·pa He nods,hands over his ears. "That's not the way."She frowns."Are you listening?" Silly boy!Everyone teases him except his mother,who pleads presses them back,hoping to train them to bring him less pain. while the other boys will grow up,she says,he should ignore friend Grover Ding,Ralph Chang was just a small boy in China, an engineer,much less an imagineer like his self-made-millionaire IT's AN American story:Before he was a thinker,or a doer,or OVER HIS EARS WITH HIS HANDS ABOY
mother. blushes. He shrugs. "Might there be something nicer to talk about?"suggests his marching armies,a new dynasty,the end of society as they know a fan-cooled veranda,he entertains apocalyptic thoughts of inflation,and moral collapse.Or so it seems to his father as,on Hands over his ears,Yifeng presses,presses,presses. ment for his son:Yifeng will please study his Older Sister.He official,calls him a fan tong-a rice barrel.He has an assign- "Do you realize your father will beat me too?' give him preserved plums,mooncakes,money.If he doesn't, As Ralph,who back then was not Ralph yet,but still Yifeng- jian means,one listens but fails to hear.People hear what they Ting de jian in Mandarin means,one listens and hears.Ting bu out in Chinese;there's even a verb construction for this purpose. not hear?What's taken for granted in English,though,is spelled are simple.One listens.After all,why should a listening person way the Chinese will,between effort and result.Verbs in English "You listen but don't hear!"- -distinguishing,the Back and forth.Until finally,irked,she says what his tutor "I'm listening. "How can you listen with your hands over your ears?" Of course,in the end,Yifeng did come to the United States pure,the next good for nothing. "Your only son,"pleads his mother. going abroad. appeared.Though Yifeng has scored seventeenth on the de- discovers that things are indeed more involved than they at first making a few discreet inquiries,among friends.This is how he "But it seems,perhaps,that he is." His father goes on grinding his ink.Yifeng simply cannot be "America,"his mother says then. eracy!Stupidity!Corruption! His father announces that he's going to write about Degen- maobi-his mother prepares to speak up. write an article-he has an inkstone out,and a wolf's hair is,Theresa)fields grounders from her coach.Ralph,though- songs to herself;on a convent school diamond,Know-It-All (that "Too much rice wine,"muses Ralph's mother. his lifelong enemies;thanks to them he no longer holds office
stopped. What else? sidiary aims. It was hot. 6 about the girls was so important it counted for at least four On 7 through Io,he was stuck until he realized that number 6.I will on no account have anything to do with girls. 5.I will on no account keep eating after everyone else has 4.I will eat only what I like,instead of eating everything. 3.I will do five minutes of calisthenics daily. 2.I will bring honor to the family. as the saying went,there was no carving rotten wood.) I.I will cultivate virtue.(A true scholar being a good scholar; rolled up to hand his father.He also wrote down a list of sub- class,and he was not going home until he had his doctorate out two main goals for himself.He was going to be first in his ken-backed books,and as the boat rocked and pitched he set his physics,his English,struggling for long hours with his bro- On the way to America,Yifeng studied.He reviewed his math, Yifeng nodded."I'll remember him always." slid a wristwatch into Yifeng's hand. true ships in the distance,the ragtag boats by the shore-she dock.As his father stared off into the Shanghai harbor-at the "Your father would like to give you this,"she told him at the trunk full of Western-style clothes. His mother arranged a send-off banquet,packed him a black "A degree,"he echoed dully. as everyone agreed.He could bring back a degree! training,but for graduate study.A much greater opportunity, vately,not through the government,and not for advanced field anyway,his stomach burbling with fool hope.But it was pri- 9 shrugged,sheepish."Interesting." like that,a mosquito.) two notes. American spectacle,without his looking up once. Years later,when he told this story,he'd claim that the only How was anyone supposed to be able to read? That splendor!That radiance!True,it wasn't the Statue of Golden Gate Bridge. more than itself.For girls,he knew,were what happened to even
He did notice. of oil.Nothing was made of bamboo details of life impressed him too-the neatly made milk cartons, New York.He admitted that maybe he had taken a look to hate the alphabet?Anyway,he did I's,consonants at the ends of words.Was it beneath a scholar wrong.He turned red,thinking of his trouble with long a's,th's, "Name?".he repeated,or rather"nem,"which he knew to be working,liked him. hat with him,though he never put it on,and it was always in his digestive problems.Everywhere he went,he carried a Panama that tended to flush and pale with the waxing and waning of of gum;those round ears;and delicate,almost maidenly skin quarter inches.Otherwise he was himself-large-faced,dim- him look even shorter than his five feet three and three- grease.A new,light gray,too dressy,double-breasted suit made PICTURE HIM.Young,orotund.Longish hair managed with OVER HIS CROTCH WITH HIS HAT A BOY
tomorrow." was in! "That-way-you-find-a-namc-you-like-better-you-can-tell-me- "I'll-hang-onto-this-form-overnight,"she tried to tell him. glish that carried him away. "Sure.You give."There was something about speaking En- "I-give-you-a-name?" disappoint her.Then he brightened."You give me." "No English name."How to say initials?He was sorry to typewriter,the form she had to fill out. "English name,"she said again,finally.She showed him her out!Ting de dong-he listened and understood! "Me?"With mock offense,he drew his chin back. begin to guess her age."At you!" he would have expected.She smelled of perfume.He could not "I'm laughing at you."Her voice rang,playful yet deeper than never would have asked a Chinese girl why she was laughing. Later he realized this to be a very daring thing to ask,that he "What you laughing?" he was used to hearing Chang rhyme with twang.) sounded like the beginning of angst;it would be years before "Name Y.F.Chang."(His surname as he pronounced it then "Naaame,"she said,writing it down.She'd seen this before, 6 you like it?" grave. a mission;what mattered was that he register for the right It would have been better if Ralph sounded a bit more like name of at least eight kings."My father picked it for me,"he For himself,Old Chao had Henry,which turned out to be the A kind of dog,thought Ralph. who in turn called them Little Something-or-another).He looked another being what younger classmates called older classmates, program)had all stuck with their initials,or picked names for Chinese students(there were five of them in the master's degree enough,when he asked around later he found that the other he'd overdone it.His stomach puckered with anxiety.And sure to be like other people-decisive,practical-only to discover too hasty?He did this,he knew;he dispensed with things,trying Walking home,though,Ralph was less sanguine.Had he been "Sure!"He beamed. "Ralph,"she said finally.She wrote it down.R-A-L-P-H."Do Norman?She toyed with a stray curl.Fred?John?Steve?Ken? Meanwhile,she ran through her ex-beaux.Robert?Eugene? mound he had ever seen:in Shandong,that was,Confucius's for big shots.This woman put him in mind of the biggest countryside-the small mounds for nobodies,the big mounds He thought of the burial mounds that dotted the Chinese