Bamboo Women: Stories from Ming Quong, a Chinese Orphanage in California

by Nona Mock Wyman

In 1935, at the age of two, Nona Mock was abandoned at the Ming Quong orphanage in Los Gatos, California. From that first, searing memory of seeing her mother walk out of her life forever, Mock turned grief into strength. Bamboo Women tells 21 inspiring stories of coming-of-age from the women of Ming Quong, a home for orphaned Chinese girls in the San Francisco Bay Area. Wyman introduces us to her "sisters" and how their bonds of love and friendship carried them through life, love, loss, career, and family. Praise for Bamboo “Nona Mock Wyman tells an essential San Francisco Bay Area Chinatown story that has resided too long in the dark recesses of painful memories.” --William Wong, author of Yellow Dispatches from Asian America "Beautifully and wrenchingly told, Bamboo Women is a courageous look into a little-known world, and an affirmation of the human spirit." --Karin Evans, author of The Lost Daughters of China “Compelling.” --Ben Fong Torres, author of The Rice Growing Up Chinese-American from Number Two Son to Rock 'n' Roll

Genres: China, Biography Memoir, Nonfiction

200 pages, Paperback

First published June 12, 2012

About the author

In 1935, at the age of two, Nona Mock Wyman was abandoned at the Ming Quong orphanage in Los Gatos, California. From that first, searing memory of seeing her mother walk out of her life forever, Mock turned grief into strength. Bamboo Women tells twenty-one inspiring stories of coming-of-age from the women of Ming Quong, a home for orphaned Chinese girls in the San Francisco Bay Area. Wyman introduces us to her "sisters" and how their bonds of love and friendship carried them through life, love, loss, career, and family.

Reviews

[Anastasia Hobbet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Up front: Nona Mock Wyman is a good friend. Both individually and as part of an informal writers' group, I was one of those who helped her shape this memoir, her second, about growing up in the 1930's at Ming Quong, an orphanage for Chinese children in the San Francisco Bay area. As a historical document about immigrant Chinese in California, the book is invaluable, and as a personal document of the times, it's fascinating.

There aren't many lives, I think, that are worthy of two memoirs. Nona's is. At age three, she was abandoned by her single mom at Ming Quong, and she never set eyes on her mother again. In her first (self-published) memoir, published a dozen years ago, she recounts her own experiences of her childhood. In this second book, picked up by the fine Bay Area publisher, China Books, she tells the stories of her 'sisters', the other little girls she came to know and love at the orphanage, some happy, some tragic. Bernice Bing became a famous contemporary artist in the 1960's; her work hangs in San Francisco's de Young Museum. Rhoda Quan reveals to Nona that when she was a baby, her parents had given her to a wealthy Chinese family in San Francisco as a slave, a 'mui jai', where the matriarch beat her with a baseball bat. Carol Lum was the illegitimate daughter of another slave, a woman who had been raped and impregnated by her Chinese boss. To hide the child while she did her chores for the family upstairs, Carol's mother bound her to the toilet, sometimes for hours a day, leaving her thighs permanently scarred with the marks of her literal bondage. Jenny Lee, daughter of an impoverished and neglectful father, was saved from starvation by a local restaurant owner, who brought her scraps and leftovers.

But all the women survived these horrors, managing to become, for the most part, active and successful adults. Nona herself, who remembers only faintly her parental home, is one of the warmest, most generous and inspiring people I've ever met. What she learned at Ming Quong was to regard all of us, everyone, as beloved family members. To Nona, we're all of the same blood.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a lovely person Nona is. I met her through my daughter. Nona owns a small shop in Walnut Creek, California and my daughter came to know her and marveled at her peacefulness and serene demeanor. This book is as good as her first, "Chopstick Childhood in a Town of Silver Spoons". I learned a lot about the trials of the Chinese people and the trials and triumphs of the girls that grew up in the Ming Quong orphanage. It is noteworthy that Nona's store is also called Ming Quong. It was interesting to read that many girls considered this their home and didn't want to leave it when it came time to. I loved the photos of the girls and the description of their unique time together. I plan to visit the Los Gatos museum soon to see an exhibit on Ming Quong. I was so struck by the story that my husband and I made a trip to the old home to see where Nona grew up. It was wonderful to put a place and a "face" to the reading.

[Jana · Rating 4 out of 5]

My daughter volunteered at a place called Happy Dragon, a used-goods store in town which raises money for something or other. That something or other is the history which Nona Wyman explains in her book Bamboo Women. The story is composed of short, easy-to-read chapters, detailing the lives of orphans who were brought to the Ming Quong Association. Bamboo Women brings a part of California's past to life.

[Camille · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a wonderful library find. I am overjoyed at being able to read the stories of these remarkable women. Being brought up under some harsh circumstances but finding the silver lining in Ming Quong Home. The power of people amazes me to no end. I am so glad to have stumbled upon this cultural gem.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

True accounts of women who grew up in orphanages in Los Gatos and Oakland. Unlike most stories of orphanages where the children were treated badly, these two houses brought love and security. The author has a store on Main Street in Walnut Creek and was one of the children who grew up in both of these houses (Los Gatos for young children and Oakland when they went to high school). It is clear that the author did plenty of research and so shared a piece of local history that I never knew existed. They were both founded by Donaldina Cameron who was horrified by the sex trafficing and/or indenture servitude of Chinese women in San Francisco and their children. The home in Oakland was donated to Mills College and became Alderwood Hall. It is now the Julia Morgan private school for girls and was designed by Julia Morgan.

[Nancy Mcnally · Rating 5 out of 5]

memorable books..I read both.. books from the library ...a discovery a few years ago . My interest is acute due to being a survivor of the foster care system in San Francisco ...b. 1949. I am also a life long admirer of Julia Morgan and discovered a bldg in SF yesterday I was not aware of and that shocked me. I did remember these memoirs by this fellow orphan author and went on a Julia Morgan google search to find these books again..a collection of inspiring stories proving the sustaining healing power of empathy and art ..the children were fortunate that Julia Morgan gave so much of her talents and grace to the children..,. a positive and beautiful physical environment can create a life affirming foundation.

[Catherine · Rating 1 out of 5]

It could have been a better testimony.

[Mirella Auer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the organization I volunteer for!