The Melting Pot
Page 15
‘Of course they do, but Edward has no specific meaning to the Chinese. For Chinese people names give meaning to a person. A person’s name is what is expected of him by his parents and grandparents through his life. That is why you just can’t choose any name. It has important significance.’
‘So what does your name mean? I would just like to know.’
I am proud of my name. It was chosen for me but it is none of her business so I left without telling her. I am sure as I left that I heard her say cheeky chee.
Saturday, 23 April
I was reading the paper as usual with Father. He seemed distracted so I did not bother with the details. I simply called to him the headlines. There was an article in the paper about a Chinese shop that was taken to court by a white man and that person won the case (couldn’t find out what about); the subscribers to the Tung Wah Press (I couldn’t see Father’s name so I reminded him about his subscription); and about the Japanese army being supported by Chinese families in Townsville (I still don’t understand the armies and the fighting that is going on between Japan and Russia and how China is involved); and there were the usual notices about the timetable for the steamers, and many advertisements.
I stopped. I recognised the name of Father’s store again. Those and the numerals are probably the characters I recognise the easiest. Father does not usually appear in the paper so I read the article thoroughly.
‘I did not know that there had been a fire at Chen Sheng’s place,’ I said to Father. When he did not respond I repeated ‘there was a fire at Chen Sheng’s place. Is that why you were out a lot recently travelling to see him? Where is he staying?’ His shop has been destroyed but Father told me that that is the least of his worries. His store can easily be replaced but his family, his wife and his children died in the fire too. That is terrible, very terrible.
‘For a man to lose his livelihood is bad but for a man to lose his family, his name, and his future, that is the most terrible,’ Father said. Many members of the Chinese community had rallied behind his friend and had been supporting him with accommodation and food but I know that nothing, no amount of friendship or goodwill can ever replace a lost family. Father appeared from behind his office partition, at the counter and gave me a huge hug and a sloppy kiss.
I did not say anything because I could see Father’s tears.
Sunday, 24 April
Father went to visit Chen Sheng today while we went to church. It was his turn. Father said that he would need his support and the support of other Chinese people too. He is worried about Chen Sheng and what he might do because he was devoted to his family, just like Father is.
Thursday, 28 April
It has been wet all week. Today more than 16 inches fell. I do not like it when it is raining as many streets become muddy with the horse and cart traffic, and of course we get wet going to and from school. And everyone’s mood changes when it is wet. Father has been especially glum, I think because of the fire. His bones are acting up too.
Monday, 2 May
Father is still concerned about Chen Sheng but he is no longer glum. Mother is not glum either. My sisters are not glum. Elizabeth is not glum. Maybe I should be glum.
Father was told today that approval has been given for his brother to come and work in the store.
Tuesday, 10 May
Today is Father’s birthday. He pretended not to remember. We were late to school today because we prepared a birthday breakfast for him. Mother rose early, telling Father to remain there. We prepared his cha and serving tray, the fruit and the sweet cakes, and Mother prepared the eggs. My sisters gathered the flower arrangement and I carried the tray up the stairs. We sang a rousing ‘Happy Birthday’ and then all sat on the bed staring at him eating his breakfast. It is wonderful how my Chinese father loves this English tradition of scrambled eggs for breakfast in bed.
‘Many visitors come with age,’ Father announced as we counted all the garlands and gifts that had been brought to the store to celebrate Father’s birthday throughout the day. Mother and Elizabeth prepared cha all day for the guests.
Friday, 13 May
Mother told us tonight over dinner that Elizabeth is not going to be here for the next two weeks. She will be with her parents. Her mother is very, very sick and they need Elizabeth at their house. Because Elizabeth will not be here Mother has said that she would like more assistance around the house with the household chores and necessities, and even preparing the evening meal. I will still be required to do my duties but now I have kitchen duties too.
Friday, 20 May
No word about when I will be going to China. I am not going to ask.
Saturday, 21 May
In the paper today is a notice that many people, over 100, are supporting Chen Sheng. This is good.
I giggled when I read about a postman going mad. I thought that I might have been incorrect in my deciphering of the characters but it is true. I thought that maybe he has gone mad because of all those crazy street addresses and half numbers. How can one person know where to deliver all the post?
This week the paper also reported that Chinese communities in Western Australia are supporting the Japanese army men and their families. I couldn’t work out whether they were raising funds or providing support. I was about to question Father when I noticed an item about Chinese immigrants in prison in Adelaide.
I asked Father. He expects that they might have arrived by ship without documentation, or they might have been rounded up by the local authorities and detained because they would not go back to China after overstaying their immigration permissions. Father scanned the article over my shoulder while I continued to slowly decipher what was happening.
