Chapter 6 Chapter 2 How America's Leaders Are Born

After calling her husband, Li Wanruo, who was born as a young lady, started her brand new role, which is being a wife. To be strong, she did not tell her family the whole situation of the car accident. Although she needed money very much at the time, she thought that her father's salary could not be exchanged for many dollars, which made the old man worry.But the younger sister who is studying in Japan is careful. After learning that her sister married a disabled foreign student in adversity, she sent Wanruo a record player that was popular at the time, and told her sister to use music to relieve her worries.We have a home, but managing this love nest is a difficult task.Because it was quite difficult for Wanruo and Baohe at that time.Not only do they have no jobs, especially Baohe is still unable to take care of himself, and Wanruo's studies are cut off, and it is impossible to find a formal job, so she can only work part-time.But although the two were discharged from the hospital, the debts owed to the hospital and their classmates were frighteningly large.Now in the eyes of others, I have left the hospital and become a small family again. I can no longer live on borrowed money like before!For the first time, Wan Ruo felt the difficulty of running a family.Damn money has become so important.At one point she even got to the point where she didn't have a few pennies in her pocket.She went home from work that day, and after getting on the bus, she suddenly found that she didn't have enough money to buy tickets in her pocket.So he told the driver repeatedly: Wrong, wrong, I got on the wrong car.In fact, she has no money to buy a public ticket.

How embarrassing to be discovered after arriving at the station!I hurried down, and in the end I had to walk several kilometers to get home because I didn't have these coins.Li Wanruo said. Going to a restaurant to wash dishes is probably an experience that all Chinese students have experienced, and Li Wanruo is no exception.But Wan Ruo has another purpose for working in a restaurant: There are often leftovers eaten by customers in the restaurant, so that she can bring back some cooked food for her husband who can’t move at home, put them in the refrigerator, and she will go out to work the next day At that time, her husband Chen Baohe, who can do some simple actions, can put the cold dishes and rice in the refrigerator in the oven and eat them at home.Of course, if you work in a restaurant, if you have more customers, you will get more tips.Tips and leftovers are the main reasons why Wan Ruo went to work at that famous Chinese restaurant in Seattle.

But at that time Seattle had a small population, and there were only a handful of famous Chinese restaurants, and the restaurant where Wanruo worked happened to be a place frequented by Chinese students studying abroad. She is a big celebrity, and her father is in the Legislative Council of Taiwan. If rumors spread that she was washing dishes in a restaurant, it would be a bit difficult for her to step down. Another reason that made Li Wanruo feel embarrassed is that she has been training young world leaders with the US State Department since that time. After returning to Taiwan as a plan representative, he has been serving as the host of the Voice of America program.After studying in the United States, thanks to the attention of the Voice of America, she has never stopped editing and editing a program every week.

What's the matter with you?The busier you are, the more you hide back. How can this make me pay you?The boss couldn't figure out what kind of colleague this new Chinese girl was. Lily, we are all embarrassed, you always go to the back kitchen when the guests pay the most tips, and let us get tips for nothing, it's really embarrassing.Those who work together talk about her like this. At this time, Wan Ruo perfunctory the boss and the workers.She said in her heart: You don't know that I want to get more tips than anyone else, but I can't do it. It's not my own old classmates, but my husband Baohe's good friends. Can I ask for their tips?

The part-time job is hard and tiring. After being busy all day during the day, after returning home at 90 o'clock in the evening, she has to take care of her husband who is recuperating at home. This makes Wanruo exhausted.That day, when she was serving bowls in the restaurant, she felt really weak in her limbs, and a stack of plates clattered all on the ground in front of her eyes. The proprietress glared at her, and said unhappily: Lily, the business in the store is slow these days, so don't come tomorrow. Li Wanruo knew in her heart that the boss wanted to fire her.Although I felt miserable in my heart, I still said to the proprietress: Thank you.It's easy to say quit, but it's not easy to find a new one.Wan Ruo originally kept telling her husband that she had a regular job, but Tou did not tell him the fact that she would work part-time to support the family.Wan Ruo was very anxious after losing the words of the TV series. On the one hand, she was worried that she would not be able to open the pot—this kind of thing might happen at any time, and on the other hand, she was afraid that her husband, who was seriously ill, would become suspicious and see the flaws.So Wanruo, who had no work to do on the second and third days, had to say that she was too busy a while ago and didn't have time to spend with her husband. Now I have invited a few working days off to stay at home with you for a few days.Baohe is an honest person, and he still believes it.Wan Ruo was in a hurry, although she said she was staying at home with her husband, but in her heart she was thinking about looking for a job outside.During this day, she sometimes said to buy vegetables, and sometimes went shopping on the street with excuses. In fact, she took a newspaper advertisement for job recruitment and ran out to make a phone call to contact the applicant.

