The Paper Daughters of Chinatown - Heather B. Moore
The Paper Daughters of Chinatown is not intended to be a repetition of or addition to the already wonderful books published on Donaldina Cameron and the Occidental Mission Home for Girls. In late 2018, about three days into my research, I knew that in order to create a full-bodied historical work on Donaldina Cameron’s life, I could easily write three or four volumes. Therefore, I’ve selected a period of approximately her first decade at the Occidental Mission Home to develop into a historical novel format. The intention of this work of historical fiction is to illuminate the life and service of Miss Cameron, as well as to bring attention to the continued work and diligence it takes to combat depravity and greed.
That said, this novel begins in the year 1895 on the day of Donaldina Cameron’s arrival at 920 Sacramento Street in San Francisco, where she has agreed to teach a sewing class for one year at the Occidental Mission Home. We then follow her journey for just the next thirteen years, when, in fact, she spent the rest of her life serving, mentoring, rescuing, testifying, mothering, and loving the Chinese slave girls and many others she came in contact with.
Her story does not begin with chapter one of this novel, nor does it end with the last page. Miss Cameron retired in 1934 but continued aiding the mission home in one capacity or another until her death. Please see my recommended reading list at the end of this book, as well as ways you can aid in moving forward the work of Donaldina Cameron—and those she served with—to end human trafficking, which still continues today in myriad forms.
Throughout this novel, epigraphs appear at the beginnings of the chapters. Most of them are excerpts from published pieces depicting both the harsh reality of this era and the injustices that take place when human rights are either not granted, not enforced, or not respected. Our history can be a hard pill to swallow. And whether we are American, Chinese, or any other nationality, this plight is part of all our histories because we are all members of the human race.
The research for this book was immense and sometimes emotionally taxing. As an author, a woman, and a mother, I am forever tied to this heartrending story of a woman who proudly took on the title of Fahn Quai, or the “white devil,” as slave owners and corrupt city officials called Donaldina Cameron. With her team of police officers, Chinese interpreters, and other concerned helpers, she swept into the darkest corners of Chinatown and helped to rescue the broken, the downtrodden, and the abused. They worked day and night to stop the abominable slave and prostitution trades that continued long after laws had been passed to abolish them.
Each chapter has accompanying chapter notes found at the end of the novel. But going into a story such as this, many questions will arise, so I’ll attempt to answer a few of them here.
After China was defeated in the Opium Wars (1839–1842; 1856–1860), 2.5 million Chinese traveled overseas in the latter half of the nineteenth century to find jobs. Due to increased taxes, the impossibility of competing against imported goods, loss of land, overpopulation, and other calamities, including devastation from rebellions and uprisings, many Chinese turned to working in the gold mines or the railroad system in California as a way to feed a destitute people.
Chinese men mostly immigrated alone. Those who were married sent money home to their families, since the conditions of labor camps were harsh, and nicer accommodations were too expensive. In the 1850s, Chinese women made up less than five percent of the total Chinese population in America. Traditionally, Chinese women remained at home, caring for the household and children as well as aging parents, in order to adhere to the Confucian teaching: “A woman’s duty is to care for the household, and she should have no desire to go abroad” (Yung, Unbound Feet, 20). Thus, the men arrived in America without their wives, creating a void in which women were not part of the fiber of the Chinatown culture in San Francisco. An opportunity was presented with this void, and organizations formed, such as the criminal tong, to provide women for the men—in the form of paid prostitution.
This played into the patriarchal culture of the Chinese, in which marriages were arranged and women “had no right to divorce or remarry,” while men were “permitted to commit adultery, divorce, remarry, practice