Chapter 3 third chapter

one It is not that Mrs. Feng has never seen Americans before she came to the United States.She has seen Jane in the movie.Hello, Clara.Bao and many beautiful women she admired; she had also seen rough men with chest hair, such as Wallis.Bailey, he only frightened her.Both Tom and Eva knew the Chinese translation names of these people, but Mrs. Feng only remembered the name of an actor, Bailey.Fitzgerald, when she pronounced the name, she became Fei Qiao, and she remembered the more impressive actor William.Bendis wrote it down.Whenever she sees Fei Qiao in any movie, she will point to the image on the screen, smile and say: He is a good person.Perhaps it was Fei Qiao's simple character, which was very similar to the Chinese people she knew, so it moved her and gave her a sense of intimacy.She would happily guess what Fei Qiao was going to do, but she would never guess Jane.Harrow, or Wallis.What will Bailey do.

Her likes and dislikes reflect some of the foreigners she can understand, and some she doesn't.She didn't know that when she came to America, she would meet many Wallis.Pele, still run into some Fecho.Among the female stars, she could never understand why these grown-up girls didn't wear long trousers.She only likes a girl named Ida.Rubino's actress, this is the actress she saw in British films in Hong Kong.She had always hoped that America would be full of people like Fecho and Rubineau. When she thought that she had an American daughter-in-law, she felt a little scared.She also prayed to God that her daughter-in-law would not be like those seductive women who don't wear trousers.As far as she knew, such women put on airs wherever they were, on the street or at home, in a hotel bar or passage, at a swimming pool or by the sea.She had a sort of awe at the blond hair and blue eyes of a caucasian, and she thought it looked so weird on a woman with blond hair and blue eyes.When she was in China, she actually saw an American woman. It was the Irish wife of the missionary in their village. She had red hair that shone like bright copper.If her hair is copper, it could also be gold, green, blue, purple, turquoise, or emerald green.You can also see some Catholic nuns in Guangdong. Their eyes are all blue, but their hair is wrapped in turbans, so you can't tell what color it is.When she came down the escalator and saw the dark-haired and black-eyed daughter-in-law, the stone in her heart fell. She was not one of those seductive women who didn't wear long pants.

There is often pantomime going on in the kitchen.The mother-in-law can cook Chinese food well, but the American daughter-in-law cannot.There is no doubt that the mother-in-law is the boss in the kitchen.Flora also likes Chinese food very much. She is always curious to learn how her mother-in-law cooks broth, roast chicken, and other dishes.Naturally, the mother-in-law became the master chef, and Flora became her second chef. The mother-in-law is a woman with a steady personality. She is as slow as her husband in everything; whether it is speaking or her actions, they are the same, slow, steady, and determined.Everything is music in slow tempo, even the rests are as long as the phrases themselves.Flora was a little more irritable, and my mother-in-law thought it was because she was American.She felt that listening to Americans was like a cannonball.She can't even speak a single word of English, and her daughter-in-law can only speak a dozen or so Chinese characters.They had to pantomime each other in the kitchen, which seemed like a series of guessing games.If Flora didn't tire of guessing and guessing, and the mother-in-law didn't get impatient with her wrong guesses, there would be a lot of fun in it.The mother-in-law is very patient with Flora, because Flora is a black-haired Caucasian, and she has a natural respect for Caucasians.And Flora was able to guess and guess without getting tired of it because, on the first night they arrived in the United States, Roy told her that her mother liked her.So their pantomime is performed with a smile on their faces.Flora used to have to cook in the kitchen by herself, but that changed when her mother came, especially when Tom and Eva were running in and out of the kitchen while helping to serve the food.There is also an advantage of the language barrier. They cannot have too many disputes in the gestures.You can look sullen, you can sigh heavily, you can show impatience, but there is nothing else you can do.If you don't speak, you won't say the wrong thing.That's why a horse doesn't hate another horse for years.

Soon after, the kitchen became a classroom for learning Cantonese, using the most up-to-date direct method of teaching modern languages.Flora has learned a lot of Cantonese words: to come is loy, to open is hoi, to drink is joy, to look is toy, vegetable is choy, mustard is koy choy, etc.It seems that as long as we memorize all the words with sounds plus a few sounds of ap, uck, um, any and eong, and then figure out the height of the syllables, we can make a Cantonese think you are talking about theirs. dialect, and the fact that what you say may not mean anything at all.Flora was very glad that she found this out, and her words became non-Chinese, such as: Look at the airplane in the sky.It was no coincidence that her husband was also called Loy.

