Back to 80: My literary life.

Chapter 844: Angel Island and Devil Island

Li Li accompanied her.

Angel Island is in the state park and can be reached by boat in about 20 minutes from the ferry in the town of Tiburon.

The two took a boat to the island. The island is not big, only 188 hectares. It used to be a detention center but now it has become a tourist destination.

Fang Minghua saw tourists walking in groups of three or four on the island. Some were taking a walk, some were riding bicycles, and some were paddling canoes on the water. It was a leisurely and quiet scene.

But the historical relics are still there.

Originally, the California government had planned to tear down all the buildings of the immigration station that had been abandoned for many years. In 1970, a park manager, Alexander Weiss, accidentally discovered poems carved on the wooden walls by former Chinese immigrants.

"He contacted George Arach, a professor at a local university. The professor and photographer Takahashi went to the island, took pictures of the engraved poems, and reported on them. This immediately attracted the attention of the Chinese community." Li Li said softly, holding Fang Minghua's arm.

"At that time, Cao Jiongpei, a Chinese working at the California Department of Transportation, formed the Angel Island Immigration Detention Center Historical Advisory Committee. Together with other Chinese, he raised funds and called on the state and federal governments to pay attention to and preserve the site of the immigration station. In 1976, he obtained a $25 renovation fund from the state government."

"In 1978, Victor Bogeron, a local restaurant chain owner, decided to donate money to build a granite monument in front of the Asian immigrant restaurant at the immigration station to commemorate the contribution of the Chinese to the development of the United States.

The inscription on the stele is a Chinese couplet written by a Chinese person: "Leaving my hometown and wandering in a wooden house, I started a business in Kinmen to create a new world."

At this time, Fang Minghua was standing next to this stone tablet.

The black body of the monument is surrounded by the blue sea and sky.

"In 1982, Chinese American historian, writer, and Chinese community leader Mark Lai (and Chinese American poet and playwright) Genny Lim and others published the book The Island: The Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, which was translated into Chinese as "No Flowers Under the Pillow, No Sweet Dreams," which included all the poems that were found, as well as translations and excerpts from interviews with detainees."

Fang Minghua indeed saw a lot of poetry in the shelter.

On the wooden walls, boards and tables of the two-story wooden house at the detention center site
A poem engraved on the wall caught Fang Minghua's attention:

Leaving pen and sword to America,
Who knew that tears would flow here?
If you succeed,
We will definitely kill all the Hu people without leaving any trace.

What a boldness.

"Someone has counted that there are about 200 poems of this type in existence. Some people say that this alone proves that China is a country of poetry," said Li Li.

"It's a pity that this kind of proof contains blood and tears." Fang Minghua sighed slightly.

After leaving the shelter, Li Li pointed to an island hidden in the sea to the south and said, "Oh, that's Devil's Island."

Alcatraz is also famous in American history.

San Francisco Bay, about 1.5 miles from Fisherman's Wharf, is a floating prison.

Since its official opening in 1934, Alcatraz has held nearly 100 notorious criminals, including gang leaders, jailbreak experts and cold-blooded killers, such as the "Godfather" of Chicago Capone, the murderer Stroud who was extremely knowledgeable about birds, and the cold-blooded machine gun killer Kelly.

"Escape from Alcatraz", released in 1979 and starring Eastwood, perfectly reproduced the entire process of the fugitives escaping from Alcatraz and became a classic in the history of film on the theme of prison break.

"I've been to Alcatraz once. The environment and facilities there are much better than Angel Island. There are single cells, and breakfast is said to include cereal, bread, scrambled eggs, and fruit salad. It has its own library and band, and I heard that it attracted many prisoners from all over the United States to apply for transfer."

"Isn't this a blatant irony?" Fang Minghua said, "Serious criminals live in much better houses than these overseas immigrants. Who are the criminals?!"

Looking at the Devil's Island faintly visible in the distance, Fang Minghua suddenly had an inspiration.

How to write this novel?
Writing the story of Angel Island alone is nothing more than narrating a history of suffering, which is already commonplace, but wouldn’t it be more interesting to add the nearby Devil’s Island?

Fang Minghua quickly outlined the plot.

A hardworking and kind-hearted young Chinese immigrant, let's call him Zhang San, traveled thousands of miles to San Francisco with his dreams in his heart, and by chance he met a vicious villain named Jack.

Although the bad guy Jack humiliated Zhang San in every way, Zhang San firmly believed that "bad people will go to hell" because Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad all said this.

As a result, Jack mercilessly mocked him and said he was pedantic. "This world is originally a world of bad people. You kind people deserve to be bullied by bad people."

"Neither your Buddha, Jesus, nor Mohammed can save you!"

Until one day, this bad guy was sentenced for murder and imprisoned on Devil's Island.

On the day of the trial, Zhang San secretly ran to the court to watch. When he saw the bad guy being brought to justice, he firmly believed that his belief was right.

Unfortunately, because he was an illegal immigrant, he was discovered by the marshals and immediately detained on Angel Island. After some investigation, he was expelled from the United States.

Ten years later, he set foot in San Francisco again. This time, he was a successful businessman. With wealth, he entered the United States legally. But a few days later, one night, he was robbed. It turned out to be the bad guy Jack from ten years ago. He then realized that the other party had escaped from prison.

The other party did not let him go just because they knew each other. Although Zhang San begged desperately, he was still robbed in the dark alley.

Before leaving, Jack left those two words.

"This world is originally a world of bad people. You kind people only deserve to be bullied by bad people."

"Neither your Buddha, Jesus, nor Mohammed can save you!"

Zhang San lost his legal identity document, met the public security police on the street, and was detained in Angel Island.

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That night, in the detention center, Zhang San tossed and turned in his bed, not understanding what he had done wrong.

I remembered the two words said by the bad guy Jack, and also the line in Shakespeare's "The Tempest":
"Hell is empty and all the devils are on earth."

Suddenly I had an epiphany.

So when the guards weren't paying attention, he jumped into the sea and smuggled into San Francisco, escaping death by the skin of his teeth. He hung out in Chinatown, and with his clever mind and ruthless tactics, he eventually became a powerful gangster boss.

Twenty years later, he is old, but he is still a gangster.

One day, when he was passing by a church with a group of his men, he suddenly discovered that the priest standing at the door basking in the sun was actually Jack, the bad guy who had bullied him twice.

But at this moment, he was wearing a priest's black robe, with a cross hanging on his chest, and had kind eyes. How could he look like the murderer he was back then?
Jack recognized him, too.

The man in front of me with a fierce look on his face turned out to be the kind Chinese man from thirty years ago.

Enemies are extremely jealous when they meet.

Zhang San waved his hand, and his men dragged Zhang San to the church, closed the door, and kicked and punched Jack under the statue of Jesus.

Soon Jack was beaten to death.

He was dying.

Before he died, he heard Zhang San say two words.

"This world is originally a world of bad people. You kind people only deserve to be bullied by bad people."

"Neither your Buddha, Jesus, nor Mohammed can save you!"

What familiar words.

Jack showed a smile on his face and raised his head with difficulty to look at the other person.

"Zhang San, did you win, or did I win?"

End of story.

(End of this chapter)