Poker Bride: Chinese in the West

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Grove/Atlantic

The Poker Bride: The First Chinese in the West

The Poker Bride is a different kind of Wild West story. From the gold rush in Northern California to a mining town in the highlands of Idaho, it follows the remarkable Polly Bennis. Smuggled from China as concubine, she was later traded in a poker game—and, in an unusual move, married her, becoming the stuff of Idaho Lore. Journalist Christopher Corbett explores the role Chinese immigrants, particularly women, played in shaping the West. How did they maintain their dignity despite being traded as sex slaves? Were they really any different than ordinary pioneer wives? What lasting imprint did Chinese sojourners leave on the Western psyche?

Guest:

Christopher Corbett, author of The Poker Bride: The First Chinese in the West (Atlantic Monthly Press). Professor of journalism at University of Maryland—Baltimore County.


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Lemora Martin

3 months, 1 week ago

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This latest thread related to the historic and ongoing sex trafficking of women and girls into and within the U.S. is endlessly fascinating. I wonder if Chris Corbett has read "California Babylon" by Anneli Rufus and Linnea Due, published about 10 years ago. They go into the trafficking of thousands of Chinese women and girls into San Francisco, during the period from the Civil War through WWI. He did not say, but I wonder what Corbett thinks of the story of Polly Bemis as told in the film, "A Thousand Pieces of Gold", starring Chris Cooper and Joan Chen. That was a very romantic version of her story. In David Niven's memoir, "Bring On The Empty Horses", he describes a 1934 Rogue River fishing trip with Clark Gable, led by a couple who might have been Charlie and Lalu Bemis. They ran an Oregon fishing camp until Charlie's death in 1937. (Chinese women who serviced the mining camps were known as "China Pollys". It was a generic name.) Then as now, law enforcement agencies mostly look the other way. The most disturbing Fresh Air interview I have ever heard, hands down, is one involving current sex trafficking of Eastern European women and children into the U.S. In the 1980's, Northridge, CA was known as the kiddie porn capital of the world --not just the U.S. I've often wondered in what capacity: Filming? Captive sex slaves? Distribution of still photos? All of these? I think the Russian Armenian Mafia in Los Angeles controls this industry. The police are too scared of them, and too well paid off to intervene. Maybe someday, someone will tell that story.

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