Unbound voices : a documentary history of Chinese women in San Francisco /

Yung's collection of documents on the Chinese and Chinese American women of San Francisco from the late 19th century to 1945 effectively captures the variety of life experiences open to these women. Though their numbers were few (only 2,000 in 1900 and c.4,000 by 1930), some were wives and mothers while others were community workers (the Chinese YWCA was formed in 1916). Yung builds on the research she had done for her earlier narrative study Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco (CH, Apr'96); as a result, the reader hears the voices of these women gleaned from oral interviews as well as archival sources. Though patriarchal tradition prevailed, these women, like other ethnic women, sometimes broke out. Contrary to common assumptions, during the Depression of the 1930s many found work within the Chinese community as seamstresses, sales clerks, and clerical workers. The Chinese community was also treated better during WW II, when the Japanese became the evil Asians. This documentary collection offers readers a fine opportunity to study the similarities and differences between Chinese women and all other women. General readers; upper-division undergraduates and above. J. Sochen; Northeastern Illinois University