A middle aged man stands atop a tower on a massive wall. The wall appears to be made of stone, and stands about 20 feet high. In front of the man is a fire pit, but there does not seem to be any fire. The man stands at his post, looking for something. Then he sees it. On the nearest tower to him, at least 100 feet away, he sees a light. The fire is lit. The man shouts something and begins to light the fire and a gunshot is heard it the distance. The fire is alight, but the man falls dead.
I wake up at 8:00 every morning, the sun glaring my eyes through the window. I climb out of bed to head to the farm. As I leave the house I say hello to my neighbour, Zhan.
He greets me as well and then I make my way towards my farm. I live in Canton with my wife, Qing, and my daughter, Meiying, who is still in the house, sleeping. We live in a farming town, and we own a small patch of land where we grow rice. While I’m walking to the farm, I see Qing has already harvesting today’s crops. She’s wearing red clothing, with a coned hat that’s made from straw. I start towards the the shed when I hear a crack in the air, louder than thunder. There’s some yelling and screaming for a bit, accompanied with lots of running. Qing and I start running.
Meiying comes out of the house looking confused and panicked. She sees us and starts running with us. There are men behind us in red uniforms, and they’re all holding long guns with knives on the front. Another crack sounds and Quing falls. I motion to help her up, and we keep running with her arm over my shoulder. We are running for what seems like hours before we can no longer hear the sound of gunfire. We see docks in the distance and head there. There are some people at the docks and I head over to warn them of the incoming men, but then I realize that they the boats at the dock are British boats. One of the men sees us, and instead of shooting at us, he invites us onto the boat. He says that the boat is headed for British Columbia, and we are welcome to come with him. He speaks in fluent mandarin, which comforts me. We board the boat, and he takes Qing in to a doctor on board the boat to help tend to her wounds.
The doctor says that she’s going to be fine, and heads into the medical ward.
We’ve been aboard this boat for a while now when the doctor comes into our room. He has a solemn look on his face, and I don’t know why. He comes up to Meiying and I and says two words. “I’m sorry” I don’t know why he’s saying this. It could be that… But that can’t be true. He said she’ll be fine. He looks up at me, and says: “I’m sorry. We lost her” The shock hits me. I can’t believe it. “There was a complication” he says. I don’t say a single word. Meiying isn’t moving when I look over. A second wave of grief hits me as I realize that she’s going to have to spend the rest of her life without a mother. “We’re going to have to throw her body overboard” the doctor says. I completely forgot he was standing right in front of me. “It’s to make sure nobody gets infected from the decaying body.” I give a slight nod of acknowledgement.
We’re sailing for a few months before arriving on the shores of BC. It’s not terrible, the crew are nice to us, and we aren’t the only ones travelling from China to BC. There is another family, a man and his son, and a woman who looks very poor, and in need of money. Meiying and I are not very well off either right now though, as I left most of our money at home. I have about 20 yuan, but I’m not sure if they’ll even take that money here. When we arrive in BC I start searching for a job. It takes a while, but eventually I find someone who is hiring to work on some railroad that’ll go through the “rocky mountains”.
I don’t fully understand what the man is talking about, and I don’t have amazing English, but I got the job. “And that leads me to where I am right now” I say to a group of people situated around a fire. “What about you, John?” Says William. He’s covered in grease, and wearing grey trousers that have rips on the knees. I’ve been working on the railroad for about a week now, and most of the money is being used to pay rent for a place we got in Chinatown, which Meiying is staying at now. I’ve made some friends with my co-workers. It’s easy to become friends with people who share the same struggles as you.
The next day, I continue work on the railroad, just like everyday from the past week. We’re working on the “Mountain Creek Bridge” which is at least 100 feet above the ground. We don’t even have any harnesses. I’m nailing in a plank of wood when William comes up to me. “You want some help?” He says. “Sure” He comes over and holds the plank in place while I nail it down. When he’s holding down the plank, the one under him snaps and he falls. He doesn’t even have time to make a sound before he plummets to his death. I watched a man die right before my eyes. I realized that I had to get out of this job.
Two days later, I boarded a carriage that was bound for Vancouver. I hid in the rear of the carriage and made my way to Chinatown.
I felt like almost everyone was out to get me. The government wanted me gone, my previous employers were trying to kill me, and the protesters wanted all Chinese to leave BC for good. When I arrived in Vancouver, I started the trek to Chinatown, and “borrowed” a horse from some stables near a bar. As I made my way into Chinatown, I saw protesters with signs that read “For a White Canada” the protesters were also chanting the slogan, and I got some weird looks as I passed by. I walked through the town until i reached a building that read “House for RENT! $45 a month” I entered and did not see my daughter. I laid down on the rough and dirty cot, and I fell asleep instantly. I awoke to Meiying shaking me awake. “What is it?” I said. “The protesters! They’re storming the town!” She yelled “They’re burning every building in sight, and they’re coming towards us!” As I witness my daughter scrambling to find a place to hide, I ponder the effects of racism on the life of my daughter, and how we are going to get by in this time and age. I hope that we can find a way to live a stable life, but with my newfound lack of employment, and the negative views of others towards us, it will be a very difficult path ahead of us.