ÒSouthern
Fried RiceÓ and ÒChinese LaundriesÓ
Reader
& Audience Reactions
Your book
is a joy to read. It has a beautiful flow to it and an enriching quality that
is easier to feel than it is to describe. Couched in humor, it deals with the
painful and serious matter of day-to-day struggles of existence of a couple who
came here with hardly anything more than faith in their hearts and steel in
their spines. Krishan Saxena,
Kensington, California
Thank you
for telling your story in such an engaging manner. While your story is personal it is also universal because of
its working class foundation laced with layers of Chinese ethnicity, family
structure and dynamics, and the specificity of the South.
Flo Oy Wong, Artist, Sunnyvale,
California
Your book is the one that I had
promised myself that I would write one day, but you went ahead and wrote it.
You did a wonderful job! Henry
Tom, Frederick, Maryland
Enjoyed very much reading your
family history revealing a unique experience yet sharing many of the same
problems of families in Chinese laundries. Yours is one of the few written
accounts of the many family-run laundries in the U. S. Thank you for the
careful documentation of this history, which would be otherwise forgotten. Tunney Lee, Boston,
Southern Fried Rice is a well-written
and factually documented memoir that gave me insight into the lives of Chinese
in the South, especially those living where there were no other Chinese, as you
did in Macon. Your move to San Francisco must have been as much of a cultural
shock for you as it was for me, an African American moving to the Bay Area from
Memphis. Leatha Ruppert, Cotati,
Ca.
I really enjoyed your presentation at NAAAP. Southern
Fried Rice tells a very unique and interesting story. Everyone in my family (my wife, my
9-year-old daughter, and myself) really enjoyed reading the book. J. F.
Thank you for a wonderful evening
as a speaker at the Chi-Am Circle dinner. Your speech and life in the South
typify some of the members in our group. My husband went through a lot
when he was a child in Mississippi. C. F.
I was pleased to be in your audience in Phoenix, and
purchased both books from you. I thoroughly enjoyed reading So. Fried Rice and
to know Chinese-Americans all over the US of our generation all felt the same
about ourselves, no matter the parentsÕ occupation or our lifestyles. J. Y
Thank you again for coming to Houston last weekend and for
giving us such an interesting talk. I enjoyed reading your first book,
"Southern Fried Rice", before the talk and am now reading your second
book on "Chinese Laundries". I understand that you are working
on your third book "Chopsticks in the Land of Cotton".É I like your writing style. It is
clear and easy to read. J. T.
We were honored to have you visit (Chinese American Museum of
Chicago). Everyone really enjoyed your presentation and company-one of
the best comments was Òhe was so down to earth and engaging.Ó We thank
you for sharing your family story and spending time with us. S. M.
You have an easygoing style of presentation, which let people
warm up to you even though they don't know you from before. I read your story
with interest. My parents also owned a laundry ÉThank you for writing about a
subject that is not a popular topic. D. L.
Your lecture yesterday was most interesting and with the most
attendance for us so far...I hope that you were well pleased and will grant us
future visits. We certainly were delighted to have you. M. L.
You have a very unique Chinese
surname and a very nice name. Your Chinese romanization should be Lao Si-Yuan,
and, of course, you would put last name (Lao) first in English. Your surname
means "labor" or "to work." You first name (Si) means
"to think" or " to reflect." Your middle name 源 means "origin." It has three drops
of water on the left, indicating that it originally meant for the water origin.
The combination of your first name and middle name reminds you to think of your
root or origin. What a nice and scholarly name! J. W.
It reminded me so much of growing up in Augusta. Though we grew
up in different times, the situations were similar, and I enjoyed reading very
much your book. I thought it was very interesting what you wrote about
the music and art lessons that you had in public school since I can also
remember these subjectsÉ.
Georgia has changed a lot from the times that we both grew up
there, and I see more acceptance of Chinese and inter-marriages. It
was interesting to hear of your experiences in California as opposed to
growing up in Georgia. I wonder now whether Asians from California feel
closer to their "roots" or whether assimilation into the society has
made them feel more American and the Chinese heritage and customs are
being forgotten.
I appreciated that you wrote this book, because it has given me
a deeper perspective in what it means to be a second generation Chinese
American of emigrant parents who operated a Chinese laundry. I understand that
all minorities that emigrated to the United States in search of a better life
had their struggles with survival and discrimination, this makes me not only
value and respect my parents, but for other emigrant parents who desired their
children to be prosperous.
I have just finished reading Your book "Southern Fried
Rice..." and thank you for your work and
for publishing this information. My Father worked as a radio repairman at
the Guy White Radio Shop on Mulberry Street across from the Grand Theater from
1940 to 1952. Having been born in Macon in 1940, my memories of Macon are
similar to yours. I managed to escape in 1964 (A white person who was not
a segregationist was not really acceptable to the
society.) and finally settled in Portland, Oregon in 1974. My
Daughter's high school was about 20% Asian students. I gave a copy of
your book to a Chinese friend since several times we had discussed your
family, and what it may have been like as the only Chinese in middle
Georgia.
