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Post by kaoyien on Apr 16, 2009 8:28:16 GMT -5
thanks henry!
He lives close to my ancestral county, in guangdong.
My father said that he was from Canton, not taishan, hen he came with my grandfather to Brazil.
So, this information is correct. we will try to contact him, but i think that it will be difficult, because he is a 76 year old men now.
thanks
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Post by Henry on Apr 16, 2009 8:50:58 GMT -5
Kaoyien, Being 76 years old is not as old as you might imagine. Modern medicine and technology has extended the life span of people and I consider the age range of 65 - 75 years old just "middle age". I guess when you are so young as a college student - guys like me are so old or dead and don't know it. Well my friend, people like me, I'll be 67 years old next month - would surprise you with what we can still do. As Mark Twain said: "Age is an issue of mind over matter - if you do not mind ... it doesn't matter" Whatever the age or other personal attributes - we all have something - cases in point please watch both these videos to the end. What they tell us is - never judge people by their appearances or by what they do for work or if they are not working. Some of us has a God - given gift that is not always apparent. Paul Potts eventually won the 2007 Britain's Got Talent (BGT) contest: Susan Boyle in less than a week has had well over 8 million views on UTube - whether she wins the BGT contest - she is already a winner - because of her attitude and willingness to try and not give up her dream. Everybody has a dream. I hope you will enjoy. :-) Henry
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Post by Ah Gin on Apr 16, 2009 11:43:05 GMT -5
Henry et al, From one middle-age man to another. Well said about Age, and the quote from Mark whatever his name is -- that famous American author etc. Was Uncle Something written by him? Indeed it does not matter if old geezer like us keeps going on (and on and on and on and on. As my mother who has gone to the Big School in the Sky would say, "Ngam ngam chim chim. Mg how kum chumg hay lah" Roughly interpreted, "Stop muttering and don't be so long winded") I have a number of friends from the Heritage Research world. One 99 this year. His wife is in an old folks home. He is living by himself. Keeps a beautiful garden. His Roses are just brilliant. Grows vegetables etc. Sharp as a nail. When we turned up at his place unannounced, after an absence of months, he can still recall all previous conversations, and sometimes he would entertain us with a multi-media show, consisting of 35mm slide show, synchronized with music, of his Chinese Heritage work. Every week he visits his wife. He also visits his girl friend (in her mid 80s), living in another old folks home. Indeed 70 plus is not old. Nor 90 plus. And may you have many more birthdays, doing what you enjoy, and no doubt contributing to Society at large. PS for one of the definition of geeza, see www.answers.com/topic/geezer Ah what will we do without the Internet. Regards, Ah Gin
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Post by laohuaqiao on Apr 16, 2009 14:59:59 GMT -5
Kaoyien, When did your grandfather's friend return to China? Does he still have any relatives living in Brazil?
Others here have posts stories of Chinese in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, United States, etc. It would be interesting to hear about Chinese in Brazil too. I'm sure we all would love to hear either specific stories about your grandfather or your great uncle, or life for the Chinese in Brazil in general.
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Post by kaoyien on Apr 16, 2009 16:16:50 GMT -5
Hi!
My grandfather´s friend return to china three years ago, and my father didn´t know. We asked his ex-neighbors and they told us to contact a Chinese men named Mr. Lao, who has a traditional Chinese restaurant here in Brazil called LAO. We went to the restaurant and Mr. Lao gave us the address of my father´s friend in China ( he came back to guangdong, near taishan - it is in a map in pg 4)
Chinese immigrants had a dificut life when my grandfather came to Brazil . Back in the 30´s most Chinese people in Brazil had laundry stores, like my grandpa. he owned a laundry store that after his death was unfortunately closed. My great uncle also had a laundry room near my granpa´s, and my dad´s friends too. One of the problems was the language barrier, especial to my grandpa, because he married my grandma, that was Brazilian. My father says that he was a very calm person, very patience and loving. He took good care of our family while he was alive. The interesting thing is that after his death, my great uncle step up to take care of my dad ( he was only 10 back than) and finished raising him. Both of them try to keep the Chinese culture in my family, especially organization and respect. My grandpa liked to travel, and he visited several Brazilian cities. He really fall in love for our country and our people. Brazil is a very especial country, and i invite you all to visit it.
thanks
see ya
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Post by laohuaqiao on Apr 17, 2009 7:32:43 GMT -5
kaoyien,
My great grandfather, grandfather and father had laundry stores too. In those days, Chinese men worked only in laundry, restaurant or grocery business. Since mid-60s when Chinese women started to arrive in large numbers, until recently, most women worked in garment factories. When I was young, I was expected to finish high school and then find a job working in a restaurant. I remember the first time I visited San Francisco in the mid-70s, I was pleasantly surprised to see Chinese bus drivers; Chinese in SF has a much longer history and they assimilated much earlier than those in New York. The civil rights movement in the 50s and 60s benefited the Chinese in American a great deal, though many do not recognize it; it gave us more opportunity to attend colleges and universities, job opportunities, social benefits, etc.
