A Chinaman's Chance (22 page)

Acknowledgments

My agent, Rafe Sagalyn, has been my wise adviser
and trusted friend for over twenty years. I feel blessed that he's guided my journey as a writer, and I am proud to be represented so ably by Rafe and the entire team at ICM/Sagalyn.

At PublicAffairs, this book is the result of my collaboration with two fine editors, Brandon Proia and Ben Adams. I'm thankful to Brandon for developing an early idea into a book and to Ben for bringing that idea to fruition. Ben combined a keen eye for detail with a savvy sense of structure, and the manuscript benefited immensely from both. My early rich conversations with Peter Osnos, Clive Priddle, and Susan Weinberg—and my subsequent work with the creative Lindsay Frakoff, Lisa Kaufman, and Jaime Leifer—made me realize that being part of the PublicAffairs family is a privilege. Sandra Beris skillfully steered the production and copyediting process, along with managing editor Melissa Raymond. Designer Pete Garceau created a beautiful cover. I'm so grateful to all of them.

Chris Ader, as always, kept me organized and on schedule, and I'm lucky he was part of my team. Jamin Chen elegantly formatted the two Chinese poems I cite.

So many friends and mentors, over many years of conversations and interactions, shaped the stories and ideas in this book. They know who they are, and I thank them. Parts of this book were developed during a fellowship with the Center for Social Cohesion, a partnership of Zocalo Public Square and Arizona State University, and I thank the CSC team for their support and collaboration. I am very grateful to Gish Jen, Jim Fallows, and Jeff Yang for their support of the book.

Most of all I want to acknowledge my family. My mother, Julia Liu, is my deepest source of inspiration. She gave me feedback the way she does everything—with an open heart and a questioning mind, and with playful seriousness. My partner, Jená Cane (who will be my wife a month after this book is published), pored over every draft. Her instincts, both editorial and emotional, were spot-on and indispensable, and her encouragement carried me through the whole process. My daughter, Olivia Liu, has shaped my writing, my sensibility, and my sense of self even more than is expressed in these pages, and my stepdaughter, Zoey Cane Belyea, has been my creative collaborator in the development of many parts of this book. I am fortunate that these are the women in my life. Finally, I dedicate this book to my father, Chao-hua Liu. He can be found in every page I write.

For Further Reading

Listed here are many of the books that have shaped
the
ideas
and stories in this one. Some I cited or quoted, while others provided background knowledge. This list is by no means intended to be a comprehensive bibliography about Chinese Americans, much less race in America, but I hope it will be useful for readers whose curiosity was sparked by this book.

Baldwin, James.
Nobody Knows My Name.
New York: Vintage, 1982.

______.
Notes of a Native Son.
Boston: Beacon, 1984.

Benedict, Ruth.
Patterns of Culture.
1st Mariner Books ed. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2005.

Cain, Susan.
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking.
New York: Crown, 2012.

Chang, Iris.
The Chinese in America: A Narrative History.
New York: Viking, 2003.

Chua, Amy.
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.
New York: Penguin, 2011.

______.
World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability.
New York: Anchor Books, 2004.

Confucius.
The Analects.
Translated by D. C. Lau. New York: Penguin, 1987.

Dan, Yu.
Confucius from the Heart.
Translated by Esther Tyldesley. New York: Atria Books, 2006.

Dennerline, Jerry.
Qian Mu and the World of Seven Mansions.
New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988.

Dolin, Eric Jay.
When America First Met China: An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs, and Money in the Age of Sail.
New York: Live­right/Norton, 2012.

Fallows, James.
China Airborne: The Test of China's Future.
New York: Pantheon Books, 2012.

______.
More Like Us.
New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1989.

Fischer, David Hackett.
Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Gabler, Neal.
An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood.
New York: Anchor Books, 1989.

Gillenkirk, Jeff, and James Motlow.
Bitter Melon: Inside America's Last Rural Chinese Town.
Berkeley: Heyday Books, 1987.

Gold, Martin.
Forbidden Citizens: Chinese Exclusion and the U.S. Congress: A Legislative History.
Alexandria, VA: TheCapitol .Net, 2012.

Helm, Leslie.
Yokohama Yankee: My Family's Five Generations as Outsiders in Japan.
Seattle: Chin Music, 2013.

Hirsch, E. D., Jr.
Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know.
New York: Vintage, 1989.

______, Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know.
Completely rev. and updated, 3rd ed. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2002.

Hofstadter, Douglas.
I Am a Strange Loop.
New York: Basic Books, 2008.

Hsieh, Tony.
Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose.
New York: Business Plus, 2010.

