“What is this nonsense?” I asked her, putting the strips of paper in my pocket, thinking I should study these classical American sayings. “They are fortunes,” she explained. “American people think Chinese people write these sayings.” “But we never say such things!” I said. “These things don’t make sense. These are not fortunes, they are bad instructions.” “No, Miss,” she said, laughing, “it is our bad fortune to be here making these and somebody else’s bad fortune to pay to get them.”
