China to the Eastern Main Road in Arouca
Yun ying Cao from Guangdong Real Women, Real Stories takes a journey to China and lands right in Arouca, in East Trinidad. Yun ying Cao, a Chinese native who manages her family's Chinese restaurant, Kam Wong, located on the Eastern Main Road, Arouca, guides us through her transitional journey from a land where more than one child is taboo to a land where life is, perhaps, too liberal
It's a cool Tuesday morning and I walk into Kam Wong, a Chinese restaurant in Arouca, to interview Yu ying Cao. She is a pleasant Chinese woman, a bit on the short side with straight, shoulder-length black hair. "Do you speak English?" I ask her slowly. "Do you speak Chinese?" she responds with a smile. "I can speak just a little English but not much," she adds more seriously. She is ready and willing to share her story but she hopes that her English is enough to carry us through the next few minutes. I promise to speak more English and less Trini so that she can understand. At this point another older Chinese woman approaches the front counter holding a baby in her arms. "She is mother-in-law and the baby is my youngest daughter, Yun Lan," Cao says, looking tenderly at a cooing and smiling Yun Lan. "I have three daughters. Yun Lan, Yunxi who is 6 years and Yunyi who is three years old. The two older ones at school now. My mother-in-law take care of baby so I work in restaurant with my husband," the native of Guangdong, China then informs. Her expression then becomes as distant as her homeland and she sighs, "I couldn't have so many children in China. There is law against more than one child born to any family in China. Population too high.
"When I had first child, my family was disappointed. In China best thing is to have boy child. When you make girl first time, government allow you to try for boy but if you make girl again or any after that, you not get benefits from government for excess children. No schooling, nothing, you have to pay government for benefits instead."
I then learn that in some parts of China an entire family can be barred from benefits as a result of the law and not just the excess children alone. "I am glad last two children born in Trinidad!" Cao exclaims. Yunxi was the only child born in China. As the proud mother makes her way to the kitchen, she rattles out something in Chinese to one of her workers. I don't understand a word she says as up to this minute Cao's English is better than I thought, but my Chinese is terrible. "Hmmm, how do you say…?" and with that she takes her cellphone and types. She then tells me that her phone has a Chinese to English translator and she shows me her English translated word: "Satisfied." "I am this word," she claims pointing to her phone. "I don't want more children. I work hard at restaurant so I don't have time to care for more!"
Between her dictionary translations and passable English she tries to enlighten me about her two contrasting worlds (China and Trinidad). "I came from China seven years ago with my husband and mother-in-law to start restaurant business in Trinidad. My husband had brothers living here so we hear about Trinidad and we come. We started Kam Wong and up to now I still send money to China for my parents. I think that children must care for parents so I send money back to China.
My mother-in-law take care of children and my husband and I take care of customer," she asserts. A medium built Chinese man then approaches us and smiles at her. They converse in her native language once more. Reading the clueless expression on my face she pronounces, "I tell him you from newspapers, he okay with it!" As the time draws closer to lunch time, customers start filing in gradually. They ask for the special of the day — chow mein, fried rice, chunky veg and chicken. "What we cook here in Trinidad is not Chinese food, it more …what is the word?" I look at her cell phone — "South American food." South American food? All these years I buying South American food and I thought it was Chinese! "We don't eat brown rice in China. No, we eat jasmine rice, brown rice too hard, don't like it. We don't eat this type of noodle, no, we eat lula noodle, you could get that in Hong Kong Supermarket in town. In China we eat real Chinese not what I cook here. I miss my food. We don't have chunky veg in China we cook single vegetables." A few minutes later I see some patchoi drying in her backyard in the sun, against a backdrop of a kitchen garden with the biggest chives I have ever seen.
She declares that her family maintains a garden and eats a lot of patchoi soup and broiled vegetables, not the fried foods served at the restaurant. "I would love to cook authentic Chinese food, steam food, but my husband say customer no like it, they want fry chicken so we cook it!" she exclaims. I ask her the burning question that I always wanted to ask a Chinese food retailer, "Why did you choose Trinidad to live?" She smiles at the question and begins to type into her phone: "We came to Trinidad for..." Her phone reads: "a mission". She continues, "We came here because business better here, you can make more money here, China is more laid back and too…" Her phone reads, "competitive!" But in as much as business is booming in T&T, Cao still misses her home dearly. "I miss my family and friends. I have friends here in Trinidad but when I go out nobody understand me, I feel so alone sometimes and scared…crime too high!" she avows sadly. Looking down at her apron she confesses, "I go exercise class in Bon Air High School but I still different," she utters. Her accent and edgy oriental features always stand out, she explains.
"In China there is so much to do and enjoy with children. In Trinidad everywhere close early so when I finish work in night I can't do anything. In China stores open for 24 hours". Her favourite time is Sundays, however, when she and her family go to an authentic Chinese Christian Church in St Joseph where sermons are read in Chinese. These moments give her a taste of home as regular visits to China are impossible with the costly commute. "Perhaps if you discover Trinidad some more, you may feel more comfortable," I suggest. "Not that I no like Trinidad but home will always be home," she advises. "You like Carnival?" I ask. "I never been," she replies. I then suggest an outing for her and the kids for Kiddies Carnival in Arima. She lights up with this suggestion. "I will come, you call me!" she assures.
Right at that moment an Indian man comes into the restaurant "Chinee how much you taking today," he queries holding a bag of patchoi in his hands. "I have to attend to business, have to go," she apologises. She leaves me with one more written translation though but this time its not from her cellphone but hand written in Chinese and English. Her message is — God bless you. I smile and say thank you in English and then say, "Bai Bai" — the informal way to say goodbye in Chinese and the only Chinese word I know.
