The Final Act

Abstract

With the arrival in New York of the celebrated Chinese junk Keying in 1847, Afong Moy’s presence as a well-known Chinese spectacle was again in demand. Chapter 10 tells us that after an eight-year hiatus, P. T. Barnum, America’s preeminent promoter, engineered her return. Coupled with Tom Thumb, Barnum recounted their origin stories in a seven-page pamphlet and presented them together at his American Museum in 1848. In characteristic fashion, in 1850, Barnum supplanted one Chinese female spectacle with another, a supposed Chinese woman of a younger age named Pwan-ye-koo. She presented in Afong Moy’s place in America and later in England. Foreigner Jenny Lind’s arrival in late 1850 captivated the American public, and Afong Moy—first a billboard for Chinese goods and then an objectified oriental exotic—was completely forgotten.