SUNDAY BRUNCH: Rats! (and Snakes)
Gong Hei Fat Choy
*Note: Gong Hei Fat Choy translates to "wishing you great happiness and prosperity” in Cantonese.
Happy Lunar New Year, everyone. Welcome to the year of the Snake!
My mom had a horrid aversion to snakes, which makes me sad because they are fascinating. You gotta admire a creature that moves through the world by being flexible. Today, when we call people a “snake,” we mean someone who hides their true motivation, who can’t be trusted to stick to a rigid position. And the snake has also been the tempter in works of literature. Think Adam, Eve, and the serpent and Kaa, the hungry python in “The Jungle Book.”
In the Chinese Zodiac, there are 12 signs, but they are also defined by the 5 elements (wood, fire, water, gold, and earth) so this year is not just the year of the Snake, it is the year of the Wood Snake. And since the color green is associated with wood, it’s the year of the Green Wood Snake. The Wood Snake is “a charming, intelligent and creative sign, but also secretive, cunning and sometimes ruthless.” The parallels to American leadership sworn in this year are absolutely spot on.
Find out what Chinese zodiac sign you were born under here.
I am a rat. Born in 1960, me and my fellow rats are “cheerful, sociable, and tenacious people, who thrive as part of a group.” We are “intuitive, versatile, and quick-witted” and we value “security in all areas of life, which affects [our] choices in love and career.”
Take THAT, all you rat-haters!
I gotta say, that description sounds a lot like me. It includes several things I don’t like about myself — thriving in a group and valuing security, especially. I like to think I’m a lone wolf who fears no danger or risk. But there’s no wolf in the Chinese Zodiac and, like a rat, I like my pack.
Feeding America
Probably the best Lunar New Year I ever spent was with my friend Gillian, who treated a lively group of her friends to an amazing meal at a Chinese restaurant in Pullman, Washington. The plates kept coming and I couldn’t stop eating. If this is Lunar New Year, I thought, bring it on! G knew all the right dishes and spoke to the owners and servers in their native language. We’ll never know what details or modifications she requested.
Chances are, you had a Chinese restaurant in your hometown. They were not only ubiquitous, they also became the primary vehicle for Chinese men to ascend the economic ladder in America and send support back home.
Thousands of Chinese workers were brought to America to build the railroads during the 1800s, usually working harder, faster, and for less money than white workers. Sound familiar? Upon completion, many Chinese men stayed on as laborers (they were not allowed to obtain US citizenship) usually living on the edges of town with their own community, including restaurants, to serve their needs. If they travelled to China to see friends or family, they risked never being allowed to return to the US.
After the passing of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, some Chinese businessmen were allowed to stay under a special “merchant visa” that made it possible to travel back and forth to China to hire employees. In 1915, Congress added restaurants to the list of approved businesses and, as a result, a flood of Chinese restaurants filled America in the 1910s and 1920s.
Until 1943, only Chinese men were allowed into the US and, to qualify as a restaurant owner, they were not allowed to do any serving, cooking, or cleaning for a year. They also needed two white witnesses who would vouch for them. Read about the so-called “Lo-Mein Loophole” in this fascinating article.
Chinese food appealed to Americans because it was served in exotic looking spaces, it was fairly inexpensive, and restaurants stayed open long hours and on holidays (think of "A Christmas Story” when Ralphie and his family enjoy their meal at a Chinese restaurant). Today, Chinese cuisine in Seattle earns James Beard nominations.
One more thing: my friend Russell spent part of his writing career concocting fortunes to go inside Chinese fortune cookies. In his words, the story won’t die and he was recently interviewed for a documentary about fortune cookies! Can’t wait to see it.
Confucius…grave…rolling over
The Trump Administration has been cleaning house since last Monday’s inauguration. Last night, it was a purge of more than a dozen Inspectors General whose job it i to make sure there is no fraud, abuse, or corruption in government. That simply won’t do for a Trump administration that depends on all three to survive.
A few days earlier, the President threw a wrench in the works of the Veteran’s Administration, whose hiring processes were frozen, even for people who had iron clad employment offers just a few days before the inauguration.
Now is a good time for us to remember that our government bureaucracy is made up of both government appointees and employees hired through a merit-based system of civil service. Rather than relying on influential friends or relatives, the theory goes, civil servants are hired based on qualifications. Their job security is not dependent on the arrival and departure of political leaders.
This system was heavily influenced by a model built in China over thousands of years — a bureaucracy intended to promote morality and education over money, power, and influence. Chinese philosopher Confucius developed a heirarchy extends from leadership to the people in the most efficient and honest way.
That’s how we manage to deliver Federalism in America — the flow of power from Washington, D.C. to the states to counties and cities. In China, a government job was a ticket to the middle class and civil service exams were a source of intense competition. As a result, education has remained a cornerstone of Chinese values and society.
If a government is a reflection of a country’s values, it seems safe to say that we are moving away from the Confucian ideal of the moral person to the American ideal that there is a sucker born every minute and they are willing to be led by a nest of vipers.
The year of the snake, indeed.
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Thoroughly enjoyed your Sunday edition. I am a tiger in the zodiac world. Spent some time reading about myself. Some characteristics and traits spot on. Others. . . Well maybe I’ll grow into them 😊
thanks for the shout out :) Also, this thing with the Inspectors General is fucking scary