Home remedies’ analysis and left-behind children

Nowadays left-behind children gradually faded from people’s view. However, what Wang shows to us in “Mott street in July” discovered one type of generation in the past that barely no one remember. Related to the history, the context of left-behind children and what Wang tries to express through the story, will become clear and cause people to deeply think about.

In 20th century after the Gold Rush in California, another batch of Chinese choose to immigrate to California or New York because they think these are the cities which full of chances. However different from what they expected, their life doesn’t get improve especially for these people who didn’t find an stable job also have a family with their kids are needed to take care. These people were one of the Immigrations who come in US in 20th century, after the Chinese Student Protection Act in 1992. The situations for them were worser than these parents in China. Having the right to work and live legally in the United States prompted many immigrants from Hong Kong and Taiwan to pursue jobs in the United States. In the late 1990s through early 2000s, there was a significant influx in employment for Chinese laborers, according to census data analysis. In US, life doesn’t become better because of the huge competition of jobs especially for the people with yellow skin. In the earlier Gold Rush in 19th century, huge amount of Chinese workers come in to the jobs of mining with cheap price which makes white people angry in every level of society. Most of the stereotype and racial bias of Chinese until nowadays were exist during that time. Whatever the salary treatment or the social status, Chinese labors were the least liked in the society.

In the story “Mott Street In July” we can find a lot of description that hint the awkward situation cause by the stereotype since 19th century. Lucy and her two brother’s family tragedy are common for Chinese young generations on that time whatever in China or these Immigrations in US. As what Xuan Juliana Wang said in her book’s interview ‘It was very customary for parents to leave their children and take care by their grandparents.’ In China people call these children “left-behind” which means the children stay with their grandparents in their village and their own parents go to the city do odd jobs and barely come back. As what Lucy’s father did, find a new job leave his family alone makes his three kids as “left-behind children”and never come back. By the day that three of his children’s growth, he can not suffer the pressure from whole family’s outcome with his low salary anymore and leave this mass to his irresponsible wife.

The irony is that every kids like Lucy has a maturity that is not available at this age. “If she and her brothers were changing with each passing day, then her parents must be as well, and even if no one would tell her why, she wanted to know how. She alone searched for the opening into the concealed passage ways that wound through each of her parents’ hearts, into the things they didn’t tell her about.” (Wang 6) Before the tragic happened, Lucy can feel the lack of love from her parents and were try to learn how to get closer to them. Different from her two brothers, she was good at observing. She found the tattoo on father’s belly, by the time when he find a new job Lucy was also the first person find out that her dad become skinny and talk less in the house “ He ate quickly, his hands blackened from soot, not speaking to them even if they asked. It seems like Lucy was the only one who care about others in this family. After Dad’s gone and mother’s out of control. Lucy has showed the composure that he shouldn’t have at this age, when her mom start go casino till late and even gave less love to her, she didn’t drop one drop of tears and still, love her just because she was her mother. “ There was no happiness without sorrow, no love without pity. While the cop finished his report, the youngest child touched the top of her mon’s head, and she hated her. And she loved her. She hated her and she loved her.”(Wang 11) Lucy was a very thoughtful person. She was trying to understand why the thing would be end like this and try take care about her two brothers when stuffs about her parents were faded away and finally be abandoned in the end.

In Wang’s hand, Lucy’s story became a fantasy that desire for hope. In the end, Lucy find her parents was in another train which go to a different destination. It is impossible for a kids keep calm when she realized her parents are already abandoned her and will never come back. In the end Lucy recalled the memory that they had a happiness family “For just those few seconds, the five of them were together in motion, so close.”(Wang 19) As same as these left-behind group of child hoping there must one day their parents back and have a happiness family then have an forever endless loneliness await.

Works cited:

Orrenius, Pia; Zavodny, Madeline; Kerr, Emily (25 June 2012). “Chinese Immigrants in the U.S. Labor Market: Effects of Post?Tiananmen Immigration Policy”. Immigration Migration Review. 46 (2): 456–482. doi:10.1111/j.1747-7379.2012.00893.x. hdl:10419/58772.