The work finally has a new whereabouts.A family had a paralyzed woman who needed care. When Wanruo went to take the test, she was thought to be a professional woman from a labor service company who introduced jobs to others. Your temperament and fluent English can make a good and outstanding public official.That's what the patient's husband said of her.Wan Ruo thought to herself, is there still a problem?I was originally a professional woman who could lead others. Wan Ruo, who was waited on by others since she was a child, completely abandoned her arrogance and reservedness as a lady at this time, and she would do whatever the patient wanted her to do, and try her best to be satisfied.For nothing else, she is only worried about losing another job that can support her and her injured husband to continue to have a family.

It takes a certain amount of psychological quality to lower your proud head to carry excrement, urinate, and change clothes for an outsider who is paralyzed in bed all day long.But during that time, Wanruo didn't feel too bitter. She said that because no one knew that she was doing such a hard and tiring job, her husband didn't know, and her classmates and friends didn't know, so she thought it was because of her husband and her husband. The first relatively satisfactory earning job after returning home. But working a job is far from enough to pay the monthly debts and support a small family and provide supplements to her injured husband.Wan Ruo later found a part-time job as a handyman in a dry cleaner at the Naval Base in Seattle.Here, Wan Ruo met a very hateful foreman.According to the regulations, there are 15 minutes in the morning and afternoon in the working hours of the day to deal with some private matters such as going to the toilet and half an hour for eating at noon.Li Guiruo said: Every time I came back from the toilet, the white foreman stared at the clock and yelled, if it was 14 minutes, she would say that next time, hurry up!If it's been out for 15 minutes, she and Pearl will be staring like ping-pong balls, and I'm sure I'll have a bad day.That's not to mention, usually when the foreman sees that I don't do as well as she wants, she will tell you what to do with you Chinese.I can't hear such words the most, but I often feel helpless because I want to earn that money...

In order to earn more money, Wanruo works several completely different jobs at the same time. In the home of a paralyzed patient, she is completely a nursing nanny;After taking off the work clothes of these two places, she changed into a legitimate professional woman. This is her VOA special correspondent for five years. She introduced to me: At that time, when she was a reporter for the Voice of America, she had two purposes. One was that young people in Taiwan at that time admired and yearned for the United States, and anyone who had anything to do with the United States felt very proud.Even on the streets of Taipei, you can often see some young girls standing next to the American soldiers with a triumphant look.She looks down on those girls, but also dreams of going to the United States to study abroad one day.So it is of course very proud to be able to get such a respectable and honorable job as a reporter for the Voice of America.In addition, every time I do a program, I can earn 30 US dollars. At that time, Li Wanruo was still a student, and 30 US dollars was a very high income.But mostly she thinks she can learn English and learn more about America.So she worked very hard.She hosts a show called USA Today.Because it has something to do with the times, I later heard from the U.S. Press Office in Taiwan and the Voice of America reporter station that her program was particularly popular with the audience.Especially the Taiwanese officers and soldiers on Kinmen Island and Mazu Island. At that time, they could not watch TV, only radio, so these soldiers of Jiang Jun, who were empty in life and spirit, were fascinated by the program hosted by her little girl.It is said that many people write to her like crazy every day, and of course these letters are not directly addressed to her.

