Toisan Boy

Despite Cleveland being one of the largest cities in the US 100 years ago, not that many Chinese elected to immigrate to NE Ohio  and so Chinatown wasn't that large. It occupied a stretch of Rockwell Ave between E 24th & E 26th but only the north side. There were maybe two or three restaurants and a few other storefronts including a grocery store of sorts. The south side of the street across from Chinatown was a trucking depot. The surrounding neighborhood was largely industrial. In general, you'll find Chinatown locations in the US to be in the inner city near downtown; with limited incomes immigrants tend to rely on public transportation. When my family lived in Chinatown, there were a few other families with children my age. We all eventually moved out of Chinatown and we lost track of those who didn't eventually join the Chinese church that was founded during the late 60's. The families who did included the Chan's: an older sister named Betty close to my sis...

First, an acknowledgement to the late actor/writer/producer Dave Landsberg, who was a regular at a place where I (used to as of the pandemic) DJ, and once asked me for a dance lesson. We ended up talking about me for most of that lesson, and after hearing some of my story, told me I should write about it. It took a while for that encouragement to take root. I'm sorry Dave won't be around to read this and critique it.  Secondly, an explanation of the title: Toisan, also known as Taishan, is a peasant Chinese dialect. It's the dialect my family speaks. It's spoken only in a small region of southern China just west of Macao. This region was a (if not *the*) primary source of the first Chinese emigrants to America, resulting in Toisan being the lingua franca of US Chinatowns for decades, even though today, Toisan speakers (~3 millon) make up less than .2% of the entire mainland Chinese population (~1.4 billion). In relation to other Chinese dialects, Toisan might be best de...