HOMEBASE
HOMEBASE
A NOVEL
SHAWN WONG
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON PRESS
Seattle & London
The author wishes to thank the Mary Roberts Rinehart Foundation for their support, Him Mark Lai for his translations of Angel Island Poetry, Edmund Ow for his Angel Island research, Lane Publishing Company for permission to quote from the Sunset Western Garden Book, and Kay Boyle for permission to quote from her poem “Branded for Slaughter.”
Various portions of this novel were first published in Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Asian American Writers, Counterpoint, and Yardbird Reader, vols. 3 and 5.
PUBLISHERS NOTE
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1979 by Shawn Wong.
Reprinted by arrangement with Lowenstein-Yost Associates, Inc.
Introduction copyright © 2008 by Shawn Wong
First University of Washington Press edition published in 2008
Printed in the United States of America
14 13 12 11 10 09 08 5 4 3 2 1
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON PRESS
PO Box 50096
Seattle, WA 98145–5096
www.washington.edu/uwpress
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Wong, Shawn, 1949–
Homebase : a novel / Shawn Wong.
— 1st University of Washington Press ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-295-98816-0
(pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Chinese Americans—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3573.0583H66 2008
813’.54—dc22
2007050329
The paper used in this publication is acid-free and 90 percent recycled from at least 50 percent post-consumer waste. It meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z 39.48–1984.
For Frankie and Kay
AILANTHUS altissima (A. glandulosa). Tree-of-Heaven. Deciduous tree. All Zones. Native to China. Planted a century ago in California’s gold country where it now runs wild…. Inconspicuous greenish flowers are usually followed by handsome clusters of red-brown, winged fruits in late summer and fall…. Often condemned as a weed tree because it suckers profusely, but it must be praised for its ability to create beauty and shade under adverse conditions—drought, hot winds, and every type of difficult soil.
—Sunset Western Garden Book
He was frozen to death in the snow.
He was going to drown himself in the bay.
After searching for several days they caught the murderer.
Did they find anything in his possession?
They did.
He was killed by an assassin.
He tried to assassinate me.
He tried to kill me by assassination.
He is an assaulter.
He was smothered in his room.
He was suffocated in his room.
He was shot dead by his enemy.
He was poisoned to death by his friend.
He tries to kill him by poisoning.
He tries to inflict death by poison.
Assault with the intention to do bodily injury.
He took the law in his own hand.
He tried to deprive me of my wages.
I go home at night.
I have gone home.
I went home.
I abide at home.
I abode at San Francisco.
I have lived in Oakland.
—An English-Chinese Phrase Book
Also, A Complete List of Wells Fargo & Co.’s
Offices in California, Nevada, Etc.,
Compiled by Wong Sam and Assistants, 1875.
Contents
Introduction to the University of Washington Press Edition
INTRODUCTION TO THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
