王国鹏
一天，和一位英国朋友閑聊。他問我：“中英两国，你较喜歡哪个国家?” 我稍作思索后，回答說：“说实在，兩地都有喜歡的地方。不過，当初我要是知道中國發展得如此迅速，我也许会留在中国，不会到这里來。”
上世纪八十年代，中國的许多大城市卷起一阵“读书出国风”’。到了八十年代后期，这股风升级成了“出国热”，读不读书也希望到国外走走。一九八八年秋，在几個要好的朋友的鼓勵下，我也不知不觉地加入了這行列。經過几個月的准備之后，我終于于一九九八年踏出了国门，從此離開了生我養我的國土以及伴陪我一起长大的朋友和多年同甘共苦的同事，只身來到萬里迢迢的英國。一年多后，我又办理手续把妻子担保了过来。就这样，我們便在异國他響開始了新的生活。一转眼，快十五年过去了。
十五年在歷史的長河里只不過是一舜間，然而这却是人生中的青壯时期，是无比宝贵的时光。这十五年里，我曾在餐館做過雜工，又做过外賣店生意，接着到本地人的公司做过短工，後來又转行做進出口生意。这期间雖沒多大成就，但憑着不怕吃苦、只求两餐温饱的精神和省衣节食的持家美德，这日子还算是过得去的。
记得初抵英国時由于文化背景、飲食习惯及語言等方面的不同，我在生活上的确遇到了许多不便之處。在中國，人們习惯早餐吃粥粉面或点心，而这里則吃烤面包、麦片、鸡蛋和咸肉等干量似的食品。喝茶也有差别，中国人泡茶从不加糖不加奶。当然这些还算不上是什麽样的障碍，你不想吃西餐那就自己动手做面，不就解决问题了吗？最头疼的还是求职。英国的生活水准比中国的高出好几倍，没有固定的收人是无法长久顶下去的，所以我一安顿下来就忙着去找工作。但凡是曾经在英國求过职的人都知道，外国拿来的工作經驗是没多大用途的；即使是一般的职位也得看你有否本地的工作经验。所以中國来的求职者只有到中餐館找寻工作。在中国我本来是在政府部門工作的，平时连廚房也很少进过去，现在倒当起厨工来，这种落差是很大的。所以在厨房打工的日子里，开头真有点想不通、吃不消，笨手笨腳的常闹笑话。好在老板是開明人，同事又熱心幫助，再加上自己认真地去熟识业务，不久也就渐渐上了手。兩個月后老板还给我加了点工资，而且说这是破例给半职的伙计加薪。我自己的遭遇总的说来还不算太坏。反而我的一些朋友比我吃的苦头还多。有位曾经在國內當翳生的朋友，就曾被他的老板的兒子挖苦过。一天，小老板問他：“喂，大陸是否沒飯吃，要不你吃這麼多？” 朋友听了心里不是滋味。後來他自己開了一间餐館，娉請工人時他要先請来见工的人吃飯，吃不下三碗飯的人他不要。
人们都说在家千日好，出门一朝难。生活在异乡的人，大凡都会感到孤独无援。起初，我們也遇到同样的问题，常常在困难的时刻不知找谁帮忙。所以出门靠朋友这句话很实在，大家互相照顾，风雨同舟。日子久了，我們找到了華人社區中心，开始参加些公益活动，同时也得到不少幫助，避免了许多麻烦。但近年英國的經濟不太景气，政府的負擔日益繁重，给社區的资助也渐渐減少。各地社區机构大都面临基金短缺的困難，華人社區也不例外。這不论對新移民老華僑，都是很不幸的事。
再看中国那邊，隋著經濟的不斷發展，国民收入渐渐提高，老百姓的生活水平與十多年前我离开时的情况相比已大大不一樣。以前的那些朋友、同事都纷纷搬进了新的房子，不少人还买了汽车，而且还是名贵牌子的。有的人还顧用了一个甚至几个管家工人，大小家務和小孩全都由工人操勞。而他们自己下班后就到餐馆舞厅或俱乐部去，跳交际舞啦，唱卡拉奥凯啦，按摩锤骨啦，坐桑拿沐啦… … 都是头等的享受。有几次我约他们一起上馆子，“买单”’ 都是他们抢着来，硬說我是“来宾”，不准我破费。说实在，不比还不说，相比起来，在这里我每天除了上班之外，回家后還得做大堆大堆的家務，包括做饭洗衣照顾小孩等，哪来空闲的時間去消遣呢。不说你不信，十几年來我连電影也很少去看，桑拿按摸就更不贴边了。所以每当跟那边的朋友提起我的现状时，他们都拿我来开玩笑，说我在“修道行苦僧”。記得出國前有親人對我說：“你命中要出國，而且走得越遠越好”。現在，我走得夠遠的了，但“好”字還沒出現。如今，即使想回去碰碰运气重新谋發展，又非要“如今迈步从头越”，談何容易。所以我想还是入響隋俗，落叶生根罢了。既来之，则安之，我要在這片土地上繼續耕耘，静待黎明，希望“好”运气早日出现。
Tie
One day, I was chatting with an English friend. He asked me, ‘Which country do you like best, Britain or China?’ ‘To be frank’, I said after a brief thought, ‘I like both countries. But had I known that China would become what it is today, I would probably have chosen to stay there’.
