CHINESE WOMEN IN Hawaii:A BRIEF HISTORY

Very little has been written about the early history of Chinese women in Hawaii. Tin-Yuke Char, in his book The Sandalwood Mountains, says the first Chinese woman entered Hawaii in 1837 as a family servant to an American family. The Hawaii State Archives lists the first Chinese woman as “Lady of Ayum”, showing her date of entry as August 19, 1855.

The first Asians in Hawaii were the Chinese men who crewed merchant ships. Records from the late 1700’s show the original Chinese in Hawaii owned stores and businesses. The Chinese women mainly came to Hawaii either to be married or already as wives to join their husbands. The earliest Chinese women in Hawaii spent their time sewing work clothes for their husbands and some made money as dressmakers.

Some of the first sugar mills were owned by Chinese. They brought technical skills in sugar manufacturing with them from China. Many of these men married Hawaiian women. By 1838, approximately 35 Chinese males resided in Hawaii. In 1865, Commissioner of Immigration William Hillebrand brought 473 male Chinese and 52 women (wives of these laborers) from China. There was only one Chinese woman for every 17 Chinese men by 1884. By 1920, less than a third of the Chinese men had Chinese wives living in the islands. Many of the Chinese who became naturalized citizens married Hawaiian women.

New diseases brought by all the new peoples coming to Hawaii devastated the native Hawaiian population. In 1850 Hawaii passed the “Act of Government of Masters and Slaves” allowing the Plantation owners to bring foreign laborers into Hawaii for contract labor. The first ship, carrying 200 Chinese workers, came to Hawaii in 1852. There were no laws in Hawaii against women working so many of the laborers were women. Between the years of 1852 and 1929 over 45,000 Chinese came to Hawaii.