It's interesting that the Chinese in Brazil worked in the laundry business too. Do you know if they were mostly in big cities and their customers were office workers who back then had to wear white shirts and tie to work and therefore needed to have the shirts washed and ironed in laundries. The more casual work place and synthetic wash-and-dry wear basically led to the decline of the laundry businesses.
It was wonderful that your great uncle was able to care for your family after your grandfather's death. That is also part of the Chinese tradition, children of brothers and male first cousins are family (that's why in Chinese there are distinct words for first cousins who are related through their fathers, and other cousins).
I saw the map indicating where you grandfather's friend's village. It's about 60 km from your grandfather's village, by modern transportation it's not far at all, especially since more than 40km is on the expressway. I'd encourage you to try to contact him, he can help with locating your relatives in Lunding, Taishan. It shouldn't be too difficult to find him, everyone living within several km radius must know he's local son having returned from Brazil.
I totally agree with you on Brazil. If you or anyone haven't seen it, there is a documentary called "Convenient Truth" on Curitiba, a city in southern Brazil; see it and find out why it's a one of the greenest city in the world.
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Post by Henry on Apr 17, 2009 11:36:28 GMT -5
Kaoyien,
I too have roots in a Chinese hand laundry - even before I was born. My mother worked in her Chinese hand laundry right up to the moment when she went to the hospital. Our family lived in the back of a Chinese hand laundry until I was 16 years old and then we had a laundry that had an apartment above it. As a child, I learned to iron clothes and shirts standing on top of a wooden starch box.
My father owned part interest in a commercial Chinese laundry, "Scoy" that pressed shirts with machines and also iron/folded these shirts. In New York City after WWII, Chinese hand laundries were really outlets for dropping off & picking up laundry. The laundry would be sorted and marked and they would be picked up by a commercial wet wash laundry that actually did the washing and then it was brought back to the Chinese hand laundry - then they were starched and ironed in the laundry or they would be picked up by the commercial shirt pressing laundry - where they would be pressed , ironed & folded and shipped back to the Chinese hand laundry where they would be packed for pick up by the customers.
Much of my Chinese and knowledge of village life in China was learned from the 100 Chinese men that worked in my father's commercial shirt pressing laundry.
I also have worked in over 20 Chinese restaurants in my life - from dishwasher, waiter, bartender, captain, maitre'd, cook over a period of 15 years. So, I also have had extensive experience in this venue.
My wife, a Colombian lady from Bogota, and I will probably be visiting Brazil and Argentina next year. The nephew of my wife is studying medicine in Corrientes, Argentina - near Ascuncion, Paraguay - probably about 150 miles from Iguazu Falls. Since we are so close, we'll probably visit Curitiba, Brazil also.
Henry
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Post by Ah Gin on Apr 17, 2009 14:47:18 GMT -5
Kaoyien et al,
I too admit to a proud relationship with laundrymen. One of my brothers in San Francisco ran a "modern" laundry, another in the Dim Sum business. A nephewis a bus driver, a brother-in-law in the bar business (washing glasses), a doctor, an accountant, a social worker. Grandfather was in the restaurant business in the US, great grandfather in herbal business. In fact members of our family are into anthing legal, so long as it brings in food for the family -- and we are all proud of it too. I worked in restaurants, bars, kitchens, rubber estate. Now I grow my own potatoes (small ones that is), tomatoes.
The Chinese (and I am sure other races too) are hardworking, and never too proud not to work. Life though was hard, which makes us stronger -- as we see from the old hands of this forum.
Regards, Ah Gin
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Post by helen on Apr 17, 2009 15:09:52 GMT -5
In New Zealand the Chinese grouips can be identified by the industry they are in. Siyip - Laundries, Zengcheng - Greengrocer/fruit-vege shops and smaller Market gardens, Pang yue - Big Market Gardens. So as a Zengcheng person, I grew up with grandfather/parents with a fruit shop/and small market garden. Lucky for me, I was able to get to University and did not have to carry on the tradition. I guess our generation doesn't know how lucky they are.. not to have to spend long hours folding clothing; bending over in the garden to pull weeds, or serving customers in the shop.
