主题：The First Burger -- 唵啊吽

A hungry man ran into a restaurant and ordered one burger. He swallowed the burger into his belly but still felt very hungry. So he ordered another one. He ate the second one quickly and felt something stuffed inside his belly. However the man continued to order the third one. This time he ate the burger slowly and enjoyed the taste of it. Eventually he got his stomach full and found a feeling of having a dinner. Then a waitress came, stood in front of him, and put a bill on his table. After seeing the bill, the belly-stuffed hungry man immediately jumped into anger and complained there was one bad burger and he would refuse to pay it.

“Sir, what's the problem of that bad burger?” the waitress asked carefully.

“Lady, my belly was not satisfied with it.”

“Why?”

“I ate that burger but my stomach cannot feel it!”

“Which burger is it?”

“Lady, it is the first one. ”.

Wong Chin Foo is a pioneer of non-violent civil right advocator. Many people do not know this name just like the hungry man does not feel the first burger. Wong Chin Foo founded the Chinese American Voters Association (CAVA) way back in 1884, which is ten years earlier than the well-known organization Natal Indian Congress (NIC) originated by Gandhi, who eventually becomes the godfather of the modern India. The African American hero Martin Luther King gave the famous speech“I have a dream”in 1963, which is considered to be an announcement of civil right today. However, Wong Chin Foo wrote an article entitled“ Appeal to the People of United States for Equality and Manhood” in 1892. Both of them appealed for equality regardless of race and skin colour but Wang Chin Foo was 71 years earlier than King.

We should keep all of them in mind, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Wong Chin Foo. The reason is as the same as the hungry man should pay for all three burgers.

Wong Chin Foo was born in China in 1851. When he was 17, he went to America in 1868 as a student. Two years later, he returned to China and devoted himself into civil rights movement in China. He set up a grass root association aiming at fighting abuse of opium, which challenged the authority of Qing government, the Chinese administration at that time. As a punishment, the Qing government not only banned his organization, but also demanded his head for 1,500 taels of silver. Therefore, he was forced to leave China and started the exile. In 1873, he stepped on the land of America again and was naturalized as American citizen in the next year.

To fight the growing anti-Chinese racism of 1870’s America, Wong Chin Foo gave speeches everywhere and wrote articles to introduce China, Chinese culture and customs to American people. In 1882, the congress passed “Chinese Exclusion Act”. As a response, Wong Chin Foo soon set up a weekly newspaper Chinese American the next year and organized the first Chinese American voters association in 1884, which advocates equal justice under law, the principle violated by the prejudiced “Chinese Exclusion Act”. In 1892, American congress passed the Geary Act that required all Chinese residents of the United States to carry a resident permit, which resembled the internal passport system Indians subjected in South Africa at that time. Wong Chin Foo fought against this institutionalized discrimination by setting up the Chinese Equal Rights League of America (CERLA) in 1892. The similar but much more famous organization NIC in India was founded two years later by Gandhi. The certificates of the CERLA members were printed: “We ask and demand for an equal franchise for the Americanized Chinese of the United States”. They demanded the voting right that is protected by the Fifteenth Amendment rectified in 1870. Fifteenth Amendment forbids the denial of voting right based on race and colour. Wong Chin Foo’s activities were non-violent civil right movement affirming the Constitution.

For a quarter of a century, Wong Chin Foo had been a non-violent civil rights activist and pursuing the rule of law under constitution and against racism. Gandhi succeeded in the independence of India, and Martin Luther King won equal right for African American, but Wong Chin Foo passed away before his dream comes true. The Chinese Exclusion Act was finally repelled in 1943. Impressed by those winners of the civil rights movement, people today tend to forget the pioneers, just as the hungry man cannot feel the first burger. While we recall Gandhi and Martin Luther King, the heroes in the history of the civil rights, we should also keep Wong Chin Foo in mind. We should commemorate Wong Chin Foo just as the hungry man should pay the first burger.

（洗心二稿，coo三稿）。