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California
occupies a unique place in the legends of China. one that may surprise even San
Francisco's mayor if she comes across it while she's over there.
It isn't the
story of Chinese building our transcontinental Railroad that adventure lasted
only a few years.
When the
people of Kwangtung Province talk about their ancestors who went to California
and virtually all the Chinese here came from Kwangtung -they retell the great
saga of how the levees were built in the Sacramento Delta, a construction
project that involved their forefathers for almost half a century.
The Delta
today – 88,000 fertile acres, a S400 million agricultural industry, 1,000 miles
of scenic waterways - might still be a malarial swamp except for the incredible
labor of those nameless men.
Ironically,
the story of our Delta levees may be better known in China than it is here.
Tales of returning workers became part of preference or making a moral judgment.
I am simply acknowledging the reality implicit in that shopkeeper s remark.
He wanted me
to know that the sweater I was admiring came from his ancestral land, the real
China In years of browsing on Grant Avenue, I’ve never heard a shopkeeper speak
with such pride of anything from Taiwan or HongKong.
In
Chinatowns around the world, you can detect the same resurgence of cultural
pride these days. Like it or not. Mao Tse-tung and his followers put China back
on the map, and milllons of overseas Chincse take fierce satisfaction in that
accomplishment.
That doesn’t
mean, they are pro-Communist. We would do them a terrible injustice to assume
so. For all they care. Mao could believe in the Tooth Fairy. What counts to them
is that after more than a century of humiliation in the councils of nations, China
has regained a place of respect. After more than a century of derislon Chnese
art and knowledge are receiving the admiration they deserve.
At museums
Chinese antiquities draw overflow crowds. Chinese acupuncture is hailed as the
latest wonder cure. Visitors to China come back telling of the miracies they've
seen Suddenly anything Chin4s3 1"n”
Much of this
gee-whiz syndrome should be discounted. Of course Perfection is never found in the
first fare zane Miracle-workers
always dwell
in a far place.
But anyone
of Chinese ancestry must feel gratification at the lines of people waiting to
pay homage to the latest marvel from China - must feel it's high time And this
cultural breakthrough this rekindled awareness of China as the cradle of a
great civilization.is likely to be more decisive in solving the riddle of the “two
Chinas” than anything our State Department says or does.
It's odd the
way the breakthrough came about The Chinese atomic bomb didn't do it; a
pingpong ball did. There's a moral somewhere in that.
Our
infatuation with things Chinese is not without its comic aspects. Much of what
we are discovering isn't new. We didn't have to go to Peking to see acupuncture.
It has been practiced for years right here in Chinatown And the wonders of
Chinese antiquity were hardly a secret, even before the Brundage collection
settled here.
Years ago
the Oakland Museum displayed a curious piece of Chinese statuary, It had a
roaring lion at each point of the compass, amarble perched precariously in each
lion's mouth.a cup underneath to catch the marble. What was it? One of the
earliest instruments for earthquake research.
lt didnt
attract much comment at the time Mavbe the museum i should put it on display again
with a sigr From China”
挖泥机的使用1880年开始
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