“Allie are you almost ready yet?” I hear Ye Ye yell from the kitchen. “Yes I’m done”, I say excitedly as I throw my toothbrush at the sink and sprint into my bedroom. 

Whenever Ye Ye and Nai Nai come to visit, they always tell me a story before bed. Nai Nai normally gives me lectures about boys or her Chinese superstitions, but today was Ye Ye’s turn and he always tells the best stories about his past.

Blah Blah Blah

“All right Allie, what would you like to hear today?” Ye Ye asks. “Today was my first day of school,” I explain, “but a lot of the kids at school look different than I do. Many of them had yellow or brown hair, and their eyes were all sorts of colors. Why don’t I look like that too? I only saw one person that looked like me and they said they were Korean.” 

Ye Ye lets out a chuckle.“There are many different types of people because our ancestors come from many places around the world.” He explains,“Do you know where our family comes from?” “China!” I say loudly. “That’s exactly right Allie.”

“Then why did we come to San Francisco?” I ask him. “Seafood and the Golden Gate Bridge.” He laughs. “Why don’t I tell you a story that my grandmother told me, so snuggle in tight.” I hug a stuffed bear and listen closely.

“Long ago, our ancestors still lived in China. But back then, China was not a good place to live. There were many wars, the people starved and the government was corrupt."

"But they heard of a place called America, the land of many opportunities. Fortunate for them, the Americans were looking for people to work on the railroads and it was said to have a lot of gold. So our family escaped and came to this wonderful place they dreamed of going to, San Francisco.”

“Were they happy when they finally came here?” I asked. “Yes, it seemed to be the right decision,” Ye Ye continues, “But it was not exactly how they imagined. 

They still did not make much money and the Americans did not want them to have jobs. The government set laws making it hard for more Chinese to come, and many people discriminated against our people and made us pay big amounts of money to them through taxes."

"They would call us names and made us feel unwelcomed. We stayed in America because it was still supposed to be safer than China.”

“But people aren’t like that anymore,” I say. 

Ye Ye sighs, “Well they have certainly gotten friendlier, but racism still happens today.

"What we did back then, was form our own communities called Chinatown.” “Oh, I go there with Ma Ma every Sunday!” I exclaim. “Yes, all the Chinese immigrants came together to form Chinatown to bring a taste of our old home to California and to feel safer against the discrimination we faced by the white people.”