Huang, Eddie.
Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir.
New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2013.

Huang, Yunte.
Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History.
New York: Norton, 2010.

Hwang, David Henry.
Chinglish: A Play.
New York: Theater Communications Group, 2012.

Ignatiev, Noel.
How the Irish Became White.
New York: Routledge, 1995.

Jen, Gish.
Tiger Writing: Art, Culture, and the Interdependent Self.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013.

Kasinitz, Philip, John H. Mollenkopf, Mary C. Waters, and Jennifer Holdaway.
Inheriting the City: The Children of Immigrants Come of Age.
New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2008.

Kingston, Maxine Hong.
China Men.
New York: Vintage, 1989.

Kuo, Alex.
A Chinaman's Chance: New and Selected Poems 1960–2010.
La Grande: Wordcraft of Oregon, 2011.

Kwok, Jean.
Girl in Translation.
New York: Riverhead Press, 2011.

Kwong, Peter, and Dusanka Miscevic.
Chinese America: The Untold Story of America's Oldest New Community.
New York: New Press, 2005.

Lai, Him Mark, Genny Lim, and Judy Yung.
Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910–1940.
Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1980.

Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson.
Metaphors We Live By
. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980.

Lee, Wen Ho, with Helen Zia.
My Country Versus Me: The First-Hand Account by the Los Alamos Scientist Who Was Falsely Accused of Being a Spy.
New York: Hyperion, 2001.

Leibovitz, Liel, and Matthew Miller.
Fortunate Sons: The 120 Boys Who Came to America, Went to School, and Revolutionized an Ancient Civilization.
New York: Norton, 2011.

Li, Jin.
Cultural Foundations of Learning: East and West.
New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Lin, Maya.
Boundaries
. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006.

Link, Perry.
An Anatomy of Chinese: Rhythm, Metaphor, Politics.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013.

Liu, Dilin.
Metaphor, Culture, and Worldview: The Case of American English and the Chinese Language.
Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2002.

Liu, Eric.
The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker.
New York: Random House, 1998.

______.
Guiding Lights: How to Mentor—and Find Life's Purpose.
New York: Random House, 2004.

______, and Nick Hanauer.
The Gardens of Democracy: A New Story of Citizenship, the Economy, and the Role of Government.
Seattle: Sasquatch Books, 2011.

______, and Nick Hanauer.
The True Patriot: A Pamphlet.
Seattle: Sasquatch Books, 2007.

Liu, Eric, and Scott Noppe-Brandon.
Imagination First: Unlocking the Power of Possibility.
New York: Jossey-Bass, 2011.

Madsen, Richard.
China and the American Dream: A Moral Inquiry.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.

McClain, Charles J.
In Search of Equality: The Chinese Struggle
Against Discrimination in Nineteenth-Century America.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.

Ngai, Mae.
Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004.

______.
The Lucky Ones: One Family and the Extraordinary Invention of Chinese America.
New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2010.

Nisbett, Richard.
The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners
Think Differently
 . . .
and Why.
New York: Free Press, 2003.

Okihiro, Gary Y.
Margins and Mainstreams: Asians in American
History and Culture.
Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994.

Pfaelzer, Jean.
Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.

Roth, Philip.
American Pastoral.
New York: Vintage, 1998.

______.
The Plot Against America.
New York: Vintage, 2005.

Seligman, Scott.
The First Chinese American: The Remarkable Life of Wong Chin Foo.
Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2013.

Smith, Adam.
Theory of Moral Sentiments.
New York: Penguin, 2010.

Spence, Jonathan D.
Chinese Roundabout: Essays in History and Culture.
New York: Norton, 1992.

______.
The Search for Modern China.
New York: Norton, 1990.

Spolin, Viola.
Improvisation for the Theater: A Handbook of Teaching and Directing Techniques.
3rd ed.
Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1999.

Steele, Claude.
Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do.
New York: Norton, 2010.

Tu, Wei-ming.
Confucian Thought: Selfhood as Creative Transformation.
Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985.

______.
Humanity and Self-Cultivation: Essays in Confucian Thought.
Boston: Cheng & Tsui, 1978.

Wills, Garry.
Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence.
New York: Mariner Books, 2002.

Wong, K. Scott.
Americans First: Chinese Americans and the Second World War.
Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2005.

Wu, Frank.
Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White.
New York: Basic Books, 2003.

Yu, Charles.
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe: A Novel.
New York: Vintage, 2010.

Credits

Excerpt from
Spoken Standard Chinese, Volume One,
by Parker Po-fei Huang and Hugh M. Stimson © 1976, reprinted with permission of Yale University Press.

