:00:00. > :00:10.Migration is the troubled story of our time. The lot of the incomer,
:00:11. > :00:13.the resentment of those who think their countries are changing maybe
:00:14. > :00:20.too fast, we know how difficult the politics has become. This his new
:00:21. > :00:25.book The Fortunes the author Peter Ho Davies teaching in the US these
:00:26. > :00:28.days, traces the story of Chinese immigrants to America, from the
:00:29. > :00:35.Civil War in the 1860s, to the present day, when a couple go to
:00:36. > :00:40.China, to adopt a daughter. They call her Pearl. It was from the
:00:41. > :00:44.river the first immigrant we meet in the book had come. It is a sorry
:00:45. > :00:45.that continues across the centuries. Welcome.
:00:46. > :01:06.-- story. Peter, the story begins with a
:01:07. > :01:10.character who is one of the Chinese workers who helps to build the
:01:11. > :01:15.railroad that was opening the west and the picture you paint is of an
:01:16. > :01:20.Americana is not just expanding very fast, but beginning to find itself,
:01:21. > :01:24.beginning to work out what kind of country it is going to be. It is a
:01:25. > :01:28.fascinating moment. Particularly in the bank of the Civil War, which is
:01:29. > :01:32.threatening to tear the country apart, now after that north south
:01:33. > :01:37.divide we are thinking about joining east and west it feels like America
:01:38. > :01:42.is be beginning to come together rebind hits and the character plays
:01:43. > :01:45.an important role. He is the inspiration to the man building the
:01:46. > :01:49.railroad to hire tens of thousands of Chinese to work on the railroad
:01:50. > :01:56.so they knit the country back together. He was a real figure He is
:01:57. > :02:01.mentioned briefly, he is mentioned in biographies of Congresser, they
:02:02. > :02:04.are admiring Crocker, and nothing is said of his Manser vant who inspired
:02:05. > :02:09.him to believe that Chinese are strong enough to help bill this
:02:10. > :02:14.amazing project. In term lves of his identity it is fascinating he is
:02:15. > :02:19.half white. He doesn't want to admit to Crocker, he feels that might
:02:20. > :02:23.undermine his status as a Chinese person, which is a lovely beginning
:02:24. > :02:29.to the story We are used to thinking of the Chinese in problematic ways
:02:30. > :02:33.as the model minority in the US and the man is the original model
:02:34. > :02:36.Chinese. Crocker thinks based on this man's example I can trust the
:02:37. > :02:43.others to build my railroad, that feel like a point of pride for
:02:44. > :02:49.Arling but a point of remorse and a burden to be that representative.
:02:50. > :02:54.The story, arches through 150 years approximately to our own time. There
:02:55. > :03:01.are three historical figure, the second is a film star. And she says
:03:02. > :03:05.at one point, that she feels on the screen, that she is an American for
:03:06. > :03:09.the first time. She can't feel it sitting in a theatre watching a
:03:10. > :03:14.movie, it is only if she is in it, it is only in an artificial sense in
:03:15. > :03:18.which she can be America. Yes, she feels embraced because suddenly the
:03:19. > :03:24.way she looks are embraced by Hollywood, that is her calling card,
:03:25. > :03:32.it is what makes her famous. Somebody describes her as having
:03:33. > :03:37.porcelain pulcritude For what has been a liable to her becomes an
:03:38. > :03:41.advantage and makes her famous, in the US but problematic when she
:03:42. > :03:48.returns to China where the Chinese sees the roles she has played.
:03:49. > :03:52.Nowhere in the story is it easy. The third character Vincent killed in
:03:53. > :03:58.Detroit because people think he is Japanese, he suffers a terrible, you
:03:59. > :04:03.know violent death. All these characters, they are coping with the
:04:04. > :04:07.myriad problems that come with being the other. I think the other, but I
:04:08. > :04:12.think one of the things they struggle with is they are the other
:04:13. > :04:21.two, the host nation to America but they are somehow the other to the
:04:22. > :04:28.places they came from, so Arling is Eurasian, and nan May she is looked
:04:29. > :04:32.at in ways thats a scans. Scans. Vincent is in some ways an aspiring
:04:33. > :04:38.all American in his own right, so it feels as though they are caught
:04:39. > :04:44.between two cultures, accepted by neither, either side of the divies.
