Back to 80: My literary life.

Chapter 800 799 "Now, I tell the story to others again."

Yu Rongyifang's home is on a small hill surrounded by green trees near Stanford University, where a quaint two-story building sits quietly.

Meng Dawen drove to the small building, got out of the car and rang the doorbell.

Less than two minutes later, a thin woman in her early fifties opened the door. It was Yu Rongyifang.

"Mr. Fang, congratulations on receiving an honorary doctorate from our university." Yu Rongyifang said with a smile.

"Thank you."

The two followed her into the first floor, and Fang Minghua was surprised to find that in the glass display cabinets in the living room and the corridor, there were all kinds of clothes, hats and jewelry worn by the Chinese more than a hundred years ago!

Seeing Fang Minghua's attention being drawn to a child's tiger-head hat, Yu Rongyifang said in fluent Chinese: "This is a hat my grandfather wore when he was a child."

"This is?"

Fang Minghua saw a black-and-white photo displayed in the window. The people in the photo were all American soldiers wearing World War II uniforms, and the people in the back row were all yellow people!
"This is my father." Yu Rong Yifang pointed to a young man on the left side of the back row and told a piece of history.

"It was 1941, my mother told me, when I was only six months old, the Japanese army attacked Pearl Harbor and the Pacific War broke out, my father said goodbye to my mother and went to the battlefield, and was later sent to China. This is a photo of my father helping to train the Chinese Air Force in Kunming, Yunnan Province."

"From 1943 to 1945, my father fought alongside Chinese soldiers in the China-Burma-India theater against the Japanese invaders, and my uncle was also an air force pilot who later died in an air battle in Guangdong province."

Fang Minghua was filled with awe after hearing this.

After a tour, the three of them finally sat in the living room, and a nanny made coffee for Fang Minghua and the others.

"Mr. Fang, I saw on TV news that you were going to write a novel about the Chinese workers building the American railroad. I was very excited to hear that. Finally, someone is going to write about this period of history. Thank you," said Yu Rongyifang.

"This is what I should do."

Fang Minghua is very modest: "I remember that there was a section in my high school history textbook that specifically talked about this period of history. Of course, it was relatively short, with only a few words. But when I came to the United States, I realized that many Americans knew nothing about it - and even doubted it, which surprised me."

"The history of the United States is very short. It has only been more than 1776 years since the publication of the Declaration of Independence on July 7, 4. Sadly, despite its short history, many real histories have been intentionally or unintentionally buried, including the history of Chinese workers building the railway."

Yu Rongyifang said with emotion: "I am engaged in historical research, and I can't help but feel deeply sad when I see these."

"Professor Yu, do you have in-depth research on this period of history?" Fang Minghua asked.

"It's not that profound, but this is the direction I have been researching in the past few years." Yu Rongyifang was also very humble: "Wait a moment, I'll show you some information."

Yu Rongyi walked into the study and soon came with a thick stack of information and placed it on the coffee table.

Fang Minghua flipped through the pages slowly.

All of them are in English, and contain excerpts from literature, research papers written by Yu Rongyifang herself, and some stories of her ancestors recorded by her family. "My hometown is Taishan, Guangdong Province. In 1866, my great-grandfather Huang Lisheng came to the United States from Taishan, Guangdong Province at the age of 19 and worked for the California Pacific Railroad Company."

"People always say that those Chinese workers came from the bottom of society, were illiterate, and came to the United States because they couldn't get enough food, but that's not entirely true." Yu Rongyifang smiled:
"My great-grandfather and his companions all attended private schools in their hometown and knew how to read and write. After coming to the United States, my great-grandfather worked hard to learn English, and he later became a foreman and translator."

"Here, this is his English signature on the document." Yu Rongyifang carefully took out a yellowed document from a pile of documents, and sure enough, the English words Lee Wong Sang were written at the end.

"Professor Yu, can you tell us your story and the stories of their companions?" Fang Minghua's heart moved.

He was going to write a novel and needed a prototype for the protagonist, and his great-grandfather seemed like a good candidate.

"Okay." It was obvious that Yu Rong Yifang was very happy to talk about her ancestors.

"Back then, China was in turmoil due to the Taiping Rebellion, and people were living in poverty. Many people from my hometown went to Southeast Asia, Japan, and even crossed the ocean to the United States. I heard that a Chinese worker in the United States earned about $30 a month.

"30 US dollars, Mr. Fang, you don't know how precious 30 US dollars was to China at that time! I have checked historical documents. At that time, 1 US dollar could be exchanged for 1.1 taels of silver, and 30 US dollars was equivalent to 33 taels of silver!
"Not only can they support a family, they can even support the entire village! So they decided to come to the United States in the hope of making money to change their family's fate."

"My great-grandfather and his fellow villagers came to the United States to build a railroad. After the railroad was completed, some of them opened shops, some engaged in agriculture, and my great-grandfather later engaged in trade and eventually became a respected businessman," she said.

"Gold was the most precious thing for Chinese railroad workers. My great-grandfather used his salary to buy a piece of gold worth $20 and carried it with him to pray for good luck. But one day after returning from the toilet, he found that he had lost the gold. He cried for a whole month and wanted to die. Fortunately, he survived. These are what my grandfather told me."

"After the Central Pacific Railroad was completed, my great-grandfather married his wife, Qian, from his hometown and brought her to the United States. My great-grandmother did not bind her feet. She had a strong character and a smart mind. She helped her husband with housework, gave birth to children, raised five children, and finally settled down in the United States. That's how we, the descendants, came into being," Yu Rongyifang said finally.

"The conditions for building the railway were very difficult at that time. I once heard a widely circulated saying: 'There is a corpse of a Chinese worker under every sleeper.'" Fang Minghua said.

"Yes, it's not an exaggeration at all!" Yu Rong Yifang suddenly became excited.

"In 1867, Nevada suffered the largest snowstorm in recorded history. The thickest snow reached meters deep. However, stopping work for one day meant huge losses for the capitalists. So the capitalists ordered the workers to continue construction regardless of the weather. These workers, with amazing endurance and a spirit of sacrifice, continued to dig the roadbed and lay rails in the deep snow."

"People often lost their lives in unpredictable snowstorms while working. Sometimes the entire camp was buried by avalanches. Many bodies were not discovered until the ice and snow melted several months later. Their stiff hands were still tightly holding the pickaxes."

"In 1868, the project was extended to the Nevada Mountains. Americans called this section of the railway the "Great Wall of China in the Nevada Mountains." About 1000 Chinese workers died here. In 1970, people dug out 2000 pounds (about 907.2 kilograms) of Chinese workers' bones from the local desert."

The atmosphere in the room was somewhat solemn.

After a while, Yu Rongyifang smiled apologetically and said, "Mr. Fang, Lawyer Meng, look at me. I get a little excited when I talk about this."

"A lot of these were told to me by my father. The former Chinese railway workers and my grandfather would sometimes sit around drinking tea in our family shop and tell stories about the Chinese railway workers. My father grew up listening to these stories."

“Now, I tell the story to others.”

(End of this chapter)