Excerpt from
Jazz Cliché Capers,
© 1973 by Eddie Harris, reprinted with permission of Seventh House Ltd.

Excerpt from
USA Trilogy,
by John Dos Passos, reprinted with permission of the estate of Lucy Dos Passos. Explore the art and literature of John Dos Passos at
www.johndospassos.com
.

Excerpt from I
mprovisation for the Theater
©1963, 1983 by Viola Spolin; ©1999 by Paul Sills and William Sills. All rights reserved.

Excerpt from
Tiger Writing
by Gish Jen, © 2013, originally published by Harvard University Press.

Some passages were adapted from Eric Liu, “The Year of Ming,”
Saranac Review
, Fall 2011.

Index

Abbott and Costello, “Who's on First?” 22

ABCs (American-born Chinese), 4, 57, 58, 59, 60, 174.
See also
Chinese Americans: second generation

Adams, John, 101

Affirmative action, 101

African Americans, 58, 112, 129, 176

Ah-Q mentality, 63

Ai-jen Poo, 137–139

Albion's Seed
(Fischer), 20

American-born Chinese
(Yuen), 57

American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages, 190

Analects, The
(Confucius), 1, 5, 6–7, 9, 11–12, 15, 24, 26

Anatomy of Chinese, An
(Link), 31, 42

Angel Island, 121–124

Apparel industry, 160

Arthur, Chester, 108

Ash, Timothy Garton, 141

Asiana Airlines crash, 151

Asian Tigers, 88–89

“Asian Values” (Lee Kuan Yew), 64

Acculturation, 20, 39, 50, 52, 53, 105, 110, 129, 159, 161, 164–165

Atlanta Braves, 158

Ba Bai Zhuang Shi
–
The Eight Hundred Heroes
(film), 93

Baldwin, James, 71

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
(Chua), 195–196

Bellow, Saul, 164

Benevolence, 15–16, 25–26

Bilingualism, 39, 41, 59, 183.
See also
Language

Birth tourism, 65–66

Black Boy
(Wright), 71

Black Panthers, 154

Borat, 150

Boren, David, 92, 96

Boundaries
(Lin), 21

Boyington, Colonel Pappy, 81

Brain drain, 91

Brokeback Mountain
(film), 166

Bush, George W., 136

Cain, Susan, 169–170

California, litigation in nineteenth century, 127–128

California Supreme Court, 127, 137

Capitalism, 13, 14, 24, 65, 97, 112, 169

Caricatures of Chinese, 134

Caring Across Generations, 139

Carnegie, Dale, 170, 171

Categories, 11–12, 41

CCTV television network, 13

Charlie Chan
(Y. Huang), 148–149

Charlie Chan Is Dead
(Hagedorn), 148

Chen, Wei, 176–177

Cheng, Bill, 165

Cheong, Jen, 145

Chiang Kai-shek, 78, 82, 97

Chin, Vincent, 143

China, 14–15, 26, 27, 82, 134

Chinese culture, 102–103, 171

Chinese Dream, 63–64, 70

Chinese national character, 62–63

Communist Party in, 63, 97

Cultural Revolution in, 13, 31

ethnic minorities in, 68

gender roles in, 198

graduate students returning to, 91

as great power, 53–54, 56, 99, 190, 201, 208

Han Chinese, 68–69

Nationalist Chinese in, 97, 98 (
see also
Chiang Kai-shek)

Overseas Chinese returning to, 58–59

Overseas Chinese revival, 64–65

Qing Dynasty, 54, 69

Rape of Nanjing, 5

2008 Beijing Olympics in, 54, 209

women in, 104

See also under
United States

Chinese American
newspaper, 113

Chinese Americans, 3–4, 13, 15, 52–53, 55–56, 98, 105, 116, 117, 126, 142, 161, 207

Americanization of, 17 (
see also
Acculturation)

artists, 164–169

as bellwether for Chinese-US relations, 100

children, 20–21, 22, 41

Chinese American dream, 208, 209

Chineseness of, 19, 20, 21, 41, 42, 59, 60–61, 62, 72, 73, 103, 129, 135, 189, 196, 203 (
see also
Chineseness)

compared with Jews, 159

divorce rates of, 186

English usage among, 200

and expectations of other people, 163 (
see also
Expectations)

first generation, 17

parents, 195 (
see also
Parenting)

poverty rate of, 103

public emergence of, 26

punctuation of term “Chinese American,” 49–50

roles for Chinese American actors, 147–148, 151

second generation, 4, 17, 19, 20, 21, 32–33, 57–61, 87, 158 (
see also
ABCs; Immigrants: children of immigrants)

