Mabel Ping-Hua Lee
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Mabel Ping-Hua Lee ( zh, 李彬华; October 7, 1896 – 1966) was a Chinese-American women's rights activist and minister who campaigned for
women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...
in the United States. Later in life, Lee became a
Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...
minister, working with the First Chinese Baptist Church in
Chinatown Chinatown ( zh, t=唐人街) is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, O ...
. Born in China and raised in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, Lee received a bachelor's degree and master's degree from
Barnard College Barnard College is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college affiliated with Columbia University in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a grou ...
of
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
, and later a doctorate in economics from
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
in 1921, becoming the first Chinese woman in the United States to earn a doctorate in economics. In the 1910s, Lee became an activist for women's suffrage, and participated in the 1912 New York City women's suffrage parade, where she rode on horseback. Following the eventual passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, Lee still was unable to vote due to her status as a Chinese immigrant per the
Chinese Exclusion Act The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was a United States Code, United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. The law made exceptions for travelers an ...
. She would not gain the right to vote until at least the passage of the
Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act The Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act of 1943, or Magnuson Act of 1943, was an immigration law proposed by US Representative (later Senator) Warren G. Magnuson of Washington and signed into law on December 17, 1943, in the United States. It allowe ...
in 1943. Lee became a Baptist minister in 1924, after taking over her father's church following his death. She went on to run the First Chinese Baptist Church for forty years, while also becoming a leader within the
American Baptist Home Mission Society The American Baptist Home Mission Society is a Christian missionary society. Its main predecessor the Home Mission Society was established in New York City in 1832 to operate in the American frontier, with the stated mission "to preach the Gospe ...
. Lee additionally became a community advocate for the
Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...
community in New York and residents of
Chinatown Chinatown ( zh, t=唐人街) is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, O ...
, working with the Chinese Community Center. In recognition of her life and advocacy on behalf of women and Chinese immigrants in the United States, the Chinatown
U.S. Post Office The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal serv ...
on
Doyers Street file:Doyers Street - postcard - 1898.jpg, 287px, Doyers Street depicted in an 1898 postcard file:Chinese theater - Doyers Street - Bain.jpg, 287px, The city's first Chinese Opera House was on Doyers Street Doyers Street is a street in the Chi ...
was renamed in her honor in 2017.


Early life

Mabel Ping-Hua Lee was born on October 7, 1896 in
Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...
during the
Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...
of China. Her father was Lee To or Lee Towe, a minister who immigrated to the United States and worked in the American Baptist Home Mission Society. He first served as a missionary to the Chinese community in
Washington state Washington, officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is often referred to as Washington State to distinguish it from the national capital, both named after George Washington ...
in 1898 and then was appointed to minister at the Morning Star Mission in New York City, where he became a leading member in New York's Chinatown. Her mother's name is recorded in US census documents alternately as Lennick or Libreck Lee. Lee spent her early childhood in China, attending a missionary school where she learned English. She was raised by her mother and grandmother while her father was in America. It has been reported she traveled with her mother to America in the summer of 1900 when she was four years old to reunite with her father. However, most articles, including a 1912
New-York Tribune The ''New-York Tribune'' (from 1914: ''New York Tribune'') was an American newspaper founded in 1841 by editor Horace Greeley. It bore the moniker ''New-York Daily Tribune'' from 1842 to 1866 before returning to its original name. From the 1840s ...
article, made mention that she settled with her family in New York by 1905. She was also an only child but the same New-York Tribune article writes of a baby sister. Her family lived in a tenement at 53 Bayard Street in Chinatown. She attended New York City's public schools, specifically
Erasmus Hall High School Erasmus Hall High School was a four-year public high school located at 899–925 Flatbush Avenue between Church and Snyder Avenues in the Flatbush, Brooklyn, Flatbush neighborhood of the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brookly ...
in
Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
, which was a school meant to accommodate the increase in immigrant children.


Education

In 1913, Lee began attending
Barnard College Barnard College is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college affiliated with Columbia University in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a grou ...
where she majored in history and philosophy. She joined the Debating Club and Chinese Students' Association. In 1916, she ran for president of this student association against Tse-ven Soong, who later became finance minister of China's national government. She wrote articles for ''The Chinese Students’ Monthly'', in which she championed for woman's suffrage and argued for equality as necessary in a democracy. While at Barnard College, she also received a master's degree in educational administration. In 1917, Lee was admitted to
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
for a
doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...
in
economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...
. The Chinese government was impressed with her research in the agricultural economy and granted her a
Boxer Indemnity Scholarship The Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program was a scholarship program for Chinese students to be educated in the United States, funded by the Boxer Indemnities. On May 25, 1908, the U.S. Congress Senate and House of Representatives passed the Joint ...
which allowed her to continue her studies. She became the first woman to win this scholarship. She was the vice president of the Columbia Chinese Club and became associate editor of ''The Chinese Students’ Monthly''. Lee graduated in 1921 or 1922 and earned a PhD in economics from Columbia University in 1921. She was selected by the Board of Council of Columbia University as the University Scholar in Economics for her research work in agricultural economics. This was the first time a Chinese student was given this award. Her final dissertation was titled "The Economic History of China: With Special Reference to Agriculture" and was later published. Her thesis was the first agricultural economics text written by a foreign Chinese student and maintained a balanced view of western economic ideology and Chinese traditional economic thought within the context of modern agricultural reform.


