In Pursuit of Feminism across the Transpacific Chinese Diaspora during the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

Session Submission Type: Organized Panel

Abstract

This panel examines the feminist struggles of both elite and ordinary women in the transpacific Chinese diaspora for China’s constitutional reform, their group welfare, or their personal rights during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Such struggles ranged from the reformist activities of a pioneer Chinese feminist, Kang Tongbi, in Asia and America, and her followers in the Chinese Empire Ladies Reform Association (Baohuang nühui) based in Canada and the United States, to the religious donation by the mutual aid prostitute groups inside small Chinatowns of California and Idaho, and the pursuit of property rights by Chinese housewives in American society. Zhongping Chen's paper highlights Kang Tongbi’s feminist pursuits in Southeast Asia and South Asia during 1901-1902, and especially her promotion of the Chinese Empire Ladies Reform Associations in Pacific Canada and the United States, including Hawaii, in 1903-1905. Jane Leung Larson’s paper further explores the personal and political activities of Kang Tongbi through analysis of the newly discovered archival collection illuminating her life in Connecticut in 1903-1907. In contrast, Chuimei Ho’s paper turns attention to the group efforts of prostitutes in small Chinatowns of California and Idaho to sponsor temple construction for personal health, group safety and social recognition in the 1880s-1890s. Bennet Bronson expands the inquiry on such everyday feminism into a broader investigation of the historical causes for Chinese housewives to assert equal property rights with their husbands in American society during the early twentieth century.

Area of Study

• Interarea-Border Crossing

Session Organizer

• Zhongping Chen, University of Victoria

Chair

• Bryna Goodman, University of Oregon

Individual Presentations

• In Search of Feminism across the Pacific: Kang Tongbi and the Chinese Empire Ladies Reform Association, 1901-1905 - Zhongping Chen, University of Victoria

• The Kang Tongbi Collection of South Windsor, Connecticut - Jane Leung Larson, Independent Scholar

• Cracking the Temple Ceiling: Religious Activities of Chinese Woman in America during the Late Nineteenth Century - Chuimei Ho, Chinese in Northwest America Research Committee

• Everyday Feminism and Property Rights of Chinese American Women in the Early Twentieth Century - Bennet Bronson, Chinese in Northwest America Research Committee

Discussant

• Bryna Goodman, University of Oregon