Free essay on asian immigrant women's experiences as picture brides and prostitutes

With the Chinese exclusion act in America, and the threat of deportation or jailing if caught, Chinese man found it extremely hard to find any work, and hence, most opted to go back home. However, by this time prostitution among the Chinese women had grown in roots and numbers. Through prostitution, these women were able to make enough money to support their families. Most of these women had not come to America of their own free will, most were either sold or trafficked to work as sex workers. Through prostitution, these women were able to survive the immigration. By critically analysing Picture Brides, one will note that, in the Chinese culture women are considered as an integral part in providing spiritual harmony while the man provided the economic support needed. However, having travelled to new lands, these women found themselves in need for survival. Prostitution offered a way out and offered a way for them to find subsistence.
According to Lucie Cheng’s chapter on Chinese prostitution, Chinese prostitutes served three integral roles in the community; this included; they served as an economic support that their families back in China could depend on. Second, they served as a way of providing extra income so that the capitalist would not pay extra wages to the labour force, and lastly, they worked as instruments for any entrepreneur to make money out of that would be invested elsewhere. According to Cheng’s ideology, Chinese women were subjected by both the culture to provide a harmonious background for their families and to provide the ability to survive. Apart from being prostitutes, some of the subordinated roles that the women played include, providing economic prosperity for their families, mostly out of loyalty, and having children to have a continuer’s Chinese culture in America.