Monday, January 16, 2012

My Publication- The Chickenpox Cure



"Stay home at all times, touch no one, and never go outside."

Two weeks after my sister and I immigrated to the United States from China, those were my parents’ orders.  A rash had covered my sister’s entire body with blisters, and no sooner did she begin feeling better than her unbearable itching spread to me.  The chickenpox: just what my fragile self-esteem needed.  As if it weren’t enough to be dropped into a school where we were the only non-white students, to be suddenly illiterate in the face of a strange new alphabet at age twelve, now my skin was covered with ugly pink pustules. 

It didn't help that my parents weren't exactly the bastions of familiarity and comfort I was used to.  Before rejoining them in Connecticut, my sister and I had lived with our grandparents in a small village in China for five and a half years.  My only contacts with my parents were through monthly phone calls and occasional exchange of photographs. On top of culture shock, language barrier, stranger-like parents, I now have a 4 year-old Americanized brother whom I had only met once.  All this becomes odder when my parents ordered me to do something I'd never in my life considered: stay home from school. 

Until that moment, I had never missed a single day.  In elementary school in China, I had been the class president who led fundraisers for the national children’s holiday, led class field trips in the spring, and tutored other students. Teachers trusted me, and students looked up to me. Yet now that I was surrounded by blond classmates I couldn’t tell apart, and boys who pointed and laughed at me, the prospect of hiding in our apartment seemed like a godsend.  For the next week, I wouldn’t have to keep my head low and my mouth shut just to survive another day of school, pretending that I was invisible.  I wouldn’t have to worry about speaking with complicated hand gestures or trying to do homework that I had no idea how to tackle.  I wouldn’t have to do anything but be alone.

In exchange, all I had to do was put up with some physical suffering.  But the rewards were worth it.  Every morning, after my parents left for work and my sister went off to school, I was once again in charge—free to immerse myself in nostalgic flashbacks to life in China. 

When my stomach grumbled, I cooked Ramen noodles.  When my neck was tired, I stayed in bed.  And when I needed to distract myself from the infernal itching, I dove into my parent’s collection of Chinese videotapes. 

The VCR became my best friend, teleporting me to the side of world that still felt like home.  Accompanied by the sounds of a zither and fiddles, I became Li Ling, a student hopping and walking on a mud road to the elementary school half mile away. The spring sun threw a golden coat over the rice fields by my side.  Birds chirping, kids scrambling this way and that, I bowed to the elders who passed me by and waved to friends sprinting in my direction.  Bidding goodbye to our parents, we soon lost ourselves in the usual gossip, jokes, and laughter.

Locked in Connecticut, I knew these sounds and sights painfully well. Now all I had left was Ling’s world on a TV screen to help me forget the nightmares of my first two weeks in this foreign land.

At night, when my family returned, I became Ling.  Everyone rushed to feed me, praise me, and make me laugh despite my horrible appearance.  With my parents and sister, at least, I could still pretend to be a little Chinese princess.  The way things were going, part of me would have been satisfied to suffer the chickenpox indefinitely.

But then something unexpected happened.  On the sixth day of my happy quarantine, when most of my lesions had finally crusted over, my sister surprised me with a present.  Traipsing through the door after school, she handed me a pink envelope.  “This is from your teacher,” she announced.

My jaw dropped. My Chinese teachers would never have given a present to one of their pupils. On the contrary, students were taught to give gifts to their teachers to show respect and gratitude. This was something entirely new. Heart pounding, I grabbed the envelope from my sister with sweaty hands. I opened the seal and pulled out a “Get Well Soon” card decorated with rose petals and personal notes from my teacher and each of my classmates. 

I immediately turned off the television and pulled out my electronic translator.  Sitting upright on my bed, I told everyone to be quiet. Carefully poring over every little message, I discovered that they were filled with phrases like miss you and words like love—expressions that are almost publicly forbidden in China, and words that I had never received. 

Year-like seconds passed, as my mind unfolded the latest step in my transition from China to the United States. For a while, my irritating blisters and dreadful, crater-like scars flooded with two streams of tears. The card was the first and the best gift I had received in my new home.

As my blisters continued to fade and the itching let up, I realized that I had been too blinded by self-pity and alienation.  My new home might have been foreign, but it offered its own varieties of acceptance and comfort.  One thing seemed clear: the time to stay at home and touch no one was over.  My week of hibernation and physical suffering had provided me not only a lifelong immunity to the chickenpox, but also a bridge to the next phase of my life.

