Word: lin
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...very tough weather conditions,” said first freshman boat coxswain Joe Lin. “At first, there were waves splashing up over the oarlocks...
...seven years the snakehead has been searching for the equilibrium between supply and demand. This time, he's back in Sanming to shore up old contacts and size up new customers, sitting in a private room in one of the city's many tea houses. The call from Little Lin was like any other. Little Lin had heard from friends that the snakehead didn't cheat his customers. Could he please help him, too? The snakehead agreed. "It's a dangerous business," says the 36-year-old. "But in the end you can make people happy, so that...
...Chili beef," says Big Lin, ticking off the English words he can say with ease after a decade in Britain. "Lemon chicken. Garlic chicken." After that, the 32-year-old's voice trails off. There's not much more he can rattle off fluently. Life as an illegal immigrant has deflated the dreams he once had. Still, he must keep up appearances for his family back home. His brother thinks Big Lin owns his own restaurant. In reality, he sweats over a wok at someone else's takeout joint, six days a week. Nor does he own a house...
...admit any of this. "I tell my little brother not to come," says Big Lin. "But I can't really tell him why." For every tale that burnishes the myth of immigrant success, there are many others that speak, if not of failure, then of drudgery, loneliness and a future in a land that will never quite be home. Back in Fujian, Big Lin had a decent job with a construction firm. He made enough to play games of pool with his friends and occasionally treat himself to a seafood feast. Still, Fujian is a place which young men leave...
...Lin says his journey was easy. First, he took an economy-class flight to Prague - Big Lin's sister already lived in the Czech Republic, where she ran an import-export clothing company. She pulled the right strings and procured him a business visa. Then, all Big Lin had to do was invest $10,000 in a Prague business venture. It's not clear who pocketed that money, but less than six months later, Big Lin says he received a Czech residence permit. The Czech document enabled him to get a tourist visa to England, which he overstayed. Six years...