Tracey: Eat a Bowl of Tea

In Chu's Eat a Bowl of Tea, the story takes place in New York City's Chinatown, in the Money Come club house run by Wang Wah Gay. When the rent collector Chong Loo arrives, he is met with resistance from Wah Gay, as well as a club regular by the name of Ah Song, who both brush Chong Loo off and tell him to come another time for the rent. Loo seems used to this reaction and quickly changes the subject to frivolous matters of gossip about the town. He is hurried out by the playful heckling of Wah Gay and Ah Song, who later discuss their own job histories. Ah Song seems to live a life of leisure, frequenting the race tracks for gambling purposes, while Wah Gay gives off the impression that he has lived a life much different from that of his old friend.

During this discussion another friend of Wah Gay enters his club and cools off from the summer heat. When Ah Song abruptly leaves to venture back to the race track, his chair is quickly claimed by the newcomer, Lee Gong, who originally came to America with Wah Gay when they were teenagers. The two discuss the comfortable life of Ah Song and how "Western civilization" is "a very deteriorating influence" on young people in America. Ah Song then returns with two friends and everyone then joins in a game of Mah Jong.

Next we are transported to the apartment of the newlyweds Ben Loy and Mei Oi. It is early in the morning and Ben is on his way to work, leaving his bride in bed with what seems to be a bad case of jetlag from their flight from Hong Kong to New York City just a few days prior. Mei Oi is overwhelmed with feelings of depression and uselessness, for she fears her new husband doesn't love her. She had been forced into marriage by her father, Lee Gong, who had sent Ben Loy to Sunwei village as her intended groom. She and her mother often discussed the type of man that she would marry, both agreeing that a gimshunhock, or farmer, would be the best husband because she would be able to see him in the mornings and nights when he was not tending to his land.

Mei Oi did not marry a gimshunhock, instead she gave into her father's wishes and settled for Ben Loy. After the two of them moved to New York Mei Oi's heart broke and she began to feel worthless. Feeling a bit better after some sleep, Mei Oi decided to wait for her husband to return from work in an attempt to spark some romance between them. Ben Loy comes home at nearly one o'clock in the morning and when Mei Oi tries to be tender with him he brushes her off, claiming he had a long, tiring day at work and the two of them simply head off to bed.

Some good questions that can be derived from this reading are: Is the combination of old world customs and new world freedom a recipe for failure for Asian American immigrants? Essentially, can a family value system be maintained in a country where there is more freedom and less morality? How will young children be raised and how will they be influenced by America and it's citizens? These are questions that perhaps will be discussed in class.