The “Strangely Alluring” Ah Toy

<p>For the last five years, I&rsquo;ve researched, written about, and wondered about Ah Toy, the first Chinese brothel madam in San Francisco. She arrived in 1849 from China, lured by the news of gold and risking everything for a new life. Then her husband, with whom she was traveling, died. She was on her own.</p> <p>What would she do? Would she call the whole thing off and return home? Would she roll up her sleeves and press on? These and a thousand other questions drove me to hunt down her story: where she went, what she ate, whom she dealt with, how she earned money, how she survived, how she started her brothel, how she thrived, and how she lost it again.</p> <p><a href="https://noelccilker.medium.com/the-strangely-alluring-ah-toy-8bf70d8333ba"><strong>Read More</strong></a></p>