‘Some people take a risk coming here without permission or proper sponsorship. This is correct for the government to arrest these men if they have tried to enter the country illegally. Other Chinese people like my brothers; they have followed the correct government procedures to enable them to stay here. So should these people. Some businessmen here do not.’
I know that every immigrant must follow the laws but Chinese only break the laws because the laws are not equal. That is why the other men are working so hard to change them. Everyone of good character should be permitted to enter here, everyone, whether they are Chinese, Italian, English or islander, even Americans.
Monday, 23 May
We received our Australian School Paper today in class for reading lessons and never did we imagine that reading such a piece from the paper would cause such a disturbance.
The story was about citizenship in the school and how to live on equal terms with a number of others and how we are not the only people in the world. It even says that nor are we the most important people in the world … there will always be worse citizens or worse school fellows than others. I have the paper here as I am writing.
Robert was the instigator and Peter, the new chap at school, the receiver. They are the words teacher used. I don’t really know much of Peter yet but he annoyed Robert, just like the parliamentarian in the article. What happened then was just like in the article.
I heard their conversation outside the school gates. It was loud. Robert asked Peter his name. He is really tall for his age and looks tough; he wanted a fight. Peter tried to make himself taller by drawing himself up to his full height and answered with the same words the parliamentarian used in the article ‘I am a new boy. I am a Duke’. He laughed but Robert did not laugh.
‘Oh! Is that so … well this will be fun.’ And then he kicked him, once for being a new boy and once for saying he was a duke just the way the article said. Peter is not a duke and everyone in class knows that Peter is not a duke but Robert doesn’t like other boys who think they are smarter than he is.
I couldn’t do anything to help. I would have been receiving the kicks instead and I already get into enough close scrapes with him because of the way I look. At least now he has someone new to pick on.
Tuesday, 24 May
We prepared cha and then sat on the kitchen stools and talked. She attends one of the public schools near her residence. She does exceptionally well. She has won awards in many of the subject areas and especially in reading and grammar, she always attains nearly perfect scores in composition and prosody and parsing. I hope that Father does not hear of her meticulous attention to her studies. When we talked about her return to Canton she said ‘I will be away for a year or more. I am going to resume Chinese education.’ She knows the Chinese customs and language really well but her parents want her to undertake more Chinese studies and better herself. They think she is too used to the customs here. I think there is more to Rose’s returning to China than she was prepared to reveal.
I think that her father and mother might be sending her back hoping that she will marry a Chinese man in their village too. At least it won’t be me! Mother agreed. I cannot understand why they would send her back to marry. She is too young. What is wrong with the people who are born here? If this country is good enough to live in then surely her inhabitants are good enough to marry. Mother agrees.
Wednesday, 25 May
Rose attended the store this afternoon straight after school. She was delivering papers for Father. After talking to Father she came to the kitchen where I was preparing food and sat. We talked, especially about her memories of China.
She delivered refreshments to Mother and then was back to talk some more. She is very proud being Chinese. She is never teased or annoyed at school as I am, girls can wear long hair and not have people poking fun at them. There are more Chinese children at her school too.
‘It must be difficult at your school?’ she asked me.
‘Sometimes. But I do as Father and Mother request, ignoring the taunts and hating remarks as much as I can. I am fine usually, until they mess with my queue. Then I am very annoyed. But that has not happened for a long time.’ She asked me why I wear a queue because her father and uncle don’t. I told her the same as I tell everyone and I added, ‘I am returning to my ancestral roots.’ That stops most people. They don’t know what I am talking about. But not Rose.
‘But only part of you is Chinese.’
‘True,’ I smiled. ‘And only part of me wears a queue.’ Rose laughed at that statement. ‘Anyway if hair length is the distinguishing sign of a person’s gender then all those English sailors that discovered this country in the 18th century were a strange lot don’t you think?’ I added in a plum English voice.
We both laughed. Father says that it is not polite to laugh at one’s own jokes but I laughed second. I walked Rose to the tram stop. It’s not that far away from our store and she could have walked there herself but Father and Mother insisted. It was strange. When Elizabeth asked questions about my queue I was annoyed, but not with Rose.
Why cannot my cousin be as interesting as Rose?
Thursday, 26 May
Surely it cannot be so, that Father and Mother would be sending me to China to get married. I cannot marry a Chinese girl. Only part of me is Chinese. I do not know what Chinese girls are like. I do not want to get married.
Why am I thinking like this?