Movie of Ting Jiang, Fuzhou 福州亭江


My Publication- First Day



Dressed up in our best outfits, my sister and I glanced at each other and then immediately stared back down the sleepy street.  The September wind swept through the misty main street awaking its quite houses and trees.  Seated in between us, a woman in a bathrobe whom we once knew so well held our little arms closer to her body.  It was only after an exchange of a nod that my sister and I drew ourselves with our empty Chinese backpacks closer to the woman for warmth.  Yet her lifeless body feeling like the icy rock underneath made me shiver despite of my sweaty hands.  “Mom, I don’t want to go,” I finally murmured in my native language after what seemed a lifetime of building up my courage.  My sister immediately looked into my eyes.  “You have to take the first step,” she whispered in a soft voice.  Gazing at the cement ground, my sister and I hung our heads low while we indulged ourselves in the pictures of yesterday.  

Year-like minutes passed, until eventually, we saw a yellow box that grew bigger, finally turning into a monster bus that was approach to hunt us down.  We reluctantly straightened our legs and waited for the yellow creature to open its rectangular mouth.  As my sister and I emptied our lungs as we took deep breaths, our sweaty hands grasped our backpacks as if they were lifesavers.  When our foreign mother gave us a gentle push, with much effort, we step onto the monster’s black teeth.  Turning around one last time with a wish that the woman would save our lives, I looked deeply into her twinkling eyes, but only saw there the reflection of her hand waving us off.  Once my sister and I dragged our heavy legs up the dark steps and stood paralyzed next to the foreign bus driver, all the fair skin bodies flashed their blond heads to inspect us.  Although my sister and I were fixed on the spot, our wondering eyes met every blue eye until we spotted an empty seat.  When we reached the distant seat, gripping each other’s wet hands all the while, we sat and stared at the unfamiliar woman outside.  As the monster whisked us off to our unknown destiny, our eyes remained on the fading woman until she vanished.  My sister and I glanced at each other, and then we stared straight out the forever street ahead of us. 

Pictures: FJ in the USA

Inside of a typical Chinese take-out restaurant
NYC: east Broadway- the main st for FJs
The most popular meeting spot for FJs
(stole from others ;)
NYC Chinatown
Family room in the take-out Chinese restaurant
Small park in the middle of NYC Chinatown
Common name for Chinese restaurants in the suburbs

Pictures: Ting Jiang after FJ immigration

common architecture in Ting Jiang
Tall building arose in mere 2 years
common street in Fuzhou, Fujian
Most temples are rebuilt
Inside of temples

Pictures: Ting Jiang before FJ immigration


Common neighborhood
common scene: house locked up ready for rebuilding
morning market
common path in the Ting Jiang Village

Friday, January 13, 2012

Other NEWS on FJ

LA Times:

Sharp rise in Chinese arrests at U.S. border  

October 05, 2009|Sebastian Rotella




Chines articles on FJ 专业文章

侨乡"洋留守娃娃":网络维系亲情 隔代抚养存弊端

偷渡犯罪研究: 2006

福建移民在美国: 2004

中国的非法移民问题 黄润龙: 2001

黄润龙等。近十年我国大陆海外新移民。人口与经济,1998,(1):1928.

庄国土。对近20年华人国际移民活动的几点思考。华侨华人历史研究,1997,(2):16.  


·      李明欢。关于当代温州地区出国移民潮的分析与思考。社会学研究,1999,(5):83-93.
·       
·      李若建。香港的中国大陆非法移民与非法入境者问题。人口研究,1997,(1)。
·       
·        任意。58名偷渡客命丧英伦。扬子晚报,2000-6-20A6)。
·       
·        涉嫌洗钱17亿法郎、法国审问27名人蛇。扬子晚报,2000-7-3A6)。
·       
·        罗晋标。“天使”原来是魔鬼。环球时报,2000-8-423)。

My hometown: 亭江镇

简介: 亭江镇

Research articles on FJ ONLY


Zotter, A. (2008). Engaging China within US boarders: examing the economic and social effects of Chinese immigration and policy proposals for the future.

Liu, A & Wu, Y. (). Hidden driving forces of Fujian illegal immigration to the UK and its economic and social impacts.

Wang, JZ. (2001). Illegal Chinese immigration into the United states: a preliminary factor analysis. International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology. 45: 345-355. 

Yin, XH. (2007). Diverse & tranantional: Chinese (PRC) immigratns in the united states. Jounral of Chinese overseas. 3 (1): 122-145.

Lin, M (2005) From the lucky land to the beautiful country: illegal immifration of fujianese to the united states. Eastern Michigan University.

Lagdameo, MA. (2008). Human smuggling form Fujian to new york. Master thesis.

