Forked Tongues

Here's an interview with Marlon Hom, who translated poetry written by Chinese immigrants on the walls of the Angel Island detention facility in San Francisco Bay. Quotes that I found especially interesting:

SE: Can you generalize a little bit about the substance of the poems? What do they tend to be about, and what was the level of education and literacy of the people who wrote them?

MH: The Angel Island rhymes were voices of complaint on mistreatment; they were physical proofs that the Chinese immigrants were not all illiterate labor. In fact, with a careful reading, in conjunction with the local Chinatown Chinese language use, one would notice that on the reference to U.S. immigration practice (Chinese Exclusion Act). The Chinese language in these rhymes and the community media was used as a subversive expression of resistance against the U.S. immigration authority.

[...]

SE: Lastly, I wanted to ask about the impact of the Angel Island poems and the Chinese-American songs on China. I understand that some of these were actually published back in China at the time. What kinds of messages did these published works convey, and what did the Chinese make of them?

MH: A long narrative rhyme on Angel Island immigration detention was published in the Xinning Magzine (Toishan) in the early 1911. Other than that, nobody knew anything about these Chinese American creative writings at Angel Island until Him Mark Lai, et al. made the Island anthology available to the reading public in 1980. Same goes for the Gold Mountain Rhymes, until my translation appeared in 1987. It was through Him Mark Lai’s frequent visits to southern China in 1980s and 1990s that this genre of Chinese American creative writings was recognized and circulated in Mainland China. Same goes for the Gold Mountain vernacular rhymes. It didn’t gain any attention until I sent copies to friends and associates in Chinese universities in the early mid 1990s.

Many Chinese scholars were mostly brainwashed by Anglo-American historians who regarded early Chinese American immigrants as the illiterate working class. These writings actually opened their eyes, recognizing that literacy did exist and was in popular demand in the early Chinese-American community.

(For those of you in the SF Bay Area, there's going to be a free event with Marlon Hom on May 11 to discuss these poems.)

Four of the poems, with the original Chinese as well an English translation, can be found at The Poetry of Angel Island.

Hom has published his translations in an anthology titled Songs of Gold Mountain.