Haunted By Half Moon Bay shooting – Chinese farmworkers search for a way back by Peter Schurmann 擺脫不了半月灣槍擊案夢魘 華裔農民尋找方法重回過去

Six months since a shooting claimed 7 lives, a handful of Chinese farmworkers are struggling to regain their footing in this small coastal community where few knew they existed.

Mr. Huang lives in a modest, one-bedroom apartment just off Highway 1 a few miles outside the city of Half Moon Bay. Originally from Hong Kong, he stands at the front door to welcome the coterie of support providers arriving for one of their regular visits.

Before January, Huang and a handful of other Chinese farmworkers here were so invisible that few in this otherwise tight-knit coastal community even knew they existed.

“We’re like goldfish in a bowl,” said Mr. Huang (asking that we only use his last name), speaking in Cantonese through a translator. “We swim around and around, with no connection to the outside.”

That near-total isolation was shattered on Jan. 23, when 66-year-old Chunli Zhao opened fire at the California Terra Garden, where Mr. Wang lived and still works, and one other farm, killing seven. The deaths came within days of another mass shooting in Southern California – the perpetrator in that case also an older Asian man – and on the heels of Lunar New Year, typically a time of celebration and family gatherings.

More than six months out, some half dozen Chinese farm workers impacted by the shooting linger under a cloud of uncertainty over their long-term housing and employment. All say images from that night continue to haunt them.

“I have a lot of nightmares,” says Mr. Liu, 65, sitting next to his wife in a rental townhouse a few short miles outside the city. Both lived and still work at Concord Farms, the second of the two farms impacted that night, and were there the night of the shooting. “I wake up at night and I am very alert.”

The couple, originally from China’s Shaanxi Province, first came to the Half Moon Bay farm in 2006. They learned of the job through an ad in a local Chinese newspaper while staying with a relative. (The owners of both farms involved in the shooting are Chinese American.)

Ms. Liu says when they first got to the farm, she worried about the housing conditions and low pay but adds they were grateful to have employment and a roof. “The place was humid and damp, with mold. I worried about my husband’s health.” But, she adds, “Being here in the U.S. is much better for us. We can make money and support relatives in China.”

‘I still see their faces’

All five of the Chinese farm workers interviewed for this story say they returned to work almost immediately after the shooting, largely out of financial need. But according to Mr. Liu, those hours after work, sitting in his new temporary home with nothing to distract him, are the hardest. “I still see their faces,” he says of those he spent years working alongside.

Five of the seven victims killed that night were Chinese, most of them seniors like the Liu’s. Contact with relatives has been sporadic, with few if any details available on who the victims were, meaning their deaths – much like the lives they led on the farm – remain in obscurity.

One of those killed was Jingzhi Lu, 64. The meals she prepared on the farm offered a nightly point of contact between the mostly Latino farmworkers and the small group of Chinese, according to Enrique Bazan with the non-profit Ayudando Latinos a Sonar (ALAS). “Mama Lu, they called her,” says Bazan, referring to the group of children ranging in ages from 4 to 6 who participate in a weekly group therapy session organized by ALAS. “They still ask about her.”

Karen Decker is Half Moon Bay’s community and economic vitality manager. She says in the days following the shooting, Chinese farmworkers hesitated to reach out or take part in a memorial organized by the city. “They were afraid of a backlash,” she notes, pointing to the ethnicity of the suspect and the ongoing rash of attacks targeting Asian Americans.

Connecting the group to support services also proved daunting in the immediate aftermath, adds Decker, who is bi-racial and is herself a member of the Asian Pacific Islander community. City officials promptly turned to a handful of non-profits in nearby San Francisco, including Chinese for Affirmative Action, Self Help for the Elderly and Chinatown Community Youth Center, whose efforts were key to establishing an open line of communication and trust.

But, says Decker, the shooting’s toll on survivors has deepened with time.

“As the days turn to weeks and months, I see difficulty in some of our survivors in terms of how they can navigate a tragedy like this,” she explains. “Because after the funeral, after the bodies were repatriated to their countries of origin, after the media left, that is when it really starts to set in… There is no going back.”