Your book was recommended to my by the
Macon-Bibb County Public Library while in search of a relative(s) of Chinese
ancestry who lived in Georgia.I truly appreciate your sharing your personal
story. It gave me a window into
what life might have been like for my own family even though my relative most likely
arrived in the 1870s.
I devoured your book with great interest! I was reading with fingers crossed that perhaps a resource
might pop up that might aid me in finding additional documentation of my
ancestor(s).
I have just finished reading "Southern Fried
Rice," and thoroughly enjoyed this book! I have learned much that
hopefully will give me some leads in searching for information on my paternal
grandfather. I am particularly interested in searching out the Chinese
Hand Laundry Alliance in New York, since my ancestor eventually migrated there
from Florida and worked as a laundryman in Upper Manhattan, as he did in St.
Augustine, FL. However, even if I never find out anything, your book has
allowed me to gain some insight into what his life might have been like, what
he might have experienced as the only Chinese in St. Augustine, FL, and how he
came to be there.
I stumbled upon your book "Southern Fried Rice" while
beginning a genealogy project for my family. My husband is African
American, from Bainbridge, GA and his great grandfather was Chinese. I am
just beginning to document the oral history, but I have been told that the
Chinese family owned a laundry in Bainbridge, GA most likely between
1920-1930. One son (my husbands great grandfather) married an
African American woman and had 3 children. Unfortunately, he was killed
by the KKK and the Chinese family moved west. They offered to take the
wife and children with them, but she declined, and remained in Bainbridge GA to
raise the children with her family.
I was so excited to find your book and I am looking forward to
reading it. My goal is to document the family history in context with
American history. Your book will be a valuable missing link. Thank
you for all your hard work.
Trina S. Pyron, M.A.
Health Education Specialist
Office on Smoking and Health
Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention
I
stayed up last night and read your Southern Fried Rice; life in a Chinese
laundry in the deep South. It was so fascinating; I couldnÕt put it down;
you definitely have a skill for writing. Even though your familyÕs
situation was unique, being the only Chinese in town vs. our having Chinese
families up and down the MS Delta; the descriptions you gave of your family
life was so typical of Chinese life that we experienced here. Your family
must have immigrated from the same area as the families in MS. Your style
is very readable and I could identify with all the Chinese customs that you
mentioned (your Mother is to be commended for keeping the Chinese traditions).
I especially appreciate your approach to the White, Black, Chinese
relationships, an honest statement of how it was rather than totally making it
a race issue. F. Q.
The fascination is that I too am
Chinese American born in the deep south of Miami, Florida where my mother &
father started out with a Chinese Laundry ending up with a grocery store. Margaret
I think your book has been circulating
around our church, and everyone that reads it can't put it down. I'm one of the
few southern Chinese in my church, so when one of my friends discovered your
book Southern Fried Rice, he insisted that I read it. Honestly I couldn't put it down. Thank you for writing and documenting that time period. Many of the things that you and your
family went through I could relate and was reminded of how things were. F.W.
Thank you for sharing your personal
story with your readers. You seem to have an easygoing style of presentation
which lets people warm up to you even though they don't know you from before.I
read your story with interest. My parents also owned a laundry in the city of
Newark, California from 1963 to 1972. However, our laundry is not the
traditional "Chinese owned" laundry that you may have described in
your book, it was a coin operated laundromat in a rural town (population 12,000
at the time)...Thank you for writing about a subject that is not a popular
topic. Diana L.
I enjoyed it very much! I can really relate because
your familyÕs history parallels mine, especially with the migration to San
Francisco. ThatÕs why I bought several – to give to each of my
siblings.
Like my mother
used to say, Òalways remember your roots.Ó And your memoir helps us do
that! Florence L.
My husband and I are Caucasian and we adopted our daughter from
China. She is in third grade now
and has been learning about Martin Luther King. Yesterday, after seeing a video in school about Dr. King,
she asked me a question I couldnÕt answer: ÒIf there were black drinking fountains and white drinking
fountains, which one would I go to?Ó
She held out her forearm to show me that her skin was darker than mine. IÕve been trying to find
out the answer to this question, and havenÕt come up with any good leads. When
I saw the information about you and your book, I hoped you might be able to
help us, either based on your own experience or research.
I have to admit, I was fascinated with both
booksÉthe text, and particularly the pictures, brought back memories of my
younger days and my parents. I grew up knowing only the few Chinese
laundries in the Washington DC area, and some of our cousinsÕ in New
York. But I never thought much about the common threads until I started
looking through your books. Thanks for the education and the enlightenment! I
would certainly like to hear about your future works and other Chinese American
heritage pursuits that you believe are of interest. Get M.
