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This story continues today: women are brought to this country, or kidnapped here, and forced into slavery and prostitution. I honor the woman of this story for having luck, good fortune, intelligence, a network of alliances to avoid some of the worst pitfalls. I do not, however, for one second believe that a tiny woman who would wield a huge knife at a big, drunk white guy who just paid two hundred bucks to rape her would be afraid to tell a Chinese guy that she has set his cap for him. I also wish stories would be told of Chinese women who managed to survive and flourish in this historical period without the protection of a romantic alliance with a white man. I have no qualms with the story of this woman. I do, hovever, think it feeds a stereotype that we all need the protection of a white father to survive. The male/female gender relationships are revisionist history: folks just did not act that way back then, esp. Chinese & white relationships. It is as bad to revise history in a liberal bent as it is to revise it so that folks wearing Confederate flags on their hats would look like sanctified homeboys who loved their Black neighbors, ignoring the legacy of slavery and lynching. I am disappointed, but give three stars for acting & attempt at Chinese American history of women.
