Chinese Sex Slaves Smuggled to American West

choi

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Melanie Kirkpatrick, From Far East to American West; Thanks to a poker game, she escaped the grim fate of so many Chinese women in 19th- century America. Wall Street Journal, Feb. 3, 2010.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704022804575041481054004678.html

My comment:
(a) book review on

Christopher Corbett, The Poker Bride; The First Chinese in the West.  Atlantic Monthly Pres, 2010.

(b)
(i) Kirkpatrick (Gaelic) means a church ("kirk") dedicated to St. Patrick.
(ii) Polly and Molly are derivatives of Mary.
(iii) The English last name Ambrose is derived from Greek ambrosios (immortal).

(c) Polly Bemis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polly_Bemis

Please refer to a 1991 film "Thousand Pieces of Gold" 千金 in this web page.

There is no Chinese name for her, whether under Polly Bemis or Lalu Nathoy (her Chinese birth name).

黃素卿, 兩個華裔女性的跨國旅程：《桑青與桃紅》和《千金》. 國立台灣大學外國語文學系. 2005. (The first URL requires pdf in TRADITIONAL Chinese characters, but the second, in html format.)
fllcccu.ccu.edu.tw/conference/2005conference/achievement/14.pdf

http://blog.yam.com/gradlit97/article/18485949

(d) While in the above
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polly_Bemis
, check out, in the same web page, "Salmon River" (named after abundant salmon in the river), also known as River of No return. There was a 1954 American Western film starring Marilyn Monroe, of the same name with a plot built around this river. See
River of No Return
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_of_No_Return

(e) Rip Van Winkle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rip_Van_Winkle

The plot is similar to 南柯一夢/黃梁一夢, both written in Tang Dynasty.

(f) Pony Express
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pony_Express
("For its 18 months of operation [from April 1860 to October 1861], it briefly reduced the time for mail to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to about ten days.')
(g) celestial (n): "1. a heavenly or mythical being  2. usu. cap.: a native of China"
(h) Bret Harte
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bret_Harte
(1836-1902)

(i) Ambrose Bierce
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrose_Bierce
(1842-1914?)
(j) shift (adj): "given to deception, evasion, or fraud: TRICKY"

The two English definitions in this posting are from Webster (3rd ed, 1961).

(k) The chant "Two bittee lookee, flo bittee feelee, six bittee doee" is described as "indecipherable English."
Isabel Allende, Daughter of Fortune: A Novel. Harper, 1999.


---------------Separately
(1) “纸儿子”和华裔移民历史回顾(1). VOA Chinese, Feb. 1, 2010.
http://www1.voanews.com/chinese/news/PaperSons-20100201-83300842.html

(2) “纸儿子”和华裔移民历史回顾(2). VOA Chinese, Feb. 2, 2010.
http://www1.voanews.com/chinese/news/china/Paper-Sons-History-of-Chinese-Immigration-to-the-US-Retold-Part2-20100202-83385202.html

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