From Slave Girls to Salvation: Gender, Race, and Victoria’s Chinese Rescue Home, 1886-1923

For decades, the Chinese Rescue Home was a feature of the landscape of Victoria, British Columbia. Originally a refuge for Chinese prostitutes and slave girls rescued from captivity, it became a residence and school where the Methodist Women’s Missionary Society attempted to reform Chinese and Japanese girls and women. They did so, in part, by teaching them domestic skills meant to ease their integration into Western society. This book offers the first in-depth history and analysis of this iconic institution and expands our understanding of the complex interplay between gender, race, and class in BC during this time.