Fears of housing insecurity

Both farms were fined recently for federal health and safety violations, fueling anxieties among survivors that the farms may close and leave them unemployed and potentially unhoused.

All of those impacted by the shooting – which remains an open investigation – were initially housed in a local hotel, and later placed in individual Airbnb units before being moved to temporary rentals paid for by San Mateo County through early next year.

Plans are in the works to build more permanent housing for older farm workers, though in the Bay Area’s notoriously expensive housing market, getting that done fast and below cost will be difficult.

Gov. Newsom’s office announced in June it would provide $16 million to support homeownership for farmworkers in the state, including $5 million set aside for survivors of the Half Moon Bay shooting. But that remains a drop in the bucket in an area where median home prices approach $2 million.

“We have a housing emergency,” says Half Moon Bay City Manager Matthew Chidester. “There just aren’t places for these folks to live. We’re tapping state money and land… and are trying to do this fast development to build a nice community for them to live in going forward.”

In the meantime, this small group of Chinese farmworkers – including the spouse of the shooter – are left to ponder an uncertain future in this idyllic coastal city they all say they cherish, despite the isolation.

“It’s beautiful,” agrees Mr. Huang, who has worked on the farm here for near two decades.

He then recalls the first time he encountered another Chinese-speaker at a local coffee shop (Mr. Huang is a self-described coffee lover). “I was so happy,” he says, “just to be able to speak with someone.”

This is the first in a series of reports by EMS and Peninsula 360 Press looking at the long-term impacts of the Jan. 23 mass shooting in Half Moon Bay, in partnership with the Vincent Chin Institute.

The Half MoonBay project is supported in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library in partnership with the California Department of Social Services and the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs as part of the Stop the Hate program. To report a hate incident or hate crime and get support, go to CA vs Hate.

槍擊事件發生六個月後，這裡的中國農場工人正試圖在一個很少有人知道他們存在的城市重建他們的生活。

【加州半月灣訊】黃先生住在離半月灣（Half Moon Bay）幾英哩外的1號公路旁一間簡樸的一房公寓裡。來自香港的他站在門口，歡迎案件經理定期來訪。

在今年1月前，在這個關係緊密的沿海社區中，黃先生和其他多位華裔農場工人幾乎是隱形的，鮮少有人知道他們的存在。

黃先生（要求匿名）以粵語透過翻譯說：「我們就像碗裡的金魚，只能游在碗裡，與外界沒有任何接觸。」

這種近乎完全隔離的生活，在今年1月23日被打破了。66歲的趙春力（Chunli Zhao）在王先生工作和居住的加州陶土花園（California Terra Garden）及另一座農場開槍，造成七人死亡。這起事件是在南加州另一起大規模槍擊案發生數天後發生的，南加州事件的兇嫌也是一名年長的華裔男性，當時正值農曆新年，是人們慶祝新年到來、與家人團聚的時刻。

六個多月過去了，約有六名受槍擊事件影響的華裔農場工人，仍被籠罩在不確定的長期住房和就業陰霾中。所有人都表示，當天晚上的畫面仍讓他們感到膽戰心驚。

與妻子住在城外幾英哩一間租來的城鎮屋的65歲劉先生說（劉先生夫婦也要求匿名）：「我經常做噩夢。」兩人都在康科德農場生活和工作，這是當晚受影響的兩個農場中的第二個。槍擊事件發生當晚，兩人都在現場。劉先生說：「我現在半夜醒來時，變得非常警覺。」

劉先生夫婦來自中國山西省，他們於2006年首次來到半月灣農場，住宿在一位親戚家時，在本地中文報紙上看到招聘廣告。（槍擊案兩家農場的主人都是美籍華人。） 劉太太表示，他們第一次去農場時，對住房條件和低薪有所顧慮，但她補充說，他們對有工作和有地方可住感到高興。她說：「這個地方又濕又霉，我擔心丈夫的健康。但是，能待在美國對我們來說，比待在國內好，因為我們可以賺錢養在中國的親人。」

「我仍然看到他們的臉」

接受本文採訪的五名華裔農場工人均表示，在槍擊事件發生後，他們幾乎是立即返回工作崗位，主要是出於經濟需要。不過，劉先生說，下班後坐在新的臨時住所裡的時間是最難熬的，因為沒有事情可以分散他的注意力。他談到那些與他共事多年的同事時說：「我到現在還記得他們的臉。」

