Picture beautiful new buildings with spacious rooms housing immigrant families. Every child has his or her own bedroom and the kitchen is state of the art and spotless. This is the way Lucy Lin’s mother pictured America before she immigrated from China. Lucy admits that once her mother arrived in Brooklyn she was disappointed. We talked about why her mother felt dissatisfied and Lucy said, “[My mother] couldn’t find housing because as an immigrant she didn’t know the language and she and my uncles had to squish into this little house.” It is a story we have heard over and over from immigrants originating in China, Italy, Spain, and elsewhere. These stories have been told by Jacob Riis’s photography as well as the stories in the book The Tenants of East Harlem. The idea of America as a perfect land ripe with opportunity was more often a myth than a reality to immigrants. However, like many determined immigrants, Lucy’s parents stuck with it and were able to find success for themselves.
Lucy’s parents immigrated here when they were in their 20s from Fuzhou, China. Lucy describes Fuzhou as a small town in the countryside that is underdeveloped and now mainly inhabited by old people who don’t want to move to the city. Raised in the same small town, Lucy’s parents knew each other growing up, but never became close friends or anything more while still in China. Her father left China first to come to America and then her mother immigrated later. Lucy told me about how her parents came to be together and we laughed about how her grandmother was so involved in the decision. Lucy’s mother had a boyfriend in China that her mother didn’t like very much. Her grandmother wanted her daughter to marry a rich, successful, “American” man. That is what Lucy’s grandmother saw in her father. She was so insistent and persistent that she finally got her way and Lucy’s parents ended up together. It is interesting to me how much pull Lucy’s grandmother had in her daughter’s relationship.
Lucy’s parents in America
Lucy’s parents are posters for achieving the American dream. They own and operate a produce business that supplies fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, and other raw food items to restaurants. Recently business is booming and they are currently making changes to their lives. Lucy grew up in Benson Hurst and still lives there. The only new thing is that Lucy was raised in an apartment and her parents recently bought a house. “Now the business is successful and making a lot of money. They have their own house and so everything is good.” As Lucy tells me about her family life I feel her sense of security and happiness with the success her parents are currently enjoying. I wonder how much of their success has to do with assimilating to American ways.
Neither of Lucy’s parents speak English. When Lucy’s mother lived in China she was one of the best English speakers there. When she came to America she didn’t use English as much, and she forbids her children from speaking English at home, so she and her husband have forgotten much of what they knew. What is more interesting than the fact that they have forgotten English is that they don’t just speak plain old Cantonese.
Lucy explains the importance her mother feels in maintaining Chinese culture and traditions. “That’s where your roots are and the language shouldn’t be forgotten.” Not only does her family speak Chinese at home, they speak the dialect from her town in China, which is called Fuzhounese. Whether speaking English at home would cause her children to be less connected to China is less important than the fact that Lucy’s mother feels that way.
Another important factor that Lucy’s mother has instated in her life is Buddhism. Although Lucy describes herself as “not really religious”, she does admit that having Buddhism around her all her life has impacted her. Buddhism, like most other religions, has lots of customs and traditions that are to be followed. One example Lucy gives is that she believes that women should be more reserved. Another is called filial piety, which is a Confucian philosophy that instructs children to care for and treat elders with the utmost respect. Lucy and her siblings follow this practice and are grateful for the care their parents provide.
Although the children in her family adhere to tradition, they also stray from time to time. Lucy explains that her mother gets offended when her and her siblings want to celebrate Christian holidays like Christmas or Easter. However, it is only natural that she should feel connected to the world around her in addition to the home she left in China.
Though Lucy was born in America, her parents followed a tradition in China where they send the children back until age four to be taken care of by the grandparents. Lucy explains that often Chinese people in America have to go right back to work after their children are born, and so the grandparents in China care for them until they reach the age when they start school. Then they return to America to participate in the American educational system.
Lots of immigrants from China settle in either Chinatown in Manhattan or Chinatown in Brooklyn. Lucy said her parents wanted to go their own way and that is why they chose Benson Hurst. Her neighborhood is not predominantly Chinese and she appreciates it because she feels growing up there made her a well rounded individual. She explained that many Chinese children grow up in the “Chinese bubble” and don’t have a lot of interaction with other races. She appreciates her experience growing up in Benson Hurst because it prepared her for adult life in a diverse city.
It was understandable to me that Lucy grew a bit less interested in my questions when I moved on to her major in school and her intended career. Any college student can relate to the uncertainty they feel about the future, but I had to ask because I wanted to know more about Lucy and how her parents’ lives and careers may impact her. Lucy is a financial mathematics major. She said that the “Asians are good at math” stereotype is beneficial for her because she fits into the category. She is good at math and enjoys it so she has picked her major hoping to see where it takes her.
While she waits and works her way through Baruch she enjoys living in the city. As much as she liked Brooklyn, Manhattan is even better. Lucy loves the business and fast pace of the city and says she will never follow many other Chinese people to more rural places such as Virginia or Texas.
When I asked Lucy what her favorite place in New York is she replied that she hasn’t really experienced as much of New York as she would have liked. She explained how hard her parents work and said that, as a result, they didn’t have much time to take her and her siblings on vacations. However, she did get to go to Coney Island when she was a child and said that some of her favorite childhood memories live there on the beach and the boardwalk among the smells of Nathan’s hot dogs and funnel cake.
Lucy and her sister having fun in Central Park.
Lucy is a first generation Chinese American who lives a comfortable life thanks to the hard work and dedication of her parents and a little meddling from her grandmother in the love department. Filial piety makes a lot of sense when you examine all that Lucy’s parents have done to provide her with the life that she has. In the future she will make her parents proud with whatever math-based career she finds and it is safe to say that she will respect them and be grateful for their hard work forever.
Lucy’s family
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