Mm. Donaldina Cameron is an important figure in Asian American history, though not without some tinges of white savior. She did have genuine relationships with her charges over the years, though, and tbh religiously motivated missionaries were certainly more helpful to the Chinese American community than the "economically anxious" politicians.

This did seem to meander a little bit towards the middle, as it initially seemed like this was going to be a biography of Donaldina Cameron and the history of the Mission House but expanded to include San Francisco Chinatown history of the period like Dr. Ng Poon Chew and his paper, and Arnold Genthe the photographer. Chapters were short- about 5 pages, including an image and really felt more like vignettes loosely in a theme together. Still, this is another book to teach people about the effects of Chinese Exclusion on American immigration policy and how it shaped our communities for the longest time. I shouldn't be surprised that not many people are as familiar with this period as they ought to be, but I have the familial connection of relatives who *did* come through via the merchant exception, and at least one paper son in my tree (I suspect others, but even though parties are long dead relatives still remain tightlipped over the whiff of illegality). I would've liked a tighter focus on the Mission House and its residents rather than an overview of Chinese American history, but again, if it's not history someone's already familiar with I can see how it's compelling.

Re: the title- "white devil" is a colloquialism I heard used to reference white people in general (baakgwai per wiki's romanization, which I guess more accurately is "white ghost") so I'm not sure if it was an epithet towards Ms. Cameron in particular, but it does make for an eye-catching title.

Given there is an Ah Toy in the Cinemax show Warrior (albeit maybe a decade or two younger than the real Ah Toy was at the time), I feel like we're going to see a fictionalized version of Cameron sooner rather than later. ( )

Interesting and informative but seemed a bit rushed at times, perhaps because of gaps in the historical reference materials. Still very much worth the time spent ( )

Sorry, Ms Siler, I couldn't actually read it all through. I don't know how you managed to research the subject without losing your own equilibrium. It's this kind of history that makes me supremely disgusted with the United States of America and so many of it's people. That folk like Dolly Cameron existed to fight racism and it's institutionalized supporters is laudable but should never have been necessary. Money and jealousy are the roots of all evil and USA has those two ingredients aplenty. I thank Ms Siler for putting all this hateful history into one place for us to explore as we need to, but humankind never learns from history in order to make itself better. Enough... ( )