The Fortunes

“Half the laundries are brothels, Ng explained cheerfully. Good business! There’s a dozen fellows to every woman in this state.”

This passage, in which Uncle Ng explains more about his business to Ling, grounds the text within the history of Chinese immigration to the United States, particularly the west coast, in the 19th century. This first wave of Chinese immigrants was almost entirely male, and they came to the United States to work in industries such as the building of the new American railway system. Their labor was exploited and they were subject to much anti-Chinese prejudice.

“They’d been waiting for him earlier than usual, and when they pulled his hair he’d stumbled, gone down on one knee in a runnel of horse piss, still warm.”

This passage describes how groups of white men and boys would harass Chinese workers and even engage in acts of racist violence against them. It speaks to the thematic focus on Anti-Asian Racism in this novel but is also a moment of connection to the history of Chinese American communities in California during the first large immigration wave of the 19th century. Such prejudice was common and made life difficult for Chinese workers.

“Bridey shared the bristling umbrage of many Irish girls towards the Chinese who were displacing them from their work.”

This passage speaks to the novel’s interest in anti-Chinese prejudice, and also to general anti-immigrant sentiment in 19th-century America. Although white, Irish immigrants were looked down upon by the already-established English and Scottish groups and their descendants. Bridey, who is treated poorly because she is Irish and understands what that kind of stigma feels like, still looks down upon immigrants like Ling because they are not white.

“He was improving his English, training his tongue to roll his Rs so that Crocker didn’t sound like Clocker.”

Ling works hard at his English language skills throughout this section of the book. Much of the task for immigrants during this early wave was to try to assimilate as much as possible. Even though their race marked them as different, many Chinese immigrants made a concerted effort to “fit in” by learning English and adopting white customs and behaviors.

“He’d come to see it as a trade, losing a queue, gaining a handsome outfit.”

The queue is an important symbol within this text. It represents a connection to Chinese history, culture, and identity. The removal of Ling’s queue causes a loss of that connection, but it allows him to gain status and acceptance. Ultimately, Ling decides that a connection to China is more important than assimilation and he rejects much of the privilege he’d gained without his queue, working for Crocker.

“The Exclusion Act, barring further Chinese immigration, had finally been passed (the last in a long line of anti-Chinese laws dating back to a ban on carry poles).”

This passage speaks to the theme of Anti-Chinese Racism in the way that it describes the extent of anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States at the tail end of the first large wave of Chinese immigration. It also grounds the novel within the real history of that prejudice. Anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States became so strong that multiple national policies were put in place to curb immigration and limit the rights of Chinese Americans.

“At first she felt self-conscious, being the only Chinese, and a young girl at that, in the audience. She hid in the bathroom, terrified and lonely, tracing the patterns on the tin ceiling until she heard the organist start up, and then she slipped in and took a seat.”

This passage speaks to the theme of Anti-Chinese Racism. As a young girl, Anna is acutely aware of her racial difference. Part of what draws her to films and stardom is the desire to be looked at with admiration rather than judgement and prejudice.

“Wong Liu Tsong means ‘Frosted Yellow Willow.’ Her father asked her once what Anna May meant. ‘Me’ she said simply.”

This passage speaks to the theme of Assimilation and Cultural Preservation. In order to be a star on the American big screen, Anna must change her Chinese name to an Americanized, easier to pronounce one. This shows the push-pull relationship between loss and gain that happens during the assimilation process: Anna loses a piece of her own culture while gaining acceptance in American culture.

“He was wrong. She knew all about shame. Hadn’t she grown up washing and ironing other people’s ‘unmentionables?’”

Laundries are an important motif within this text. They link the separate stories to one another and speak to the history of Chinese American communities in the United States, particularly in large cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles, where they were one of the few options for Chinese immigrants and their children who wanted to open businesses. Although for some they were a source of pride and a path to financial success, to others like Anna there is something distasteful about the work, about washing clothes for white people who discriminate against them. Ling feels similarly in the novella “Gold.”

“Her earliest memory is of her father cutting his queue. She was six. They were still in the house on Flower Street where she was born. News of the 1911 revolution was spreading through Chinatown.”

This is one of the many moments in which the queue, worn by Chinese men to signal fealty to the emperor, is used as a motif. Additionally, this moment in particular grounds the text within the history of China, because after the revolution, Chinese men cut off their queues en masse.

“She isn’t a star, she thinks later, or an actress, but something in between. The first Chinese star, they call her, and it’s the qualifications that are crucial.”

This passage speaks to racism in the early days of Hollywood. Although it was possible for actors and actresses of color such as Anna May Wong to pursue film careers, they remained stereotyped and experienced setbacks and limitations that their white counterparts did not. There was a definite glass ceiling beyond which Anna could not progress despite her popularity with audiences.

“You make him Chinese. He stands next to you, he looks Chinese. You’re his yellowface.”

Anna May Wong encounters many difficulties during her years in Hollywood. She struggles to get roles while many white actors are easily cast as Asian characters. This practice, called “yellowface” will haunt Anna throughout her career. In this passage, it is revealed to Anna that her presence alone helps one particular white actor to pass as Asian, and although she and this man have a good relationship, the news is disappointing.