Flora also learned her family name, and when she heard them mention diasow (大姐娘) in Cantonese, she knew they were talking about her. When diasow is pronounced, the first syllable sounds very low, and the latter syllable has a raised tone, which sounds like sour (sour) in English. Why am I sour? (Why am I sour?) Flora asked her husband. Sow means sister-in-law, you are their sister-in-law, and I am their big brother (daiko). She finds that it also speaks to her status in the family.Her husband and in-laws called her Flora, but Tom and Eva couldn't call her by her first name, they had to call her sister-in-law.When the parents mentioned Flora to their two children, they also called her sister-in-law.Only the second brother was influenced by the United States, and he likes to call her Flora.Tom liked the name Flora very much, and he asked one day:

May I call you Flora? sure!why not? no!I think I'd better not call you that. But Tom still heard the second brother call his sister-in-law Flora, she is also the second brother's sister-in-law, why can't he call the sister-in-law's name like the second brother? He asked his mother if he could call his sister-in-law by her name, and his mother said no.He asked his father, and his father said no. Why can't I call her by her name? Because this is disrespectful, you just call her by her name to show that you have no respect for someone older than you. Tom ran to ask his second brother.

Second brother, your name is sister-in-law Flora! yes! May I also call her Flora? You can not! But why can you call it that? Because I am taller, I am taller and stronger than my elder brother.So I call her Flora.I can call any American girl's first name, you're too young. Brother, teach me how to say disrespect in English. You can say no respect, this is a relatively common character, do you want to learn some more elegant characters? you teach me!I want to go and tell Flora why I don't call her by her name. If you want to use elegant words, you can tell her because you don't want to be regardless, which means no regard, or you can say irrespective.

Tom learned these difficult words, and repeated them so as not to forget them.When he realized that Flora was alone, he stepped forward and said: Sister-in-law, I decided not to call you Flora. Why?I don't care what you call me. because papa said, this is what is it Because because I don't want to be regardless and irrespective of you. What?Tom, you have learned such a long word! well!I wish I could call you Flora.If I fell in love with a girl, I'd call her Flora. After hearing this, Flora touched him and kissed him on the head.Tom rushed out of the kitchen. two For several weeks, Mrs. Feng refused to take a step out of the house.She still wears Chinese-style shirts and trousers, and no one laughs at her. For her age, if she wants to completely change her customs, it is a very incredible thing.The reason why she traveled thousands of miles to foreign countries was also to honor her ancestors and honor her family.This is not because her conscience makes her do this, but because in her concept, no one, including herself, can do things that bring shame to the family.She has this idea in China, and it is the same in the United States.Her son could not dishonor her before her neighbours, and no one should lose face before his neighbours, that was a solemn statute which still stands.This statute, more than any code or statute, restrains the conduct of the members of society.Those who violate this law will be punished by being ridiculed and ridiculed by others.And she found herself in this new environment, which seemed very ridiculous.She felt that she should change what she was wearing, but she couldn't, and she couldn't imagine what she would look like with a hat on.She had seen millinery hats, and she just thought how absurd they looked, not only absurd but also ridiculous.She had seen some elderly women in Chinatown with hats on their heads and long skirts that covered their ankles, and they seemed ridiculous if they were ridiculous.Mrs. Feng would rather keep the Chinese customs, she thinks this is the way to maintain her dignity, at least she knows how to wear Chinese clothes.

For her, staying at home is not a difficult task. Chinese women can stay at home for several months.She didn't come to the United States for sightseeing, she came to reunite with her family.She found it astonishing that in New York City there seemed to be no so-called neighbors, and people who lived next door or in the same building hardly had the habit of talking to each other.Families lived in their own silos, and there seemed to be no need to worry about embarrassment in front of their neighbours. Mrs. Feng often stood at the window overlooking the scenery below, and observed all kinds of Americans: men, women, old and young.The street in the early morning is clean and quiet. The sidewalk is paved with cement, which looks as smooth as the floor at home. The exquisite and small trash cans are neatly arranged in front of the street fence.The Third Avenue, not far from their residence, is hazy and noisy, and she is also familiar with it.She had a soft spot for all this on Third Avenue.She never wanted to live on a quiet street, which meant living in a regressive, outdated environment.She likes to live next to a busy and prosperous road, and walk in step with millions of struggling people.Third Avenue is where she likes it. There are all kinds of shops here. Grocery stores, fruit stores, shoe repair shops, furniture stores, clothing stores, and a supermarket are all within half a minute.The streets were full of housewives with handbags, fat people in dark clothes, young women in light or printed clothes.Trucks, cars, and wagons selling fresh vegetables and accordions rolled across the corner in turn.In the sky above them, a train carrying passengers passed by at high speed every five minutes.All these rumbling sounds and people hurrying to and fro gave Mrs. Feng a feeling of exhilaration.

She thinks that any place with as many people as New York City can be a moneymaker.No wonder her husband was able to send the money back to Guangdong.Opening a laundry in this kind of place, there are many things that can't be washed in just one block.Her husband once mentioned that in the United States, cooking and washing are both ways of making a living.And all she has to do is do laundry for a block of people, or, in the near future, open restaurants for a block of people, and that's enough money.After eating American Western food on the boat, she was no longer surprised why they brought the Chinese to cook for them.She sat by the window thinking, New York City has a lot of money waiting for you to make, why don't I make some of it?