當晚被槍殺的七名受害者中，有五名是華人，大部分都是像劉先生這樣的長者。這些人很少與親友聯繫，關於他們的背景資料也很少，這意味著，他們的死亡和他們在農場的生活一樣，沒有什麼人知道。

非營利組織Ayudando Latinos a Sonar（簡稱ALAS）代表巴桑（Enrique Bazan）表示，64歲的受害者盧靜芝（Jingzhi Lu，音譯）在農場準備的飯菜，為這個大部分工人是西語裔、只有少部分是華裔的農場，提供了員工們晚上接觸的機會。巴桑說：「他們都叫她盧媽媽，他們到現在都還會問起她。」巴桑指的是每周參加ALAS舉辦的團體輔導課程的4到6歲孩子們。

半月灣「社區與經濟活力」經理德克（Karen Decker）表示，在槍擊案發生後頭幾天，華裔農場工人對是否應該向外求助，或是參加該市舉行的悼念活動感到猶豫。她說：「他們害怕遭到報復。」她指的是嫌犯的族裔和針對亞裔的持續攻擊。

德克補充，事發後為這個群體提供即時支援服務，是一項艱鉅的任務。德克本身是混血兒，也是亞太裔社區的一份子。於是，市府官員立刻向附近的舊金山非營利組織求助，包括華人權益促進會（Chinese for Affirmative Action）、安老自助處（Self Help for the Elderly）和華埠青年活動中心（Chinatown Community Youth Center），他們的協助，對建立起暢通的溝通和信任管道非常重要。

不過，德克表示，隨著時間過去，槍擊案讓倖存者付出的代價卻愈來愈高。 她解釋：「隨著時間一天天過去，我發現，一些倖存者在如何面對這場悲劇上遇到了困難。因為，在葬禮過後、在受害者屍體被運回母國後、在媒體離開後，真實生活這才開始，再也沒有回頭路。」

對住房無保障的擔憂

兩座農場最近都因為違反聯邦健康和安全法規被罰款，加劇了倖存者的焦慮，因為他們擔心農場可能會關閉，導致他們失業和無家可歸。

受到槍擊事件影響的所有個家庭，最初都被安排住進當地一家飯店，接著被安置在個別的Airbnb住房單位，最後被轉移到由聖馬刁縣（San Mateo County）付費、可以住到明年初的臨時租賃住房。

為年邁的農場工人興建可永久居住的住房計畫正在制定中，但鑑於灣區昂貴的住房市場，要快速且以低成本完成這項工作有其難度。

加州州長紐森（Newsom）辦公室6月宣布，將提供1600萬美元資金支援為加州農場工人興建住房，其中500萬美元是提供給半月灣槍擊事件倖存者。但對一個中位數房價接近200萬美元的地區來說，這筆錢有如九牛一毛。

半月灣市府經理奇德斯特（Matthew Chidester）說：「這是一個住房緊急狀況，這些人根本沒有地方可住。我們正在利用加州提供的資金和土地，試著快速為他們興建住房，為他們未來的生活建立一個美好的社區。」

與此同時，這一小群華裔農場工人，包括槍手的配偶，都不得不思考他們在這座美麗沿海城市中不確定的未來。他們都表示，儘管與世隔絕，他們很珍惜這裡。

已經在農場工作近20年的黃先生說：「這裡很漂亮。」

黃先生回憶起第一次在當地一家咖啡店遇到一位會說中文的人。自稱喜歡喝咖啡的黃先生說：「可以和人交談，讓我好高興。」

這是 EMS 和 Peninsula 360 Press 與 Vincent Chin Institute 合作撰寫的系列報告中的第一篇，探討 1 月 23 日半月灣大規模槍擊事件的長期影響。

半月灣項目部分得到加利福尼亞州提供的資金支持，由加利福尼亞州立圖書館與加利福尼亞州社會服務部和加利福尼亞州亞洲及太平洋島民美國事務委員會合作管理，作為停止仇恨計劃的一部分程序。要報告仇恨事件或仇恨犯罪並獲得支持，請訪問 CA vs Hate。