Read Gold Mountain Blues Online
Authors: Ling Zhang
Tags: #Fiction, #Literary, #Literary Criticism, #Asian, #General
Gold Mountain Blues (83 page)
“Your great-grandmother was a literate woman. She kept her brain working all her life,” said Mr. Auyung.
Bit by bit, Amy consigned everything in the envelope to the flames. The last thing she took out was a paper boat, folded completely flat. When she pulled it open, it was bigger than she expected. It had been made with great care, complete with decks, sails and rigging, and a lively dragon's eye painted on the prow.
“That was the sort of boat the emigrants to Gold Mountain sailed in. The locals called them Big-Eyed Roosters.”
Amy held the boat in the palm of her hand and examined it closely before placing it on the fire at the foot of the tombstone. It was made of cardboard and burned slowly. The sails had been coated with layers of glue and made a crackling noise when the flames licked them. The boat burned to ash and only the sails were left, winking in the embers.
“Now you can board the boat for Gold Mountain at last, Greatgrandmother, and go and see Great-grandfather,” Amy murmured.
Something tickled her face. She brushed it away with the back of her hand and discovered it was a tear.
They went down the hill and Mr. Auyung told the driver to take Amy back to the hotel so she could get ready before the farewell dinner. Amy's cell phone bleeped. It was a text message. She read it and suppressed smile. Then she looked serious. “I'm afraid I can't attend the banquet,” she said. Mr. Auyung was startled. “But it's all been arranged!” he protested. “Number one,” she continued, “I'm not leaving tomorrow, so you don't need to say goodbye. Number two, if I go to the banquet, I'll have to sign over the
diulau
, as you told me yourself. I've changed my mind. I'm not signing it over for the moment.”
Mr. Auyung stared blankly at Amy. “What on earth.⦔ he stammered.
“It puts you in a predicament, doesn't it?” said Amy. “You'll have some explaining to do to your bosses. All that time and energy wasted on me.⦠So I'll tell you straight up why: I'm not signing right now because I want to use the
diulau
for a wedding, while it still belongs to the Fong family.”
“Whose?” asked Mr. Auyung in surprise.
“Mine,” said Amy. “There's only one thing I want to ask of you. Will you be my witness?” Amy continued.
“Er ⦠when?” Mr. Auyung was finding it hard to absorb all this new information.
“Mark's plane has taken off. He'll be here tomorrow about midday.”
“Good heavens! You haven't given me much time to get things ready!”
Amy burst out laughing.
“That's your problem. I'm leaving all that to you.”
LIST OF RESEARCH MATERIALS
Jennifer S.H. Brown,
Strangers in Blood: Fur Trade Company Families in Indian Country
. Vancouver: University of British Columbia, 1980.
Anthony B. Chan,
Gold Mountain: The Chinese in the New World
Vancouver: New Star Books, 1983.
Denise Chong,
The Concubine's Children: Portrait of a Family Divided
. New York: Viking, 1994.
Harry Con et al,
From China to Canada: A History of Chinese Communities
in Canada
. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1982.
Robin Fisher,
Contact and Conflict: Indian-European Relations in British
Columbia, 1774â1890. Vancouver: UBC Press, 1992.
Evelyn Huang,
Chinese Canadians: Voices from a Community
. Toronto: Douglas & McIntyre, 1996.
David Chuenyan Lai,
Chinatowns: Towns Within Cities in Canada.
Vancover: UBC Press, 1988.
David Chuenyan Lai,
The Chinese Cemetery in Victoria. B.C. Studies
75, Autumn 1987.
David Chuenyan Lai,
A âPrison' for Chinese Immigrants. The Asiandian
2: 4, Spring 1980.
Peter S. Li,
The Chinese in Canada
. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Huping Ling,
Surviving on the Gold Mountain.
Albany: SUNY Press, 1998.
Dennis McLaughlin and Leslie McLaughlin
, Fighting for Canada: Chinese
and Japanese Canadians in Military Service
. Minister of National Defence of Canada, 2003.
Geoffrey Molyneux,
British Columbia: An Illustrated History
. Vancouver: Raincoast Books, 2002.
Faith Moonsang,
First Son: Portraits by C.D. Hoy.
Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 1999.
James Morton,
In the Sea of Sterile Mountains
. Vancouver: J.J. Douglas Ltd., 1974.
Stan Steiner,
Fusang: The Chinese Who Built America.
New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1979.
Christine Welldon,
Canadian Pacific Railway: Pon Git Cheng
(Heritage Series). Laval: Grolier Limited, 1991.
Brandy Lien Worrall (editor),
Finding Memories, Tracing Routes: Chinese Canadian Family Stories
. Chinese Canadian Historical Society of British Columbia, 2006.
Paul Yee,
Ghost Train.
Toronto: Groundwood, 1996.
Liping Zhu,
A Chinaman's Chance: The Chinese on the Rocky Mountain
Mining Frontier
. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 1997.
Videos
Eunhee Cha,
A Tribe of One.
National Film Board of Canada, 2003.
Karen Cho,
In the Shadow of Gold Mountain
. National Film Board of Canada, 2004.
Jari Osborne and Karen King,
Unwanted Soldiers
. National Film Board of Canada, 1999.
Notes
1
  One
li
is approximately one-third of a mile.
2
  One
mu
is approximately 0.16 of an acre.
3
  White Canadian
4
  There is an old Chinese story about a good son who, in a desperate attempt to save his dying mother, decided to cut a piece of flesh from his own thigh to feed her, as a form of sacrifice. His filial piety moved Heaven and as a result, his mother was miraculously healed.