From a letter to my mom
In preparation of you guys visiting, I told my Wednesday classes about you and about Chinese immigration today. They really liked it -- I'm astounded by how much they liked it, everyone was intently listening to this -- so maybe you can use some of this. -- Did I tell you, the speech is for Thursday afternoon at 2? So if we're going to leave Qingdao, it'll have to be that evening...
So I basically started off with, my family is coming to visit and they've never been to Mainland China before so they're quite excited. My mom has a very interesting story; she immigrated to America back in the 70's, when Taiwan was a poor country, and she came to America without a lot of money, not knowing anyone and not speaking much English. My mother was very brave, but her story is a common one in the United States. (I'm sure they would like to hear your story and your anecdotal experiences, maybe pictures of you from the past).
The United States is called "a melting pot" (does everyone know why? please explain). People from all over the world go to the United States, and they bring their cultures with them, and everything gets mixed together. Some say that there is no such thing as a real American culture or real American food, because almost everything in America comes from somewhere else. Hamburgers, that classic American meal, originally comes from Germany. French fries? They originally come from - guess - Belgium. But really, all these things come to America, and it is that mixture of tastes that makes them become American. Also, who can say what an "American" really looks like? When I walk around Qingdao, people ask me, "Which country are you from?" and they expect to hear Korea or Japan in response. When I say "America", they all say, "Kan bu xiang." (this got a lot of laughs, for whatever reason). But really, what does an American look like? (response: white! black!) An American looks like they came from everywhere -- they are all colors, all races. When I lived in Europe, it was enough for me to be with someone else, with a white friend, for everyone to think that they were American too, because Americans are multiracial.
So, Chinese people have actually been living in America for a very long time now, and, in fact, America would not be what it is today if it weren't for Chinese people. Can anyone tell me what the major contribution Chinese people made to America is? (confusion from the class... At this point, I draw a rough map of the US. The Eastern part I mark off as "English" and the Western part of I mark off as "Spanish/Mexico"). The original United States was only this Eastern part; the West belonged to Mexico. It's a very big place, so how do you think America was able to spread from one side to the other? (Here people say things like, "Gold!"). Yes, gold was discovered in California in 1849, and that motivated people to come West. But there are mountains (here I draw the Appalachian mountain range on the East, and the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada on the West) in the way, and the trip is very, very long. On a wagon (I draw a wagon) it took months, and a lot of people died on the way, especially trying to cross the mountains. Plus, the Mexicans weren't so happy with all these people coming into their country, and there were wars. So, what tied the West to the East? What enabled the United States to gain power in the West? (Mass confusion).
The railroad.
And who built the railroad?
(umm... the Chinese?) Exactly. The Chinese built the railroads. It started out with a few Chinese being hired, because everyone figured the Chinese were experts with dynamite. The Chinese invented dynamite. What is dynamite? What is it used for? Exactly, to blow up mountains, Chinese people were hired so we could put the railroad tracks across the mountains, and get white people from the East coast onto the West coast. It was called Manifest Destiny, the idea that America should go from one side to the other, from sea to shining sea. However, for whatever reason, whenever people tried to build the railroad across the mountains, they kept dying. Everyone kept dying in the mountains, no one could figure out why -- except for the Chinese. It was like the Chinese had superpowers, they didn't die where everybody else did, and people thought it was because the Chinese had something special about their bodies, like they were Supermen, and so the Chinese built the railroad. It wasn't until many years later, in the 20th century, that people figured out why the Chinese were the only ones not to die. Can anyone guess why? The reason is on your desks... Do Chinese people like to drink cold water? No! They only drink their water when it is very hot, right? Well, everyone else didn't care, they would drink their water cold from the stream, but the Chinese insisted upon boiling their water first. It turns out that there were diseases in this water, and because the Chinese boiled their water, they killed these diseases, while everyone else got sick and died.
Also, California is very close to China, and as a result there a lot of Chinese living there.
I'm starting to get tired of writing all this down, but this is how you need to talk to them, ask questions so they can reflect on it, and surprise them with how Chinese America really is. I talked about phrases in English that come from Chinese (what do you say when you haven't seen anyone in a long time? Long time no see! As well as phrases like lose face, gung ho, etc), and I talked about Chinese New Year in America. Blacks, whites, hispanics, everyone in the parade. I told them how once in elementary school, the teacher asked the class, does anyone know how to say happy new year in Chinese? and when I said gongxifacai, she said, no no no, it's "Gunghoyfatchoy." I talked a bit about Cantonese, and about how everyone in these new year parades are saying gunghoyfatchoy. They got a kick out of that too. They like the anecdote about me being a baby in Nevada and all the white women at the supermarket coming to pinch my cheeks because they've never seen a Chinese baby before.
You can mix your speech between Chinese and English; actually, the more direct references to Chinese culture you make, and your reaction as a Chinese person to things in the States, the more they get into it.
No one said anything about Taiwan, except for one reference.. I had them pretend they're going to study abroad and talk about the reasons, things they'll miss, things they'll look forward to. One guy, kind of like the smartest guy in class, talks about how he'd like to visit famous universities, like Stanford, and the entire time he'll remember that he is a citizen of the PEOPLE'S Republic of China. Everyone laughed really hard at that. I felt obliged to make some sniping comments about Stanford's campus and how Berkeley is the most beautiful university in America. I think they all know there's a rivalry between the two, because Stanford comes up a lot in class.
