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| For the record |
| 05.11.04 (6:23 am) [edit] |
It's taken me two years, but two nights ago I finally interviewed my dad about his life and recorded it to mp3 and even burned it to CD. I've been writing about his life since the interview.
Here's an excerpt. He's describing what it's like living under Apartheid in South Africa:
My parents lived in the big city: Johannesburg. My father was working for the Chinese Councillor as the newspaper division with the government Gazette, earning very little money because it was not profit-making. It was subsidized by the Taiwanese government. Your grandma was the only dressmaker able to make Chinese dresses. She got lot of business. She was quite well known in the small community in Johannesburg. Because of the racial policies and immigration there was less than seven thousand Chinese in Johannesburg.
My family wasn’t allowed to buy a house in South Africa. The Chinese government provided a house for the employees of the newspaper. Their house was shared by three families. Each had one room, sharing a shower and kitchen. Imagine three of us living in one room, four of them living in another room.
I was working for thirty rands a month. Rands were equivalent to two U.S. dollars. I was working for thirty rands a month so I was earning sixty dollars a month working for somebody. Compared with whites it wasn’t much money but compared to blacks it was a lot of money. You can rent a house for thirty rands. No one would rent a big house for himself.
I worked long days and saved as much as possible. I sent it home so my brother and sister could afford to go to private school. They went to a Catholic-run private school where they studied with whites. Chinese could go as long as they could pay the fees. Blacks couldn’t enter the school even if they had money to pay. I couldn’t get a good education because I couldn’t go to white schools unless I paid large sums of money which my parents couldn’t afford to, and I couldn’t go to black schools because I’m a Chinese.
Because my father was earning very little money and couldn’t afford send me to private school. So I had to start working at the age fourteen for somebody outside in Eatondale, about forty-five minutes drive from Johannesburg. I ran a corner convenience store. I worked with no salary because I couldn’t speak English. But there’s only one condition they offered me is a tutor to learn English paid by the employer. But other than that I might have a few dollars pocket money to buy clothes and so on.
After that I start learning English and learning Afrikaans which is official language and some of the native language. Mostly the customers are the Bantus. I’m able to speak Zulu, Sesotho, three or four types of languages. After a year or so when I know how to speak, how to serve the customers, they started paying me a little money but not too much still.
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posted by: lisa (reply)
post date: 05.11.04 (3:38 pm)
I know this is important to you and I think the story of it resonates.
posted by: teatimeturtle (reply)
post date: 05.12.04 (2:56 pm)
Ray that's so awesome, I'm so glad that you finally got around to doing it. Well done :)
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