On behalf of Chinese American Museum Of Chicago and
myself, I want to thank you very much for spending so much of your time with us
while you were attending the AAAS conference here the past week. Your lecture yesterday was most
interesting and with the most attendance for us so far. I know that there
would be more exchanges if time permitted. I hope that you were well pleased
and will grant us future visits. We certainly were delighted to have you. I have been away most of today, but sat down and read
thru "Southern Fried Rice" in one sitting this
evening. That says a lot about your book. Margaret
I FINALLY read Southern fried rice. in fact, I started the book at
about 2:30am this morning and finished it just now...at 6am. I loved it. Every part of what Dr. Jung wrote is
true; the customs, values, mannerisms, and ways of thought mentioned throughout
the book are almost cookie-cutter to those of my parents. the one difference is
that my parents came directly to LA and they owned a restaurant instead of a
laundry business. thanks so much
for referring the book to me!
Thank you so much for a wonderful presentation. It was a
great evening for all of us. Our MCCA members and friends all enjoyed learning
about Chinese American history and your life in Macon, GA. Lots of luck on your talk in Berkeley
tomorrow.
Jean Bee Chan, Marin Chinese Cultural Association
Your story telling is great. And the struggles of your parents
to make a living doing hard work under harsh conditions in an alien society, as
well as raise a family with dignity and values under those circumstances, is a
remarkable one. It consoles the reader and even inspires him/her to
continue. It is the story of every family that no body writes
about. It has a quality of saying it is "my story." Not
an easy thing to achieve as a writer.
It was very nice to meet you at Assn Asian
American Studies. I have now finished SOUTHERN FRIED RICE. I think it is fascinating and very
revealing. You have a fine talent as a storyteller. I look forward to the
publication of your new book. Greg Robinson, Associate Professor of
History, UniversitŽ du QuŽbec Ë MontrŽal
Jung traces about one hundred years of Chinese-American history
in an excellent memoir that is inspiring yet told with a great underlying sense
of humor. Students of Chinese language
and culture will find the Cantonese references and photos spread throughout to
be fascinating easter eggs. For example, one of the more interesting, subtle
things I noticed was the picture of a homework exercise from the author's
mother's English composition book on p191 where various English words were
"sounded out" using Chinese characters as a Cantonese phonetic basis
which is precisely what someone learning such a different and unfamiliar
writing system as the Latin alphabet would do. Regardless of one's background
with Chinese, fans of history will find this a fascinating, fun read that is
hard to put down: I myself read it in one sitting. Jung bats a 1.000 with this
one, bravo!
I thoroughly enjoyed
reading it and haven't come across such an interesting and well-researched book
on American Chinese history since "The Mississippi Chinese" by
Loewen. Well done! One question I do have deals strangely enough with the cover
which shows various images of the price list from Joe's Laundry. Some of those words
(such as yau4saam1 oil+clothing for "overalls") I've never seen
before though semantically they make sense. Are some of those words from
another Cantonese dialect (e.g., Sei Yap rather than HK/GZ) or are they special
two character laundry jargon or shorthand?
Southern Fried Rice I started
reading it last night and couldn't put it down. So I have just finished
reading it. It's an excellent book. All of us raised in the south
can relate to things you have written about in your book. A.S.
The Berkeley Chinese Community Church Senior Center have been
twice blessed with your presentations, last year on "Chinese
Laundries" and this year on "Southern Fried Rice." You have a
way of telling your stories that bring back so many memories of our own lives
as we all grew up as 2nd generation Chinese Americans. We look forward to a
presentation on your 3rd book "Chopsticks in the Land of Cotton" with
great anticipation. Thank you
again. W. C
I have just finished your book. It was so intriguing, that, had it not been for a colleague
dropping by to remind me that it was past noon, I would have read right through
lunch. Your book has probably inspired me to consider what my family has been
asking (nagging) me to do: To
write my autobiography. (ÒSince
you have retired, you will have nothing better to do . . .Ó). Hmmm -- IÕm not sure that a scientist
will possess the literary skills as someone schooled in the Humanities.
At certain points, I simply had to stop and laugh: jook-sing!! What?! – you too?? I feel like I could (should)
highlight, and add marginal notes!! I will certainly have to tell my brothers
that they should obtain copies of your book. Since we all spent years working in the laundry, they
will be able to relate to your experiences as well.
I have just finished reading John R. Jung's
book, "Southern Fried Rice - Life in A Chinese Laundry in the Deep
South". It was
G-R-E-A-T!! His was the only
Chinese family in Macon, Georgia.
It is incredible how his experiences exactly paralleled ours; -- the
same prejudices and discriminations that we incurred in Kannapolis. In fact, the building looked just like
ours; -- laundry down stairs with living quarters upstairs.; -- those same
three windows looking down on the street below.
It was a pleasure meeting you today @ Delta
State U & well worth the 2-hr drive É I am look'g forward to read'g your
books and will share them among our 3 college-age daughters. Your time and
patience in document'g grow'g up in America in the early years will help
visualize to the younger generation what our ancestors went through. My humble
thanks, Linda
Thank you for agreeing to come to the
Mississippi Delta and sharing your stories with us. It was such a
pleasure meeting you. We are all anxiously awaiting the release of
CHOPSTICKS and your return to the Delta. É please know that you have a strong fan base here in the
Mississippi Delta, and at Delta State University. Georgene