Aleetzia Burns

Honors 1000
Dr. Martin
October 27.2014
Detroit: Where Are We going?
China
I was born in a small village in northern China, near the end of the Qing dynasty. 1 And
for eleven years of my life I lived in constant fear of the unknown. I remember we were always
hungry. You see my father was an opium addict. He was a nice man but not very strong of mind.
Ill never forget the time when my father took the money he had given mama to keep food on our
table and disappeared for two weeks. On the third week there was a pounding on our door.
BamBamBam! Open up! My mother went to the door, What is it, me and my family are
trying to sleep. What do you..., Maam I am sorry to inform you that your husband was found
dead of opium poisoning earlier this morning. Oh GodWhat will we do now? Donghai!
Even to this day I can still remember the way my mother cried. Gut-wrenching sobs
racked her body until she began to quite, not from lack of tears but, from pure exhaustion. The
eerie silence is what I remember most. That was worse than the crying, the complete
hopelessness in my mothers eyes spoke to something in my eleven year old self and I promised
myself at that moment, that no matter what, I would never be so dependent on anyone. I knew
that if I wanted to have a better life I couldnt wait for anyone to bring me anything; I had to go
out and get it for myself. Five years later when the opportunity arose I accepted a request for a
mail-order-bride overseas in America.2
China, 1925
As a Mail-order bride, my entrance into the United States is ensured only after
I sign the marriage contract with a man I hardly know.3 I mean, we have corresponded through
letters and pictures, but there is no guarantee that he wrote them or that he is the man in the
1

The revolution of 1911 overthrew the Qing dynasty, and the first republic was founded in china in 1912. At the
time, there was a very popular Chinese-language newspaper, Young China, circulating among Chinese in the United
States.
2

As the discriminatory anti-miscegenation policies of the United States outlawed romantic or sexual relationships
between Asian men and white women," the rising number of Asian men created a demand for increased
immigration of Asian women to the United States: "[b]y 1860, over 80 percent of the Chinese women in San
Francisco were prostitutes. Although the first wave of Asian women who came to the United States were
prostitutes catering to the predominantly white male population, many of the Asian women who followed "in the
mid-1800s were disadvantaged Chinese women, who were tricked, kidnapped, or smuggled into the country to
serve the predominantly male Chinese community as prostitutes.
3

The invisibility of the Asian woman is exemplified by the plight of the Mail-order bride, whose entrance into the
United States is ensured only after signing a marriage contract with a man she hardly knows. In an effort to escape

photographs.4 Even so, none of that matters, in the five years after fathers death my family has
gone through much hard ship, experienced much hunger, and death. My eldest brother Heng is
married with a wife and young son, Bohai moved to America two years ago and is now working
in a restaurant in a city called Lowell, Massachusetts, and as for mama, she passed away just sixmonths ago.5 So, in an effort to escape extreme poverty, I answered an ad for a mail-order bride
to man from a foreign country, hoping to find someone who will provide me a basis for a new
start in the land of opportunity my father described in what seems like many years ago.2
Bohai
Dear An Ju,
It has been two years since I have last seen you. In your last letter you mentioned your have
accepted a marriage proposal and will be immigrating to America. Before you go on to meet
your fianc in Detroit, Michigan, come visit me in Lowell, Massachusetts.
Your loving brother Bohai,
Lowell, Massachusetts (U.S), 1925
At first I was amazed at how many restaurants and laundry businesses were run by
Chinese Americans. Bohais friend Fong Kim cooked his own food, ate, and slept in his laundry
shop.6 He told me about how he was arrested in the famous 1903 Boston Chinatown raid because
he did not have a resident certificate that all Chinese at the time required carrying under the 1892
Geary Act.6 His story gave me my first glimpse of life in America for a Chinese-American. Soon
after that I had to continue on to Detroit and my future.

extreme poverty, these women seek husbands from foreign countries hoping to find someone who will rescue
them from their dire economic situations at home.
4
Mail-order brides are often in such desperate economic conditions that they are willing to brave anything to
escape their poverty-stricken lives." Because of such desperation and vulnerability, they easily fall prey to
"international correspondence service[s]" or "introduction services"' that lure them with romanticized images of
the dashing First World knight rescuing them from their miserable Third World existence. After a whirlwind
courtship, the blushing young bride is whisked away by her newfound Western prince as her sisters and girlfriends
look on, dreaming of the day when they too will be rescued."
5

Chinese American Experience in a New England Mill City: Lowell, Massachusetts, 1876-1967 By Shenong Chen,
The first Chinese restaurant in Lowell was owned by the chin lee company. The 1920 published census recorded
seventy-nine Chinese, and found seventy-seven of them in the manuscript census. Unlike the 1900 census had
shown only thirty-five of Lowells Chinese in 1920 were in the laundry business, while twenty -seven were in
restaurant business. Four were managing a tea store, and the rest were wives, children
6
Fong Kim was arrested in the famous 1903 Boston Chinatown raid because he did not have a resident certificate
that all Chinese at the time required to carry under the 1892 Geary Act.

Detroit
I have been married to Nathaniel Lee Ahina for about Six years now.7When we were first
married he would have me read the Ford manual to him. He said the company made him feel
like he was really a citizen instead just another faceless immigrant.8 When the Great Depression
he was released from Ford. Brandy became his escape just like father and opiumtheres no
escaping the past.

Steele, Micki. "Asian-Americans settle in Metro Detroit enclaves." The Detroit News. April 19, 2011."And Henry
Ford recruited Chinese workers from Hawaii to work in his auto plants in the early 20th century, while others came
later in the 1930s, and some started laundries."
8
Ford manual Home comforts And Sanitation (pg.12-13) Employes should live in clean, well conducted homes, in
rooms that are well light and ventilated. Avoid the congested and slum parts of the city. The company will not
approve, as profit-shares, men who herd themselves in overcrowded boarding houses which menace their health.
Select a home where there are few boarders or roomers, the surroundings clean and wholesome, paying particular
attention to the sanitary conditions in the house.