The News originally planned a feature article on New Haven’s Chinese
restaurants and their experiences during the pandemic. As a co-byliner
and a native speaker of Mandarin, I reached out to Taste of China, the
most iconic Chinese restaurant of New Haven, and scheduled a call with
the owner.To get more news about
Taste of China, you can visit shine news official website.
Yes, absolutely,” she answered when I asked her for an interview,
“Come to my place tomorrow for lunch, and I’ll tell you everything.
Aunty Hu is a woman with a lot of stories.”
We met up the next day after peak lunch hour. Waiting for me were a
plate of bok choy and a pot of Mala Xiang Guo (Szechuan-style spicy
stir-fry), two cannot-be-more-authentic Chinese dishes. In our native
language of Mandarin, we talked over the food and hot tea about her life
before coming to the States, her life before Taste of China, and how
she popularized authentic Chinese food in New Haven. The interview
lasted over three hours.
Ms. Chen, who connected the News with Ms. Hu and has known her for
over twenty years, commented, “[Ms. Hu’s] story is, truly, a tale of how
Chinese American immigrants thrive, thousands of miles away from
home.Below is Ms. Hu’s story, written in the first-person, from Ms. Hu’s
perspective. The story is constructed from her life stories she shared
during the interview.
I was born in 1965 and grew up in Nanjing. During my childhood and
teenage years, China was still slowly recovering from the impact of the
Cultural Revolution, but I was fortunate enough to not be heavily
affected. My parents were well-educated, and they brought me books,
Chinese and Western literature. The books opened up a new world for me.
The Chinese literature I read felt tragic; the books contained an
insurmountable despair. The Western books felt much brighter—even in a
Shakespearean tragedy, I could feel a hint of hope at the end. I became
curious about the “outside world.” I wanted to see it with my own eyes.
When I graduated from college, study abroad opportunities finally
began to materialize . As a design major, I wanted to study in Paris,
but my visa didn’t go through. I ended up in a graduate program in
Singapore.It didn’t take me too long to realize that I might’ve not been
prepared enough. My English wasn’t good, and I couldn’t understand the
lectures. My school soon realized the same problem, and they put me in
an ESL program. And that was where I met Jonathan.
Originally from America, Jonathan was my ESL instructor. We were
around the same age, both around the age of looking for someone, and we
gradually got to know each other. He was truly a sweet dude, and he
cared for so many small things about me. Eventually, we fell in love
with each other. I didn’t use my time properly to perfect my English.
We met each other in ’95. My time in Singapore soon came to an end.
We both wanted to continue our relationship, but I was from China, he
from America. Where should we go next?
We decided to go to China, him following me. It wasn’t an easy
decision. Back then, China as a country still wasn’t too used to being
open, and it was quite some news in my social circle for me to bring
back an American boyfriend. It wasn’t an easy time for him, but we had a
plan.
When I was in Singapore, I noticed how fast language schools
appeared one after another. There were so many East Asian students
pouring into these few narrow alleys, where language schools clustered,
and foreign students learned English before getting their coveted
Singaporean university degree. China was rapidly integrating into the
rest of the world, and people would love to study abroad. Well, I was a
Chinese student who’d studied abroad, and Jonathan was American. Where
else could you find a better couple to open a language school?
Unfortunately, Jonathan couldn’t get a permit to work in China, so
no language schools. The same question popped up again. Where should we
go next?My parents weren’t optimistic about our romance at all, but they
couldn’t stop someone like me, who, in their words, was “completely
blinded by love.” I decided to follow Jonathan and go to America.
We came to Connecticut in ’97. The first few months were really,
really tough. I was like an infant. I barely knew how to speak English. I
couldn’t express myself. I had nothing besides Jonathan. I had to
depend on him for everything.
Think about where I came from—I’d always been accomplished. I was
smart enough to study abroad in Singapore. But in America, nobody
acknowledged my diploma and my achievements. I was really depressed. My
parents might’ve been right, that it would be hard for Jonathan and me
to work out, and I’d have a hard time in America.
But why couldn’t I be right, too? Why couldn’t our relationship work
out? He loved me so much, I couldn’t quit after just one month in
America. I myself made the choice to date him and to follow him to
America, and I needed to be responsible for my choice. Plus, if I quit,
and he followed me to China, he’d have to struggle the same way I did. I
couldn’t bear selfishly watching him struggle. I made up my mind to
fight for a way to live.
The Wall