Well i’ve found to enjoy reading the little side stories, erm tidbits in the begining of the story.
“…In China he was an accountant. To finance his visit, he began looking for owrk in New York. The only job he could find was washing dishes and unloading boxes in a Chinese restuarant.” Zia pg. 196
Okay what is wrong with this quote, this if a 50 year old man, who used to be an accountant in his country, now comes to the United States for a better life? and he is now is a dishwasher and moves boxes? Hello! Whatever happend to the Land of the Free? I feel that in other countries like forChina, everyone feels that the United States is the remedie to all situations. If you have a shitty life in China, well then the idea of coming to America, where technically we are the land of the free, yet when immigrants show up they typically can’t speak English, they live misrible apartments, and have under the table jobs, where they get paid $1 or $2 for manual labor. Doesn’t really sound like the land of the free to me. The one thing that boggles me is that for example, someone who is an Accountant in China, shouldn’t he be an Accountant in America too?
” Auntie Betty, Though, was disturbed by the stubborn chinese habits…they washed their laundry in the sink each day, and hung their clothes to dry throughout the small apartment…she couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t spend fifty cents to use the dryer. This is America, not China…” pg 197
This is America, yet you take Auntie Betty, who has grown a custom to the American traditions because she has been in America, and is “Americanized” For immigrants coming over, it is a struggle, and someone living with new immigrants has to accept it, and wait for them to grow acustom to American customs. But if you take Ziyoung, after a few months, he gave up and went back to China, because he will have a better life in China then he will in America.
“…the United States, dispite its gilded image and high standard of living, was harsh palce for those with little money and limited English–so harsh that life in China looked a lot better…”pg. 197