Post-education

After her studies, Lee traveled to Europe in 1923 to study postwar economics. A local Baptist newspaper reported, "On March 28, 1923, Miss Lee sailed for France where she is now engaged in the study of European Economics, in fuller preparation for her life work, in her native land, China. A position of great trust and signal honor awaits her arrival in China." Lee had numerous job opportunities including an offer from a Chinese firm interested in trade from the United States to China. She was also recruited for the Dean of Women students at the University of Amoy, now
Xiamen University Xiamen University (XMU; ) is a public university in Siming, Xiamen, Siming, Xiamen, Fujian, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Ministry of Education of China. The university is part of Pro ...
. However, after the sudden death of her father, she went back to New York City in 1924 to care for her mother. She was appointed by the American Baptist Home Mission Society to take on her father's duties and became chairman of the Morning Star Mission. Lee continued to travel to her homeland, eager to join the new generation of workers and help the people of China, but on her third trip to China in 1937, she decided otherwise. Racial and sexist discrimination were likely to reduce her chances of attaining her goals and it became unsafe to live in China with the Japanese invasion and the start of the
Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War was fought between the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the Empire of Japan between 1937 and 1945, following a period of war localized to Manchuria that started in 1931. It is considered part ...
. These factors coupled with her familial and religious duties ultimately helped her decide to stay in New York.


Women's suffrage

Mabel Lee's early suffragist and nationalist consciousness was influenced by her father's religious and nationalistic views for China and by New York's liberal environment. Before she was writing essays advocating equality in ''The Chinese Students’ Monthly,'' she was riding horseback as a teenager in the campaign for
women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...
in
New York state New York, also called New York State, is a state in the northeastern United States. Bordered by New England to the east, Canada to the north, and Pennsylvania and New Jersey to the south, its territory extends into both the Atlantic Ocean and ...
. On May 4, 1912, a fifteen year old Lee led a parade in support of women's voting rights with the likes of Annie Rensselaer Tinker, the Women's Political Union, and
Anna Howard Shaw Anna Howard Shaw (February 14, 1847 – July 2, 1919) was a leader of the women's suffrage movement in the United States. She was also a physician and one of the first women to be ordained as a Methodist minister in the United States. Early li ...
in New York. The parade grew a large crowd, up to ten thousand people were in attendance. Shaw carried a
National American Woman Suffrage Association The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was an organization formed on February 18, 1890, to advocate in favor of women's suffrage in the United States. It was created by the merger of two existing organizations, the National Woma ...
banner that stated: "N.A.W.S.A Catching Up with China" while Lee rode on horseback. She also led Chinese and Chinese-American women in a parade down Fifth Avenue in 1917 as a member of the Women's Political Equality League. In a 1914 issue of ''The Chinese Students' Monthly,'' Lee wrote that feminism is “the extension of democracy or social justice and equality of opportunities to women”. She continued to write articles throughout college, calling for gender equality but also began giving speeches. At the Suffrage Workshop in 1915, Lee gave a speech that was covered in the New York Times. The speech was titled "China's Submerged Half" and stated: In 1917, women won the right to vote in the state of New York, amending the state's constitution. However, Lee herself was unable to exercise that constitutional right because of the discriminatory federal naturalization laws of the time. The
Chinese Exclusion Act The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was a United States Code, United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. The law made exceptions for travelers an ...
, which was not repealed until 1943, barred Chinese immigrants from the process of naturalization. While Lee fought for equality and the right to vote, she and other immigrant women, were unable to reap the benefits until years later. Her mother supported the suffrage movement but also could not vote. It is unclear if Lee ever voted or if she became a US citizen. According to the only directly attributed quote from Lee in a 1912 New-York Tribune article about her, entitled ''Chinese Girl Wants Vote'', Lee's definition of suffrage was framed in the context of its benefit to the family, specifically a husband. In a later essay, ''The Meaning of Woman Suffrage'' Lee authored and published in ''The Chinese students' monthly'', while providing arguments in favor of suffrage for the "interest" of the race, community, woman herself, husband, and child, she articulated her definition of the feminist movement as follows.


