Product Description
During World War II, Mom Chung's was the place to be in San Francisco. Soldiers, movie stars, and politicians gathered at her home to socialize, to show their dedication to the Allied cause, and to express their affection for Dr. Margaret Chung (1889-1959). The first known American-born Chinese female physician, Chung established one of the first Western medical clinics in San Francisco's Chinatown in the 1920s. She also became a prominent celebrity and behind-the-scenes political broker during World War II. Chung gained national fame when she began "adopting" thousands of soldiers, sailors, and flyboys, including Ronald Reagan, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, and Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr. A pioneer in both professional and political realms, Chung experimented in her personal life as well. She adopted masculine dress and had romantic relationships with other women, such as writer Elsa Gidlow and entertainer Sophie Tucker.
This is the first biography to explore Margaret Chung's remarkable and complex life. It brings alive the bohemian and queer social milieus of Hollywood and San Francisco as well as the wartime celebrity community Chung cultivated. Her life affords a rare glimpse into the possibilities of traversing racial, gender, and sexual boundaries of American society from the late Victorian era through the early Cold War period. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Dr. Mom Chung


I knew Mom Chung well, visited her soirees many times, and have had memorable experiences with her.The book is perhaps overly scholarly, but conveys her character and influence well.I feel she would approve it.

Herb Puffer

A Woman Navigating Multiple, Simultaneous Boundary Lines
Dr. Wu astounds us by producing a work of biography that does something very rare in this age of standardized academic prose, she has produced an addictively readable volume.To tell the truth, even though I have lived in San Francisco for 25 years, I had never even heard of Mom Chung, but I guess if I lived here during World War II I would have been reading about her exploits every day.

One record after another, she smashed, despite the obvious disapproval of both the Chinese and white communities here.And then there's the gender thing.She adopted, as Dr. Yu shows us, a comically asexual pose, which made it humorous for hundreds of white men and women to call her "Mom," which would have implied that she had had sex when to look at her, and to survey her lack of marriage license, she had none.There's the secret!

The "fair-haired bastards" of the title were the war heroes, at first the pilots, then those who served in the Navy, then a bunch of "Kiwis" who Chung recognized for their work in the field supporting our men overseas.She attracted celebrities to her wherever she went, sort of like our own JT LeRoy in the present day.When she started out, she walked timidly, and it took a cunning and open-hearted woman like the poet Elsa Gidlow to see underneath the brim of her cloche and discover the Lesbian within.Gidlow's memoirs, from which Dr. Wu draws the story, reveal that Gidlow became Chung's patient pretty much to get that old countertransference going.And after a difficult operation, in which Gidlow nearly died, Chung finally admitted that she loved her.

Later on came an intense attachment to the "last of the red hot Mamas," Sophie Tucker.Chung destroyed Tucker's letters, but Tucker carefully preserved all of Chung's little love notes and tokens--thank Goodness, for otherwise we might never have guessed the lengths to which homophobia and sexual fear drove the love affair of these two celebrities deep underground.In a way it was a perfect pose.Chung nearly built Tucker her own shrine within her lavish apartment, so that whenever Tucker decided to visit San Francisco she would be pampered like a goddess.In one letter she hopes that Tucker wears a special nightgown, and "think of me as that nightgown," getting upclose and personal with the famous Tucker body.Sophie Tucker was then coasting on a formidable heterosexual reputation, having been married and divorced thrice by the time she got involved with Mom Chung.I read a whole biography of this notorious entertainer, and the name of Mom Chung never even made it to the index.

Thank the Lord for brave historians like Tzu-Chun Wu who no longer shy away from the uncomfortable truths about their subjects.How I wish that the bruited movie of Chung's life (starring Barbara Stanwyck in Chinese makeup) had really been made, in the long ago days of Mom Chung's celebrity!

Great Bio, not so Great Historical over view
Having had to read this book for a history class I wasn't sure about whether or not I would enjoy it. But once I got an understanding of whom Mom Chung was and her importance I really wanted to read the book. I'm glad I did because Chung's story is inspirational, being the first Chinese American Female Doctor. Also Chung was a lesbian (though not 100% proved one can infer this from the evidence.) At the beginning I was inspired by Chung's strength and guts, her breaking through barriers and fighting to be successful and true to herself.(Also managing to continue fighting after several rejections.) Though by the end of her life it seems as though she lost her spunk and drive and settles into the status quo image.

The author does a great job of explaining Chung's life and actually makes the ready feel her triumphs and loses. So from a biographical point of view this is a 5 star book. From the historical point of view it's not as good. She wanted to"...provide insight into the historical transformation of American norms regarding race, gender and sexuality over the course of her lifetime..." This might have to do with Chung being such a larger than life character it is easy to get lost in her and miss the general trends and changes that happened in her lifetime.

With that being said read the book!!! ... Read more

Product Description
No matter what our life style, we have been nfluenced in one way or another, by customs handed down by our parents and or grandparents. As I was growing up, my mother encouraged to to do things the Chinese way, by teaching me traditons she learned from her mother. This is a documentation of several families and villages articles, anecdotes, customs and fold practices in Hawaii. ... Read more