Asian American Studies, Life of Moon Lee

By the time he reach 16, right out of middle school, unfortunately the Lee family can no longer afford his education, Moon as what most of people would, decided to get a job to relief some of his parents¡¦ load. At the time(1921), words out on the street describes a place western of pacific ocean called ¡§Gam Saan¡¨(California), offers gold to be mined, great opportunities of high pay jobs. Moon came home one day very excited to tell his parents what he heard from a friend, ¡§an average person could only make 5-6 dollars a month here in Guangdong, but if I go work in America, a place they call Gam Saan, I can make 30 dollars per month easy. I want to go there for a little money making adventure, if everything goes well, in 3 to 4 years

Two months of up and down on the sea, Moon Lee arrived in American land as a free labor.

For 30 years in the US, time made him a stronger man, a husband, a highly educated person, but never once made him a wealthy man. Latter, his sponsor his whole family in Guangdong to migrate to San Francisco to live with him, Moon Lee felt that his assigned tasks were fulfilled, destiny had been reached. Sometime later, the government granted him citizenship because of his service in the army. Moon Lee came as a stranger from a different shore(takaki), struggled to survive and finally settled in America where he now calls home.

Life is always a lesson, as soon as Moon Lee got here, he realized this place wasn¡¦t as he imagined, and that most of those beautiful stories he heard about this place was overstated. First of all, all white skin people here speak a different language and treated he like a prisoner. He started working as a bus boy in a restaurant in Chinatown, which didn¡¦t pay very well, but offered free meals and a place to sleep. As a new immigrant who doesn¡¦t speak a word of English, he worked 10 hours a day, and studied English at night. After 1 years of hard working and studying, Moon was able to speak some English and hence was promoted to be a waiter. He finally had money left to bank after sending home half of his earning every month. He missed his parents and sisters so much and yet hesitated to visit them in China, because he hadn¡¦t paid off his debt.

I could have saved 800 dollars if not thousand, then I will return home a very very wealthy man and maybe sending home some money every month to help out.¡¨ Moon¡¦s parents didn¡¦t oppose his plan, because the family was really in need of some extra financial support.

After couple years as a restaurant waiter, Lee tried to look for other higher payin

Some topics in this essay:
Moon Lee, Filipino Japanese, Moon Chinese, Gam Saan, American Japanese, Francisco University, Pearl Harbor, moon lee, Lee Moon, San Francisco, Chinese America, laundry store, san francisco, japanese imperialism, middle school, chinese workers, gam saan, dollars month, home money, sending home,