You're a credit to your race, my boy.
-- Crocker (Part 1: Gold - Celestial Railroad: Section 6: Page 44)

Importance: One of the themes in "The Fortunes" is money and transactions. Ling comes to America because he wanted to be rich. He is obsessed with earning gold. Here, his employer, railroad tycoon Charles Crocker, calls him a credit to his race after Ling demonstrates his strength in front of Crocker's business friend, Stanford, and his foreman, Strobridge. Based on Ling's performance, Crocker hires fifty "Celestials," or Chinese men, to work on his railroad. Ling is initially happy about this, but Little Sister throws the words back at him, asking him, "How do you spend that?" (44). She tells him that she would buy a brothel if she could and says they could do it together if he would earn more than credit. This exchange helps Ling understand that Crocker's words might seem kind, but they are racist and in fact represented an empty...