Active Agents

1) How was the immigration experience for the first wave Chinese woman more difficult than their male counterparts? What obstacles/hurdles did the women face that the men did not, what similarities did they share? (This can be shown socially/culturally and politically). 

2) The Chinese women were victims of both political and social control/restrictions, yet the Lee article speaks to their ability to take matters into their own hands. What were the various ways that these women were "active" in their immigration process? (What tactics did they use to prove both their proper character and class status to ease their immigration process)?

1) The women, like the men, were seen as foreigners likely if nefarious nature. As exemplified by Eva May's stereotyped Hollywood roles, the women were seen as villains - who though they did not get the job-stealing opportunities (from the white man's POV) that the men got - had other deadlier roles such as sly assassins or "owned women" or prostitutes. Because prostitution is widely considered immoral and a health concern, and because at one point more than half of the women were employed in these roles, women had to prove they were not prostitutes. Like the men, they employed the best lawyers to figure out immigration bureaucracy. They were subjected to interrogations to discover if their paperwork was falsified. Women had to travel through first class, or they would likely be classified as a prostitute. Unlike men, who had career or better pay opportunities, The migration was not viewed as desirable for women. Women were not seen as employable in many jobs that men were hired for, so they often stayed behind. For those married in long distance relationships to husbands laboring abroad, there was also the hostage situation from the family to keep the wife home in China to make sure that the man would keep sending money back. 

2) They would cite bound feet and jewelry for their status and or status through marriage. In the latter case, they were dependent on the husband's financial status. If the husband ever loses his job, the entire family could be hunted down. Women visiting China would have to obtain affidavits and documents from their white colleagues asserting their merchant employment or status to re-enter the the US.