Hybrid: Three Pieces by Alison Zheng
Portrait
He was only nineteen and there were multiple mouths to feed. It didn’t seem to matter which
direction he turned— in China, they all felt like dead ends. Everyone says he went to Gam Saan, but
nobody knows what he did there. When he stopped sending money home, they assumed he died.
They left his portrait on the mantle of our ancestral home. I visited it for the first-time last winter.
When mom opened the doors, she instructed me: Say hello to Tai Gong. In silence, we bowed to a
drawing of him as a teenage boy. Are you curious about what his life was like? No. What’s the point?
daily wage: one dollar
half pound rice, half pound fish
barrels of hot tea
At the foot of Mount Tamalpais, he worked on the crookedest railroad in the world. He stood next
to the Pacific Ocean and graded the route. He ate miner’s lettuce and laid the rails. He thought fried
oysters with eggs were weird. After six months, he moved to China Camp Village near San Pablo
Bay. There, he learned the magic of shrimping. There, he met a barber. He found himself more
handsome without a cue. He took comfort in other lonely Chinese men. After a while, shrimp
exporting was outlawed.
boil in salt brine
dry in the sun and loosen
remove meat from shell
State Park
I.
Ayala Cove. Isla de los Angeles. Camp Reynolds. Fort McDowell. Immigration Station.
拘留營. The Wooden House. Eucalyptus. Deer. Chinks. State Park. The best view of
the Golden Gate Bridge. Where a white guy once dumped me.
II.
How old are you?
What is your husband’s
name & occupation?
Can you please disrobe
for the medical examination?
We’d like for you draw a
map of your village.
Your parents live on the
west side? Are you certain?
And this is the house of
your in-laws?
Which part of the house
do they keep their altar in?
How often did you & your
husband have sex before
he immigrated here?
How large is his penis?
You had sex twice a week,
& you don’t know?
Ok. Let’s break for lunch
& resume at 1:30PM.
Nineteen.
Yee Tet Ming.
Merchant.
[
]
I’ll try my best,
thank you.
I… I don’t know.
Yes.
In the kitchen. It’s
separate. It’s a shack.
Twice a week, after
I was done with my
chores.
I never measured it.
He left so long ago.
… Please.
Thank you, sirs.
Fifteen.
A Gam Saan haak. He’s
thirty-five. We’ve never met.
I would rather sink to the
bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
[
]
All I remember are my
baby sister’s hands.
I wish they wouldn’t spit
when they speak to me.
They stare at me like I’m
lying. Like, I’m a criminal.
Fuckers.
This is in their records too?
[Red washes over]
[They escort her back to the
wooden barracks, where she
contemplates suicide again]
III.
Yee Po was deported to Hong Kong. She sold
rice on the streets until she saved up enough
money for a ferry ride back to Zhongshan.
Later in life, Yee Po & Yee Gong immigrated to
Gam Saan together. She let everyone, including
her family, believe that this was her first time.
From My Grandmother’s Eldest Sister
Note: Historians say that most of the found poetry from Angel Island were written by men.
Inside the wooden house:
one blanket, yellowed greens.
Outside: mother’s anxieties,
hungry sisters, fog.
I want to eat gai lan.
I never look for the moon.
- Gui Yi from Zhongshan
About Alison Zheng
Alison Zheng (she/her) was born & raised on Ohlone land (San Francisco). Her work has been published in or is forthcoming from Francis House, giallo lit, The Westchester Review, Rabbit: A Journal For Non-Fiction Poetry, & more. She's a poetry reader for Non.Plus Lit.