Friday, 27 May
Another day of rain and I do not like it but it does fit my mood and Father sensed it. He and Mother have also been talking and they know that I am wondering about Rose and what is happening. He too thinks that Rose’s parents are sending her to China to be married even though Father does not agree with this. He is adamant that when you accept the country that you bring in your customs but you also must fit into the culture that exists.
‘Never fear Chek Chee. You are not going to China to be married,’ and then he giggled. ‘I know what that is like. Each time I went back to China, all the village relatives had a good Chinese girl for me to meet, every time.’
‘What was she like?’ I asked.
‘Oh, the girls …’
I interrupted ‘Girls? There was more than one?’
‘Yes girls. The first time that I was there for half a year, I think there were four or five for me to meet.’
‘What were they like? What did Mother think?’
‘I did not even know your mother then and the girls, they were very lovely girls. They were always from respectable families and they were very intelligent and we were always introduced over cha. As soon as each family left the house MaMa asked me if I liked the daughter. The last time it happened the family was not even out the door before she asked me.’
For generations Father’s family have arranged marriages. Father broke the tradition. They trusted his judgement but they really wanted a Chinese girl for their son.
I knew I was not travelling to China for an arranged marriage. Elder Brother has not written about meeting a future wife so I should not worry. Father did not follow his parent’s wishes. That was being disrespectful. Maybe I can do the same and stay here.
‘True. Some thought I was showing a lack of respect but I had already spent many of my years here in this country. I still had much to do, to establish our store. My life was here in this land and I was not ready to be married, and especially to a person who I did not know.’
‘So what happened?’
‘Eventually MaMa knew that no number of introductions would be right. It took a while. Eventually MaMa and the village people accepted that I would not be returning to live in China but would be staying here and establishing my life. And I have. I have you and your brother and sisters and your beautiful mother.’ I tingle inside when Father talks this way about Mother. ‘And now our family has roots in China and here. If I had not returned here then your uncle and his family would not be here. This is a great privilege.’
I know that there is no wife going to be there to greet me as I step off the steamer, only Elder Brother and Elder Sister. But still, I would like to stay here. I do not think that I need to go to China to learn more of the Chinese ways. But that will not be.
Monday, 30 May
Assistance has returned for Mother and my extra duties are not required, so I am pleased to see Elizabeth. But with assistance the peace of my life is once more disturbed. It did not take long for Elizabeth to start the questions. She called me Eddie and asked about Rose. She seemed to know a lot without even being here.
‘I know that she was here and you two spent lots of time together. And I know what lots of Chinese parents do for their children. And you are going to China soon. I must talk to her when she arrives next time. I have much that I can tell her.’
It was so unpleasant being called Eddie. I know that she does it to tease me but oh how I dislike it!
Tuesday, 31 May
Maybe Elizabeth did know. Sometime in the next two months I am to go to China. That has been confirmed. Father is arranging passage. It is done.
Wednesday, 1 June
Father attended with Rose to see Mr Lockyer, the collector of customs. He likes Father. Sometimes they even talk trading business if they aren’t too busy. Not today. Rose’s family requested Father’s attendance. His English is much better than theirs and they do not want to cause problems later simply because they did not understand all they were told.
I talked with Rose this afternoon near the water closet, away from prying eyes. She gave him all the papers, including Father’s reference. Mr Lockyer asked many questions to prove she lived here … she even had to describe their town. He questioned Father and then all was complete. Rose was approved. One part she did no
t like was inking her hand for the hand print. That was messy.
Rose caught the tram home. Father told us more at the evening meal. He laughed when Mr Lockyer wrote Scar through right eyebrow. I asked Father, why?
‘Because when she returns that scar probably will not even be there and she will be a lot taller than 3 foot 7¼ inches in boots that is for certain.’
On 2 July Rose will leave on the S.S. Empire. Father said that it was unfortunate that she was leaving then and not a few weeks later because then I could accompany her. I stared at Father, accusingly.
‘No Chek Chee. You know your mother and I would never do that to you. You will establish your own future. You do not need our help there.’
Even with reassurance and knowing that Elder Brother and Sister are in China, I still felt uneasy. Mother even suggested to Rose’s family that we travel together. It was declined. They want Rose in China as soon as possible. A marriage has been arranged for certain. I would hate to have an arranged marriage. I would hate to travel alone on the steamer. I am travelling alone on the steamer!
Friday, 3 June
Rose attended our store again today. I am glad that she arrived this afternoon while Elizabeth was out. It would have been very distressing if Rose had met Elizabeth—for me.
She had a gift from her parents for Father and all his assistance and advice. She came all the way from Ultimo with a large, wrapped package. It was a jar filled with sweet meats that Father loves. He does not have time to prepare those treats and Mother does not know how. This is a wonderful gift.