Subtitle of this chapter: It’s not easy to be a banana these days

"Eat Chinese food? Or don't want it anymore. Chinatown is dirty and messy and meaningless."

"No, pearl. We can go to my house for dinner. Our house specially hired a famous chef from China to cook authentic Hakka dishes."

pearl, pearls can also be regarded as female names. For example, Pearl Buck, a native Chinese American female writer, has an English name called pearl. But now this "Pearl" is our Miss Wei Mingzhu.

Her visit today caused a great sensation among New York Chinese YMCA and YWCA. After the second generation of Chinese had a dispersed Sunday, they held a small tea party in the church. The tea party started from noon to afternoon, but these bananas...especially those men, almost no one was willing to leave.

To be honest, the situation of the Bananas in 1920 was quite embarrassing. They had a few bad money, but they were still regarded as the same low-level race as blacks by mainstream American society. There is no need to say much about the racial discrimination and apartheid they suffered in their daily lives. It is really a tear of bitterness.

In fact, industrialized cities like New York are relatively better. At least Chinese people can eat in restaurants outside Chinatown, especially Chinese people like our Master Yuan who seem rich and tip very happily. They can't even do this in other places.

In addition, young Chinese intellectuals encountered two problems, namely, the difficulty of finding employment and the difficulty of choosing a mate.

Throughout the 1920s, even if they obtained degree certificates from higher education institutions, it would be difficult for them to find corresponding jobs in the United States. Even top students who graduated from MIT had to go back to the restaurant run by their fathers and become chefs.

So when the situation in China was slightly stable in the 1930s, that is, during the "Golden Ten Years", one-fifth of Chinese-American intellectuals chose to return to serve. Of course, another reason is that their generation still has a sense of family and country.

Chinese young people who can afford to go to college are still rich at home. It would be fine if they can’t find a job they like, at least they can go home and live with their parents and not starve to death. However, the problem of not finding a wife is a big deal.

The key reason why choosing a mate is that there are too few Chinese women in the United States these days.

So, how many Chinese citizens were there in the United States in 1920? According to the U.S. government's census data, there were 61,369 men and 7,748 women. At that time, the population of the United States was more than 106 million, and Chinese accounted for 0.08% of the total population.

Note that what we are talking about here is Chinese citizens rather than immigrants. Black households like the fifth couple in Hongqi are not included.

In other words, only ten Chinese-American men have one woman, so many men can only return to their country to get married.

Nowadays, people in the United States and China have very close relationships with their hometowns in China, so close that they can get engaged through letters thousands of miles away, so these young people are also facing the problem of arranged marriages. Some of them have to return to their motherland (not their motherland) because of the pressure of their parents. They marry a woman they have never met before. Maybe they can't read a big word and are wrapped around the country girl paper with three inches of golden lotus. (Note 1)

Now these guys see a beautiful, rich and unmarried female church member, who is not like a greedy cat who sees fresh fish.

Miss Wei Mingzhu, who is used to big scenes, is naturally at ease to deal with such social occasions, and in the eyes of everyone, she looks so elegant and generous.

She looked at the guy who proposed to have dinner at his house, thinking that she would lose her appetite when she saw your appearance. However, on the surface, the daughter of a daughter still said politely: "Who... Thank you. I have had the jet lag these days, but I have no appetite. I have received your kindness, so let's talk about it later if I have the chance."

At this time, a person next to him said, "Pearl, I know a new place, so why not let's go there and have fun."

The person who spoke this time looked quite decent, but his cheekbones were too high and his chin was too sharp and he looked a little mean. His clothes were also quite classy, ​​and he looked like he knew that his family was in a good place.

Miss Wei Mingzhu just learned that Jun's surname is Lu, and their family is engaged in the clothing, shoes and hat business. His father was not only one of Mr. Zhongshan's sponsors, but is now the deputy minister of the Kuomintang's Eastern American Branch.

"Oh, dick. Where are you talking about?"

dick-Lu Fengdu said gracefully: "pearl, what I mean is to disclose the newly opened mahjong club on the street."

"Mahjong Club?" Miss Wei immediately lost interest and spoke out, "I have no interest in this."

However, the fellow practitioner Lu was not discouraged and said with a smile: "pearl, you don't know that this mahjong club is extraordinary. There are the latest high-tech products in it, and the mahjong table that does not require anyone to shuffle it!"

After he said this, others also introduced it.

"Yes, pearl. I heard that the automatic mahjong table was invented by Mr. Nikola Tesla."

"Mr. Tesla?!" Miss Wei, of course, had also heard of this name, and couldn't help but feel curious.

"By the way, pearl. The chairman of that club is from us Chinese, what is the name... By the way, Luo Puxiang."

"Mr. Luo Puxiang?!" Of course, Ms. Wei also had face-to-face contact with the chairman of the mahjong club, but she did not expect that Mr. Luo, who looks very much like a camel, could open a mahjong hall.

"No, as far as I know, that mahjong club is actually made by Neo Yuan. Most of the members of that No. 144 club are Nyu students. Mr. Tesla also invented automatic mahjong machines for his sake. And even the restaurant on the street is the industry of the Baker family. If Mr. Yuan hadn't come forward, would the Baker family lend their own industry to us Chinese..."

"Neo-Yuan?!" Of course, Miss Wei has heard of this name, and has been countless times. However, she did not expect that this name could be related to the mahjong hall, nor did she expect that everyone present would react so much after hearing this name.

"Nio Yuan, wouldn't it be Yuan Yanshu who won 500,000 US dollars in one go to Nyu?"

"Neo Yuan, is it the Yuan Hongjian who was arrested by nypd as a suspect in the Wall Street bombing?"

"Neo Yuan, is the Mr. Hongjian who wrote "The Love Chocolate", "The Dead Case" and "The Song of Ice and Fire"..."

"Ah Yeh! Ah Yeh!! Ah Yeh!!!"

“Gaude Durex Oil!”

Neo Yuan, who was having a meal and chatting with the guests, sneezed three times inexplicably.

"Sorry, gentlemen." He picked up the napkin and wiped his nose, and continued the topic just now: "Where am I talking about? By the way, we Cyris think that marrying a wife cannot be too beautiful..."

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Note 1: The above information is excerpted from the two books "History of Chinese Americans" and "History of Chinese Money in the United States".
Chapter completed!