Sheng, L. (2009). Irregular emigration from Fuzhou: changes and transformation in coastal rural qiaoxiang.


Lagdameo, MA. (2008). Human smuggling form Fujian to new york. Master thesis.
 

 

Books on migration- sections on FJ


-Lynn Pan, Sons of the Yellow Emperor: The Story of the Overseas Chinese. London: Mandarin (1990) (provides a historical overview on Chinese migration through the ages)

-Li Zhang, Strangers in the City: Reconfigurations of Space, Power, and Social Networks within China’s Floating Population. Stanford UP (2001)

-Robyn Iredale et al. Contemporary Minority Migration, Education and Ethnicity in China. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar (2001)

-Madeline Y. Hsu, Dreaming of Gold, Dreaming of Home: Transnationalism and Migration between the United States and South China, 1882-1943. Stanford UP (2000)

-Ellen Oxfeld, Blood, Sweat, and Mahjong: Family and Enterprise in an Overseas Chinese Community. Ithaca: Cornell UP (1993)

-Margaret Chin, Sewing Women: Immigrants and the New York City Garment Industry. New York: Columbia UP (2005)

-Kaur, A. and I. Metacalfe. (2006). Mobility, Labour Migration and Border Controls in Asia. Palgrave MacMillan. (Links micro and macro processes together in explaining the factors for migration) 
 
-Yeoh, B. and K. Willies. (eds.) (2004). State/Nation/Transnation: Perspective on Transnationalism in the Asia Pacific. New York: Routledge. 
 
-Athukorala, P. and C. Manning. (eds.) (1999). Structural Change and International Migration in East Asia: Adjusting to Labour Scarcity. Oxford: OUP. 
 
-Ong, A. (1999). Flexible Citizenship: the Cultural Logics of Transnationality. USA: Duke University Press. 
 
-Clifford, J. (1997). Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century. London: Harvard University Press. 
 
-Oakes, T. and L. Schein. (eds.) (2006). Translocal China: Linkages, Identities and the Reimagining of Space. Oxon: Routledge. 





-Hsiao-Hung Pai, Chinese Whispers: The True Story behind Britain’s Hidden Army of Labour. London: Penguin (2008) (Especially recommend this one for an account on illegal immigrants)

-Ma, L.J.C. and C. Cartier. (eds.) (2003). The Chinese diaspora : space, place, mobility, and identity. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. (Good account on the general Chinese migratory streams)

New York Times News on FJ


In Arizona, a Stream of Illegal Immigrants From China


Published: January 22, 2010

Chinese news on FJ 新聞

世界新聞:  

《專題報導》福州80後 奮鬥圓美夢 August 07, 2011


福建人在上海:

爱偷渡的福州人(转载)




日志:

一条不合法的捷径--福州地区偷渡风盛行之我见



偷渡客的美国梦:  吴用

海外华人:  

深入福建沿海调查:男人就该闯外 习俗促他们冒险
2005年02月05日 


美国福建同乡会主席陈清泉访谈录 2004年11月02日


FJ facebook pages

I am Fukienese 我是福建人 我说福州话


Fujianese Album 福州天地!



  Fujian Connection



 TingJiang 我来自亭江



 


THE SNAKEHEAD, by Patrick Radden Keefe


 


NPR News on FJ

NPR: 

A Snaking Tale Of Tragedy And Human Trafficking


Chinese Immigrants Chase Opportunity in America

Reserach articles on FJ


-McKeown, Adam, 1999, “Conceptualizing Chinese Diasporas, 1842 to 1949”. The Journal of Asian Studies 58(2): 306-337
 
-Yan Hairong, “Spectralization of the Rural: Reinterpreting the Labor Mobility of Rural Young Women in Post-Mao China.” American Ethnologist 30(4): 578-596 (2003). 



-Betts, A. (2008). "Global Migration Governance", Global Economic Working Paper, http://www.globaleconomicgovernance.org/papers.php (gives a good breakdown on the forms of migration out there)

Books on FJ


Keefe, PR. (2009) The snakehead: A epic tale of the Chinatown underworld and the American dream. New York: Doubleday.

Pieke FN, Nyiri, P, Thuno, M, & Oeccagno, A. (2004). Transnational Chinese: Fujianese migrants in Europe. Standford: Stanford University Press.

Introduction



As a first generation Fuzhounese immigrant who’s fortunate enough to be educated in the West, I’ve made this blog to share with every Fuzhounese outside of Fuzhou, Fujian, China.

 A little about myself: I'm the oldest daughter of 3. My parents, sister, and I are all from Ting Jiang, Fujian. I also has a baby brother who was born in the US.

WELCOME!!!