His older brother was the pioneer, more than a decade ago. His son followed three years ago. As recently as last year, his daughter planned to join this exodus of thousands from Fujian province who have gambled that the life of a smuggled immigrant in America would eclipse that of an impoverished native in China.
But she lost interest after her brother's experience.
"Life is much more difficult than he expected, so I regret sending him to America," said the father, Wang, who -- like some others interviewed for this article -- spoke on the condition that only his surname be used. "He is miserable. He says to me, `Why am I working so hard in America? I can get rich at home.' It's very different from the way it used to be."
Ten years ago this summer, human smuggling exploded into international consciousness when the Golden Venture, a decrepit freighter stuffed with 286 Chinese, most from the Changle area in southern China, ran aground off Queens in New York. Ten people died in the cold and pounding surf, and soon, the name Golden Venture became shorthand for a cruel world of exploitation of desperate people.
Today, the smuggling trade continues, though perhaps at a slower clip, people here say, costing US$60,000 a head. But for the first time, many Fujianese feel less urgency about venturing abroad.
They have more options at home, with jobs available in small businesses, steel factories or construction sites. It is far more convenient and less troublesome, some people say, to make small money in the comfort of familiar surroundings, instead of big money in the clutches of a lonely and inhospitable land.
Some smuggled Chinese are even leaving America as soon as they pay their debts, and without gaining permanent residency, because they want a less stressful life at home.
"America is no paradise," said one man surnamed Zheng, who returned to the village of Shengmei a few years ago. He described a seven-year odyssey that started in New York but took him to many other places. "It was the same routine every day for six or seven years," he said. "Get up. Work for 16 hours. Go to bed. Get up again. I was a fool. A machine."
America is still in people's thoughts here. Of dozens of people interviewed in half a dozen villages around Changle, nearly everyone claimed to have at least one relative overseas, most in New York.
In small fishing villages like Houyu, where jobs are scarce, the urge to leave remains strong.
But in many places, that desire is now muted by considerations such as economics, family and safety. Some people attribute their reluctance to tighter security in China and America after the Sept. 11 attacks.
"The Golden Venture has defined the discourse for years, and people still have the same ideas about Chinese and smuggling," said Peter Kwong, director of the Asian-American studies program at Hunter College. But things have changed, he said, adding, "The economic incentive is no longer absolute."
The woman accused of being the chief smuggler, or "snakehead," behind the Golden Venture, Cheng Chui-ping, is on trial in New York. The lawyer who represented many of the immigrants, Robert E. Porges, is in jail, after admitting that he helped many of them concoct false stories of persecution to bolster their asylum cases. The ship itself is being used as an artificial reef about a mile off the coast of Boca Raton, Florida.
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