A few years later, Li Wanruo was invited to the Voice of America's workstation in Taipei, and only then did she know these things and how good her program was.Letters from the audience piled up in mountains.A Voice of America executive asked her to sit in a sea of ​​letters piled as high as her and take a photo to prove how popular their Voice of America is in Taiwan and Asia. In fact, people don't know how much this Chinese girl suffered when she was engaged in the job that brought Li Wanruo glory in the future.Li Wanruo recalled: After studying in the United States, when I started this VOA host job again, my starting point was completely different.That's really called being a breadwinner.Baohe's injury is still recovering. If I can't go to work, I won't be paid. I have to work hard to earn money.At this time, my remuneration for the Voice of America program was also high, 50 US dollars each time, once a week as usual.I remember that most of the interviews were what I had seen and heard. What impressed me most was the interview with famous people such as Hu Shi who visited the United States. The interview with Lu Rongchang, a Chinese Congressman from Washington State, made me feel the deepest.At that time, I had a strong impulse that one day, like this Chinese Congressman, I would stand on the American political arena and speak for myself and all the yellow-skinned and black-eyed Chinese.This may have been my first enlightenment idea of ​​​​going into politics in the United States...

Twenty or thirty years later, during an important celebration of the Voice of America, she was invited to the headquarters of the Voice of America as a distinguished guest. When she appeared there, what she saw head-on was the A huge photo on the Internet, this photo is the scene of Li Wanruo interviewing Lu Rongchang, the first Chinese-American city councilor in Seattle.Apparently, the Voice of America used her work achievements in the past to demonstrate the performance and representation of the Voice of America around the world.Today's Voice of America is not just a radio program, but also has its own TV broadcast live to the world.This time, Li Wanruo was invited into the live broadcast program hall to give audiences from all over the world a happy interview about how she became a VOA red star.

