A Chinese Whore Making Good Business on Gold Mountain: Using Historical Research to Create Historical Fiction

Abstract

For the 2011 – 2012 school year, I engaged in a year-long research project on Chinese sex workers in the “Wild West” during the Antebellum period. Typically brought to the United States under false pretences by members of Chinese tongs, Chinese sex workers were kept in homes and brothels starting from a very young age. Missionary groups attempted to "free” Chinese sex workers from these brothels, educate them and raise awareness of their plight. Historical accounts of these activities come exclusively from the perspective of the missionaries themselves, rather than the perspective of Chinese sex workers, which results in a biased account of Chinese sex workers as helpless girls. However, the research that I did indicates that there may have been examples of agency amongst Chinese sex workers. In order to share my research on agency amongst Chinese sex workers during the Antebellum period, I opted to write a historical fiction (a short story which was eventually published in the Queen’s Undergraduate Review). It is the process of translating historical research into historical fiction which I will focus on presenting. I rewrote the story and plot a number of times in order to maintain a balance of historical fact and creative license, and I struggled with the ethics of portraying historical characters and events for creative purposes. I learned what’s valuable for writing a successful historical fiction: exhaustive research, the understanding that realism is more impactful than sensationalism, and constant awareness of personal agenda or bias.