化　境　神　似

Journey to the West (8)- -

by Shen Youqian 沈有乾

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8. Aboard Ship

THE SHIP WE TOOK was the President McKinley, of the Admiral-Oriental Line. According to the commemorative booklet they gave out, this ship had only been in service for one year, and had previously been called The Keystone State. It was 535 feet long, 72 feet wide, and 50 feet tall. It could carry 22,000 tons and could travel at 17 knots (that is, 20 statute miles per hour). There were 252 crew members and a maximum of 760 passengers. Compared with the ships that sail the Pacific today, this kind of ship only rates third class, but at the time we all thought it amazing.

   Our ship, the President McKinley, was originally scheduled to depart on 16 July, and in the end, it was on 16 July that we departed. This should not have been anything remarkable, but the day before we were told that departure had been delayed a day, and we nearly missed boarding because of this.

   On the afternoon of the 15th, when I accompanied Mr. Xu - the teacher sent by the school especially to take care of us in Shanghai - to the office to pick up our tickets, a clerk told me that because of a schedule error coming in to port, the ship could not leave port on time. They decided to delay one day; the ferry would probably be leaving the new pier in the morning of the 17th. He couldn't guarantee the time, however, and had me come back the next day at around 10 to inquire again.

   According to my own experience, there is never any set time for Chinese ferries to depart, and even if there is, it is kept a close secret. As for foreign ferries, it has been said that when telling Chinese passengers the departure time, they set it thirty minutes early. One time a large group of passengers became very worried when a friend of theirs had not yet arrived 30 minutes before the ship departed. When this experienced traveler arrived 15 minutes later, he confirmed that there was still a quarter of an hour left until the ship would actually depart. He said that when inquiring about the schedule, it was important to use English in order to get the correct information.

   While I do not entirely believe that company clerks will quote a departure time thirty minutes early, I did not expect them to quote a departure date one day late. But at 10am on the 16th there was a notice posted on the office door saying that the ferry to the President McKinley would be leaving from the new pier at 1:00 that afternoon. Reading this notice, I was struck dumb (the notice was in English, so the company was obviously not moving the time up one day because they were afraid that slow Chinese passengers would not make it on time). I read it again to make sure that I had not misread "today". I was both angry and panicked - angry because the office was closed and I had no way to settle things with the lying clerk, and panicked because I had to go to the Youth Association to tell my classmates, and then come back to the south side to pack my own luggage. When I reached the Youth Association, I learned that my classmates had already received news of the change in dates from the company by telephone, and they in the process of finding someone to help move their trunks. This eased my temper a bit, but I was even more panicked. Yet as flustered as I was, I could still hold onto a small bit of insurance: I wouldn't be the only one left behind on the shore, since the tickets and passports for 29 people were still in my possession, and perhaps the ferry would even wait a few minutes for me. Ultimately I ended up making it with two minutes to spare.

   We boarded the ship in Shanghai on 16 July, and reached the shore in Seattle, Washington, on 1 August. But the time aboard the ship was not counted according to a standard calendar - we spent a total of 17 nights on board, passing 26 July twice. Days were not necessarily 24 hours long, and the shortest one was only 23 hours 28 minutes.

   In the beginning, Chinese students all traveled first class to America, and we were no exception. There were two reasons for this: first, ocean liners crossing the Pacific offered first class and steerage only, with no second or third class rooms; and second, it was thought that traveling at anything other than first class might make things difficult at American immigration. First class, however, was not what most Chinese students were used to for their standard of living; while we were not quite to the point of making fools of ourselves like Grandma Liu when she entered the garden^*, in general we enjoyed ourselves too much. It was calm the entire journey, and apart from a very few who got seasick, no one missed a meal. When we reached the shore, everyone said that it was too bad the ship had traveled so quickly.

   At that time Chinese mahjong had not been in the US for very long and was still quite the rage. The ship printed up rules and organized competitions. I'm ashamed to admit that China's "national game" of mahjong I only learned after reading the English rules on that American ship. Someone once said that the Chinese are an individual people, so all of their games are like mahjong in that individuals play for themselves without any team cooperation. Whether this is true is hard to say; it probably is not entirely correct, yet not entirely incorrect either. But the Chinese inability to cooperate stems at least in part from their lack of team games.

   There was one other memorable thing that occurred aboard ship. To demonstrate Americans' honesty and lack of petty greed, I must disclose my own muddle-headedness. I had a twenty-dollar bill that I wanted to exchange for two tens at the treasury. The treasurer said he had no tens, and asked if fives would be okay. I said to give me two (not four) five-dollar bills. So he gave me two fives in exchange for a twenty. After a bit, I realized my mistake. I was unwilling to write off ten US dollars, and I half-believed that the treasurer was an honest man, so I put on my most serious face and demanded it back. He saw that there really was a twenty-dollar bill right in the top of the drawer, and he truly didn't have any tens, so he gave me two more fives without any hesitation.

   After this lesson (or encouragement?), I played a similar game at a pharmacy near Stanford. The details I need not go into. If federal detectives were following me, they would be certain to assume I was testing the honesty of Americans. (The reader should note here that I am not so cavalier with my finances in China. And after proclaiming my weakness here, I will naturally be extra careful, so there will be no opportunity for taking advantage.)

   I must add one more thing: Because Americans did not cheat me of my money, I resolved not to cheat Americans of theirs. A while later, at a restaurant in New York, I tried to return a dime in change that I did not deserve, but the woman taking the money refused to accept it. She probably would rather have taken the loss than admit her mistake, especially since it was such a small amount.

   But I have talked my way off the boat.

Note:

*: 刘姥姥进大观园: In a chapter of Dream of the Red Chambers, a rustic old lady visits the opulent garden and commits faux pas after faux pas to the general amusement of her upper-class hosts.