From being in love with her lover in Seattle to being in a car accident, and working hard for medical treatment, for Li Wanruo, this is the grassroots career in her life. The term "grassroots" is very popular in the United States, and it specifically refers to the grassroots. Therefore, if someone in the United States has gone from a grassroots class to a millionaire or a big politician, he is also respected.This is the prominent expression and substantial connotation of the so-called American spirit, and people who usually come from the grassroots class can get a higher turnout rate from voters. There is also a popular saying among Americans, saying that the political power of the United States is established on the grassroots, which means that whether you are the president or a congressman, if you have enough voters to vote for you, you will not be able to be elected. Representatives of public opinion such as the president and members of Congress, but only those who represent the interests of the broad grassroots, can enter the White House and Capitol Hill.This seems to make sense.The US regime is actually a pyramid, based on the citizens of the whole country.Although it also has elements of political centralization forces representing a few people and the interests of a few financial groups, on the whole, it is the grassroots voters who have the right to vote that determine the direction and ultimate interests of U.S. policies.Of course, those strata of monopoly capitalism that represent the minority can convince the masses by convincing the grassroots. However, no matter how powerful the monopoly power of a few people is, in the United States, whoever ignores the grassroots will eventually be driven out of power.When Bush Jr. came to power this time, the majority of grassroots voters who originally voted for Gore were furious. In order to calm the emotions of most grassroots voters, Bush Jr. was very good at coming. The first four cabinet officials appointed were black generals from grassroots background. Powell was hired as Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, a black woman, as National Security Assistant, Japanese-born Toyota as Secretary of Transportation, and Chinese-born Chao Xiaolan as Secretary of Labor.So the United States immediately cheered that the black age had arrived.For the new Bush administration, it can be said that it has done the most uplifting thing for the grassroots, allowing ethnic minorities to hold important government positions, and to some extent let the majority of ethnic minorities see some hope and sustenance. Therefore, people from ethnic minorities who struggled from the grassroots are always respected and supported by people in the United States.When Li Guiruo talked about her glorious life, what made her most proud was that she grew from an ordinary foreign student to an American politician and Chinese leader. Her pride came from her own unremitting efforts. This may be my An important creative passion point for writing this book. After half a year of Wanruo's intensive care and service, her husband's injuries have basically healed, except for the disability of his neck that cannot be moved flexibly. Fortunately, his scientific brain is not damaged.After getting better, Baohe went to work in Boeing.The first thing he said to Wanruo after he got his first salary was to tell her to pick up her delayed studies quickly. You marry me not to become my accessory, you should do what you are willing to do.Now I think the most important thing for you is to enroll at the University of Washington immediately.Baohe said. That day happened to be when Wan Ruo came home exhausted from the dry cleaners at the naval base and heard her husband say this to her.She was really excited at that time, tears welled up in her eyes, and she cried bitterly for a long while lying on her husband's broad chest... The University of Washington, located in Seattle, is a prestigious university in the United States. Li Wanruo applied for the Department of Social Work, which was considered a new and popular major in the United States at that time.The Department of Social Work at American University is different from the sociology we usually know, which specializes in the study of anthropological theories. It is a major that serves the public and specializes in cultivating professionals who solve social problems.In the early 1960s, science was most admired in American society. At that time, boys, especially Chinese students studying abroad, almost all studied science and engineering. Some students who studied literature in China also switched to science and engineering after arriving in the United States.Although there are fewer girls studying science and engineering, there was a fashionable saying among female international students at that time, saying that if you don’t study science and engineering yourself, you must marry an engineer or a man who studies science and engineering.This is related to the trend of American economy and social value at that time.Those who study science can find good jobs, and the salary is also high.This trend seems to have survived to this day.Take a look at the current situation of studying abroad in the United States. There are too few pure liberal arts students.And Li Wanruo chose a different major at that time.Sociology doomed her to deal with mainstream American society for a lifetime. The exams for the Department of Social Work at Huada University are quite strict. Perhaps Americans have long understood that this major trains their country’s future social elites. Li Wanruo has two major advantages: good English and strong social activities.And this is the most indispensable condition for a scholar engaged in social professions. Li Wanruo was the only foreign student in the social work major of Huada University at that time, and she was also the only female foreign student.The lost time cannot be made up, so she studied very hard in the first year, and became the president of Huada’s Chinese Students Association. In a short period of time, she became an active member of the campus again.But a bad problem appeared: as a family member, she suddenly felt something extra in her stomach—she was pregnant with the crystallization of love with her husband. You can take a year off from school to take care of your kids and your health first, and take a few courses at the same time.The professor gave special attention to her, an intelligent Chinese female student studying abroad. But she didn't live up to it, Li Wanruo was happy again when her son hadn't learned to walk. This time the professor smiled helplessly at her: Unless you give up your studies, you will have to be a student mother. Li Wanruo shrugged to the respectable professor: It seems that I can only choose the latter way! Having a baby is a blessing, but there are more worries.At that time, although my husband was working at Boeing, his salary was not high, five or six hundred yuan a month. In addition to food, the two had to pay off debts, tuition fees and monthly rent.The wife was worried that her husband, who had just recovered from his injury, was working too hard in the company, so she used nights and weekends to work outside to earn money while taking care of her son and attending classes. Li Wanruo proudly told me that the World Expo was held in Seattle at that time, and there were a lot of ticketing girls at the fair, so she applied for it.At this time, she had been pregnant with her daughter for several months, and her belly was getting big, so she had to wear a particularly fat nurse's dress to work, and even the supervisor didn't find out that she was pregnant for dozens of days.Her second child was born on Saturday, and on Friday Li Wanruo was still working part-time at the World Expo selling tickets.Later, there were two children in the family, and with Huada entering the last year of study, Li Wanruo had to start full-time study in addition to keeping her job at the Voice of America.At that time, the two children were breastfeeding, and the school's compulsory courses could not be delayed, which made it difficult for the mother's master student.She had to get up in the early morning when it was still dark, wake up the children, nurse and dress them.It took another 20 minutes to push it to the neighbor's house and ask someone to take care of it, and then I hurried on the bus to the school to listen to the compulsory courses taught by the professor from 7:00 to 9:00.Seattle is a city near the sea, and it often rains, which brings a lot of inconvenience to Li Wanruo who is on the road every day.Whenever it rains, the students of the Sociology Department of Huada University always find that their Chinese female classmate walks into the classroom covered in water or sweat.And Li Wanruo's mother's nickname as a master's student became famous at the University of Washington. On a certain day in the autumn of 1964, the University of Washington, a famous American university located on the west coast of the Pacific Ocean, held a grand graduation ceremony for the new class.Li Wanzhuo, as the only oriental female student since the establishment of the school, stepped up to the stage to accept the graduation certificate issued by the principal, but she was different in that there were three people standing behind her——Chen Baohe With his son Ke Guang who can run just now and his daughter Ke Yu who is babbling.At that time, it only took a few seconds for the general graduates to receive their graduation certificates from the principal.But when it was Li Wanruo's turn, she stood on stage two or three times longer than others.Because she is especially proud that she earned this diploma while owning a home and two children.For this reason, she specially picked up her husband and children, and stood on the stage to show off to the teachers and students of the school. Immediately, all the teachers and students of Huada University gave the warmest applause to this special Chinese graduate and her whole family.