Liang May Seen

Liang May Seen ( 1871 – 1946) was the first woman of Chinese descent to live in Minnesota. She overcame an impoverished childhood in China and teenage years spent in a San Francisco brothel to become a respected leader in the Chinese immigrant community in Minneapolis.

Liang May Seen and Woo Yee Sing were both very involved with the Westminster Presbyterian Church. The church and its Chinese Sunday School were important institutions for many Chinese immigrants in Minneapolis. Westminster began teaching English lessons to Chinese men in 1882, and Woo Yee Sing was one of their first students. Although Westminster did not begin teaching English to Chinese women until 1920, the church was one of few places where women - both white and Chinese - could take on leadership roles through their involvement with social and religious activities. Most other civic organizations did not accept Chinese Americans until the 1930s or 1940s.

In 1906, Liang May Seen and her husband expanded their family. They were never able to have biological children, but they adopted a young boy named Howard from San Francisco. Liang was also very close to her niece, Margaret Woo Chinn.

Liang died in 1946. She lived long enough to see the 1943 end of immigration laws excluding the Chinese.