Ah Toy
Template:Short description Script error: No such module "Distinguish". Template:Family name hatnote Template:Use dmy dates Script error: No such module "infobox".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Script error: No such module "Check for clobbered parameters".Template:Wikidata image Ah Toy (Template:Lang-zh;[1] 18 May 1829 – 1 February 1928)[2] was a Chinese American[3] sex worker and madam in San Francisco, California during the California Gold Rush, and the first Chinese sex worker in San Francisco.[4] Arriving from Hong Kong in 1848,[5] she became the best-known Asian woman in the American frontier.[6]
Biography
When Ah Toy left China for the United States, she traveled with her husband, who died during the trip. She later became the mistress of the ship's captain, who gave her so much gold that by the time she arrived in San Francisco, Ah Toy had a good amount of money. Before 1851, only seven Chinese women were known to be in the city, and noticing the looks she drew from the men in her new town, she deduced they would pay for a more intimate setting. Her peep shows grew successful, charging an ounce of gold (sixteen dollars) for a "lookee",[7] and she became one of the highest paid and best-known Chinese sex workers in San Francisco. Due to her romantic relationship with brothel inspector James A. Clarke, Ah Toy's brothel escaped shutdown by city authorities during a Committee of Vigilance investigation.[8]
Ah Toy was described as a determined and intelligent woman; frequently using the San Francisco Recorder's Court[9] to protect herself and her business from exploitation.[10] She opened a chain of brothels in 1852 and 1853, hiring girls from China. Ah Toy also faced pressure from male Chinese leaders, specifically Yuen Sheng, also known as Norman As-sing, who did not like the idea of a woman leading the brothel industry in the city.[11]
By 1854, however, Ah Toy could no longer take her grievances to court. In the case People v. Hall, the California Supreme Court reversed the conviction of George Hall, who had murdered a Chinese man, extending a California law that African Americans and Native Americans could not testify in court to include the Chinese.[12] While this law was not directed at sex workers, it handicapped Ah Toy's ability to protect herself from the domineering Chinese tongs that had long sought to control her and her business. Coupled with the anti-prostitution law of 1854, which was carried out mainly against the Chinese, the strain of her business became too great and Ah Toy withdrew from San Francisco's sex work business in 1857, announcing her departure to journalists.[8]
In 1857,[13] she returned to China as a wealthy woman, intending to live the rest of her days in comfort,[14] but she returned to California by 1859. From 1868 until her death in 1928, she lived a mostly quiet life in Santa Clara County, often living with numerous partners over the decades, many of whom she legally could not marry because of anti-miscegenation laws in California that prevented people of East Asian descent from marrying white people. Ah Toy returned to mainstream public attention with her death in San Jose on 1 February 1928 at age 98,[15] about three months before her ninety-ninth birthday.[16][17]
In popular culture
Olivia Cheng portrays a mostly fictionalized Ah Toy in Cinemax's Warrior, set during the Tong Wars in late 19th century San Francisco. The series begins in the late 1870s.[18]
References
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- ↑ Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women: the Qing Period, 1644-1911
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- ↑ Curt Gentry, The Madams of San Francisco: A Highly Irreverent History. (New York: Signet, 1964.) 1-109.
- ↑ a b Sinn, Elizabeth. “Bound for California: The Emigration of Chinese Women.” In Pacific Crossing: California Gold, Chinese Migration, and the Making of Hong Kong, 219–64. Hong Kong University Press, 2013. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2854ct.13.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Jacqueline Baker Barnhart, The Fair but Frail, p. 47
- ↑ Taniguchi, Nancy J. “Weaving a Different World: Women and the California Gold Rush.” California History 79, no. 2 (2000): 141–68. Script error: No such module "CS1 identifiers"..
- ↑ SCOCAL, People v. Hall, 62 Cal.2d 104, last visited Tuesday May 7, 2013
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- ↑ Gentry, Curt (1964) The Madams of San Francisco; p. 65
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External links
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- American brothel owners and madams
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