historian Judy Tzu-Chun Wu.Margaret Chung (1889-1959) proved to be an amazing, and once-famous, person. Chameleon-like she had invented and reinvented herself, living in many worlds. Daughter of a Chinese prostitute and a vegetable peddler she had become a Hollywood surgeon. Later in San Francisco,she moved in early lesbian circles and dressed in men's clothes. She became the mentor of agroup of Navy pilots and created an organization of pilots and submariners called the Fair HairedBastards that grew to some 1500 members during World War II. Senators and Congressmen became her friends, and she invented the Waves, and Navy auxiliary for women. Even the LosAngeles Library's scant description as the first Chinese American physician in SouthernCalifornia proves to have been an understatement, as Chung was the first-known American-bornChinese woman physican in the whole country.Judy Tzu-Chun Wu's biography tells the story of Doctor Margaret "Mom" Chung, an irrepresibleand incredible life. Wu's book descends at times into long sociological digressions on the statusof Chinese American women and such, obstructing the flow of her narrative, but MargaretChung's life has such vibrancy that it emerges from these pages unscathed.Margaret Chung was born in Santa Barbara , California , the eldest of eleven children. Her parents emigrated separately from China in the 1870s. Her father worked as a merchant, thenwent bankrupt and became a fruit peddler, dairyman, and ranch foreman. Her mother wasrescued from a brothel. Both became invalids when Margaret was very young, and Margaret took over supporting the family by the time she was ten, as well as caring for her younger siblings andnursing her mother who was slowly dying of tuberculosis. She drove a horse-drawn freightwagon alone when she was ten and later worked 12-hour days in a Chinese restaurant when shewas in the seventh grade. The family moved first to Ventura , then to the East Adams section of Los Angeles near San Pedro Street .Margaret managed to put herself through college and medical school by winning scholarships,selling medical supplies, and lecturing on China . In 1916 she graduated from the University of Southern California 's College of Physicians and Surgeons, becoming the first American-bornChinese woman physician in the United States . After a brief stint at Kankakee State Hospital inIllinois , she returned to California and worked as a surgeon at the Santa Fe Railroad Hospital .She also developed a clientele in the Hollywood crowd, and removed Mary Pickford's tonsils.Chung moved to San Francisco in 1922, where she worked as staff physician at the WiltshireHotel and opened a medical office in Chinatown .In 1931, Dr. Chung became friends with a young aviator from Berkeley. Soon she wasentertaining a group of his Navy Air Reserve friends for dinners. This grew into an Americanaviators' club called the "Fair-Haired Bastards," which became famous in World War II. She wasknown to the flyers as Mom, and "adopted" them, numbering her "sons" and giving each a silver ring with a jade Buddha.When Japan invaded China in 1937, Margaret Chung began making speeches to organizationsand at local colleges in support of China . After the Japanese attack in December 1941, shehelped send emergency medical supplies to Pearl Harbor , for which she received a citation from
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