Crossing
A Chinese Railroad Odyssey on Donner Summit
Lisa Redfern 2023 309 pg
Lisa Redfern, the author of Crossing, has clearly done a lot of research about the building of the transcontinental railroad, Chinese railroad workers, and rural Chinese culture. She’s also crafted a compelling story for those interested in the culture of Chinese railroad workers, the Chinese in China, and the building of the transcontinental railroad. The book and its story are very rich.
The story starts with a farming family in China and explores rural Chinese culture, family dynamics, Chinese traditions, and family economics as the family lives and farms. Clearly in the Chinese culture family is pre-eminent. Some family members are sold off to help the family for example. Bride prices are high and land has to be sold but it’s necessary in order to get children to help run the farm. In all it’s an evocative and rich description of rural peasant life in China as various conflicts arise. Also explored are wider conflicts and economics in China pressuring the family. Taxes were going up. Rebels took the oldest son, marauders stole the harvest, and the government and its representatives are oppressive. One misfortune follows another and we can hope that real families didn’t confront this litany of problems. The misfortunes economic travails provide the motivation and back story for sending two sons to America in a quest to support the family still in China. Tracking the story is easy in the first part with each short chapter titled and ages of the children land the year listed.
By page 62, in 1864, Yang and Lee, the two remaining sons, have left China for California where they join up with the construction of the Pacific Railroad. Here various conflicts keep the story going and the reader’s interest. Yang and Lee experience just about every story that has come out of the construction of the railroad: the Black Plucked Goose traveling on the Dutch Flat Rd., avalanches, cold, a railroad worker strike, accidents, tunnel collapse, etc. It’s kind of like the litany of problems faces in China. Like the China section’s highlighting aspects of Chinese culture in China, there is a lot of detail about Chinese culture taken to America. Redfern has a great imagination for what work must have been like along the railroad and in the various other places the story takes place.
All of this is complimented with quotes from newspapers about the railroad’s progress and Chinese experiences.
In the tunnel
In this quote the younger brother, Lee, has joined his brother’s team in the tunnel so he could experience what work was like there (and so the reader can get a good view of tunnel work).
“At some point, Charlie asked Lee if he wanted to take a turn sledging. He slid the handle of his hammer into Lee’s hand. It dropped to the ground with a heavy thunk. Lee shook his head, “Can’t grip it,” he said, using as few words as possible.
“Sledge, sledge, turn. Sledge, sledge, turn. This is torture, Lee thought.
“When Lee could barely remain standing on wobbly legs, Yang put his hammer down and stepped near his brother. He pried the bit out of Lee’s claw-like grip, pulling it out from the hole. Smiling, he pushed a finger inside checking the depth. He helped Lee straighten his index finger so he could feel it too.”
Another quote describes Summit Camp, the longest lasting and largest of the Chinese railroad workers camps which was on Donner Summit.
Summit Camp
“Beneath twenty feet of snow, inside a translucent, wet cave, the kitchens remained functional. A fire burned in the center of a large carved-out room with a chimney hole. It provided space for gathering, eating, and warming. Jackets and clothing draped every chair, bench, and table.
“Drying lines crisscrossed, sloping with the weight of pants, jackets, and boots hanging from laces. Only those items closest to the flames had a decent chance of drying all-the-way. It smelled of damp cloth, and cooked food, sweat, wood smoke, opium, and candle wax. A series of tunnels led to the bunkhouses, the latrine, to the blacksmith sheds, and up to the surface where the brightness of daylight would jolt the system.”
Eventually the longest tunnel of the transcontinental railroad was built and many conflicts resolved. The reader learns a lot about Chinese culture and railroad workers’ lives. There is not one overarching climax to the story, rather, a list of experiences from the fertile mind of the author.