In the early1980s, lots of young people in China wanted to go abroad to pursue their studies. Until the late 1980s, even non-students wanted to leave the country to try their luck. In the autumn of 1988, with the help of some friends, I too found myself joining the departing party. After a few months of preparation, I at long last made the exit, leaving behind the land where I had spent my youthful years, and my close mates, relatives and colleagues, to come to Britain - on the other side of the globe. One year later, I applied for my wife to come over as well. From then on, we began to settle in a new homeland, where we have lived for the past fifteen years.
Fifteen years are a short period in history. But this is probably the most spectacular and precious period of a person’s life. During the past fifteen years, I have worked in various places. First I worked in a restaurant; then I run a takeaway food shop, and later worked for a short while in a non-Chinese firm. Eventually I ended up doing imports and exports business. I have done nothing spectacular though, except that being able to feed the mouths. On the whole life has been okay. After all we have worked very hard.
I remember when I first arrived, I did actually face quite a few problems, due to the fact that I had come from a different cultural background, that I did not speak much English and that I had been accustomed to eating rice but not much else all along. In China we used to have noodles, dim-sum and the like for breakfast, here I had to familiarize myself with bread, cornflakes, eggs, ham and so on. Even the way people make their tea is different. But of course these are after all minor things. Sooner or later you would have to be accustomed to all these anyway. Just like if you don’t want to have bread for breakfast, you can always prepare noodles instead. And that isn’t really a big problem. What caused headache most was finding work. The living standard in the UK is much higher than that in China so the cost of living is high. Without a job you simply cannot survive. So as soon as I found a place to stay I began to find work. But finding employment in the UK is not as easy as it sounds. The experience that you bring in from other countries does not always help. Even ordinary vacancies require the job-seeker to have some UK gained experience. That’s why most people from China eventually end up working in the catering industry. Before coming over here I worked in a local government department. I had hardly gone in the kitchen, let alone working in it. So when I eventually found a job in a Chinese kitchen, I really did feel bad. For the first few months I was simply coping, as I made many mistakes and even became a laughing stock for the others who also worked there. Unfortunately my boss was quite kind to me, and the colleagues were on the whole helpful. To make up my lack of skills I worked very hard too. After a few months I gradually became familiar with what I was doing. My boss was happy to see me making progress and decided to raise my wage a bit, which was rather usually as he said he had never raised a part time worker’s wage before within such a short period of service. So my own experience in the kitchen wasn’t entirely negative. By contrast some of my friends had even more problems. One person, in particular, who had been a doctor in China before coming over here, had once been humiliated by his boss’s son, who asked him: ‘Hey. Did you have enough to eat in China? I wonder why you eat so much?’ My friend felt embarrassed. Later he opened a restaurant of his own. When he interviewed job applicants for his kitchen, he would check if they could eat a lot. Whoever failed to finish three bowls of rice would not be offered the job.
There is saying that ‘No place like home’. Most people living faraway from their home feel alienated. This was exactly what we felt when we firs came, when we could find nobody to ask for help. Truly it is necessary to have friends when you are out there, so that you can seek support and offer support when possible. So later when we found a Chinese community centre we would involve ourselves in the activities; from there we were able to seek further assistance elsewhere. Lately though the UK’s economy has not been particularly good, so that the government is in short of resources. For this reason there are less and less funds for the voluntary sector. This means most grassroots community organisations are facing financial problems. It is rather unfortunate for ethnic minority groups like ourselves.
Meanwhile, in China, the economy there has been developing quite fast over the years. Average income has gone up so that in general people’s living standard has gone up, too. Many of my former colleagues have moved into new houses; quite few of them have had their family car, even luxury ones. Some of them even hire domestic helpers to handle the chores, so that they don’t have to do anything after work. Instead they spend time in dance halls and restaurants, massage salons, enjoying a rather luxury life style. When I visited them in China, they treated me with big dinners in expensive hotels. Compared with my life over here, theirs is really colourful. Here I would I have to do lots of chores, like cooking, washing up and looking after the children. I hardly I have time for what they are having over there in China. Indeed over the past ten years I had hardly had time for cinema, let alone massage and so on. So every time I talk about my life here they would laugh at me and brand me a ‘poor monk in the temple’. I remember just before I was leaving China, someone from my extended family told me my fortune and said that ‘you fate rests beyond the ocean and the farther you go, the richer you will become’. Well, apparently I am now outside China; but I have yet to taste the luck of being loaded with cash. So sometimes I do think of going back to China and start things anew. But starting things from scratch is no easy job. It seems I may have to abandon the idea altogether and resign to the prospect of opportunities here. Whatever difficulties I may face, I should remain positive, waiting for a brighter future and hoping for the best to come.
By Robin Wang Translated by Cao Yuan
