ABSTRACT
In the Chinatown Square Shopping Center in Chamblee, northeast Atlanta, a Chinese woman whom we call Zhuang-Tse used to own and run, with the help of her two sons, “Little Mandarin,” one of the seven fast-food services in the food court. Zhuang-Tse told author the story of her life in the United States, and stories of four other Chinese immigrant women who not only have led similar lives, but have also influenced and inspired her in her life. The life story of Zhuang-Tse and stories she has told of other Chinese women contradicts the commonly held view that Chinese women are passive and submissive. Born on 12 December 1935, in Beijing, China, Zhuang-Tse first came to the United States in 1982. Divorce, however, was not something that a Chinese woman is willing to talk about. On August 8, 1988, the Chinatown Shopping Center officially opened for business in Atlanta.
