California occupies a unique place in the legends of China. one that may surprise even San Francisco's mayor if she comes across it while she's over there.

It isn't the story of Chinese building our transcontinental Railroad that adventure lasted only a few years.

When the people of Kwangtung Province talk about their ancestors who went to California and virtually all the Chinese here came from Kwangtung -they retell the great saga of how the levees were built in the Sacramento Delta, a construction project that involved their forefathers for almost half a century.

The Delta today – 88,000 fertile acres, a S400 million agricultural industry, 1,000 miles of scenic waterways - might still be a malarial swamp except for the incredible labor of those nameless men.

Ironically, the story of our Delta levees may be better known in China than it is here. Tales of returning workers became part of preference or making a moral judgment. I am simply acknowledging the reality implicit in that shopkeeper s remark.

He wanted me to know that the sweater I was admiring came from his ancestral land, the real China In years of browsing on Grant Avenue, I’ve never heard a shopkeeper speak with such pride of anything from Taiwan or HongKong.

In Chinatowns around the world, you can detect the same resurgence of cultural pride these days. Like it or not. Mao Tse-tung and his followers put China back on the map, and milllons of overseas Chincse take fierce satisfaction in that accomplishment.

That doesn’t mean, they are pro-Communist. We would do them a terrible injustice to assume so. For all they care. Mao could believe in the Tooth Fairy. What counts to them is that after more than a century of humiliation in the councils of nations, China has regained a place of respect. After more than a century of derislon Chnese art and knowledge are receiving the admiration they deserve.

At museums Chinese antiquities draw overflow crowds. Chinese acupuncture is hailed as the latest wonder cure. Visitors to China come back telling of the miracies they've seen Suddenly anything Chin4s3 1"n”

Much of this gee-whiz syndrome should be discounted. Of course Perfection is never found in the first fare zane Miracle-workers

 

always dwell in a far place.

But anyone of Chinese ancestry must feel gratification at the lines of people waiting to pay homage to the latest marvel from China - must feel it's high time And this cultural breakthrough this rekindled awareness of China as the cradle of a great civilization.is likely to be more decisive in solving the riddle of the “two Chinas” than anything our State Department says or does.

It's odd the way the breakthrough came about The Chinese atomic bomb didn't do it; a pingpong ball did. There's a moral somewhere in that.

Our infatuation with things Chinese is not without its comic aspects. Much of what we are discovering isn't new. We didn't have to go to Peking to see acupuncture. It has been practiced for years right here in Chinatown And the wonders of Chinese antiquity were hardly a secret, even before the Brundage collection settled here.

Years ago the Oakland Museum displayed a curious piece of Chinese statuary, It had a roaring lion at each point of the compass, amarble perched precariously in each lion's mouth.a cup underneath to catch the marble. What was it? One of the earliest instruments for earthquake research.

lt didnt attract much comment at the time Mavbe the museum i should put it on display again with a sigr From China”

挖泥机的使用1880年开始