Implementation
The American consul in Hong Kong from 1875–1877, David H. Bailey, was put in charge of regulating which Chinese women were actual wives of laborers, allowed to travel to the United States, as opposed to prostitutes. Bailey set up support for the process with the British colonial authorities and the Tung Wah Hospital Committee, an “association of the most prominent Chinese businessmen in Hong Kong". Before a Chinese woman could immigrate to the United States she had to submit “an official declaration of purpose in emigration and personal morality statement, accompanied by an application for clearance and a fee to the American Consul". The declaration was then sent to the Tung Wah Hospital Committee who would do a careful examination and then report back to Bailey about the character of each woman. Also, a list of the potential emigrants was sent to the British Colonial government in Hong Kong for investigation. In addition, the day before a ship sailed to America, Chinese women reported to the American consul for a series of questioning which included the following questions:
Have you entered into contract or agreement with any person or persons whomsoever, for a term of service, within the United States for lewd and immoral purposes? Do you wish of your own free and voluntary will to go to the United States? Do you go to the United States for the purposes of prostitution? Are you married or single? What are you going to the United States for? What is to be your occupation there? Have you lived in a house of prostitution in Hong Kong, Macao, or China? Have you engaged in prostitution in either of the above places? Are you a virtuous woman? Do you intend to live a virtuous life in the United States? Do you know that you are at liberty now to go to the United States, or remain in your own country, and that you cannot be forced to go away from your home?
The Chinese women who “passed” these questions according to the American consul were then sent to be interrogated by the harbor master of the British colonial government. He would ask the women the same questions in an effort to catch liars, but if the women were approved they were then allowed to board the steamer to America. Once on board the ship, the women were questioned again. The first year that Bailey was assigned to differentiate wives from prostitutes he did not yet have the assistance of the Tung Wah Hospital Committee, and 173 women were allowed to sail to California, he was disappointed with that figure and granted only 77 women passage in 1877. In 1878, under the authority of American consul Sheldon Loring, 354 women arrived in the U.S. which was a substantial amount compared to John S. Mosby’s grant of less than 200 women to be sent to the U.S. from 1879-1882. Upon their arrival in San Francisco, Colonel Bee, the American consul for the Chinese would observe the documents with photographs of each woman included and ask her the same questions she had heard in Hong Kong. If women changed their answers to the questions, did not match their pictures, or had incomplete paperwork, they could be detained, and sent back to Hong Kong. As a result, from 1875-1882 at least one hundred and possibly several hundred women were returned to China. The entire process was “shaped by the larger, explicitly racist assumption” that Chinese women, like Chinese men were dishonest.
Photographs were used as a means to identify the Chinese women through each stage of the examination process in order to ensure that unqualified women would not be substituted for a woman who was properly questioned at any point in time. Chinese women were subject to this method of identification prior to any other immigrant group because of the "threat of their sexuality to the United States." In addition to all the questioning that took place in regard to a woman’s character, there were also in depth questions about Chinese women’s fathers and husbands. Therefore, these women were subject not only to racism but also to sexist and classist beliefs because officials “accepted that male intentions and actions were more likely to determine a woman’s sexual future than her own actions and intentions”. Chinese women had to demonstrate that they grew up in respectable families and that their husbands could afford to support them in the United States. Also, “the appearance of the body and clothing supposedly offered a range of possible clues about inner character, on which some officials drew when trying to differentiate prostitutes from real wives." Bodily clues used to examine Chinese women included bound feet, “prettiness, youth, demeanor,” and how they walked. However, the task of differentiating "real" wives from prostitutes was virtually impossible. Men, on the other hand, faced more lenient restriction practices and were not required to "carry photographs, nor to match photographs that had been sent in advance to San Francisco Port authorities."
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