into other cultures without demanding that those around them adapt to Chinese standards and practices. You stay alive a whole lot longer that way. It’s a Chinese principle to contribute to, and not denigrate, potential markets. After all, you can’t carry on a lucrative exchange with dead trading partners. Besides, why conquer when you can rent? If you play your cards right you can end up controlling the whole shebang without firing a shot.”
Luke shook his head as though he’d not heard right. “And what has that to do with today?”
Robert got off the floor and sat in the yellow director’s chair by the open window. He looked out over the lights of Monterey, Cannery Row, and the harbor beyond. The bright lights of five squid boats danced in the distance, and the perfumes of low tide drifted gently with the onshore breezes that came through the window.
After pondering the question for a moment, he turned to Luke. “Those running shoes you’re wearing, or the components in your computer, your ten-speed bike, almost everything we use daily, and depend upon daily, is made in China. And as yet I haven’t seen one Chinese Communist soldier patrolling the streets of Atherton or San Jose. I mean really, why bother spending the time, the expense, and the blood to conquer, when all you have to do is make your opponent a dependent client? The more you sell him, the more money he owes you; in a short while the creditor owns the whole ball of wax. The good old USA, despite its military prowess, is now suddenly just another de facto client state that owes billions, if not homage, to China. In effect, the little fish has jumped into the net of its own accord, but the wise fisherman gently puts him back in the water to grow bigger and fatter for next year, or the year after.”
Luke shrugged and took a swig of beer. “To tell you the truth, Robert, I don’t give a crap who sells what to whom, or what nation declares itself the progenitor of another’s culture. Pure science depends upon empirical and provable truths. And whether we like it or not, the result would be the same regardless of all cultural, religious, or ethnic bias.”
Robert appeared impressed with Luke’s shorthand summation, but slightly confused in the bargain. “I know this is all leading to something pointed. I just can’t see the target.”
Luke nodded and patiently went on. “As a scientist and amateur historian my only concern is the truth. I don’t care if Mickey Mouse discovered America first and everybody on the planet denied it. If I discovered proof to the contrary, and I truly believed that this fact was important to man’s often illusory understanding of his own nature, I would find some way to disseminate it regardless of the consequences, because we ultimately suffer greater pains from ignorance than from the truth, even if our first exposure to the truth hurts our pride, our sense of privilege, or our quaint faith in priestly prestidigitation. Cultural envy or political jealousy should have no place in science, any more than religion plays a viable part in international commerce. If we have the least hint of the truth, it is our obligation to explore it until we can arrive at a provable resolution.”
Robert sat back and grinned. “That was quite a lecture, Professor Lucas. Of course it all makes perfect sense, but you must also remember that, if anything, I have an even greater vested interest in finding out the truth than you do. I am Chinese after all, and these cultural and historical artifacts play an important role in our knowledge of ourselves, and the world’s knowledge of us. But the thorny question remains, where do we go from here?”
Luke shook his head. “That’s just what you and I have to figure out in the next few days.”
Robert flashed another wry smile. “I’m all abuzz.”
Luke and Robert sat up talking until two in the morning and slept in the next day. After a late breakfast of ham and eggs served by an indifferent waitress at a local cafe, Luke said he wanted to take Robert, who had never visited Monterey before, on what Luke was pleased to call a “used-to-be tour” of the locations mentioned in Dr. Gilbert’s journal.
Robert was puzzled. “What is a ‘used-to-be tour’?”
Luke grinned. “That’s when you visit places that used to be there but aren’t there any longer.”
“What’s the use of that?”
“Oh, just to give you a flavor of the place. Sometimes one can eke out subtle insights from locations. Besides, I just thought you’d like to see where all this history took place. Sightseeing is just what we need right now. We’ll take my Jeep. It’s just the thing for where we’re going.”
LUKE TOOK ROBERT ON A leisurely tour of Pacific Grove and pointed out Lover’s Point, where Hopkins had once been, and China Point, where the Chinese fishing village had once stood, before the fire obliterated it. He showed Robert examples of the famous Monterey cypresses, but admitted that though he knew the general area, not even Dr. Gilbert knew exactly where the original site of the discovery was situated. Luke drove out to the Spanish Bay resort, which had once been called Asilomar Beach, and then went on to see the Carmel River, which Luke believed might have been the site of one of the original Chinese encampments. His presumption was based on the fact that the river had once flowed with abundant freshwater all year long, and that, according to Luke, would have made the site an ideal place to take on that precious commodity. The river, before it had been dammed up, was said to have been fat with trout and even salmon when the season called them from the sea.
Luke and Robert walked out to where the river met the ocean. There, they sat down to enjoy the view for a while. After a few minutes of quiet contemplation, Luke turned to Robert and said, “I know it’s none of my business, but Stanford isn’t the cheapest school on the block.”
“You’re telling me?”
“So what do you do to make a living while you’re acquiring all those doctorates of yours? I hope that’s not a rude question.”
Robert shook his head. “Not rude at all, but the answer is rather embarrassing. In fact, I don’t do anything to make money just now. Hell, I’ve never had to earn a living. At the risk of losing face, I must confess that my parents are very well fixed. As long as I stay in school and keep adding credentials after my name, they give me all I need or want.”
“When you say fixed, just what are we talking about?”
Robert shrugged. “My natural modesty prevents me from naming a figure because I don’t really know. We Chinese never discuss such things. But last year the government stuck my father’s company with a twenty-seven- million-dollar tax bill. I know because he moaned about it for two whole months. You do the math. I’m terrible at finances.”
When they got back to Pacific Grove later that afternoon, Luke stopped at a little bookstore and purchased a volume put out by the Heritage Society. It was a photographic history of Pacific Grove. Luke felt it would help his friend get a better feeling for the place, and what it looked like at the time Dr. Gilbert penned his journal. There was even a picture of the professor standing with his colleagues and students in front of the old Hopkins Lab at Lover’s Point. Robert, however, seemed far more interested in the photos of the Chinese community.
