One thing that I started to notice when going into different small shops and restaurants is a ladder leading up to a small loft. Come to find out, many places of “business” are also “home” for many Chinese. They live and work all in the same place (the loft is where they sleep). When you go into a restaurant and have a seat you may be sitting in their “living room” even though it looks like a restaurant. When they go back to the kitchen, it is very likely “their kitchen.” Or maybe you can consider the small store on the corner 24 hours because if you need something you know they are always there. Close to our apartment there is a convenience store, a construction shop, and a realtor where this seems to be the case; their business is their home and their home is their business. I guess this makes for a simple, sustainable, self-sufficient type of life.
I still like the Chinese congregation here in my hometowm just this sunday a friend spoke of how the old chinese were uneducated in our area but had many shops. Now the young chinese go to Duke University/ One girl majoring biomedics to make porstetic limbs.. Other go to University of Virginia and others even go to Regent University but very few
Stephen