The Life of Yang Mr. Lao as a Chinese Immigrant

The Life of Yang Mr. Lao as a Chinese Immigrant

             Yong Lao is a sixty-four-year-old Chinese America man living in Pasadena, California. He was born in Guangzhou in a typical traditional Chinese family of seven siblings and two parents. He comes from an average income family that earned enough to sustain them by working in the local industry. His parents worked hard to ensure that each of his siblings got a chance to receive a good education. Mr. Lao studies up to high school because of the hard economic challenge he did not have the opportunity to pursue further education. He married at the age of 28 and only had one daughter. She is aged thirty-four and is the one currently taking care of him. Mr. Lao is fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese but still has difficulty in speaking English. He had to learn it so it could help him run his business activities. While in China, his job included selling clothes in a local market stall. After moving to America, he worked in odd jobs like laundry before starting a restaurant. Mr. Lao is a significant historical person who helps in passing down important life histories by children their history.

As a Chinese national, Mr. Lao went through struggles in china before he migrated to the US. He worked as a vendor, but his business was not working well. He was the firstborn of the family, and his father died while he was about to finish high school. The burden of educating and caring for his sibling fell on him. Life was going well until in1989 when the country went through political turmoil. The islanders tried to map out the boundaries, and the result was a struggle and fight for political change. The domestic unrest and economic uncertainty prompted him to seek alternatives to improve his family condition. It made him resort to run away in such a better opportunity to support his family and escape the political instability. In American politics, Mr. Lao is not much involved. He believes politicians are only playing games with people’s minds and lie they will do impossible things just to get their votes. After moving to America, Mr. Lao has never participated in elections since he is not yet a citizen. He is a US national and does not have some rights like voting. He also knows little about politics because candidates do not always sort him or convince him to vote. He says he only watches the politician on TV and has never gotten an opportunity to understand it. Nevertheless, he knows a significant world history, including that of the US.

Mr. Lao lived in a time of recovery after the end of World War II. This the period when mainland politic collapsed into a civil war between the republic of china and the communist party of china. Though he had no direct experience with the war, he knows much of what happened from stories he heard from his parents, relatives, and community member. They would always recall the brutally of war, and he felt as if he experienced it. Nevertheless, no member of his family served during the war. He would hear of people in his village who went to fight in Japan and never came back. Japan was the main country with enemies all through World War II. He also knows the Korean and Vietnam wars. In China, the US is described as the enemy and the invader. What he remembers most is the stories on China’s civil war that broke after World War 2. The Kuomintang Nationalists were involved in the war, which resulted in the death and injuries of millions of people (Department of State Office of the Historian). His family was spared because it was outside the conflict zone. He remembers how his father praised the government for punishing the participating members thorough trials, forced labor, and execution. Mr. Lao got to meet some of the veterans who survived would always what to know about their patriotic act. This is how he got to know how Japan was considered as traitors.

Mr. Lao is knowledgeable about knows the cold war between Russia and the US because he was old enough to understand. However, the conflict did not directly impact him because China was not a major participant. He knows that China supported the Soviet Union and then shifted alliance to join economic giants like the US and Britain. To him, this was a great thing he says, “the great relationship between the countries is what made china grow now.” The relationship between China and the US and Europe is what led to economic reforms. China played a significant role in the fall soviet union. This was because they depended heavily on them for food and fuel.

Socially Mr. Lao is not well informed on significant social movements, especial those that do not concern China. For instance, he does not know much about the civil rights movements. What he knows is only from what he saw and heard on the media. He understands that the movement was a struggle for social justice that happened in America right around the time he was born, and it involves blacks. Mr. Lao believes this was an important moment for marginalized people like him. Civil rights movement is when blacks wanted equal rights under the law in the United States. The existing civil law had achieved in abolishing slavery, but it did not stop the discrimination of blacks. They endured the devastating impacts of racism and experience violence. Mr. Lao knows about the Jim craw law, which he heard from his daughter. He cursed how the law would separate people just because of their color. He wondered how this law managed to stay in place until that late in the century before the government finally decided to work on it. In terms of women’s liberation, he still has limited knowledge of what it entails as it happened when he was still young. It was also because he was an immigrant who came to the US later in his life. However, he got to learn about it in school. Mr. Lao knows it involves women in their struggles to achieve equality and free them from the oppression of male supremacy. This happened mostly in the USA in the years 1970’s and 1980’s. He supports such movement and wishes there could be more female leaders as they are smart and know how to balance personal life and career. To him having women with authority makes the world a better place. He gives an example of how his daughter has managed to grow his restaurant business more than he could ever manage.

One of the significant events that affected him is the subprime crisis. This was the time when the mortgage crisis occurred in banks across the world. He knows this because he was planning on purchasing a house. Duca writes, “the expansion of mortgages to high-risk borrowers, coupled with rising house prices, contributed to a period of turmoil in financial markets.” With the fall of the prices, it resulted in risks spreading to a mutual fund in the bank and pension fund. He was fortunate not to be affected as he was still establishing himself by working in small jobs and saved his earnings in his house. Another significant event that happened while he was in the US was the September 11, when the terrorist bombed New York building. This was one of the scariest days in his life as a Chinese immigrant. It was sad watching how thousands of people lost their lives. He even considered returning to China, where there is always peace. Mr. Lao believes that by following Confucian laws, no such thing can ever happen. He hopes that peace will continue all through by following our morality and principle.

Currently, he is retired, enjoying his life teaching children on Chinese culture. He looks after his grandson, and his work involves teaching him their Chinese culture. He wants him to grow, knowing where he comes from and his identity as a Chinese. He also works with other children from families of Chinese origin by teaching them about their history. He runs a small school that he give them narratives of this significant event both from china and his experience in America. He teaches them how to speak both Mandarin and Cantonese. Educate them on significant dressing style and their food time. He gives them their history and how they are now eroding.