Ministry

When Mabel Lee's father died from a heart attack in 1924, she took over his role as head of the Baptist mission in Chinatown at the age of 28. Although this was meant to be a temporary position, it would become her life's work. Lee traveled three times to China during the 1920s and 1930s, and even had job offers awaiting her there, but she eventually chose to settle permanently in New York and focus on her father's church. Lee began raising funds from the
American Baptist Home Mission Society The American Baptist Home Mission Society is a Christian missionary society. Its main predecessor the Home Mission Society was established in New York City in 1832 to operate in the American frontier, with the stated mission "to preach the Gospe ...
and local Chinese American organizations to help fund a Chinese Christian Center in memory of her father. In 1926, she purchased a building for this community center at 21 Pell Street in Chinatown. The center offered English classes, a
medical clinic A clinic (or outpatient clinic or ambulatory care clinic) is a health facility that is primarily focused on the care of outpatients. Clinics can be privately operated or publicly managed and funded. They typically cover the primary care needs ...
, and a
kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cen ...
. Lee believed that an independent Chinese church was crucial for providing support and a feeling of freedom to its community members, who were otherwise marginalized and oppressed in American society. Lee's view that there needed to be a Chinese Christianity and not a European American Protestantism sometimes brought her into conflict with the larger white-led Baptist mission in New York City. In 1954, Lee was able to secure the title of the 21 Pell Street property solely under First Chinese Baptist Church which from then on became fully independent. Paradoxically, this independence coincided with the increasing
secularization In sociology, secularization () is a multilayered concept that generally denotes "a transition from a religious to a more worldly level." There are many types of secularization and most do not lead to atheism or irreligion, nor are they automatica ...
of younger generations of Chinese Americans, and led to dwindling membership at the church. However, under her leadership the church became the first "self-supporting Chinese church in America." As a
bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...
Chinese-American, Lee was able to provide significant assistance to the working class Chinese
immigrant Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as permanent residents. Commuters, tourists, and other short- ...
community by providing classes teaching the
English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...
,
typewriting Typing is the process of writing or inputting text by pressing keys on a typewriter, computer keyboard, mobile phone, or calculator. It can be distinguished from other means of text input, such as handwriting and speech recognition. Text can ...
, and broadcasting and carpentry among other useful skills. Lee even participated by preaching and taught kindergarten and Sunday school. In many ways the church functioned as an underground social service center for the Chinese community. The First Chinese Baptist Church is still standing and continues to offer the social services Lee started and strives to maintain the community's civil rights she fought for.


Personal life and death

Mabel Lee never married and managed to maintain economic independence. This was a life-style only women with higher education could have had during Lee's life-time. She never went back to her academic studies, even after friend Hu Shih suggested she continue her "scholastic and intellectual interests". Lee chose to dedicate her life to Christianity and the Chinatown community until her death in 1966. She was seventy years old.


Legacy

In November 2017, a motion was introduced in
Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
by Rep. Nydia Velazquez to rename the Chinatown Station U.S. Post Office at 6
Doyers Street file:Doyers Street - postcard - 1898.jpg, 287px, Doyers Street depicted in an 1898 postcard file:Chinese theater - Doyers Street - Bain.jpg, 287px, The city's first Chinese Opera House was on Doyers Street Doyers Street is a street in the Chi ...
in honor of Mabel Lee. The
bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Pl ...
was passed in the
U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...
in March 2018. There was a dedication ceremony at the First Chinese Baptist Church at 21 Pell St. on December 3, 2018, at 11am. In March 2018, Lee was honored as one of a featured series of women's suffrage activists displayed on LinkNYC kiosks in New York City as part of a partnership with the
Museum of the City of New York The Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) is a history and art museum in Manhattan, New York City, New York. It was founded by Henry Collins Brown, in 1923Beard, Rick. "Museum of the City of New York" in to preserve and present the history ...
. Lee was named a
National Women's History Alliance The National Women's History Alliance (NWHA) is an American non-profit organization dedicated to honoring and preserving women's history. The NWHA was formerly known as the National Women's History Project. Based out of Santa Rosa, California, sin ...
honoree in 2020. Mabel Ping-Hua Lee was featured in the
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' Overlooked'' series obituaries on remarkable people whose deaths initially went unreported in newspaper in September 2020.


References


External links


"Chinese Girl Wants Vote" – New York Tribune, April 13 1912

"The Economic History of China: With Special Reference to Agriculture" at Google BooksArchival Photographs by Mabel Lee

"Asian American Legacy: Dr. Mabel Lee" by Timothy Tseng
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Mabel Ping-Hua 1896 births 1966 deaths Suffragists from New York City Chinese Baptists American Christian missionaries Barnard College alumni Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Place of death missing Qing dynasty emigrants to the United States People from Guangzhou American civil rights activists Women civil rights activists People from Chinatown, Manhattan Erasmus Hall High School alumni Chinese emigrants to the United States Baptists from New York (state) 20th-century Baptist ministers from the United States Women Christian clergy American suffragists of Chinese descent American sinologists