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

"Eating Chinese food? Still don't want it, Chinatown is dirty and messy and it's not interesting. ”

"No, Pearl. We can come to my house for dinner, and our family has specially invited a celebrity chef from China who can cook authentic Hakka dishes. ”

Pearl, pearl can also be used as a female name. For example, Pearl Sai, a native Chinese American female writer, her English name is Pearl. But now this "pearl" is our Miss Wei Mingzhu.

Her visit today caused a great stir in the New York Chinese YMCA and YCA, and the second generation of Chinese held a small tea party in the church after the Sunday dispersal. The tea party lasted from noon to afternoon, but the bananas ...... Especially the men, almost no one is willing to leave.

The bananas in 1920 were in an awkward situation, they had a few stinky money, but they were still regarded as an inferior race like blacks by mainstream American society. Needless to say, the racial discrimination and racial segregation that I have suffered in daily life are really bitter tears.

In fact, New York is relatively good in a big industrial city, at least Chinese can eat in restaurants outside Chinatown, especially Chinese like our Master Yuan, who seem to be very rich and give tips very happily, they can't even do this elsewhere.

In addition, young Chinese intellectuals also encounter two problems, that is, difficulty in finding employment and difficulty in choosing a mate.

Throughout the twenties, it was difficult for them, true American citizens, to find jobs in the United States, even with degrees from higher education institutions, and even high-achieving MIT graduates had to go back to work as chefs in their father's restaurants.

Therefore, after the situation in China stabilized a little in the thirties, that is, during the "golden decade", one-fifth of Chinese-American intellectuals chose to return to China to serve. Of course, another reason is that their generation still has a sense of family and country.

The Chinese young people who can afford to go to college are still rich in their families, and it is okay if they can't find the job they want, at least they can go home and gnaw on the old without starving to death. However, if you can't find a wife, it's a big problem.

The key reason why it is difficult to choose 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 census data of the U.S. government, there were 61,369 males and 7,748 females. At that time, the population of the United States was more than 100 million and 6 million, and the Chinese accounted for 0.08% of the total population

Note that this refers to Chinese citizens, not immigrants, and black households such as the Red Flag Lao Wu and his wife are not counted among them.

In other words, there is only one woman out of ten Chinese-American men, so many men can only return to China to marry wives.

In these years, the relationship between Chinese people in the United States and their hometown in China is very close, so close that they can communicate with each other through letters thousands of miles away, so these young people are also facing the problem of arranged marriages. Some of them had to return to their home country (not the motherland) thousands of miles away because of the pressure of their parents, and marry a woman they had never met, maybe they still couldn't read a single big word, and they were wrapped in a three-inch golden lotus of country paper. (note 1)

Now these guys see a beautiful, rich, unmarried female parishioner, and that's not the same as a gluttonous cat that sees fresh fish.

Miss Wei Mingzhu, who is accustomed to seeing big scenes, is naturally comfortable with this kind of social occasion, and she looks so elegant and generous in the eyes of everyone.

She looked at the guy who proposed to go to his house for dinner, and said in her heart that she would have no appetite when she saw your appearance. However, on the surface, the young lady still said politely: "Then who ...... Thank you. I've had jet lag these days, but I don't have much appetite. Your kindness is appreciated, and you will have a chance to talk about it later. ”

At this time, a person next to him interjected: "Pearl, I know a new good place, why don't we go there and have fun." ”

The person who spoke this time looked quite passable, but his cheekbones were too high, his chin was too pointed, and he was a little mean. The clothes on his body are also quite high-grade, and he looks like he knows that his family is good.

Miss Wei Mingzhu only learned that this gentleman's surname was Lu, and their family was engaged in the clothing, shoes and hats business, and his father was not only one of Mr. Zhongshan's sponsors back then, but also the deputy minister of the Kuomintang East Branch.

"Oh, Dick. What kind of place are you talking about? ”

Dick said gracefully, "Pearl, I'm talking about the newly opened mahjong club on Disclosure Street. ”

"Mahjong club?" Miss Wei immediately lost interest and said, "I'm not interested in this way. ”

However, the Lu congregation was not discouraged, and said with a smile: "Pearl, you don't know, this mahjong club is not ordinary, there are the latest high-tech products in it, and there is no need for anyone to shuffle the mahjong table!" ”

As soon as he said this, others also introduced him.

"yes, Pearl. I've heard that the automatic mahjong table was invented by Mr. Nikola Tesla. ”

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

"That's right, Pearl. The president of that club is our Chinese, what's it called...... That's right, Luo Puxiang. ”

"Mr. Luo Puxiang?!" Of course, Miss Wei also had face-to-face contact with the chairman of the mahjong club, but she didn't expect that Mr. Luo, who looked like a camel, could actually open a mahjong parlor.

"No, as far as I know, the mahjong club is actually the work of Neo Yuan. Most of the members of Club 144 are NYU students. Mr. Tesla also invented the automatic mahjong machine in his face, and ah, even the restaurant on the disclosure street is the property of the Baker family, if it weren't for Mr. Yuan's appearance, would the Baker family lend us their own property Chinese ......"

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

"Neo-Yuan, won't it be the Yuan Yanqian who won 500,000 US dollars and donated it all to NYU in one go?"

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

"Neo-Yuan, the same Mr. Hongjian who wrote "Love Chocolate", "Di Gong's Case" and "A Song of Ice and Fire", ......"

"Ahh Sneeze!! Sneezing !! ”

"Gold-Durex oil!"

Neo-Yuan, who was chatting with the guests while eating, sneezed three times in a row for some reason.

"I'm sorry, gentlemen." He picked up a napkin and wiped his nose, then continued the topic: "Where did I go?" By the way, we Seris people don't think you should marry a woman who is too pretty......"

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Note 1: The above information is excerpted from the two books "History of Chinese in the United States" and "The History of Chinese Wealth in the United States".

PS。 I just got home, and I didn't eat and updated the chapter I wrote yesterday. There is still a chapter in two or three hours.