"Anxiety Deep in History: A Close Look at America Part 1" Author: Linda Publisher: Sanlian Bookstore

The United States is about the same size as China. Like most international students and new immigrants, when we first set foot on this vast and unfamiliar land, our initial choice of place to settle down was quite accidental. We landed in an ordinary place, where the living environment was ordinary and peaceful. The Americans around us, young and old, were working hard and leading an ordinary life. It was not easy for them to make a good living.

Before we had time to think, the pressure of life faced by new immigrants immediately threw us into the same hard work. In this way, we and the ordinary Americans around us naturally had a common language, common experiences, common joys and sorrows. Many Americans also became our good friends. We found that the United States has gradually walked out of a bunch of abstract concepts and turned into the real land under our feet, into a piece of forest pasture, and into one American after another.

We also had the anguish of being called "marginal people". It is obviously impossible for us to enter this land and its culture at the same time, and the original cultural background gradually becomes unfamiliar due to the long distance. In real life, two completely different cultures often suddenly and directly meet and collide in front of us. At the beginning, we really feel at a loss and unable to avoid the embarrassment. However, over time, we began to gradually become calm about the situation of "marginal people" and even realized something. After calming down, we found that for the first time we were able to sit in a quiet place like this, keeping a distance from the two cultures that was neither too far nor too close. Not only did they begin to become a landscape, but for the first time they presented unprecedented meaning to us.

The distress of "marginal people" is very common among new immigrants. It is just the tragic effect of two strong cultures focusing on a small person. We are glad that we can get out of it. However, our situation makes it impossible for us not to think that as an immigrant caught in the cracks, we still feel contradictions and pressure. Then, when these two cultures and two big countries really meet head-on, how strange and confused they are to each other. It seems not an exaggeration to say that they are full of dangers. Our position makes it possible for us to see more of their differences. We found that they not only have their own perfect value systems, but also have their own different vocabulary, context and logic. Sometimes, starting from a big premise and following their own logic, they will come out with completely unrelated results. On this basis, dialogue can only seem painful and laborious.

Therefore, it seems that before making a decision to welcome or reject, there is still a long and difficult road of mutual understanding that must be walked. Otherwise, easily saying "yes" seems to be groundless, and saying "no" easily is also easy to be irrelevant. Moreover, history has stipulated that they cannot avoid each other forever. They have tried to do so, but seeing that there is no result, they try to get closer to each other. Sometimes, if you don't temporarily distance yourself from your habitual way of thinking, you can't take a step on the road of mutual understanding.

We are trying to understand this strange country as ordinary new immigrants. We have to make the best of it, and this is the only way for us, and we have no other choice.

The United States is not a country that is good at hiding its shame. When it casts a piece of sunshine, it casts a shadow. All its shadows are exposed to everyone without any cover, even if you are a stranger. Therefore, even ordinary outsiders like us can see a lot of problems at a glance. But we immediately realized that we must wake up from complacency, because we soon found out that this does not necessarily mean that we are smarter and more perceptive than Americans. They also seem to be very clear about the existence of such a shadow. They are just forced to admit a simple truth: if you pursue sunshine, you can't avoid the shadow behind you. We began to wonder, when Americans tolerate this shadow (this tolerance often makes them miserable), what is the unextinguished light in their hearts? What are they seeking, so that they are willing to pay a heavy price? For us, this is really a question. In the process of understanding it, we have developed an increasing interest in this strange country with a short history.

Based on my own experience as a commoner, I found that the first step to understanding is simple communication. No matter how hard a big country looks, its people are ordinary people, and even the biggest country is made up of ordinary people. When people become friends, communication becomes friendship, and mutual understanding naturally begins. It is always a good thing for either party to see the world from a broader perspective.

Last year, we gradually wrote these letters to our good friends in China, hoping to share with them what we read, saw, heard and thought. Here, we sincerely thank the editors of Sanlian Bookstore and all the friends who helped publish this book.

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