.  The crisis still had some negative collateral damage that will be the subject of another post.

The Majority of Chinese Women and Girls in the U.S. Were Prostitutes in 1870

The vast majority of immigrants who came from China in search of gold in California starting in 1848 and during the 1860s to work on the construction of the western part of the transcontinental railroad were primarily young men.  Most were not married, or if they were, did not bring their wives because they hoped to return to China after they made enough money.

In 1870, there were approximately 58,000 Chinese men and about 4,000 Chinese women and girls identified in the U.S. Census so it is obvious there were few marriages created between Chinese men and women. Anti-Chinese sentiments, as well as Chinese preferences for marrying a Chinese partner, left these thousands of Chinese without sexual outlets, aside from forming homosexual liaisons, a topic that is understudied as a taboo topic, or patronizing prostitutes. In 1870, about 61 percent of the roughly 4,000 Chinese women in California were prostitutes, according to Ronald Takaki in his landmark 1998 study, Strangers in A Different Land. It should be noted that most of these women, some actually barely into puberty, and at least one girl 6 years-old, were coerced or involuntary participants controlled by unscrupulous Chinese.

I was startled by this huge statistic.  For 4,000 females, 61% would be over 2,400 prostitutes. By the way, their patrons were not limited to Chinese men, as "yellow fever" existed among white men even back in the mid-19th century. I decided to check census listings for Chinese women born in China but living in the U.S. in 1870 whose "occupation" was listed as "prostitute."  I should add I saw some towns where the occupation of many women was keeping house" or as "public."  I wonder if those were polite terms for "prostitute." ( I also saw one where the census taker wrote "whore" for one woman's occupation).

I found page after page of census records full of prostitutes. Below are 2 pages for San Francisco in 1870.  Seeing lists of actual names of these prostitutes, many under the age of 15, was more distressing than looking at statistics.

I hasten to add that a place like San Francisco also had many other occupations for Chinese men including cook, peddler, tailor.  jeweler, doctor, barber, cigar maker, and of course, laundryman.

In contrast, in small mining towns such as Silver Bow, Montana, most of the Chinese men were miners along with two laundrymen to wash their clothes and a couple of prostitutes to fulfill their carnal needs. (Note that the census taker did not bother recording their names. All men were listed as  "Chinaman" and the two prostitutes as "Chinawoman"!

Thankfully, a decade later in the 1880 census, although still unacceptably high, there was a big drop in the percentage, 24, of Chinese women working as prostitutes.

Journalist Gary Kamiya presented an excellent account summarizing the factors responsible for the high number of Chinese prostitutes and their living conditions in San Francisco in the late 19th century. A more detailed analysis by sociologist Lucie Cheng Hirata “Free, Indentured, Enslaved: Chinese Prostitutes in 19th Century America,” published in the autumn 1979 issue of the journal Signs can be viewed at this site.

The Bizarre Way in which Chinese Gained The Right to Testify in Court

In People v. Hall in 1854, the testimony of Chinese against Hall, a white man accused of murder was disallowed as Chinese were assumed to be inferior to whites. A murder trial involving Chinese testifying against Chinese in 1882 strangely opened the door for Chinese immigrants to testify in court trials.

Yee Shun, a 20-year old Chinese, was visiting a Chinese friend in his laundry in Las Vegas in the New Mexico Territory when a Chinese shot and killed another Chinese during an argument. Chinese witnesses claimed that Yee Shun was the murderer and in 1882 he was sent to prison where he sadly later killed himself.

The irony of Territory of New Mexico v. Yee Shun is that although an innocent man, Yee Shun, was convicted, the acceptance of the testimony of Chinese witnesses set a precedent for the acceptance of testimony from Chinese in subsequent court cases.

It is no consolation to Yee Shun but Albuquerque plans to create a memorial, View from Gold Mountain, to the Yee Shun case.

A model of the planned artwork for downtown Albuquerque memorializing the landmark Territory of New Mexico v. Yee Shun case that gave Chinese the right to testify in courts. 

Shortage of Chinese House Boys After 1882 Exclusion Law

The threat to work for white labor led to the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, which helped white workers.  However, as reported in an article in 1908 in the New York Sun, it also created an unexpected crisis for white households that wanted to enjoy cheap Chinese domestic servants to cook, clean, and look after young children. Furthermore, when Chinese domestics learned enough English they quit domestic service in favor of opening their own businesses.This shortage forced whites to turn to other 'orientals', the Japanese, for domestic help.

        There were cultural differences between the "Orientals" whether Chinese or Japanese, and their white employers that created problems, but some of the encounters were rather amusing. Here are two examples of Chinese houseboys creating 'problems' for their white employers.

Japanese houseboys also presented some amusing conflicts with their employers.