Coming home to China: Margaret Woo's story (original) (raw)
2022, Journal of Modern Chinese History
With a historical approach that contextualizes transnational and gender approaches, this study investigates how a second-generation Chinese American woman negotiated her identity as she moved to China and then back to the United States. Margaret Woo (1912-1982) was born in China and immigrated to the U.S. with her mother in 1914. Her father, Woo Du Sing, had immigrated c.1882 and settled in Minneapolis, Minnesota where he owned a restaurant. A classic sojourner, Du Sing built a house in his home village and intended to retire there. He died in Minneapolis in 1935, however, and his family returned to China to bury his body there and to live in the overseas house. As a young woman raised in America, Margaret disliked village life and left for nearby Canton to become a student at Lingnan University. She returned to the U.S. in late 1937 to escape the Japanese. This study is based on primary sources including interviews with Woo family members in China and the U.S., Margaret’s diary from her time in China, artifacts such as the Woo family house in Kaiping and a collection of cheongsam (qipao) dresses owned by Margaret Woo, and Lingnan University records. Historiographic issues addressed include the sojourner hypothesis, the transnational nature of early 20th century overseas Chinese who built houses in their home village, the role of fashion in exemplifying Chinese feminism and modernity, and the assimilation of second generation Chinese American female immigrants into American life.
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