The Irish Catholic tradition of my maternal grandmother’s upbringing that permeated my own childhood, from Sunday mass to the corned beef that my mother would prepare for St. Patrick’s Day, seemed so disconnected from my decision to venture to China and, later, marry a young man from Hangzhou.
Or so I thought, until the history of the Chinese in the US taught me of a long-forgotten affinity among Irish women and Chinese men.
“By the 1860s [in America], such Chinese-Irish marriages were so common that the New York Tribune remarked that ‘these Chinamen have a peculiar fancy for wives of Celtic origin,’” wrote historian Erika Lee in her book “The Making of Asian America.”
Journalist Iris Chang acknowledged the same trend in “The Chinese in America”: “As early as 1857, Harper’s Weekly took note of the marriages between Chinese cigar vendors and Irish apple peddlers in New York. By the end of the decade, the New York Times noted that most owners of Chinese boarding houses were married to either Irish or German women.”
For example, New York State census records in 1855 listed John Huston, a sailor and naturalized U.S. citizen originally from China, as living with his Irish wife in Manhattan.
During the same period, New York City’s Chinatown was home to the Chinese tea merchant Quimbo Appo and his Irish wife Catherine Fitzpatrick, who gave birth to their son George Washington Appo in 1856.
What drew Irish women and Chinese women together during this period, a time when interracial marriages were largely taboo? Immigrant demographics of the era played a prominent role. The Irish community in the U.S. overflowed with women (two for every man), while men dominated the burgeoning Chinese community.
According to Chang, Chinese-Irish couples of the era appeared to prosper. “When a New York World reporter told two Irish women they should be married to whites, not Chinese, one retorted that their Chinese husbands were as “white” as anyone, even “whiter” than most of their neighbors.” She also quotes from an article written for the New York Sun, where the newly married Irish wife of a Chinese man proudly announced “that the Chinamen were all good ‘fellows,’ that they work hard, go to night school, and are devoted to their wives.”
Writer Molly Mahoney Matthews was so inspired by this history that she penned the novel “Irish Luck, Chinese Medicine,” which tells the story of a love affair between an Irish single mother and a Chinese physician.
I’d like to think that my late grandmother and mother are smiling down upon me for discovering this delightful historical thread — and that they would encourage me, come St. Patrick’s Day, to serve a little soda bread with my mapo tofu.
What do you think about the history of marriages of Irish women and Chinese men in America? Do these Chinese-Irish couples resonate with you?
That’s fascinating, I think such demographics often lead to people of a different nationality dating, but it’s still interesting how this came about.
Thanks for the comment, Ruth! Yes, it is quite fascinating.
I was aware that many Chinese men who came to America at that time came alone, but I was surprised to read that the ratio of Irish female to male immigrants was two to one. My Irish grandma was an immigrant, but she married a Scottish immigrant.
There’s a saying in the Philippines that Filipino men are fun to date, but Chinese men make the best husbands.
Thanks for the comment, Nicki! That is interesting that your grandmother was from Ireland!
Intriguing saying in the Philippines — while I cannot speak for Filipino men, I wholeheartedly agree about Chinese men! 😉
Love knows no boundary of races.
Thanks for the comment, ETS! Very true.