In the summer of 1909; the gruesome murder of nineteen-year-old Elsie Sigel sent shock waves through New York City and the nation at large. The young woman's strangled corpse was discovered inside a trunk in the midtown Manhattan apartment of her reputed former Sunday school student and lover; a Chinese man named Leon Ling. Through the lens of this unsolved murder; Mary Ting Yi Lui offers a fascinating snapshot of social and sexual relations between Chinese and non-Chinese populations in turn-of-the-century New York City. Sigel's murder was more than a notorious crime; Lui contends. It was a clear signal that attempts to maintain geographical and social boundaries between the city's Chinese male and white female populations had failed. When police discovered Sigel and Leon Ling's love letters; giving rise to the theory that Leon Ling killed his lover in a fit of jealous rage; this idea became even more embedded in the public consciousness. New Yorkers condemned the work of Chinese missions and eagerly participated in the massive national and international manhunt to locate the vanished Leon Ling. Lui explores how the narratives of racial and sexual danger that arose from the Sigel murder revealed widespread concerns about interracial social and sexual mixing during the era. She also examines how they provoked far-reaching skepticism about regulatory efforts to limit the social and physical mobility of Chinese immigrants and white working-class and middle-class women. Through her thorough re-examination of this notorious murder; Lui reveals in unprecedented detail how contemporary politics of race; gender; and sexuality shaped public responses to the presence of Chinese immigrants during the Chinese exclusion era.
#1676779 in Books Princeton University Press 1981-10-01 1981-10-21Format: Deluxe EditionOriginal language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.00 x .81 x 5.00l; .89 #File Name: 0691101213320 pages
Review
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. The Angels of the HomeBy MarieI really enjoyed reading this scholarly book about the creation of the myth and reality of the upper class women in northern France in the second half of the 19th century. Many people do not know how reactionary; pro-monarchist; and anti-republican this group of women became. Given the need to protect their daughter's virginity because of its value on the 'marriage market;' many hardworking lady merchants (the wives or widows of businessmen and manufacturers) in the early 19th century placed their adolescent daughters in the safety of convent schools. The Church; worried by its loss of status in French society and appalled by the relative scarcity of 'true believing" Catholic men; took full advantage of this opportunity to mold these young women into pious and devoted Catholic matrons. Little attention was given to teaching the girls either academic subjects (Latin; for instance; was forbidden!) or even the useful arts and skills of homemaking. The story of the conflict between the resulting "Ladies Bountiful;" who established creches and day-care for the children of poor women who had to work to feed their families (but which would only accept the baptized children of women who had married with Catholic religious rites) and the French government (which extended services to all children; regardless of their parents' religious; civil or 'virtuous" status); is fascinating. Deprived of their status as religious benefactresses by the French government; the society women largely refused their (still-desired) assistance to the government-run day-cares and schools. The rich women's refusal to support secular schools which did not discriminate against illegitimate children left the French government schools short-handed.Well worth reading!