third/fourth generation, 158–159, 183, 193

Chinese Equal Rights League, 115

Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, 105, 108–111, 115, 121, 125, 133–134, 155

apology for, 133–134, 142

opponents of, 110

Chinese language, 11, 31–47, 58, 87

bopomofo
system in, 32

complex and simple formats of, 61–62, 63

and context and implication, 33–34

dialects of spoken Chinese, 61

dong shi
(to understand things), 42–43

and English words that end with “ness,” 42

gendered meaning in, 198

guanxi
(connections to one another), 65, 102

luanqibazao
(chaotic), 185

Mandarin Chinese studied in kindergarten through twelfth grade, 190

numbers in, 185

qiyan
seven-beat pattern in, 31, 46

suffix
guo
in, 45

tongbao
(compatriot), 72

verb tenses in, 43

writing characters of, 192

See also
Language; Metaphors; Translation(s)

Chineseness, 65, 69, 209.
See also under
Chinese Americans

Chinese New Year, 35

Chinese Staff and Workers Association in New York, 160

Chinese Students Association, 176

Chinglish
(Hwang), 200–201

Cho, Margaret, 193

Chomsky, Noam, 40

Chow, Cheryl, 178–179

Chow, Ruby, 178

Christians, 114–115, 162

Chu, Judy, 143

Chua, Amy, 55, 102, 159, 195–197

Chun, Elaine, 193

Citizenship, 24, 84, 109, 110, 111, 114, 115, 124, 177

birthright citizenship, 139–140

citizenship clause of Fourteenth Amendment, 125

first- and second-class citizenship, 142

Civil rights, 111, 176–177

Civil War, 111

Cleveland Indians, 158

Clinton, Bill, 46

Cohen, Sasha Baron, 150

Cohn, Harry, 159

Colleville-sur-Mer, American military cemetery at, 46

Colorblindness (social), 70, 71

Comedians, 172–174

Communism, 6, 61.
See also
China: Communist Party in

Confucius/Confucianism, 3–5, 19, 24, 25, 62

Confucian capitalism, 65

Confucian ethics, 21

Confucius institutes, 14

legacy of Confucianism, 6, 14, 20–21

revival of Confucianism in China, 13–14, 16, 17

See also Analects, The

Confucius from the Heart
(Yu Dan), 14, 16

Constitution of US, 109, 155

celebration of 225th birthday, 124

Fourteenth Amendment, 107, 110, 125, 127, 139

Cultural Foundations of Learning: East and West
(Li), 202–203

Cultural Literacy
(Hirsch), 153

Culture of character vs. culture of personality, 170

Culture wars, 154

Dangerfield, Rodney, 173

Daughters of the American Revolution, 124, 139

Declaration of Independence, 24–25, 26, 154

Decree of Heaven, 1–2, 8

Deen, Paula, 151

Delivering Happiness
(Hsieh), 171

Democracy, 80, 89, 137, 159

Deng Xiaoping, 8

Diaspora, 51, 52, 54, 55, 72

Dictionary of Cultural Literacy
(Hirsch), 155

Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, 138

Don't Think of an Elephant
(Lakoff), 36

Dos Passos, John, 155–156

Double consciousness, 17

Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Women
(Pfaelzer), 138

DuBois, W. E. B., 17, 111

Duty, 25, 26.
See also
Obligation

East Africa, 55

Education, 6, 12, 13, 23, 92, 98, 158, 176

admissions to selective colleges, 100–101

exclusion from San Francisco public schools, 127

Mandarin Chinese studied in kindergarten through twelfth grade, 190

role of Chinese schools, 32–33

PhDs, 87

“separate but equal” scheme, 128

and works of Dead White Men, 154

See also Learning

Eisenhower, Dwight, 97

Elites, 100, 102, 161

Ellis Island, 121

Ellison, Ralph, 155

Empathy, 70, 71

Empire of Their Own, An
(Gabler), 159

Enlightenment values, 16

Equality, 99, 142, 158, 179, 183

Equal protection of the law, 129

Ethnic culture, 103

Expectations, 92, 126, 135, 162, 163, 165, 167, 197

Externalities, 12

Fallows, James, 208

Families, 21, 83, 195

Fashion, 160, 174, 175

FBI, 118–121

First Chinese American, The
(Seligman), 114

Fischer, David Hackett, 20

