As I watch the ship sail away I realise that I would never leave Jamaica. Never. I was committed to her, for good or bad, rich or poor, in sickness and in health. I stand there and I remember the day at Matthews Lane when I ask Zhang how come he leave China and come to Jamaica. And just the same way him do everything direct, Zhang get up from the table and march me up to the top of the yard and into his room. I never step foot inside that room before so I just stand there in the doorway and look inside. It was dark, because although it have a door the room don’t have no window. Then what I realise is, is only the first four rooms got windows. The last one only got a door. Zhang give himself a storeroom to sleep in.
The first thing that hit me was the smell of clean cotton. Then when my eyes get accustomed, I see that the place look like him must scrub it from top to bottom every day. And it sparse, a canvas cot to sleep on, a camphor chest, and a old rocking chair. And hanging on the wall next to his bed, a narrow-blade sword with a brass hand-guard.
Him tell me to sit, so I ease into the rocking chair. Then him open the chest and dig into it like he looking for something. When he turn ’round he got three letters in his hand. He come over and squat down next to me, and hand me the first letter. It was from Mr Chin and the Kingston Chinese merchants.
. We hear you are a fierce and courageous soldier, loyal to the Chinese people. An expert in the martial arts, a crack shot with a gun. We have trouble in Jamaica and ask you to come as swiftly as possible. You will be generously rewarded. We will pay your credit-ticket on arrival. Do not bother with the coolie crimps. Those despicable Chinese gangsters will sell you by the head to a barracoon agent. Just go straight to the British Emigration House right there in Guangzhou. Let us know when you are leaving. We will be there to meet your ship in Kingston.
Zhang lean toward me and sorta whisper, ‘I don’t know how they come to settle their sights on me. I had heard of such things and I knew that if they were not there the ship’s captain would sell me on the docks of Kingston to recoup the passage. He would sell me to the highest bidder, most likely stark naked for them to judge my full worth. So I was in no hurry to meet such a fate.’
Him whispering to me in the semi-dark like this give me a feeling that he was telling me something he never tell nobody before. It fill me with honour, and fear that maybe one day I go let him down. Then he carry on.
‘China was ruined by the foreigners with their war indemnities and taxes and imported goods. We had become a country that was half feudal and half colonised. That is why your father and I participated in the fighting. We wanted to create a China that was free from foreign control, and a country in which the ordinary man and woman could have a decent life. That is what it was all about.’
I done heard this whole story a hundred times before. But something about him telling it to me right here in his room, with this long-off look in his eye, make it seem like there was something special ’bout it this time, so I just let him carry on and I listen to him with a keenness like it was all news to me.
‘I took no notice of Chin’s letter because I was busy fighting a war. But after such great victory and the founding of the Republic, everything came to nothing when Sun Yat-sen gave way to the warlord Yuan Shikai. The foreigners loved Yuan Shikai. He had their confidence so nothing would change as long as he was in power. The Chinese people would remain oppressed and impoverished and under the rule of the warlords and the foreigners. So that was when I decided to leave. I thought that maybe I could serve a better purpose helping these Chinese in Kingston.’
Zhang stood up in the middle of the room, straight and proud. ‘Your father was my best friend from boyhood so when he married your mother I thought that was good for him. He was settled. Your mother was a hardworking girl from an honourable family; a believer in the Republic; a supporter of Dr Sun Yat-sen. He could not have made a better match.’
Just then I turn ’round and see one of the ducks making to come into the room so I get up and go shoo it away. When I come back Zhang got the second letter in his hand. By now the light was fading, so he walk over to the door and stand there in the open space.
‘I wrote to Yang Tzu, your father, a little while after I settled in Jamaica but I did not get a reply. It was three years before your mother wrote back to me.’ And then he start to read.
‘Yang Tzu is well. We have been working very hard in the fields so that we have enough. But times are hard. The warlords are relentless. They keep increasing the land rent and other taxes are high and numerous as ever. Yuan Shikai has even tried to have himself crowned as Emperor. Tzu continues to support the struggle of the revolutionary forces, but it is difficult. Many of the bourgeoisie seem happy to follow the warlords, and although Sun Yat-sen is still committed to the salvation of China the revolution seems to have lost its way. At the moment Tzu is deeply concerned about the Japanese who have taken control of Shandong and Manchuria and whose enterprises are expanding greatly in China. He is convinced that they are set on turning China into a colony for their exclusive exploitation while the Western imperialists are busy with their war in Europe. We have a son. Tzu insisted that he should be named Yang Xiuquan. So he too is thinking of you.’
‘Then in 1925 she sent me another letter.
‘Yang Tzu is dead. Shot by British and French soldiers at Shaji supporting Guangzhou-Hongkong strikers. We have a second son, Yang Pao. Your sister by affection. Meiling.
‘So that was when I went to Chin and the Chinatown Committee and asked them to pay me because in all the years I had never received a penny, I was just given whatever food or supplies I needed from the stores, and Chin paid my rent in Luke Lane so I had no need. But now I needed cash money for your passage. I also asked Chin to let me start up a little pai-ke-p’iao business. We Chinese like to gamble, so I thought I could make something there and he agreed.
‘Chin said to me, “You get woman and boys from China? Good. Time you married and have family.” So he was keen but he had the wrong idea, and I did not feel like I wanted to explain anything to him. I just wrote to Meiling and told her I would send the passage for the three of you to come to Jamaica.’
Next day I ask Ma why my father never reply to Zhang’s letter. She say, ‘He tried many times, but his tears soaked into the paper.’
After that I just do what Zhang tell me to do, and hope that maybe one day I become like him, a man that believe in something. A man that is loyal to a cause. A man that people can count on. Sun Tzu say, ‘ The wrong person cannot be appointed to command. This is like gluing the pegs of a lute and then trying to tune it .’