原文
STUCK IN THE MIDDLE
英文简介
Lisa See
In 1897 my great-grandfather Fong See, an illiterate peasant, left his village in southern China for Sacramento, California, in arch of his father, who had disappeared during the building of the transcontinental railroad. At about the same time, Letticie Pruett’s family crosd America in a covered wagonsamantha mumba and homesteaded in Oregon. By the 1890s, after years of manual labor, Fong See owned the Curiosity Bizarre, which manufactured underwear for brothels. Letticie had run away from home and ended up in Sacramento. When no one would hire a single, uneducated woman, she drifted into Chinatown and the Curiosity Bizarre, where she begged Fong See for a job. He hired her, one thing led to another, and they decided to get married.
西班牙人名
It was against the law in California and many other states for Chine and Caucasians to marry. It was also against the law for Chine to own property in California, and unlawful at the federal level for Chine to become naturalized citizens. The laws had grown out of the so-called’ Driving Out’好声音张新, when Chine had literally been driven from Western towns—when they weren’汉英字典在线查询t hanged, shot, burned or stabbed by members of the white community, who had no fear of retribution becau Chine could not testify in court against Caucasians. What started as informal harassment was formalized with the Exclusion Act of 1882, which barred the immigration of Chine laborers and led to even more institutionalized racism.
But with a contract marriage drawn up by a lawyer, my great-grandparents t out to achieve the American Dream. Fong See and Letticie raid five mixed-race children and ran five antique stores in southern California. Fong See became the patriarch of Los Angeles Chinatown. He was the first Chine in the U.S to own an automobile and was one of the few Chine to do business with white community
by lling props to the nascent film industry and antiques to customers like Frank Lloyd Wright. Despite the success, Fong See’s four sons—all American-born citizens—had to go to Mexico to marry their Caucasians fiancées.
Drop down another generation. I am only one-eighth Chine, with red hair and freckles. People often ask me where I fit in and how I define mylf. My answer has to do with where I grew up what I saw around me. Fong See had four wives, as Chine traditional codes dictate for men with great wealth and prowess, so the Chine side of my family in Los Angeles numbers clo to 400, with only a handful that look like me. It’s been 130 years since my great-great-grandfather left China, and we’ve become educated, changed our way of dress and lost our Cantone. But there’s a deep core that connects to our peasant ancestors.
堪培拉英文
Many small rituals in my daily life mirror what I experienced as a child. I tell my sons to put only what they’re going to eat on their plates, and I still pick at their discarded chicken bones. When they want comfort food, I cook them rice. (Shortly
after going to college, my older son called to announce happily that the girls next door had a rice cooker.) When my younger son boasted that he’d told his chemistry teacher to stop checking her e-mail during class, I made him go back the next day with a gift of a perfect orange and an apology.
money是什么意思I do look different, and nothing will ever change that or people’s reactions. Some friends mistook my father, a professor, for a Chine waiter. I’ve had Chine Americans and Chine-in-China talk about me as though I weren’t there:木箱英文” I had a cousin from the south who looked like her, but her hair is disgusting.”高一数学教材 On book tours, Caucasians will often ask point-blank, “dry的意思Why would you choo to be Chine when you have all the privileges of being white?” Given my family and the era in which I grew up, I don’t know I had a choice.
