After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town, a short story from Ha Jin’s collection The Bridegroom is about a Chinese fast food worker who works under an American boss. It describes the discrimination that he faces from the customers as well as through his boss due to unfair business practices. It also gives the readers insight to what its like to run a restaurant in another country and the various problems one might run into while trying to encourage diversity. We find out from the narrator within the first few pages that he believes his boss is two-faced. Mr. Shapiro is very friendly to the customers but treats his employees horribly. He doesn’t give them free food or employee discounts because he says it’s against company policy. The workers find this strange because it goes against their socialist ideals; especially since the extra chicken is later burned by Peter. Another way that the workers are treated unfairly is their wages. Peter is the manager so it’s expected that he receive a bugger paycheck than them, but under further examination the crew realizes that Peter is being paid in American dollars rather than yuan. This means that Peter is making 20% more than the others. Peter has studied in America. Is this perhaps why Mr. Shapiro treats him better? This is another difficulty one would face when running a business in another country. Do you pay your workers in their currency or the original company’s currency? Of course what Mr. Shapiro is doing is immoral and not at all the way to solve the predicament. Another immoral practice is that he takes his female workers out on dates in order to be offered the Chinese prices rather than the foreigner upcharge.
Since this business deals with food, you also have to consider people’s diets. Many people of Asian descent are lactose intolerant. Cheese cake and ice cream is shipped in for a wedding. This causes many people to get sick and accuse Cowboy Chicken of poisoning them. The way this problem is dealt with is by warning future customers of this issue and adding other desserts to the menu such as apple pie and Jello.
The employees choose to strike as the story comes to a close. They write a letter to Mr. Shapiro. He receives the letter and instantly fires all of the workers except for the ones who didn’t sign the letter. He perceives their message as a threat and even calls them “terrorists.” (p. 225) This is obviously racist.