The Girls of Good Fortune

Celia is the main protagonist of the novel, and the 1885-1888 storyline is told from her point of view. Her father, Chung Jun, was born in China, where he met and fell in love with the daughter of white Christian missionaries. Jun converted to Christianity in order to marry Celia’s mother, and after the Second Opium War in China (1856-1860), the couple traveled to the American West. Jun found work with the Union Pacific railroad and was often gone during Celia’s youth. She and her mother lived in a town made for railroad employees, where there was a one-room school at which Celia received her education. In June of 1885, when her story begins, Celia is 18.

As Celia’s reflections illustrate, she often felt that she was perceived as different by her classmates because of her parentage, and she sought refuge in novels about other individuals who were cast as “different.” One of her favorites is The History of Tom Thumb, which features a small-statured fairy-tale figure who has extensive adventures and is admired for his bravery and cleverness. While Celia has no grand ambitions to make her mark on the world, the perception of difference keeps her on her guard around other people, especially when she notes the rising anti-Chinese sentiment that potentially endangers her and her young daughter, Pearl.

With her blonde hair, Celia has features that allow her to pass as a white person. When her mother dies of tuberculosis, Celia realizes that she must find employment. She initially works for a Chinese couple familiar to her father, but she becomes aware her lack of understanding of Chinese language and customs is a handicap. While Celia’s father offered to teach her his language (it is not specified whether his native language is Mandarin, Cantonese, or another language of China), the young Celia declined because she wanted to be accepted by her peers. Now, as an adult, she finally realizes the distance that this point has created between her and her father. Yet just as Celia refused to learn her father’s language, she also does not wish to comply with his efforts to use a matchmaker—another traditional Chinese practice—to find a husband for her. This is because she is already in love with Stephen Bettencourt, but at this early point in the story, she also has no wish to claim or identify with her Chinese heritage. Only at the end of the narrative will she finally learn to embrace her Chinese heritage publicly and proudly.

Celia is somewhat naïve and tender-hearted, though she is kind to those she considers less fortunate. She is easily frightened and intimidated, and she has internalized many of the mainstream prejudices of her era, such as the conviction that sex work is shameful. At the same time, she does consent to having sex with Stephen before marriage, persuaded by Stephen’s confidence that he will never care about the discrimination they might encounter if her Chinese descent becomes known. Notably, Celia’s attachment to Stephen reflects the more naïve aspects of her personality, for their mere history of playing chess together leads to romantic embraces and Stephen’s proposal, and this progression of events is more than enough to lead Celia to believe that he truly loves her and will return after college to marry her. She feels no concern when he does not tell his parents he loves her, nor when he neglects to obtain an official engagement ring for his proposal and opts not to give her his school address. However, Celia’s innocent trust in Stephen’s sincerity, far from being betrayed, is fully repaid when Stephen returns from college and reveals that the subterfuge of his family kept them apart. He shows his commitment to her when he locates Celia and their daughter and declares that he still wants to marry her.

During the years of Stephen’s absence at school, Celia is challenged by motherhood but feels a fierce and immediate attachment to Pearl, who provides her with a source of joy. Her fear that Pearl may suffer discrimination or harm if she is identified as one-quarter Chinese shows both Celia’s protective instincts and her internalized prejudices against her own heritage. In addition to caring for Pearl, Celia is also motivated to see justice done in the case of her father’s murder at the hands of a white mob in Rock Springs. This lingering injustice deeply grieves her, fueling an outrage that compels her to confront Frank Vaughan and witness his trial.

Most of Celia’s character growth occurs when she is shanghaied, as this rough experience grants her unique moments of insight into the lives of others who inhabit marginalized spaces or are subject to prejudice. The narrator’s reflections in the epilogue suggest that after Celia’s marriage to Stephen, she goes on to enjoy a happy life, to have several more children, and to lend her time to activism in support of expanding rights for Chinese Americans. This reflection suggests that Celia’s life of domestic harmony and purpose is exactly what she would have wanted for herself.