Subsection 1.4.  Rights and Individual Benefit are Supreme 

 

Two years ago, a large department store was promoting the sale of bras made by a famous designer manufacturer and put out big advertisements announcing that on a certain weekend at 9 o'clock in the morning the store would give away for free 500 bras. Each person was limited to just one;  first come first served.

 

This rather enticing promotion attracted many women who lined up early before the department store to wait their turn.  Among the colorful and vivacious crowd was a big man. When it was his turn, the department store refused to give him a bra because men did not wear bras. He was just being funny and playing a dirty joke. But the man said that the advertisement did not mention that the gift was for women only and he insisted on getting a bra as gift. The department store still refused him and the man left angrily. The next day he filed a lawsuit claiming that the department store did not fulfill the promise on the advertisement. The department store ended up giving him a bra in order to put this matter behind it. Rights are supreme. Whether the issue is big or small, "don't take away my rights" is the core of the American mindset. We have discussed previously the culture of victims. Fighting for your right is one aspect of this culture, and the reason Americans litigate at the drop of a hat.

 

Understanding the culture of the rights being supreme among Americans is very useful for living in this country. Let us take a look at the following story.

 

I owned a luxury condo in San Francisco and rented it to a doctor.  We got along well and became pretty good friends. Later the doctor bought his own house and moved out. After he moved I spent over a thousand dollars to paint the condo, make repairs, and clean the carpet, etc.  I took out from the total an invoice for $400 for cleaning and sent it to the doctor, asking that it be deducted from his security deposit.

 

According to the law, the $400 cleaning fee was not entirely the tenant's responsibility because he has lived in the condo for over two years and the property depreciated during this period; the cleaning fees should be reduced a little bit.  I knew this, but I also knew if I volunteered too early to reduce the invoice, I would only invite the tenant to ask for more reduction or simply refused to pay at all.  I sent off the entire $400 invoice to prepare for when the tenant asked to bargain.

 

Sure enough, after the doctor received the invoice he got upset and angrily called, saying that the landlord was partially responsible for the cleaning and also wanted to calculate the amount of interest on the one thousand plus deposit over two years, which he said amounted to at least several tens of dollars. I calmly said to him that since we were friends, why don't we compromise? In the end each of us paid half the invoice. This small story brings out some philosophies and principles involved in dealing with Americans. These principles are applicable to daily lives, whether important or minor affairs.

  

First, in American society, generally friends are friends, but when it comes to money, the divisions are clear, down to the last penny. This is not because Americans are mean;  they think it is a matter of rights.

 

Second, similarly, speaking of rights, Americans will never give them up and never "waive" their rights.  The above story about the bra is typical.

 

Third, Americans are used to taking what is offered but not returning the favor. If you want to be a nice guy, that is up to you. There is something appropriate for everything.  Whether the issues are big or small, they will stand firmly on it.　

 

In the above story about my rental, if I were more generous and simply did not bother to ask the tenant for the cleaning fees, the amount involved is not a big deal.  However, waiving the demand for money voluntarily will be taken for granted, and the tenant will still ask to get back the interest on his deposit, because his right is a separate matter.

 

If the reader can understand the above three principles, he will understand that Americans do go by what is "appropriate". And appropriate means rights. If a Chinese person lives in America or is doing business here and does not understand those cultural backgrounds, he might meet often unexpected frustration, shock, disappointment and even annoyance.

 

Section 2.  When you Drink Water, be Grateful to the Source;  Remember to Keep Improving

 

Less than one hundred miles northeast of San Francisco is California Highway 49. The road is called 49 because in 1849 gold was discovered in California and people from all corners of the world rushed in. The gold miners from that era built a string of small towns. Later they were linked together to become Highway 49. In the middle of this stretch of about 200 miles of Highway 49 is a small town named Coloma. Coloma used to be a center of gold mining but is now a beautiful, scenic park. Inside the park is a gold mining museum. Next to the museum is a very well preserved stone house, which used to be a general store established by the Chinese people in the 1850's.  To the overseas Chinese, this location has a special history and emotional value.

