Mr. and Mrs. Wang's Story
The narrations of two inspiring Chinese immigrants
Mr. Wang's Story
She’s a Half-Chink
A teenage girl walked into a store to buy candy. The store owner studied her and asked, “What are you? A half chink?” She ended up becoming a community advocate; that was how I met her. Rona* was the community relations person at a neighborhood organization in Philadelphia Chinatown. Her father is a retired college professor managing a Chinese restaurant in the Northeast Philadelphia. Although she identifies herself as a Chinese, facial features that she inherited from her Caucasian mother gave away that she is a mixed-race person. Rona was the one who introduced me to <eurasiannation.com>, <eurasiannation.proboard.com>, and other related websites and sensitized my awareness to that aspect of our lives.
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I, on the other hand, grew up in a homogeneous society. Although there were differences among people from different walks of lives and those spoke different dialogues, the concept of judging people by the color of the skin was quite foreign to me until I arrived in Philadelphia in 1968. Fellow architect at Kling Associates Eric Chung* took me to Chinatown and introduced me to community workers in the struggle of saving Chinatown from the construction of Vine Street Expressway. Eric volunteered in Chinatown and wanted me to also be involved. Through conversations and daily contacts, I learned more and more about racial differences in America. It was only then, I realized that when we applied to rent an apartment in Manhattan Kansas and it suddenly became “already rented”, it was not entirely because we were unreliable college students. When we sat at counters in roadside diners and not getting service, it was not because we looked like ragged travelers who could not pay. (We didn’t know that our Black brethren were staging sit-ins in the South at that time.) When I was attacked by three teenagers on 17th Street in Center City, the funny gestures and noises they made at me were not because they were itchy all over their bodies; they were mimicking the pathetic Chinamen depicted in early Hollywood movies. That attack created such a phobia; for quite a while I was even leery of Li’s teenage friends from CHA.
There was a racial sensitivity workshop at the Philadelphia Foundation mixing staff and the board. One of the exercises was forming racial circle of discussions. The white folk did theirs. When the black folk formed their circle, someone waved at me and I joined in. Tom* who is white, asked me,” What are you doing in there?!” I told him that I was invited; he then realized that I was not invited in the group with the white folk. My disposition, being not white, not black, and very foreign, gave me the unique opportunities to observe the racial differences between the blacks and whites. I often hear candied comments about the other race as if I am a real indifferent being from Mars. America, is still a very sad society!
[Not too many people know that I am a Life Member of the NAACP.]
*Name replaced to preserve anonymity
Mrs. Wang's Story
I came to U.S.A. on student visa to study at graduate school in Kansas State University.
The reason I chose K- State for two reasons. 1) the tuition was $400.00 per year. 2) My fiancé was accepted by the same school and was offered scholarships and a teacher assistant job.
We were married at school church and my professor walked me down the aisle. Non of my family members were in my wedding. I was the eldest child and only daughter with three brothers. Now I think back that it must be very hard for my parents. In late sixty’, sending children abroad costed lot of money. It would be impossible to have them travel to American for my wedding.
We lived on $90.00 per month for rent and food. But we know that we are in American, if we worked hard, we would have a great future.
After 54 years in USA, we both have great careers, my husband had well known architectural practice and I was civil servant with General Service Adiministrition as project Architect, Zone Chief and Art officer for 25 years.
We started our adult life in USA, speaking English as the second language but we are proud of our culture and our value as Chinese. We wanted our children to know that.
I have been stereotyped many times, my friends would ask me that if I know a good restaurant in Chinatown, if I know how to play Mahjong or Tai Chi. I remembered when I was in charge
renovation projects in a Baltimore Courthouse and moved immigration office to another building. The taxi driver insisted that I should go to new location for taking care my immigration paperwork. All are harmless stereotypes.
After I retired from work and planning my senior life in my community, my former coworker asked me that that if I am planning going back to the country where I came from.
It was a big shock for me, it was hurtful.
I am American. American is my country. If I were a white immigrant. This question will be never asked.
We have been told that there are three kinds of Chinese American 1) American 2) American Chinese and Chinese.
If you are celebrity, you are American, otherwise you are in next two categories.