Although she doesn't know half of the neighbors on this street, she still thinks about face and disgrace.When she looked out the window, the housewives in every house she saw were small and beautiful women, and everyone lived lazily and carelessly.Many Germans and Czechs, and people of other nationalities lived in the neighboring district of Yankeville.One of them was a Belgian woman whose blond hair was often tied in a braid deftly coiled around her head.Another old Belgian woman had her hair pulled back loosely in a bun.There was also a fat woman who looked like pajamas in baggy clothes, or just a big bag with a V-neck. Around three o'clock in the afternoon, the streets suddenly come to life.The children came to the streets after school to play, some were playing hopscotch, some were skipping rope, skating, playing police and robber games, running, chasing and shouting.Girls of sixteen or seventeen were not at all shy about skating on the sidewalk with the little ones.Mrs. Feng observed all this.Clearly, she felt there was still a matter of face or dishonor.She saw a few drunks in a trance near the sleazy tavern on the corner.Some shambled along, others lay on the sidewalk.The girls on the street were dressed beautifully and walked with their heads held high.They walked fast enough that their blond hair was bouncing up and down at the nape of their necks, a quintessentially American gait.The third house over there lived in a sloppy and lazy woman. A group of dirty children were playing in front of the house. Mrs. Feng believed that the only girl must be that woman's child.Sure enough, Mrs. Feng saw the woman come out a few days later, pulled a girl into the house, and spanked her ass before she went in. Her idea of ​​saving face was that she would never let Tom and Eva play in the street like those wild children.American children's clothing is very nice, and Tom and Eva fit well.Mrs. Fung liked little girls with curly hair, and Flora knew how to curl it, so Eva said goodbye to her pigtail a week after they arrived in America.Even if other girls have pig tails, she won't keep them anymore.As for Tom, he went to the barber's on Rexington Avenue every fortnight for a haircut, parted on the side, and a lock always fell on his forehead. Look like a gentleman.His mother said, we are Chinese, don't make China ashamed. Around four o'clock, Mrs. Fung would help Tom and Eva get dressed.Tom parted his hair and washed his neck; Eva combed her beautiful curls and put on a clean cotton dress. Besides Mrs. Feng's face, whether it had something to do with the advertising strategy? Very doubtful.Clean kids are born of clean laundries.Did Tom and Eva become Tom.Event sign for Von's Hand Laundry?Mrs. Feng said that if they were as dirty as the kids in the third room across the way, people wouldn't send their clothes here to be washed.Or because they are the laundromat's children, their shirts should be extra clean, just as the professor's children are not allowed to speak vulgar words. Neither Tom nor Eva has gone to school yet, and the mother thinks they should learn something first.Usually at two o'clock in the afternoon, they have to go out for a walk, no matter where they are.Mother carefully checks their eyes and noses to see if there are boogers, eye mucus and other dirty things.After checking, she gave the order: Tom!Eva!Move forward! where to goMother? It's good for you to go to Central Park. We just went to Central Park yesterday!Eva protested. It doesn't matter where you go!Move forward! Tom and Eva had to go on, out of the bathroom, down the stairs, and out into the street.Mother was watching them from the window, and Tom and Eva always looked up and smiled at her, but sometimes they were disappointed because their mother's eyes went elsewhere. Eva hated the daily routine of going outside.As soon as they came around the corner, they would ask each other: Where are they going?It's about the same distance to the East River and Central Park, and just as bad.Eva loved Central Park, but traversing that wide park avenue was a thrilling adventure.They only cheered up when they got to the park, and Eva held Tom's hand when they crossed the street, and when they got there, Tom started running and jumping, and Eva sat on the park bench and twirled her curls , because she felt that running and jumping was too childish and too indecent for a girl. Third Avenue is a small world.From Seventy to Ninth Streets, and the area between Second Avenue and Reston Avenue on both sides of these streets, was a good place for Tom to explore.He scouts here, plays, works, and walks here.He came here when he had nothing to do, wandered around here and there, like a rotating planet, and later he could even distinguish the air in these places.The smell of Eighty Street was different from that of Sixty, and Tom could tell where he was with his eyes closed.Third Avenue was longer than the longest road in Tom's hometown, and the Ayr Railway stretched far along this avenue.A few blocks down the busy Eightieth Street, you can see the neon lights and huge advertising signs of four movie theaters, where they all play their own tricks to attract people's attention.Rexington Avenue gives people a very different feeling.Second Avenue is more like a suburb, where there seems to be more air and sunshine.People living in this area also seem to be more laid back and calmer. The whole region itself is a microcosm of the world, where babies are born, food is consumed in large quantities, dead bodies are embalmed to complete their lives, and the footprints of birth, old age, sickness, and death can be seen everywhere.People who live in the city can be like a hermit crab and never have to leave these neighborhoods for the rest of their lives. Everything they need is here.Boys fight and grow up here.When winter comes, some wooden boxes are burned on the street to melt the snow, and in summer, they walk in and out almost naked under the water column of the faucet or fire hydrant; boys and girls date on dark street corners; men run around for a living ; women tidy up the yard and cook at home; the old man sits on the steps in front of the door to enjoy the cool in the summer evening.There is a breath of life here.