The forces without: The regulation of Chinese female immigration to America, 1852-1882

The shortage of women in American Chinatowns represents one phenomenon whose importance is undisputed. Without female residents, Chinese immigrant communities could not recreate normal village life in the United States, while the disproportionate number of unattached males contributed to the vitality of Chinatown vice industries. Traditionally, scholars have relied upon the Chinese joint family system and the sojourner mentality to conclude that, at least before 1882, this absence of Chinese women resulted from a combination of family and personal choice. Thus, scholars have generally divided nineteenth-century Chinese American history into only two periods: the period of unrestricted immigration and the period of exclusion.; By comparing Chinese settlement patterns in the United States with those in other Chinese immigrant communities, this study challenges the accuracy of such a two-dimensional framework. Unlike those in America, Chinese immigrant communities in other parts of the world experienced significant female immigration, while the joint family allowed husbands and wives to sojourn together in times of economic hardship. Therefore, since most Chinese emigrants left home in response to economic crises, the author concludes that the family/sojourner explanation cannot account for the shortage of Chinese women in the United States.; In offering an alternative explanation for the absence of women in American Chinatowns before 1882, this study focuses on a little-known American immigration law, the Page Act of 1875. Although the law limited its restrictions to prostitutes, prevailing anti-Chinese stereotypes led American officials to enforce this legislation as a female exclusion law. Thus, the author argues that, during its tenure (1875-1882), the Page Law--not the family/sojourner coalition--prevented America's Chinese communities from developing normally, by prohibiting laboring women from joining their husbands. In addition to proposing a conceptual framework which recognizes the 1875 law's importance, this study reexamines the pre-exclusion period and tells the story of an almost invisible element in the history of Chinese Americans: the wives of Chinese laborers.