 

The Chinese who came to Coloma in the 1840's were just like the other people who were here to mine gold; they wanted to get rich. However, they could only work for white people. The white people might find up to hundred pounds of gold, but the Chinese could only receive a wage of 50 cents per day, barely sufficient to keep alive. Additionally they suffered the abuses of the white people. The dream of finding gold was unfulfilled, but thousands of Chinese corpses were abandoned and spread among the barren mountains.

 

Although the Chinese dream of discovering gold more than a hundred years ago ended with blood and tears, the Chinese eventually discover gold more than a hundred years later in the New World. However, this kind of gold is not the shining gold nuggets, but the kind of gold mentioned in the ancient Chinese saying that "inside the books is a house of gold". 

 

However, the accomplishments of the Chinese in recent years cannot cover up our shortcomings. The United States can truly be called a "gold mountain", not because its land is covered with gold, but because of its stable democratic political system, its society of equality and freedom, and its law which respects human rights, its open, independent media, the institutions which have oversight over the corrupt officials, the its people who enthusiastically make voluntary contributions. (The charitable donations of Americans are 5% of their total income).  The immigrants of Chinese descent often ignore these virtues of the United States and do not try hard to make contributions.  For example, in education,the Chinese have received the most benefits, but Chinese parents are most often criticized for not participating in the volunteer work in the school.  In the past, the overseas Chinese were not united;  in part it was because of parochial homeland tribalistic concepts.  For example, in California, the earlier overseas Chinese had already suffered the pain of Chinese exclusion, yet the people from Taishan County dominated San Francisco and drove out the people  from Chongshan County who had to move in early twentieth century to Sacramento.  That was a commonly known fact.

 

Besides introducing the laws of the United States, the purpose of my writing this book is to encourage us Chinese people to open up our capacity to learn from other people, as in the saying "the stone from the other hill can be useful in carving our jade". We need to develop this capacity to understand the American society, people and system. Particularly those people who are planing to reside in the United States, they must not forget their civic duties. Otherwise, their future in this country is going to be problematic in the end. 

 

It is indisputable that there here are too many lawyers and litigations in the United States. While the image among Americans overall is not as good as before, from the view of the minorities, the status of a lawyer is still very special.  This perspective deserves some analysis.  I recall that over thirty years ago I saw a lecture given by President Kennedy to some students in which he said, "The purpose of the Constitution is the protection of the minority". At the time I could not understand his meaning.  However, that sentence left a very deep impression in my brain.  After the reader has read this book, perhaps he will appreciate and experience the meaning of President Kennedy's statement even more than I did at the time.

 

President Kennedy was right. The spirit of the United States Constitution is to use the law to protect the minority in a democratic society from the oppression of the majority.  In the United States, the protection of the Constitution is not an empty abstraction but is actually implemented.  For example, if there were no protection from the Constitution, the Proposition 187, passed by California in 1995, which is more harsh and hostile to the immigrants, would have been implemented some time ago. 

 

For this reason, compared to other Americans, the racial minorities have a special feeling for and dependence on the Constitution. Their special respect for the lawyers is accordingly easy to comprehend.  The lawyers hailed from racial minority communities should have a stronger sense of mission and drive to contribute to freedom, equality and justice.

 

It was because of the contributions made by the black people to the American civil rights movement in the 1960's, the racial minorities, including those with Chinese descent, were given a chance to hold their heads high. One of the side effects of the civil rights movement was the abolition of discriminatory immigration law. As a result many minority immigrants could immigrate to the United States in large numbers and we can enjoy the comfortable home life and making a good living today.  Discrimination is not just a violation of the Constitution, it is a hurdle for the society to reach perfection. I have not intention of singing the praise of "people of the world unite", but if different racial groups work together to fight for cultural exchange and understanding and respect each other with the sincere capacity and attitude, then at least the unnecessary and unreasonable frictions will decrease. It is my wish that this book will offer reader some help in this endeavor, and together with everyone make the modest contribution to the best of my ability.

 

 

 

 

 END