B Street: The Notorious Playground of Coulee Dam

9. The China Man

9 THE CHINA MAN T he Greyhound bus arrived at the small station in Grand Coulee in the early afternoon. It had made its daily trip from Spokane and was en route to Nespelem and then to the Okanogan Valley farther west. Harry Wong stepped from the bus carrying a wellworn suitcase and a decrepit violin case. He was a short man, barely five feet, two inches, and of medium build. Harry was in his midtwenties . He had a friendly face, and his eyes twinkled. Harry looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings. Midway Avenue was busy with people walking to their different destinations . Automobiles stirred pockets of dust as they passed. Harry was a stranger to these parts, and he found the small town intriguing , so unlike Spokane. It was mid-September 1935, and Harry had come to Grand Coulee hoping to find a job. It really didn’t matter what kind of job, but he was hoping to find employment as a cook. That was his specialty. He had worked for three years as a houseboy for a rich white family in Spokane. After that, he had been employed at a Chinese restaurant for nearly six years. Harry started as a dishwasher and handyman. Later, he became a waiter and then learned to cook. 103 But now, he had tired of the large city and wanted to start over in another place. He wanted to live in a small town and experience life in a quiet community with fewer people. Harry hoped one day to own his own business. He wanted to be in charge and have others working for him. This had been his dream since he was sixteen and left Canton, China, to come to America. He remembered that life in Canton was hard. Many of the people there were barely making it. It was very difficult to find jobs. That was the reason many young Chinese left their beloved homeland to seek their fortunes in America. The Chinese who journeyed to the States did not know that they would experience extreme prejudice once they arrived. They found it difficult to learn American ways. The English language did not come easy. Most did not adapt easily to their new lives and kept to themselves. Many had a hard time adjusting to the food Americans ate. They soon found ways of obtaining Chinese foods, spices, and vegetables in the larger cities along the coast and managed to prepare the dishes they had eaten when they lived in China. This made it easier for them to live in a foreign land so far away. The Chinese found it hard to make friends with white people who regarded them as inferior and found security among themselves when confronted with discrimination. In the large cities of Portland , San Francisco, and Seattle, they lived together quietly, keeping their resentment to themselves, and developed communities and societies that were totally Chinese. They never shared their innermost thoughts with white people. They had learned, over the years, never to confide in or trust them. At the bus station, Harry learned that a Chinese restaurant was open for business up on B Street. The man who operated the sta104 THE CHINA MAN tion told him how to get there. Harry picked up his suitcase and his beloved violin case and walked up the steep hill to B Street. He could hear the activity before he got there. The blare of the loudspeakers from the many taverns nearly deafened him. Hundreds of workingmen were milling about. A clutter of small businesses lined both sides of the street. Harry was surprised by the many attractive women he saw. He wondered why they were there and why they were dressed so scantily. All the women wore silk stockings with the seam running down the back of the leg and fashionable high-heeled shoes. There were a number of buildings under construction. The hammering of nails and the sawing of boards added to the noise. As he tried to make his way through hundreds of young workingmen and dozens of pretty young women, he wondered if he had made a mistake in coming to such a place. Following the directions he had been given, Harry found the Chinese restaurant. It was small and nondescript compared to the restaurants where he had worked in Spokane. He opened the door and walked inside, leaving behind the...