Fitchburg Sentinel,
115

Florida Seminoles, 158

Forbidden Citizens
(Gold), 109

Four olds (old ways), 31

Fourteenth Amendment.
See under
Constitution of US

France, Chinese in, 55

Franklin, Ben, 1

Freedom, 89, 110

stability vs. freedom, 64

See also
Liberty

French language, 197–198

Fresh Off the Boat
(E. Huang), 166–167

Friedman, Thomas, 63

Fujimori, Alberto, 66

Gabler, Neal, 159, 161

Garment workers, 160

Gehrig, Lou, 145

Gender, 197–198, 199

Genghis Khan, 73

Gen X, 197

Geography of Thought, The
(Nisbett), 40–41

Germany, 141

Ginsburg, Ruth Bader, 135

Girl in Translation
(Kwok), 160

Glass ceilings, 91

Gold, Martin, 109

Golden Rule, 15

Gopnik, Alison, 184

Gray, Horace, 125

Great American Comedy Festival, 172

Great Britain, 20, 51–52, 155

Grover, La Fayette, 107

Hall-Lew, Lauren, 200

Harris, Eddie, 168

Harvard Center on the Developing Child, 183

Hate crime, 143

Hazing in military, 143

Helm, Leslie, 67–68

Hirsch, E. D., 153, 154, 155

History, 62, 124, 139

“what-if history,” 105–106

Hoar, George, 110

Holdaway, Jennifer, 32

Hollywood, 147–149, 159–160, 161, 166

Hong Kong, 98

Houston Rockets, 162

How the Irish Became White
(Ignatiev), 112

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
(Yu), 166

Hsieh, Tony, 171

Huang, Eddie, 166–167

Huang, Parker Po-Fei, 45

Huang, Yunte, 148–149

Huaqiao, 70

Hu Jintao, 193

Humanism, 16, 21

Human rights, 64, 98

Hume, David, 25

Humility, 92

Humor, 172–174

Huntsman, Jon, 60

Hurley v. Tape,
127

Hutcheson, Francis, 25

Hwang, David Henry, 200–201

IBM, 83, 90, 116

Iconography, 80

Identity, 2, 17, 49, 70, 81, 129, 139, 163, 166, 176, 178, 179, 200

and heritage, 72

identity needs, 71

proto-ethnic Han identity, 69

“Ideologies of Legitimate Mockery” (Chun), 193

“If Lee Had Not Won the Battle of Gettysburg” (Churchill), 105

Ignatiev, Noel, 112

Illinois, University of, 83

Illiteracy, 61

Immigrants, 49, 59, 67, 95, 103, 104, 112, 114, 135, 138, 140, 145, 148, 174, 176, 177, 195

children of immigrants, 17, 20, 39, 46, 103 (
see also
Chinese Americans: second generation)

people of migrant origins, 141

pronunciations of, 200

See also
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

Improvisation for the Theater
(Spolin), 167

Indians (Asian), 55

Individualism, 16, 21, 23, 24, 27, 63, 64

Inheritance, 170

Inheriting the City: The Children of Immigrants Come of Age
(Kasinitz
et al.
), 32

In Search of Equality
(McClain), 127–128

Interdependence, 15, 25, 26, 178, 204

Interrogations, 118–123

Introversion, 169–170, 172

Inventing America
(Wills), 24

Iron Chink Triathlon, 145

Islam, 155

Jacques, Martin, 54

Japanese people, 66–68, 208

all-Nisei 442nd Regiment in World War II, 99

internment of Japanese Americans, 81, 99, 109, 117

Jarrett, Keith, 168

Jazz Cliché Capers
(Harris), 168

Jefferson, Thomas, 25, 26

Jen, Gish, 165–166, 177–178

Jews, 52, 55, 105, 159–160, 161, 164

Johnson, Mark, 36

Johnson, Samuel, 141

Judicial nominations, 135–137

Karate Kid, The
(film), 201

Kasinitz, Philip, 32

Kearney, Denis, 111–116, 126

Kim, Su Jeong, 195

King, Dr. Martin Luther, 150

Kung Fu Panda
(film), 201

Kuomintang, 98.
See also
China: Nationalist Chinese in

Kwok, Jean, 160

Labor shortages, 66–67

Lakoff, George, 36

Language, 4–5, 200

figures of speech in, 184

gender of nouns in, 197–198

Mock Asian accent, 193 (
see also
Mockery)

private vs. public language, 38–39

rhythm as meaning in, 47

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, 39–40

vocabulary gap in, 183

See also
Chinese language; Translations

Lau, D. C., 8

Learning, 1, 8, 14, 16, 42, 177

European-American/Chinese learning models, 202–203