主题：The First Burger -- 唵啊吽

The First Burger

A hungry man ran into a restaurant and ordered one burger. The burger came no sooner than he swallowed it into his belly. He still felt very hungry and so he asked the waitress for another one. The second was soon delivered to his table and it also vanished quickly. The hungry man continued his third order. This time he ate the burger slowly and started to enjoy the taste of it. At the end of the day, the hungry man found his stomach full, smiled, and satisfied with the feeling of finishing a dinner. Then the waitress came, stood in front of him, and put a bill on his table. As soon as he saw the bill, the belly-stuffed hungry man immediately jumped into anger, with his mouth pouring out complains that he ate one bad burger and he would refuse to pay it.

“Sir, what's the problem of that bad burger?”

The waitress asked him carefully.

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

“Why?”

“I ate that burger but my stomach cannot feel it. So I cannot find any reason to pay that burger.”

“Which burger is it?”

“Lady, it is the first one."

Wong Chin Foo is a pioneer of non-violent civil rights for Chinese Americans, even though His name is not as famous as either Gandi or Matin Luther King , both are worldwide recognized civil right activists. Wong Chin Foo founded the Chinese American Voters Association (CAVA) way back in 1884, which is ten years earlier than the well known National Indian Congress (NIC) for non-violent civil right originated by Gandi, who eventually becomes the godfather of the modern India. Wong Chin Foo wrote an article entitled“ Appeal to the People of United States for Equality and Manhood” in 1892 to appeal for equality regardless of race and skin color, which is 71 years earlier than the famous anti-racism speech “I have a dream” given by African American hero Martin Luther King in 1963, a landmark announcement of civil right considered by many historians. 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. In 1868, a the age of 17, he went to America as a student. Two years later, he returned to China and devoted himself into civil rights movement in China. He set up a grassroot association aiming at fighting abuse of opium. Though all of Wong's activities were greatly beneficial to the local community, he seriously challenged the authority of Qing government, the Chinese administration at that time. As a punishment, not only his organization was banned, but also his head was demanded for 1,500 teals of silver by the Qing government. To avoid persecution, he was forced to leave China and started an exile. He stepped on the land of America again in 1873, and was naturalized as American citizen in the next year.

In 1870s, there was growing public prejudice toward American Chinese in United States, due to lack of knowledge about China and the language barrier between the most of American Chinese and other Americans, which finally resulted in anti-Chinese racism. In order to correct the public stereotype about American Chinese, Wong Chin Foo attempted his fighting against the prejudice toward Chinese by educating American publics with Chinese culture. He gave lectures domestically and wrote journal articles very often to introduce China, Chinese history and customs . In 1882, the American congress passed “Chinese Exclusion Act”. As a response, Wong Chin Foo soon set up a weekly newspaper Chinese American in the next year and organized the first Chinese American Voters Association (CAVA) in 1884 that advocates equal justice under law and the principle violated by the prejudiced "Chinese Exclusion Act". In 1892, the notorious Geary Act was passed that all Chinese residents of the United States were required to carry a resident permit, which resembled the internal passport system Indians subjected in South Africa at that time. Accordingly Wong Chin Foo fought against this institutionalized discrimination by setting up the Chinese Equal Rights League of America (CERLA) in the same year, while a similar but much more famous organization NIC in India was founded two years later by Gandi. The CERLA members carried their certificates with them that was printed,“We ask and demand for an equal franchise for the Americanized Chinese of the United States", appealing for their voting right that is deprived but protected by the Fifteenth Amendment rectified in 1870 that forbids the denial of voting right based on race and color. 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 pursuing the rule of law under constitution to oppose racism and engaging himself with non-violent civil rights for Chinese Americans. However the Chinese American pioneer could not wait till that day when the Chinese Exclusion Act was finally repelled in 1943, like neither Gandhi's success in the independence of India, nor Martin Luther King's winning equal right for African American.

Today, those early civil rights fighters tends to be overlooked while only the winners are memorized, which is reflected by the same logic that the first burger is not felt by the hungry man. As the first burger should be paid in the story, when we mention Gandhi and Martin Luther King as the worldwide known heroes of the civil rights, we should also keep Wong Chin Foo in mind, because he equally deserves our commemorating.