"One can always hope"

Tony's family style Chinese restaurant is the longest tenant in the strip mall of a small town we lived in Minnesota. Tony came to the states with his parents in the late 70's. They were among a rare group of emigrants from the mainland China, which was very closed at the time. I remember the time when I saw the photo of Nixon on the People's Daily, and asking my dad "Why does Chairman Mao shake hands with the enemy?"

Tony's family landed in the Chinatown first in New York City. He recalled the long hours in the back of his relative's restaurant. It was not the American dream he envisioned. Tony, like me, grew up in the Northern part of China,  where the winter is hard and long. It did not bother Tony when the family moved to Minnesota, when the snow still covered the landscape in May.

I first met Tony in his 18-seat restaurant in the back of the strip mall. It was a quick get-to-know after the usual questions among the immigrants of "where were you from", and learned we were from the same small northern province in China. From there, I went back often, sometimes just to see him and chat. I ask Tony from time to time what to recommend for lunch. He always thinks about it, and comes up the same dishes. He asked me once why I still ask. I told him what I learned from the "Joy Luck Club" - one can always hope. Tony laughed, and responded, "no surprises, our food is always good".

    

Introduction

The theme of this blog will be stories from my country fellows from China, people I met in the US, people I met back in China. I thoughts about two writers while thinking about this blog series.

SHEN Congwen (沈从文), a Chinese writer, started his writing career in the 1930s. He described as he left the home village in Xiangxi (湘西) as a teenage, it was the beginning of reading a bigger book, and learning from more people that he would meet. That was the same prescient moment as I boarded an airplane for the first time in my life, headed to America in 1991.

Peter Hessler, an American writer, started his writing in the late 1990s, and still writes for the New Yorkers today. Peter is very much my contemporary with his experience in China, and I could not help comparing people I met with those in Peter's River Town.