維新運動前后,以“中國女學堂”和『女學報』的興辦爲標志,中國興起了婦女運動的一波高潮;但是戊戌變法失敗后,維新派的婦女解放事業似乎也?然而止,全面凋?了。本文作者在偶然間發現了上海朶云軒拍賣公司公開拍賣的“康同璧舊藏康有爲與保皇會文獻”,揭開了淸末民初在美洲大陸的中國女性的歷史篇章。中國婦女移民美國伴隨着中國男人參與開發美國西部的浪潮,早期赴美的中國女子多遠涉重洋被賣爲娼妓,只有少數的勞工妻子。但是到了康同璧和?的女伴們在美國學習生活的時代,局面大有改觀。從這批拍賣文物中,更是可喜地發現了在美洲成立的第一個中國的女性政黨――女保皇會的寶貴史料。女保皇會不只意在“保皇”,更是中國的女華僑與女留學生們開拓女權運動的?妹團體,女保皇會的成立壯大也絶不只是因爲康同璧來到北美,而是?多華僑女性共同努力的結果。
Chinese women immigrated from south China to the Americas (including North and South America) accompanying Chinese male workers (Ku-li, railway workers) to explore the west of America. In the pioneer period most of them were employed in the sex industry, with the exception of a few worker’s wives. This article focuses on the pioneer generation of Chinese immigrant women including Kang Tongbi, Xue Jingqin, Ye Meirong, and He Huizheng to explore their multi-faceted study abroad life as well as their sisterhood and networks in China, North America and South America. Kang Tongbi, the second daughter of Kang Youwei, the leader of Chinese Reform Movement, followed her father’s instructions to “take trips to Europe and the Americas, deliver speeches on national affairs, and pioneer feminist movements” for Chinese women. She established the Chinese Empire Ladies Reform Association in the Americas. It was the first Chinese women’s political organization in the history of both China and the Chinese diaspora. After Kang Tongbi left Victoria, Canada in late May of 1903, she used the Chinese Empire Ladies Reform Association in Victoria as a model and estab-lished similar organizations in Vancouver and New Westminster as well as a dozen American cities, including Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Chicago, and New York. The Chinese Empire Ladies Reform Association branches con-stitute an important part of feminist organization in the Chinese diaspora. More than ever before, we need to encourage young women to influence and change the world bravely, and this is definitely what whose Chinese over-seas women, female students fighting for in the late Qing and early Republican China.