![]() The depths of both his Chinese and American selves seem to actively resist the narrative language. Details of his Chinese life, meanwhile – his thousand-layer shoes and games of heaven-and-nine – are set off in quote marks, as if foreign even to his own mind. His observations are filtered through period language, so an attacker is described as “a liverish redhead in a fustian jacket”. ![]() ![]() In The Fortunes, Ah Ling is given the lead role, but he seems detached, even ghostly, from himself. According to historical sources, Crocker, impressed by the “docile servitude” of the Chinese, chose Chinese labour for the construction of his Central Pacific Railroad. Davies presents us with a cascade of details of Ah Ling’s American life – the new attire of a western suit and hat, the loss of his long braid – while keeping the man just beyond our grasp. In the first story, we meet Ah Ling, born in southern China and sold across the Pacific as an indentured labourer, who becomes manservant to real-life American tycoon Charles Crocker. ![]()
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