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Author John Jung reflects on latest book about Chinese in the Mississippi Delta

 

Designer Maya Lin recently talked about how people marveled that she’s from Athens, Ohio.

For a while, my father’s family – originally from Southern China – lived in Augusta, Ga. because there was a need decades ago for people to build canals. A relative went there to work.

When I studied in China, I met ethnic Chinese who called the Maldives, the group of atolls in the Indian Ocean, their new home.

It is the context of the Chinese Diaspora – particularly the U.S. South – in which author John Jung, a retired professor, emerges with his third book, Chopsticks in the Land of Cotton: Lives of Mississippi Delta Chinese Grocers.

The book, published last year, marks his third about Chinese American history and families. One central theme in Chopsticks, he says, is the universal theme of persistence.

In this case, it applied to Chinese – who began arriving in the area in the late 1870s – and lived

in a highly segregated and racially-torn region where they were less than one percent of the population, caught in the middle of the long term black-white strife.

His two other books examined Chinese laundries in the United States and were set outside of large cities, such as New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

His focus on the U.S. South not only helps readers realize that the region is multi-racial and nuanced but it also enables him to use his expertise in drawing conclusions.

Jung, who grew up in Georgia, is a professor of psychology emeritus at California State University, Long Beach.

He has authored various books about psychology. He published his books about Chinese Americans.

And it was his memoir, Southern Fried Rice: Life in a Chinese Laundry in the Deep South, and second book, Chinese Laundries: Tickets to Survival on Gold Mountain, which put him before Asian American community audiences.

On Oct. 19, he will give a dinner lecture about Chopsticks in Houston at Dong Thanh Restaurant, 6968 Wilcrest Dr. For information, call (713) 859-8801 or email cpcprograms(at)gmail(dot)com.

Jung was kind enough to answer three questions, via email, about his latest book.

I should note that he is my mom’s friend. Even if he wasn’t, I’d still chat with him because his work is intriguing.

I’d want to hear about his experiences and observations, given that my father’s family operated a small store in Augusta before moving to California.

In a way, Chopsticks – in a general sense - reminds me of that 1984 documentary, Mississippi Triangle. But I’m glad there is additional scholarship with his book.

Q: How does this book differ from your other publications?

A: My first book, Southern Fried Rice: Life in A Chinese Laundry in the Deep South, was a memoir of my family’s experience running a laundry in Macon, Ga., where we were the sole Chinese in town during the pre-Civil Rights era.

By the time I finished writing it, I came to realize for the first time how critically important Chinese laundries had been for the economic survival of several generations of Chinese immigrants in the U.S. and Canada.

That insight motivated me to do my second book, Chinese Laundries: Tickets to Survival on Gold Mountain, to present the place of Chinese laundries in U.S. and Canadian history.

Q: What was your goal in writing this book and why now? 

A: The idea to write about the Chinese in the Mississippi Delta did not originate with me.  At one talk I gave about Southern Fried Rice, a Chinese from Mississippi in attendance was inspired to urge me to write about the Delta Chinese.

I was hesitant initially, being that I was an “outsider.” But after I interviewed some Delta Chinese and read earlier documents about their lives running grocery stores throughout the Mississippi and Arkansas delta, I became fascinated by their unique situation.

It was very different not only from the lives of Chinese in places with many Chinese like San Francisco, New York, and Chicago, but even from those in other parts of the South.

In writing Chopsticks in the Land of Cotton: Lives of Mississippi Delta Chinese Grocers, I wanted to help preserve a record of their history, but not just as a set of dates and statistics.

Because of my background as a psychologist, I felt that a study and description of their own reports of their experiences was needed to help outsiders understand their lives within their societal context.

Q: What would you like for your readers – both Asian and non-Asian – to learn from your experiences and thoughts?

A: As someone who grew up in the South, I think I had a clearer view of the experiences of Delta Chinese even though I did not come from a grocery store background or live in a Chinese community.

Yet, not coming from the Delta myself, I was able to be more objective or less sentimental than if I had grown up there. 

I believe the Delta Chinese story holds many valuable positive lessons for peoples of all races.  I was impressed with how resilient and determined the Delta Chinese were in dealing with adversity.

The strength of their Chinese cultural values and community enabled them to defy the odds of being economically successful in a highly segregated and racially torn region where they were less than one percent of the population, caught in the middle of the long-term black-white strife.

The Delta Chinese made valuable contributions to the communities in which they lived while maintaining their cultural ties and values.

Times have changed, greatly for the better, in the region.  And the Chinese groceries are mostly a thing of the past, especially as the older generation retires and their children have entered occupations and professions previously denied to them on their basis of their race.

Without a recorded history of their life experiences, these lessons will soon be lost.