美国国家公共电台 NPR The Legacy Of The Mississippi Delta Chinese

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Think of the Mississippi Delta¹, and you might imagine cotton fields, sharecroppers, blues² music. Well, it's been all that. But for more than a century, it's also been a magnet for immigrants. On her road trip to the Delta, NPR's Melissa Block hears about one group with a long and surprising history.

GILROY CHOW: Hi, come on in.

MELISSA BLOCK, BYLINE³: How are you?

We've come to the home of Gilroy and Sally Chow. They live in Clarksdale, Miss., a mostly African-American town known as the heart of the Delta Blues. Tonight with friends and relatives, the Chow's are preparing a feast of Chinese comfort food.

CHOW: We're going to cook the shrimp⁴ with a little ginger⁵, a little garlic.

BLOCK: Gilroy tosses fried rice on a huge wok⁶ outdoors. Inside, there's a flurry of chopping. Everyone here describes a common experience. When they travel, jaws⁷ drop as soon as people realize they're Chinese and from Mississippi. Here's Frieda Quon.

FRIEDA QUON: Then they ask you, what are you doing there? And - because I guess they just have this idea that it is black and white.

JEAN MASKAS: The Chinese face with a southern accent throws people off.

BLOCK: Jean Maskas chimes in.

MASKAS: I was at my daughter's school, and we'd taken some friends out to eat. And they all said, I just can't get used to talking your mother. It's like an identity theft.

(LAUGHTER)

BLOCK: To understand the Delta Chinese, understand this - it's all about grocery stores. Everybody around this table - their parents owned groceries. We'll get back to that dinner in a few minutes. But first, let's pay a visit some 70 miles south to Greenville, Miss., and Raymond Wong.

RAYMOND WONG: We had probably as many as 50 Chinese grocery stores, and I was raised in a grocery store.

BLOCK: Raised literally⁸. The Wong family lived - all six of them - in a couple of rooms at the back of the store.

WONG: I'm sure as soon as we could count money, we had to work in front.

BLOCK: We head out to Raymond Wong's old neighborhood.

WONG: There was a Chinese grocery store right here. Right here was another grocery store right on this corner.

BLOCK: So there were two grocery stores just on the same block basically?

WONG: Oh, yeah.

BLOCK: The Chinese started immigrating⁹ to the Delta soon after the Civil War, and the pace picked up by the early 1900s. They came from the province of Canton or Guangdong - came to work picking cotton. But they quickly soured on farming and turned to grocery stores. Most of the Chinese groceries we drive by have long since closed, but the store Raymond's family ran is still going with different owners.

WONG: This is the place right here.

BLOCK: Well, let's go in.

WONG: Yeah, let's go.

BLOCK: It's now the Kim Ma grocery store.

CINDY MA: Thank you. See you later.

BLOCK: Cindy Ma runs the store now with her husband.

So how's business?

MA: It's OK. It lag kind of slowly to me because a whole lot people move out.

BLOCK: A whole lot of people moved away?

MA: Moved out. Yeah.

BLOCK: Moved away from Greenville.

MA: Greenville slow.

BLOCK: Greenville may be slow but with this business, the Ma's have managed to put their two sons through college and graduate school. That's been the story of many Delta Chinese - work hard, send your kids to college, watch them move away.

CHOW: OK, let's pray. Father in heaven, we just thank you for this day. We just thank you for being an awesome¹⁰ God.

BLOCK: Back at that dinner in Clarksdale, Gilroy Chow says the blessing¹¹.

CHOW: And I ask all these things in Jesus' name, amen.

BLOCK: And the feast begins - beef with cauliflower, whole fish with fried ginger, roast pork with a honey-hoisin glaze¹², lots more. The group is trying to make the dishes their mothers used to cook, trying to recreate flavors they fear are getting lost.

SALLY CHOW: Why didn't I ask mom how she did that?

BLOCK: All of the eight people gathered around the table are the first generation born in America. They grew up speaking Chinese at home. This is Sammy Chow. Sally's brother.

