Made in Chinese America
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D.C.: 1882 Foundation |
Chinese American Women in History
In 1943, a unit of Chinese American women was recruited to serve with the Army Air Forces as "Air WACs." They performed jobs such as aerial photo interpretation, air traffic control and weather forecasting. (U.S. Army photo)
Aviatrix (1904 - 2003)
Katherine Sui Fun Cheung (张瑞芬) defied convention and stereotypes to become the first Chinese woman to obtain a private pilot's license. She was a member of the Ninety-Nines: International Organization of Women Pilots (The 99s) founded by Amelia Earhart.
Ging Hawk Club
New York’s Ging Hawk Club was an association for Chinese American women that offered an alternative to traditional, male-dominated associations and Christian church groups during the 1920s and 30s.
The Ging Hawk Club started in 1929 at The Church of All Nations and also the Young Women’s Christian Association. The club initially was called the Girls’ Reserves, and then they adopted the name Ging Hawk – “striving for knowledge.”
- Museum of Chinese in America
Sampan: A Century of Serving Others
Amy Guen’s story doesn’t start 101 years ago, when she was born near where this interview took place. It starts even earlier, with her grandfather and the railroads. “You hear about the railroad, back in the 1800s,” Guen said. “The laborers”—many of them Chinese—“they came to work in the railroad, (but) they didn’t have Chinese herbs to keep them healthy.”
That was where Guen’s grandfather came in. “He was not only a scholar, he’s also a herbalist,” Guen said. “So, as a professional pharmacist, he was recruited by the railroad company to come to the U.S. to take care of the laborers. Then my father came to succeed him.”
HERSTORY: Chinese American Women, 165 Years
Using the personal collection of Dr. Chang C. Chen (邱彰博士), Herstory features rare photographs and case descriptions of efforts by Chinese-American women to gain legal standing in the U.S.
Women in Chinatown by Connie Young Yu
Jade Snow Wong
Jan 21, 1922 - March 16, 2006
Best known as the author of Fifth Chinese Daughter, a book that chronicles her life growing up in San Francisco’s Chinatown community, Jade Snow Wong was a highly accomplished artist who created a large and exquisitely beautiful body of work in enamel on copper. Her spare but brilliantly colored forms were inspired by the simple shapes and rich color palette of Chinese ceramics of the Song dynasty.