{"id":189,"date":"2013-09-08T05:00:52","date_gmt":"2013-09-08T12:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/?p=189"},"modified":"2014-07-31T08:34:16","modified_gmt":"2014-07-31T15:34:16","slug":"no-room-at-the-inn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/visiting-gulangyu\/no-room-at-the-inn\/","title":{"rendered":"No Room at the Inn"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/h4>\n

Perfect vacation (for a writer)\"IMG_0599\"<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n

When vacation plans fall apart, a writer can always console himself with the possibility of turning his problems into material for the next poem or novel or essay. But when our family set sail for our first trip to China, I wasn\u2019t a writer yet. Still, I knew this vacation would be no romp on the beach. It was 1983, the early days of China\u2019s reopening, and though there were splinters by then in the Bamboo Curtain, much of it still remained firmly in place.<\/p>\n

\"Gul-2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It rained all the way from Hong Kong to Xiamen, our destination. When our ship sailed into the harbor, it was overcast. The dingy city before us looked weathered, but it couldn\u2019t have changed much since the Communist takeover in 1949. At the time I didn\u2019t appreciate my luck. I was seeing the landscape of a novel I would one day write, a novel that would be set in China in the 1940s.<\/p>\n

The Hotel for Overseas Chinese<\/strong><\/h4>\n

My husband Eugene, our three daughters and I caught a taxi from the wharf and rode straight to the Hotel for Overseas Chinese<\/a>. It was brand new. Not quite finished, in fact. The high-ceilinged lobby with all its polished granite and marble floors was strangely marred by large puddles of water. An invitation for a law suit, I thought. But then, this was China not the United States of America.<\/p>\n

We side-stepped the water and made our way to the reception desk. The young women on duty straightened up and stared at my white face. Then one of them addressed my husband in a barrage of Hokkien. Since our daughters and I spoke only a smattering of Mandarin and almost nothing in my husband\u2019s dialect, we stood back and let him do the talking. Almost immediately, their conversation escalated into a shouting match.<\/p>\n

As the exchange grew louder and more confrontational, the girls and I tiptoed back around the puddles and sat down. After twenty minutes or so, one of the women left, and as the other turned away to pour herself some tea, my husband joined us on the sofa.<\/p>\n

Non-Chinese are not welcome<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\"photo<\/a>

photo courtesy of Dan<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThey say you and the kids can\u2019t stay here,\u201d he reported, \u201cThe way they see it, this hotel is exclusively for overseas Chinese, not for their American families.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s go someplace else then.\u201d It seemed the logical choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cSorry, honey. There is no other place for tourists to stay.\u201d He stood up. \u201cBut don\u2019t worry, I\u2019ll take care of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He strode back across the room to where a middle-aged man was frowning at us from behind the reception desk.<\/p>\n

A few tense minutes later, we were standing by the elevator with our suitcases and two room keys. \u201cThis generation,\u201d my husband grumbled stabbing the up button, \u201cthey\u2019re no longer Chinese.\u201d He glared at the elevator light, willing it to keep descending. \u201cI quoted an old saying to them, and still they didn\u2019t understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo what happened?\u201d\"Hen3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The elevator doors opened and Eugene picked up both suitcases. \u201cThe old man, the manager, had to explain it. \u2018Young misses,\u2019 he told them, \u2018listen to Mr. Chen. He will teach you what it means to be Chinese.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo \u2026?\u201d We stepped on board, and I pushed the button for the twelfth floor. \u201cWhat was the saying?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJust an old proverb.\u201d He shook his head. \u201cSomething any Chinese should be able to understand: Marry a chicken, follow a chicken<\/a>; marry a dog, follow a dog.\u201d<\/p>\n

I should have been offended, I suppose, to be compared to a chicken or a dog. But it was such a clever retort. And even a future writer can appreciate a good line.<\/p>\n

\"my<\/a><\/p>\n

Next week’s post: “You Can’t Go Home Again.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Perfect vacation (for a writer) When vacation plans fall apart, a writer can always console himself with the possibility of turning his problems into material for the next poem or novel or essay. But when our family set sail for our first trip to China, I wasn\u2019t a writer yet. Still, I knew this vacation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[926,24,25,23,22,924,21],"class_list":["post-189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-visiting-gulangyu","tag-china","tag-chinese-proverb","tag-marry-a-chicken-follow-a-chicken","tag-non-chinese-not-welcome","tag-the-hotel-for-overseas-chinese","tag-writing","tag-xiamen"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Kn1e-33","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4129,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/china\/4129\/","url_meta":{"origin":189,"position":0},"title":"Second Anniversary of my Blog","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"September 15, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Okay. 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I shouldn\u2019t be amazed. We\u2019re meant to choose our path in life during those years. And\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "book reviews"","block_context":{"text":"book reviews","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/book-reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"South China Morning Blues by ray hecht","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/ray-hecht.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6365,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/writing\/identity-digging-deep-expanding-horizons\/","url_meta":{"origin":189,"position":2},"title":"Identity: Digging Deep & Expanding Horizons.","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"August 6, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Deep diving into the identity I inherited. It was a sunny afternoon. I was sitting on the grass at the University of Washington after a writing class and feeling insecure about my ability to write. 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She\u2019s a writer and blogger I met online in about 2014. I started my blog in August of 2013 when I was getting ready to publish my first novel, Tiger Tail Soup, a novel of China at War. My\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "blogging"","block_context":{"text":"blogging","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Ruth-Silbermayr-profile-picture-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":248,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/china\/attaxarty\/","url_meta":{"origin":189,"position":4},"title":"Chinese Brush Painting","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"October 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019m a writer now, but once upon a time I was a painter. And before that I was the kid who hurried through my multiplication tables so I could draw paper dolls for my friends. 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I must have seen and forgotten hundreds of movies since 1987 when it was released. But Empire of the Sun is not the kind of movie one easily forgets. 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