The Paper Daughters of Chinatown - Heather B. Moore Page 0,143
also wanted the children to be able to play outdoors in a safe environment. By 1912, there were some seventy residents at the mission home (Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 157). The mission board worked tirelessly raising funds, and on Donaldina’s visit back east to her beloved friends Mary and Gertrude Tooker, they surprised her with a $2,000 donation. More fundraising continued, and the Tooker sisters donated another $5,000. At 953 East Eleventh Street, Donaldina located a large Victorian home with a fenced yard. Named the Nathaniel Tooker Presbyterian Home for the Chinese, in honor of Nathaniel, soon the place was home to thirty-two children, with Miss Nora Banks as director and Ida Lee as assistant (Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 163–65).
Donaldina also founded the Ming Quong Home for Chinese girls. It was built in 1925, and Donaldina served as the superintendent until 1930, after which Ethel Higgins took over. In addition, Donaldina spearheaded the Chung Mei Home for homeless and orphaned Chinese boys. The Chung Mei Home was first located in an old wooden building in Berkeley, but eventually it moved to a larger location.
True to her promise, Tien Fu Wu returned to the mission home after six years of education in Pennsylvania and Canada. Tien had no problem jumping right into service and shared in Donaldina’s burdens (Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 153). In 1916, Tien traveled to China to fulfill her lifelong dream of finding the family she had been abducted from. Unfortunately, the search was futile (Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 176). Tien worked faithfully at Donaldina’s side, and she was affectionately called Auntie Wu by the girls at the mission home. When Tien retired in 1952, she moved into a cottage across from Donaldina’s home (Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 283). On January 4, 1968, Donaldina took her last breath after being in the hospital. Her Chinese daughter, dear Tien, was at her side (Martin, Chinatown’s Angry Angel, 293).
Today, the Cameron House continues serving the needs of immigrant Asian families in San Francisco. Services offered include counseling, domestic violence intervention, food distribution, support groups, youth after-school and summer programs, adult ESL and computer classes, leadership development, and volunteer opportunities. See the website, CameronHouse.org, for ways to give, donate, volunteer, or get involved.
The National Human Trafficking website defines human trafficking as: “the business of stealing freedom for profit. In some cases, traffickers trick, defraud or physically force victims into providing commercial sex. In others, victims are lied to, assaulted, threatened or manipulated into working under inhumane, illegal or otherwise unacceptable conditions. It is a multi-billion dollar criminal industry that denies freedom to 24.9 million people around the world” (HumanTraffickingHotline.org).
How prevalent is human trafficking in the United States? “In 2017, Polaris worked on 8,759 cases of human trafficking reported to the Polaris-operated National Human Trafficking Hotline and BeFree Textline. These cases involved 10,615 individual victims; nearly 5,000 potential traffickers and 1,698 trafficking businesses” (https://humantraffickinghotline.org/what-human-trafficking).
What can you do to stem the tide and become aware of needs in your community? There are various organizations hard at work fighting this terrible blight on our society. Awareness, education, and support are all imperative. One organization to which I personally donate is Operation Underground Railroad: OurRescue.org.
When Heidi Taylor and Lisa Mangum sent me this story idea in the fall of 2018, I had no notion of the breathtaking journey I would undertake through researching the life of Donaldina Cameron. I had never heard specifically about Miss Cameron or her contribution toward thwarting the slave trade of Chinatown, but each day—in fact, every hour—I was drawn deeper into the unforgettable experiences of a woman, and the remarkable staff members and volunteers at the mission home, who personified a life of sacrifice and brought hope to so many downtrodden women and girls of San Francisco.
I knew the scope of this project would require carefully selected readers in advance of submitting the manuscript to my publisher. First, I’m grateful to my agent, Ann Leslie Tuttle, who went through the manuscript more than once and sent me significant insights that deepened pivotal scenes. Many thanks to my beta readers, which included Allison Hong Merrill and Angela Sng, both of whom offered needed perceptions into the Chinese culture and traditions.
Thank you to Taffy Lovell and Julie Wright, who read the manuscript under a tight deadline. And after revision work, Julie agreed to read it again. Extra thanks to Jen Geigle Johnson, who read the manuscript on another tight deadline to offer a fresh perspective.