Mismatch Read Online Free Page A

getting it back into shape. “My Chinese guide took me on a tour of the Forbidden Palace, and on the way out, we took a back exit and went through a narrow alley,” his father said. “The Forbidden Palace is supposed to be the most elegant building in the country. And you know what happened?”
    Andy knew what happened. He had heard about the incident many times already. “Right outside the gate,” snarled his father, “I tripped on some bricks and fell on a pile of smelly rubbish!”
    “I bet the rubbish was organic, at least,” murmured Andy’s mother.
    That didn’t help. His father just got angrier. “And the next day, a man in the street hawked and spat on my shoe!”
    Andy knew the rest of the story, too. His father was so disgusted that he promptly threw away the shoes and bought a new pair at a Beijing department store. But the new pair didn’t fit well, and his feet hurt for the rest of the trip.
    “I know all about the spitting and the pile of rubbish,” he said impatiently. “What I’m asking is how you feel about the Chinese
people
.”
    “But that’s exactly what I’ve been saying,” said his father. “The Chinese are a dirty people! I bet they don’t bathe more than once every other week, if that.”
    Andy frowned.
A dirty people?
He’d always thought his parents weren’t prejudiced, but that didn’t sound fair.
    Andy’s mother laughed. “Remember the story I told you about Queen Elizabeth the First? Some of her subjects thought she was strange because she took a bath once a month, whether she needed it or not!”
    Andy tried to laugh, too. “They probably thought that since she was the queen, she could afford to waste water!”
    “As for the rest of the people,” continued his mother, “they probably bathed only twice in their lifetime: once as a newborn, and once when they died and their corpse was being laid out.”
    Andy’s father didn’t laugh. “Queen Elizabeth lived hundreds of years ago,” he said. “I’m saying that the Chinese are a backward people because they don’t bathe as often as we do—and I’m talking about today!”
    “Don, you have to be fair,” said Andy’s mother. “We Japanese have a tradition for taking frequent baths because Japan is a volcanic country with many mineral springs spouting hot water. The ancient Romans were big on baths, too, because Italy was volcanic and hot water was plentiful.”
    “That’s the trouble with you historians,” grumbled Andy’s father. “You like to talk about ancient Romans and Queen Elizabeth the First. I’m talking about the people in Beijing today!”
    “Maybe there just isn’t enough hot water for the people to take baths every day,” said Andy, trying to be fair.
    “That proves my point!” said his father. “China is a backward country, just as I said! We Japanese became modernized
years
before the Chinese. We opened our country to the West in the middle of the nineteenth century. We invited Western engineers, scientists, and doctors, and we soon had railroads and electric lights. We built up a modern army and navy that defeated the Russians! What about China at that time? They had those fanatic Boxers who believed they were invulnerable to bullets, and their women still had bound feet!”
    Listening to his father, Andy felt depressed. He was disappointed in his dad. At this rate, he didn’t think he would be able to introduce Sue to his parents anytime soon.
    His mother was different. Her grandparents had moved to America, so she was a third-generation immigrant and thought like an American in most ways.
    Andy’s father, however, was a Nisei, a second-generation American. Like many other Nisei, he had been sent by his parents to a Japanese high school. Andy thought this was why his father was more Japanese in his opinions—including his attitude toward the Chinese. Andy knew that people in Japan sometimes called the Chinese dirty or backward, but Japan was half a world away. How would Sue feel