SAMMY CHOW: When I first started school, I had a difficult time in the first grade because I couldn't speak English.

BLOCK: But now, few around this table can speak Chinese. Frieda Quon says the more she's traveled, the more she's come to realize how unique this Mississippi Chinese community is.

QUON: We are all connected. The other states are not like that, truly. We knew Chinese from Memphis to Vicksburg.

BLOCK: As outsiders, they stuck together. They all remember driving for miles to dances that would draw Chinese young people from all over. Their children's generation doesn't have that. They're more assimilated, more accepted and their future - it's probably not in the Delta.

SAMMY CHOW: When my son came to me - he was in high school at the time - said, Dad, you want me to take over the drugstore when you retire? I said no. I want you to do better than me.

SALLY CHOW: I think people realize - all of this generation realize that opportunities are not here.

SANDRA CHOW: I don't think it bothers any of us. We're happy that our children are doing well and enjoying life and have their own families and experiencing a lot of things that we didn't get to experience because of being in small towns.

BLOCK: Sandra, Sally and Sammy Chow part of the dwindling¹³ Delta Chinese community talking in Clarksdale, Miss. Melissa Block, NPR News.

1 delta   

n.（流的）角洲

参考例句：

• He has been to the delta of the Nile.他曾去过尼罗河三角洲。
• The Nile divides at its mouth and forms a delta.尼罗河在河口分岔，形成了一个三角洲。

2 blues   

n.抑郁，沮丧；布鲁斯音乐

参考例句：

• She was in the back of a smoky bar singing the blues.她在烟雾弥漫的酒吧深处唱着布鲁斯歌曲。
• He was in the blues on account of his failure in business.他因事业失败而意志消沉。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 shrimp   

n.虾，小虾；矮小的人

参考例句：

• When the shrimp farm is built it will block the stream.一旦养虾场建起来，将会截断这条河流。
• When it comes to seafood,I like shrimp the best.说到海鲜，我最喜欢虾。

5 ginger   

n.姜，精力，淡赤黄色；adj.淡赤黄色的；vt.使活泼，使有生气

参考例句：

• There is no ginger in the young man.这个年轻人没有精神。
• Ginger shall be hot in the mouth.生姜吃到嘴里总是辣的。

6 wok   

n.锅，炒菜锅

参考例句：

• I'm not teaching my students how to use a wok.我不是教我的学生们如何用炒菜的。
• He threw the meat into his biggest wok to cook.他把肉扔到最大的一口锅里煮。

7 jaws   

n.口部；嘴

参考例句：

• The antelope could not escape the crocodile's gaping jaws. 那只羚羊无法从鱷鱼张开的大口中逃脱。
• The scored jaws of a vise help it bite the work. 台钳上有刻痕的虎钳牙帮助它紧咬住工件。

8 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

9 immigrating   

v.移入( immigrate的现在分词 )；移民

参考例句：

• I have to tie up loose ends before immigrating to America. 移民美国前，我先要处理手头上的一些琐事。 来自互联网
• Marrying an American citizen is a guaranteed ticket to immigrating to America. 与美国公民结婚是移民美国最佳的门票。 来自互联网

10 awesome   

adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的

参考例句：

• The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
• That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.

11 blessing   

n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿

参考例句：

• The blessing was said in Hebrew.祷告用了希伯来语。
• A double blessing has descended upon the house.双喜临门。

12 glaze   

v.因疲倦、疲劳等指眼睛变得呆滞，毫无表情

参考例句：

• Brush the glaze over the top and sides of the hot cake.在热蛋糕的顶上和周围刷上一层蛋浆。
• Tang three-color glaze horses are famous for their perfect design and realism.唐三彩上釉马以其造型精美和形态生动而著名。

13 dwindling   

adj.逐渐减少的v.逐渐变少或变小( dwindle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The number of wild animals on the earth is dwindling. 地球上野生动物的数量正日渐减少。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He is struggling to come to terms with his dwindling authority. 他正努力适应自己权力被削弱这一局面。 来自辞典例句