https://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/chinese-railroad-workers-utah/
"In 1864, 15-year-old Hung Lai Wah and his older brother Hung Jick Wah laid an
offering at the Hung family temple in Dailong Village, Guangdong, China. They
were about to cross the Pacific Ocean to raise their family’s fortunes by
working on a U.S. railroad. They would labor 12 hours a day, six days a week,
preparing the ground for the tracks to follow and blasting through the solid
granite bedrock of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, happy if they advanced 6 inches
a day. Hung Lai Wah would become the boss of a work gang of 30 men. Hung Jick
Wah would lose an eye to the endeavor. Many others would lose their lives.
As the two brothers burned incense and bowed before the altar of their
ancestors, they had no way of knowing that it would be over 150 years before a
descendant of theirs, Russell Low, retraced their steps on the American
railroad.
I met Low, a physician from California in his mid-60s, as the sun rose over
Salt Lake City. It was a cold morning in early May 2019. As we drove north
around the Great Salt Lake, the weak light strengthened, illuminating
snow-capped mountain peaks until, hours later, we turned onto a Bureau of Land
Management backcountry byway.
It was the first day of the Chinese Railroad Workers Descendants Association
conference in Utah, put on to mark the 150th anniversary of the completion of
the first transcontinental railroad. In 1869, the ceremonial “golden spike” was
driven in at Promontory Summit, Utah, which is near where we gathered. More
than 400 people came to the conference to honor the lives of the estimated
10,000 to 15,000 Chinese men who were instrumental in the massive, dangerous
project. Some, like Low, could trace their genealogical roots to individual
railroad workers. Many could not, but they still strove to learn. As the
Chinese proverb, or chéngyŭ, goes: “When drinking water, remember the person
who dug the well” (吃水不忘挖井人; chī shuǐ bù wàng wā jǐng rén)."
Via Esther Schindler.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