:04:45. > :04:50.You are half Welsh, half Chinese so it is territory that you are bound
:04:51. > :04:54.to explore, isn't it? I think so, I mean, I think this is certainly true
:04:55. > :05:00.of my biography in the way you describe me, I feel divided, I have
:05:01. > :05:04.lived half my life in the United States for instance, all writers
:05:05. > :05:06.have something of this. We live half lives, the life of the time spent
:05:07. > :05:11.behind the desk in the imagination and the rest of the life, with other
:05:12. > :05:14.people, with. Fa, with friends in work situation, so there is often a
:05:15. > :05:20.sense of us switching identities, code switches in some way. I used to
:05:21. > :05:23.feel caught between Chineseness or Welshness, Britishness and
:05:24. > :05:27.Americanness, that feeling when I thought about the two halves I was
:05:28. > :05:31.obliged to choose. Am I loyal to the place live or the place came from,
:05:32. > :05:35.am I loyal to one culture or another. Why does it matter? It
:05:36. > :05:41.matters because if we choose one, the other side can feel we have
:05:42. > :05:44.betrayed them. The accusation is one of inauthenticity, we think of that
:05:45. > :05:53.in regard to Chineseness, in terms of Chinese food in certain ways.
:05:54. > :05:59.When Pearl grows up in America, so years after Arling came to work on
:06:00. > :06:03.the railroad, is it likely that her life will be easier in reconciling
:06:04. > :06:10.these identifies, -- identities or will it be the same struggle the
:06:11. > :06:13.same balance? Well, I would hope, for the sake of my son and good
:06:14. > :06:17.daughter who is adopted from China, they will be able to make choice, I
:06:18. > :06:22.think a lot of the time our identities are impoetsed on us by
:06:23. > :06:26.others. We can -- conform to ways we are seen or struggle with it. I
:06:27. > :06:29.would like to suggester I would like to hope, it may be an opt mystic
:06:30. > :06:34.hope they can choose some of the senses of identity. When the
:06:35. > :06:40.questions of migration and assimilation get to the top of the
:06:41. > :06:43.political agenda as they are in this Presidential election in the United
:06:44. > :06:47.States, it is a sensitive and maybe dangerous moment. It is. This is a
:06:48. > :06:52.troubling time for us to think about. But it feels as though it is
:06:53. > :06:56.shaped by a kind of narrowness of thought which says you have to be
:06:57. > :06:59.one thing or another, if we could imagine a space in which people
:07:00. > :07:03.could be more than one thing and still be authentic and reliable and
:07:04. > :07:10.trustworthy in that space, I think we would be in a healthier place. We
:07:11. > :07:17.could be Europe and British. It is easy also to understand the alarm,
:07:18. > :07:22.the fear, of a community which is perhaps beaten down, losing its
:07:23. > :07:27.economic power, and watching itself change, for reasons which come from
:07:28. > :07:31.beyond and change as a pace that community finds uncomfortable. That
:07:32. > :07:35.fear is something we can all recognise and to some degree
:07:36. > :07:40.sympathise with even if it has nasty components with. One of the ways
:07:41. > :07:43.that fear manifests itself is we assure ourselves of certain
:07:44. > :07:48.strengths by excluding the other, that feels as though it is cutting
:07:49. > :07:52.off or distancing ourself from potential of our society. We talk
:07:53. > :07:59.about it a great deal, probably more than we used to, is that a healthy
:08:00. > :08:07.thing? I think so. I think when those conversations are sub vainian
:08:08. > :08:12.or unacknowledged or unspoken, then something is unacknowledged, right,
:08:13. > :08:17.some truth goes unsaid. You know, I think the writer's role is o speak
:08:18. > :08:21.the unspeakable. To bring forth the things unis said. Thank you very
:08:22. > :08:28.much. -- unsaid.
:08:29. > :08:35.Once again big contrasts with the weather in the UK, this is what we
:08:36. > :08:36.saw in some arts of the south-east of England. A good deal of sunshine,