Ah Toy
Ah Toy | |
---|---|
Born | Qing China | May 18, 1829
Died | February 1, 1928 | (aged 98)
Nationality | Qing Chinese, American |
Other names | Atoy, Attoy, Achoi, Achoy |
Occupation(s) | sex worker, madam |
Ah Toy (
When Ah Toy left China for the United States, she originally traveled with her husband, who died during the travel. Ah Toy became the mistress of the ship's captain, who gave her so much gold that by the time she arrived in San Francisco, Ah Toy had a good amount of money. Before 1851 there were only seven Chinese women known to be in the city, and noticing the looks she drew from the men in her new town, she deduced they would pay for a more intimate setting. Her peep shows became successful, and she was known to charge an ounce of gold (sixteen dollars) for a "lookee".[7] Becoming one of the highest paid and best-known Chinese sex workers in San Francisco. Due to her romantic relationship with the brothel inspector James A. Clarke, Ah Toy's brothel escaped shut-down by San Francisco authorities during a Committee of Vigilance investigation.[8]
Ah Toy was described as a determined and intelligent woman; frequently using the San Francisco Recorder's Court
In 1857,[13] she returned to China as a wealthy woman, intending to live the rest of her days in comfort,[14] but she returned to California by 1859. From 1868 until her death in 1928, she lived a mostly quiet life in Santa Clara County, often living with her numerous different partners over the decades, many of whom she was unable to marry because of anti-miscegenation laws in California which at the time prevented people of East Asian descent from marrying white people. Ah Toy returned to mainstream public attention upon dying in San Jose on 1 February 1928, aged 98,[15] about three months before her ninety-ninth birthday.[16][17]
In popular culture
Olivia Cheng portrays a mostly fictionalized Ah Toy in Cinemax's Warrior, set during the Tong Wars in late 19th century San Francisco. The series begins in the late 1870s.
References
- ^ Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women: the Qing Period, 1644-1911
- ISBN 978-1-317-47588-0.
- ISBN 978-0-943233-36-9.
- ISBN 978-1-56025-408-9.
- ISBN 978-0-8039-7255-1.
- ISBN 978-0-691-07007-0.
- ^ Curt Gentry, The Madams of San Francisco: A Highly Irreverent History. (New York: Signet, 1964.) 1-109.
- ^ a b Sinn, Elizabeth. “Bound for California: The Emigration of Chinese Women.” In Pacific Crossing: California Gold, Chinese Migration, and the Making of Hong Kong, 219–64. Hong Kong University Press, 2013. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2854ct.13.
- ISBN 9780891740155.
- ^ Jacqueline Baker Barnhart, The Fair but Frail, p. 47
- doi:10.2307/25463691.
- ^ SCOCAL, People v. Hall, 62 Cal.2d 104, last visited Tuesday May 7, 2013
- ISBN 978-1-317-47588-0.
- ISBN 978-0-9747551-7-5.
- ^ Gentry, Curt (1964) The Madams of San Francisco; p. 65
- ISBN 978-0-520-08867-2.
- ISBN 978-1-884995-44-6.
External links
- Ah Toy mention at PBS Archived 2017-03-25 at the Wayback Machine