They'll definitely like to see pictures of the US, and Chinese-Americans mixing with different races, I think. I had one lesson where I passed around pictures of people I know, and talked about the differences between the ways Americans dress and Chinese people dress, and they all really liked that.
So I basically started off with, my family is coming to visit and they've never been to Mainland China before so they're quite excited. My mom has a very interesting story; she immigrated to America back in the 70's, when Taiwan was a poor country, and she came to America without a lot of money, not knowing anyone and not speaking much English. My mother was very brave, but her story is a common one in the United States. (I'm sure they would like to hear your story and your anecdotal experiences, maybe pictures of you from the past).
The United States is called "a melting pot" (does everyone know why? please explain). People from all over the world go to the United States, and they bring their cultures with them, and everything gets mixed together. Some say that there is no such thing as a real American culture or real American food, because almost everything in America comes from somewhere else. Hamburgers, that classic American meal, originally comes from Germany. French fries? They originally come from - guess - Belgium. But really, all these things come to America, and it is that mixture of tastes that makes them become American. Also, who can say what an "American" really looks like? When I walk around Qingdao, people ask me, "Which country are you from?" and they expect to hear Korea or Japan in response. When I say "America", they all say, "Kan bu xiang." (this got a lot of laughs, for whatever reason). But really, what does an American look like? (response: white! black!) An American looks like they came from everywhere -- they are all colors, all races. When I lived in Europe, it was enough for me to be with someone else, with a white friend, for everyone to think that they were American too, because Americans are multiracial.
So, Chinese people have actually been living in America for a very long time now, and, in fact, America would not be what it is today if it weren't for Chinese people. Can anyone tell me what the major contribution Chinese people made to America is? (confusion from the class... At this point, I draw a rough map of the US. The Eastern part I mark off as "English" and the Western part of I mark off as "Spanish/Mexico"). The original United States was only this Eastern part; the West belonged to Mexico. It's a very big place, so how do you think America was able to spread from one side to the other? (Here people say things like, "Gold!"). Yes, gold was discovered in California in 1849, and that motivated people to come West. But there are mountains (here I draw the Appalachian mountain range on the East, and the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada on the West) in the way, and the trip is very, very long. On a wagon (I draw a wagon) it took months, and a lot of people died on the way, especially trying to cross the mountains. Plus, the Mexicans weren't so happy with all these people coming into their country, and there were wars. So, what tied the West to the East? What enabled the United States to gain power in the West? (Mass confusion).
The railroad.
And who built the railroad?
(umm... the Chinese?) Exactly. The Chinese built the railroads. It started out with a few Chinese being hired, because everyone figured the Chinese were experts with dynamite. The Chinese invented dynamite. What is dynamite? What is it used for? Exactly, to blow up mountains, Chinese people were hired so we could put the railroad tracks across the mountains, and get white people from the East coast onto the West coast. It was called Manifest Destiny, the idea that America should go from one side to the other, from sea to shining sea. However, for whatever reason, whenever people tried to build the railroad across the mountains, they kept dying. Everyone kept dying in the mountains, no one could figure out why -- except for the Chinese. It was like the Chinese had superpowers, they didn't die where everybody else did, and people thought it was because the Chinese had something special about their bodies, like they were Supermen, and so the Chinese built the railroad. It wasn't until many years later, in the 20th century, that people figured out why the Chinese were the only ones not to die. Can anyone guess why? The reason is on your desks... Do Chinese people like to drink cold water? No! They only drink their water when it is very hot, right? Well, everyone else didn't care, they would drink their water cold from the stream, but the Chinese insisted upon boiling their water first. It turns out that there were diseases in this water, and because the Chinese boiled their water, they killed these diseases, while everyone else got sick and died.
Also, California is very close to China, and as a result there a lot of Chinese living there.
I'm starting to get tired of writing all this down, but this is how you need to talk to them, ask questions so they can reflect on it, and surprise them with how Chinese America really is. I talked about phrases in English that come from Chinese (what do you say when you haven't seen anyone in a long time? Long time no see! As well as phrases like lose face, gung ho, etc), and I talked about Chinese New Year in America. Blacks, whites, hispanics, everyone in the parade. I told them how once in elementary school, the teacher asked the class, does anyone know how to say happy new year in Chinese? and when I said gongxifacai, she said, no no no, it's "Gunghoyfatchoy." I talked a bit about Cantonese, and about how everyone in these new year parades are saying gunghoyfatchoy. They got a kick out of that too. They like the anecdote about me being a baby in Nevada and all the white women at the supermarket coming to pinch my cheeks because they've never seen a Chinese baby before.
You can mix your speech between Chinese and English; actually, the more direct references to Chinese culture you make, and your reaction as a Chinese person to things in the States, the more they get into it.
No one said anything about Taiwan, except for one reference.. I had them pretend they're going to study abroad and talk about the reasons, things they'll miss, things they'll look forward to. One guy, kind of like the smartest guy in class, talks about how he'd like to visit famous universities, like Stanford, and the entire time he'll remember that he is a citizen of the PEOPLE'S Republic of China. Everyone laughed really hard at that. I felt obliged to make some sniping comments about Stanford's campus and how Berkeley is the most beautiful university in America. I think they all know there's a rivalry between the two, because Stanford comes up a lot in class.
They'll definitely like to see pictures of the US, and Chinese-Americans mixing with different races, I think. I had one lesson where I passed around pictures of people I know, and talked about the differences between the ways Americans dress and Chinese people dress, and they all really liked that.