Chinese Prostitution :: essays research papers

In 1850, save 7 Chinese wo hands were in San Francisco compared to the 4,018 Chinese men. These lows numbers couldve been because Chinese men were afraid to bring their wives and raise families in a place rich of racial violence. The growing anti-Chinese sentiment and few labor opportunities reduced the chances for meekness of Chinese women. The few women in San Franciscos Chinatown basically turned Chinatown into a bachelors society. Many men went to brothel houses to release their internal 10sions, thus increasing the demands and values of prostitution. Prostitution in Chinatown increased, and in 1870, 61 percent of the 3536 Chinese women in California as prostitutes (Takaki, 1998). By 1879, cardinal percent of Chinese women in San Francisco were prostitutes. However, the increased amount of Chinese women seemly a prostitute was not by choice. Immigrant women who became prostitutes, such as Wong Ah So, came to the States on promises of marriage made by men completely to be forced or tricked into prostitution.Chans book, "Asian Americas An Interpretive History", was able to puke some light as to why so few Chinese women were able to memorialize the U.S. From the mid-19th century to the early 20th century, Chinese women were only when allowed to enter the U.S. as the wives and daughters of merchants or U.S. citizens. Several acts, such as the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act and the Page Law, were passed in an attempt to stop the in-migration of Chinese because many anti-Chinese individuals assumed that all Chinese women were prostitutes. As Chan states in her book, the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act suspended the innovation of Chinese laborers for ten years but exempted merchants, students and teachers, diplomats, and travelers from its provisions (Chan, 54). Under the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, only women who were native-born, married or born overseas to merchants in the U.S. could immigrate, thus resulting in an average of 108 Chinese immigrant w omen in 1882. The Page Law of 1875, which "forbid the entry of Chinese, Japanese, and Mongolian contract laborers, women for the purpose of prostitution, and felons" was so strictly enforced that legitimatise wives had trouble entering America (Chan, 54). Yung argues that in order for Chinese women to enter the country, they had to prove that they were "moral" women. "Bound feet became a moral standard for Chinese women at the checkpoint" (Yung, Judith). This standard, however, didnt apply to all women.