Asians Girls Do It Better
A/N- Italic sentences mean it's spoken in Mandarin. An asterisk means it's in pin ying (Mandarin spelled out in Latin letters) and will be explained at the bottom of the chapter.
Disclaimer: Had I owned Pride and Prejudice, there would have been more awkward situations which defiantly would have made Jane Austin blush madly.
Chapter One- Meet Lena Chen
Intro by Lena Chen
Jane Austin wrote a book about a family with five daughters and their mother's obsession to have their girls find good husbands. One thing is for sure...Austin never knew the pain an Asian girl has to go through when it comes to the art of courting. I thought I had left all that when I went to college. Hell was I wrong. Maybe it would have been better if I still didn't live with my parents?
Haw Par Villa in Singapore has 'The Ten Courts Of Hell' exhibit. Its pretty gruesome but that doesn't even begin to describe the embarrassing pain my mother puts me and my sisters through. If I have to go on another one of her 'perfect Chinese boy blind dates' I'm going to hurt someone...
All I, Lena Chen, wanted to do this summer was stay at home, relax and design new outfits for my book so I can try to become a successful fashion designer. Did I get that? No
Buddha decided that I needed to get a huge helping of karma in the form of Fletcher Wallace Darcy.
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Lena Chen had decided this summer would be different. She would not let her mom set her up with any more 'nice' Chinese boys. She refused to let her sisters' constant bickering about who knows what annoy her. There was no way in nirvana would she procrastinate work like the summer before. She would stay out of the sun and discontinue tanning because she seriously thought she might get skin cancer. Finally, she promised to be a better Asian daughter because she was starting to feel bad about losing touch with her Chinese roots.
It was really hard to remind herself of these things as her mother burst through her door while she was trying to find a better place via meditation.
"Girls! Girls! Oh, get out of your rooms! You won't believe it. Someone, a man, is moving into the neighbourhood!" Mrs. Chen shouted joyfully
"Oh! Jackie Chan?" Lena offered
"Lena, don't joke like that. He's rich! He's renting the big mansion out on the hill. Oh I hope he's a Chinese boy! The economy is so good now. Doesn't he sound perfect for Kimmie?"
"Mama! We're perfectly capable of finding our own husbands. Gosh, it's only the second day of summer vacation. Pace yourself." Lena cut in, annoyed and trying to remember her new summer mantra 'I love my family and their interesting quirks'
"Don't you dare speak to me like that! When your father dies do you think there will be enough money to give to each of you? Your father worked his way from a coal mine and lived through the cultural revolution so you girls could have a better life! This is how you thank us? At least the other girls consider the boys I set them up with. All you do is turn your nose down at them. Are you ashamed of your heritage?"
"I'm glad Lena doesn't consider the boys you set her up with. They can't appreciate her as they should." Mr. Chen walked in
"ChenXian Sheng, what are you saying? Kim is the pretty one! She got into Cornell. If anything they can't appreciate her!"
Lena and her father rolled their eyes. Kim, the eldest, was any Asian parent's dream. Not only was she 5 Ft 8, fair, skinny, looked like a gorgeous Asian doll, she also had top grades, had received a scholarship in Cornell then finished her vet training early. She now was 23 and working at as a Vet relatively close to home. Beauty, brains and a heart. Lena liked to say Lucy Liu had better watch out.
On the other hand, Lena was the 5 Ft 2 trouble maker. As the opposite of Kim, Lena was rather short, darker toned and looked like any other indistinguishable asian. While in school, she had been suspended a number of times and didn't do too well grade wise. Although she was intelligent in her own right, Lena was just couldn't be assed to keep up with school work giving her a lovely C average. She was their father's unspoken favourite. Most of her childhood was spent outside or trying to translate Proust into Mandarin and Confucius into English after refusing to go to Saturday Chinese school. Lena was an interesting mix of extremes. Kick boxing was one of her favourite hobbies...as well as meditation and yoga. She currently decided to study fashion at a local community college.
The other three girls meant well most of the time but were just silly. The younger two, Amanda or Mandy and Alison or Ali, were boy crazy and it drove their mother slightly off the wall as the boys they liked were caucasian. Michelle or Mitch was always reading vampire/werewolf novels and listened to death metal, again driving their parents off the wall. Lena just accounted for their behaviour to immaturity as their ages were 15, 14 and 17, respectively.
Alas, life goes on (as Mr. Chen liked to say to Lena). So all Lena Chen could really do was stay in the nice town of Marling, a nice 1 1/2 hours from Santa Monica, and pray that Bingley left her world alone. She'd sort of get that wish...
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Xian Sheng Mr. in Manderin. The last name is said first then 'Mister' or 'Miss' etc. in Mandarin
Last A/N
I noticed there weren't really that many culture switches when it came to P & P. I then got to thinking and realised Asian culture sort of had a lot of ties with the olden themes of arranged marriages etc.
Plus I'm only half Asian and lived in a relatively westernised mind set so sorry if I get a few things wrong with the family dynamics. I'm trying my best.