As a 6 year old we were serving in the shop. Long scales hanging down from the ceiling. At the start of the day proudly polishing apples and putting them on display- buiding a pyramid of apples, or oranges. The display at the back was often mirrors - to make the display look good, and gave an impression that the shop was bigger than it actually was.
In those days the fruit came individually wrapped in its own tissue paper - some times the oranges were from USA, sometimes Australia -( or even South Africa - maybe?). The tissue paper was folded and used for toilet paper. Other times they were just stuffed in an onion sack and the sackful hung on a nail behind the bathroom door. That was Chinese luxury. Others had to use newspaper squares!
Then there were the hours parents spent at auction; then washing carrots, and parsnips; trimming cauliflowers. However, looking back, I think maybe we had better hours than the laundry people.
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Post by kaoyien on Apr 17, 2009 18:44:16 GMT -5
hi! These are some photos that i took in my trip to Curitiba: The first one is an Asian temple in the center of Curitiba. There are a lot of Chinese Americans in Curitiba, the biggest group after São Paulo. see ya
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Post by douglaslam on Apr 18, 2009 6:27:41 GMT -5
Helen, You took the words right out of my mouth. We the Chungshan people were engaged in market gardening and greengrocery before the restaurant trade took off. I was meant to provide human muscle power for a market gardening venture. It was in a greengrocer/ milk bar that I spent my early years. I never saw any trace of a once booming laundry trade.
The description you gave is also an apt reflction of the shop in which I spent many years of my youth. We, too, used the wrapping paper as toilet paper. They were bloody awful. It serves to show how frugal we used to live and make do. The wooden packing cases and sacks were sold for reuse. Old newspapers were used for wrapping, and packing case timber was used as firewood to boil water. There was no running hothingyer.
There was a lot of physical work in shifting heavy cases and soft drink crates. I guess I had a six-pack abd. and rippling muscle without really trying or knowing. To achieve the same results now ,I had to be a gym junkie.
Douglas
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Post by geoff on Apr 18, 2009 16:58:08 GMT -5
Hello Douglas,
Ah memories of Milk bars.......a business that has disappeared from the Australian suburban street scape. Not only did it sell milkshakes, soft drinks, sweets, freshly made sandwiches, hamburgers, bbq chickens, to eat in or to takeaway but it served as a meeting place to catchup with friends & hear the "latest" from the owner. When visiting country town, I remember heading for the local milkbar for a "mixed grill". The meal was comprised of 2 thin sausages, 2 lamb chops, generous size piece of beef steak, bacon, ham steak, 2 fried eggs, tomatoes, onion all washed down with a chocolate milkshake or freshly squeezed orange juice. Tomato sauce or worstershire sauce came from a bottle located at each table. Real cutlery was used to eat the delicious meal. For dessert, a large serving of warm homemade apple pie topped with fresh whip cream or fresh fruit salad certainly satisfied ones appetite.
Every suburb used to have a least one some times 2 or 3 milkbars. These businesses were owned & run in rented premises by recent arrived families, who opened 7 days a week to earn a meager living. The children & relatives of the owner would help out after school, on weekends & during school holidays. Milkbars were an entry into the small independent business world for the least amount of goodwill (amount paid to the previous owner based on turnover & location) & stock. Milkbars started to disappear in the 1970's in Sydney when overseas owned franchises opened with differently cooked chicken, pizzas or burgers. The local fish & chip shop is slowly disappearing.
Like a photo, one word can open up ones's memories. Our family never owned a milk bar but followed the tradition of Zengcheng people & operated market gardens, fruit & veg shops & local grocery store before becoming tertiary educated.
Sorry for getting off the thread but milk bars were part of the lives of the previous generation of chinese immigrants to Australia.
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Post by helen on Apr 18, 2009 21:18:47 GMT -5
That's funny Geoff - we never had any Chinese owned milk bars - well not that I can recall, in NZ. We had small chinese cafes in the cities, but no "cooked" food places in the small towns. Most people stuck with 1 meat and 3 vege meals. None of that "foreign" stuff. lol. Mist people ate at home.
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Post by geoff on Apr 18, 2009 21:54:07 GMT -5
Helen, If you had more capital you might open or buy into an existing chinese restaurant. Milkbars were cheaper to buy & as such a starting point for a number of chinese families to pool their financial resources, time & manpower. Later, the partnership might change with say a partner going out on his own but partly financed by the first business. Business partnerships were the only way for chinese to establish a foothold in their newly adopted country. Perhaps a thing of the past for chinese but the business model is still followed by migrants from other countries.
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Post by kaoyien on Apr 21, 2009 19:26:09 GMT -5
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