Before I began reading this book, I had never heard of Paper Daughters. I don’t know if many have heard of these women. Allow me to explain. In the late 19^th century and early 20^th centuries, men from China immigrated to the United States to try and find jobs. Many of these men ended up in California working either in gold mines or on the railroads. Housing conditions were either rough or very expensive, and so many of the women stayed in China to take care of families. There were also other things like heavy taxes and anti-immigration laws that made it difficult or impossible for Chinese women to immigrate to the United States.

In 1882, Congress enacted the Chinese Exclusion at of 1882. This law banned Chinese laborers from immigrating for 10 years. This law was renewed every 10 years until 1943. However, to help better relations with the Chinese, there were some exceptions to this law. They included students, Chinese officials, teachers, travelers, and merchants. This loophole allowed Chinese people, including women, to come to the United States.

With many men in their communities, and very few women, men were not able to “be intimate,” if you know what I mean. This situation set up a deplorable new trade in the United States: selling Chinese women as prostitutes. Human slavery. These disgusting people would find poor families in China and tell their families that there was a wealthy man in the U.S. that wanted to marry their daughter, and that he would give her a good life. These women would come to the U.S. with hopes and dreams of a good life, only to find depravity and degradation. They would find themselves addicted to opium and enslaved as a prostitute.

How did they use the loophole to get these women here? Well, they would tell the officials that these women were daughters of men already here. So, on paper, they were daughters. Hence the name paper daughters. Honestly, I cannot believe that situations like this went on then, and it blows my mind that it can still be going on today. It turns my stomach and makes me ill.

Thankfully, today we have amazing groups like Operation Underground Railroad to help. In the late 19^th century and early 20^th century, they had Donaldina Cameron and the women of the Occidental Mission Home. I wish I had learned of Donaldina Cameron a long time ago. She’s a true American hero.

“Based on true events, The Paper Daughters of Chinatown in a powerful story about a largely unknown chapter in history and the women who emerged as heroes.

In the late nineteenth century, San Francisco is a booming city with a dark side, one in which a powerful underground organization—the criminal tong—buys and sells young Chinese women into prostitution and slavery. These “paper daughters,” so called because fake documents gain them entry to America but leave them without legal identity, generally have no recourse. But the Occidental Mission Home for Girls is one bright spot of hope and help.

Told in alternating chapters, this rich narrative follows the stories of young Donaldina Cameron who works in the mission home, and Mei Lien, a “paper daughter” who thinks she is coming to America for an arranged marriage but instead is sold into a life of shame and despair.

Donaldina, a real-life pioneering advocate for social justice, bravely stands up to corrupt officials and violent gangs, helping to win freedom for thousands of Chinese women. Mei Lien endures heartbreak and betrayal in her search for hope, belonging, and love. Their stories merge in this gripping account of the courage and determination that helped shape a new course of women’s history in America.”