Mainstream American media outlets typically portray female massage parlor workers β many of them immigrants from Korea, Vietnam, and in recent years, China β as victims of transnational crime syndicates. Do they think Chinese people all live in the Dark Ages? The recent mass shooting in the city of Atlanta, which left eight people dead, six of them women of Asian descent, has reverberated throughout the AAPI Asian American and Pacific Islander community and sparked protests across the country.
Of course, none of this is new. Yet we cannot truly comprehend the roots of this violence until we learn to recognize these women and understand their experiences.
Lily immigrated to the U. A single mother, she spent two decades working as a white-collar professional in China. After her only son went off to college in , she flew to the U. Another Seattle-based massage parlor worker, Xixi, took her daughter with her to the U.
While her daughter attended language classes to prepare for college, Xixi searched for work opportunities in the local Chinese community. Even if she had landed one of these jobs, the workloads were intense, the bosses casually cruel, and the pay low.
Women like Lily and Xixi, who have worked for decades as skilled employees back in China, often struggle to adapt to such conditions. Some instead decide to enroll in a training course at a Chinese-language massage therapy school before taking a job at one of the growing number of Chinese-owned massage parlors. Many massage parlor workers say they earn more and enjoy more freedom than at other jobs. In their down time, they can watch TV or video-chat with friends and family back home on their iPads or phones.
