Chinese American Mothering

Toy Len Goon's Legacy and the Myth of the Model Minority

Andrea Louie

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN: 9781479855568
• eBook ISBN: 9781479857753
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Asian American Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

A journey from Chinese immigrant to "U.S. Mother of the Year" unpacks the roots of the model minority myth and its legacy

In 1952, Toy Len Goon, a Chinese immigrant widow who raised eight children while running their family laundry, was selected as U.S. Mother of the Year by the American Mother's Committee of the Golden Rule Foundation. In Chinese American Mothering, Andrea Louie argues that Toy Len Goon's selection for this honor was more than an acknowledgement of her having raised eight successful children while running a business; rather she was chosen precisely because she was a Chinese American woman who could exemplify both the virtues of mothering and of American upward mobility. Her selection for the Mother of the Year honor can only be understood within the context of shifting representations of Chinese Americans during the Cold War era, and the accompanying assumptions about the strategic role that positive representations of Chinese Americans could have in extending U.S. influence in Asia.

Drawing upon immigration records, interviews, and secondary sources, as well as her positionality as Toy Len Goon's granddaughter, Louie tells an expanded version of Toy Len Goon's life story. Ultimately, Chinese American Mothering addresses themes of migration, gender, racialization, Americanization, and "success" through the evolving lens of the model minority myth.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction: An Ethnography of the Model Minority Myth
• 1. Chinese Migrants and the State: Dogan Goon’s Emigration Story
• 2. Toy Len Goon’s Migration Story: Pre–Mother of the Year Award
• 3. Kinship Ties Across Borders: A Transnational Family Separated by the Cold War
• 4. Counter Cultures: The Place and Space of the Chinese Laundry
• 5. Mother of the Year Award: Being “Good” Chinese Americans During the Cold War
• 6. “One Lifetime Is Like Other People’s Working Four”: Toy Len Goon’s Story as Told by Herself and Others
• 7. Dirty Laundry (or Keeping Clean Laundry Clean): The Legacy of the Model Minority Myth
• Conclusion: Closing the Laundry, Later Life, and Legacy
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author