“On the train traveling inland, Newsreel tries to interest her in the fact that the line they’re traveling on was laid by the same Chinese workers who’d previously built the transcontinental railroad.”

This passage marks one of many in which the American railroads, constructed mostly by Chinese workers, are mentioned. Moments like these ground the text within the history of the United States, but also within the history of Chinese immigration and the origins of Chinese American communities, particularly on the West Coast.

“If you remember it at all, if you were around in the eighties, say, what you remember is a Chinese guy being beaten to death in Detroit by two white auto workers who mistook him for a Japanese.”

Each of the stories in this book is connected in some way to historical events that impacted Chinese American communities in the United States. The author uses these events to explore themes that speak to the experiences of these communities, and in the third story, he explores racism, anti-Asian prejudice, and hate crimes.

“She still had one of those comedy Chinglish accents. What I live for? I don’t have happy anymore. I not care for my life. That kind of accent always makes my generation cringe.”

This passage speaks to changing socio-cultural attitudes toward difference, specifically as they pertain to Asian American communities. Part of this book’s exploration of racism and prejudice is the way it depicts subtle moments of discrimination like offensive jokes and puns. Practices that were once common, like racist jokes and accents, become understood to be damaging, and in this case there is a generational divide between those who understand the link between these microaggressions and more serious hate crimes and those who do not.

“Afterwards I couldn’t bear to face her, Lily, Mrs. Chin, and she couldn’t bear to stay in the US. She already had her ticket back to China when the first verdict came down, but it only delayed things. She finally went back forty years after she left.”

This passage speaks to a trend within Chinese American immigration that is represented multiple times within the book: Many Chinese immigrants returned to China, either after amassing enough wealth in the United States to live comfortably in China or after the discrimination and racism they faced became unbearable. The public perception in the United States that Chinese immigrants did not want to assimilate and did not appreciate American culture enough to adopt it or to stay in the United States became part of the mythology used to justify Anti-Chinese Racism.

“Ling-Ling and Sing-Sing was another of their names for us, those kids who’d pull the corners of their eyes back when we passed, after the famous panda pair who’d come to the US with Nixon.”

This passage speaks to the novel’s interest in Anti-Chinese Racism. All the Chinese and Chinese American characters experience this racism at some point or other. Additionally, the novel explores how individual acts of racism connect to, and are rooted in, systemic oppression and structural inequality.

“There’s a name for it, this idea that we all look alike. It’s been studied, documented, cross-race bias, they call it.”

This passage speaks to the text’s thematic interest in racism and prejudice. Because Vincent Chin is mistaken for a Japanese man he becomes the target of violence even though he is Chinese. There is an unwillingness to see and understand identity and difference at the core of this kind of practice and it shows just how pervasive anti-Asian racism has always been in the United States.

“He couldn’t very well tell his colleagues about these new books anyway. As far as they were concerned he was working on a novel about the Vincent Chin case, and he suspected he’d only secured tenure because the college had to settle a discrimination case the year before.”

This is a moment that links John Ling’s story to another in the book. There are many of these points of connection, and through them the author suggests that although there is not one monolithic “Chinese American Experience” in the United States, the shared history of Chinese American communities has an impact on individuals and that there are common threads that run through many immigrant stories.

“The scale of China seemed all wrong to him, at once existentially vast, yet so crowded it was hard to breathe.”

Returns to China happen at multiple points within this narrative. John Ling’s story shares with Anna May Wong’s a representation of China as a space of alienation and confusion. Although in America these characters are treated as “too Chinese” to be truly American, in China they are seen as too American to still be Chinese.

“Where are you from? It’s a question he’s heard all his life. It’s a question they all get, he knows, Asian Americans.”

This passage speaks to the difficulties that Chinese Americans experience in the United States. Many of the characters in The Fortunes, John included, are stigmatized for their racial background and are made to feel as though they do not quite fit into white culture. John is American, but is often mistaken for a foreigner because he is Asian.

“And now John wants to scandalize those well-meaning souls on the tour by telling them how much he loves chop suey, General Tso’s chicken, and all those other fake-Chinese dishes. Takeout, after all, was the only Chinese food he’d known growing up.”

This passage speaks to the author’s interest in depicting the complexities of Chinese American identity. Many characters in this text are caught between two cultures. Because of their Chinese heritage, they are seen as quasi-foreign by Americans, but because of their American upbringing they do not feel “Chinese enough,” particularly around Chinese individuals or while traveling in China.

“They, their group as a whole, are beneficiaries of the policy even if they mostly deplore it. Chinese families who can only have one child get rid of their girls, sometimes to orphanages, but sometimes by killing them, aborting them or abandoning them after birth.”

The Fortunes is invested in exploring the way that Chinese and Chinese American history have shaped both individual identity and the growth of Chinese American communities in the United States. The fourth chapter examines the impact of China’s one-child policy through the story of John and his wife Nola’s adoption journey.