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Chinatown Family is a 1948 novel by Lin Yutang set in New York City's Chinatown of the 1920s and 1930s, concerning the experiences of the Fongs, a Chinese-American family in becoming successful by hard work and endurance in a sometimes less than welcoming America. 〔''Chinatown Family'' (New York: John Day, 1948; rpr. edited and with an Introduction by Cheng Lok Chua; Rutgers University Press, 2007).〕 ==Plot== At the beginning of the novel, Tom, Sr. who runs a laundry on the upper East side, has succeeded in bringing his younger daughter (Eva) and son (Tom, Jr.) from China to New York to join him and his wife (Mother Fong) and his other children. In the course of the novel, the family succeeds in establishing itself in American culture by its hard work and devotion to democratic principles and offers a critique of Americans who do not live up to these ideals. The family welcomes a new daughter in law, Flora, an Italian-American. They say “you are like a Chinese woman” because you “work hard all day and have no quarrels with your husband and the parents.” In Italy, she replies, “a padre is a padre.” () Another Fong brother becomes an insurance salesman who becomes infatuated with a nightclub dancer who is only interested in material things. Tom, Jr., the leading character, learns English with a diligence which helps Miss Cartwright, his American teacher, to “rediscover the English language.” He shows up American students who do not appreciate their own language and do not work hard to master it. He paraphrases the Declaration of Independence into basic English to reveal its importance for the world. () He has to learn Mandarin Chinese in addition to his Cantonese to court Elsie, who came from Shanghai, and then he has to study literature, both Walt Whitman and Laozi.(138 ) But in the late 1930s, when the Japanese army was invading China, Elsie leaves to return to her homeland to support the war effort. Tom, Sr. is hit by a car while crossing the street – “dying a typically American death.” () The mother of the driver shows up to offer the family compensation money which is enough to send Tom, Jr., to college and to finance the opening of their restaurant in Chinatown. () 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Chinatown Family」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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