Each mother and daughter tell her own story. The book is divided into four main sections; the stories are told from the viewpoints of four Chinese mothers and their Chinese American daughters. The only exception is Suyuan Woo, who, having recently died, speaks not for herself but through her daughter, Jing-mei. The daughter tells her mother’s stories as she takes her mother’s place at the mahjong table and on the fateful trip to China. The novel traces the psychological development of the American daughter and her final acceptance of the Chinese mother and what the Chinese mother stands for.
She vividly details out the importance of each holiday and each traditions she has to follow as a child growing up in a Chinese family, the Chinese traditions were rather strict than the recent modern generations such as mine. However, even though all of her childhood activities were just briefly touched, one can still tell that the pain Jade had to endure started at a very early stage of her life. It is only normal for all to believe that a person should have an innocent, joyful and worry free childhood no matter what, because this will help to shape the majority of one’s personality, beliefs and many other traits; in Jade’s case, this form of “early education”
Courtney Carson Dr. Barker English 1302-21101 25 September 2011 Discovering The Dual Identity Many people struggle with accepting who they really are. For example, June May in Amy Tan’s “A Pair of Tickets” struggles with accepting the fact that she is Chinese. In this short story June May takes a trip to China with her father, Canning Woo, to see her father’s aunt and to meet her two half sisters for the first time. However, what she doesn’t know is that she will discover something about herself along the way. In “A Pair of Tickets” Tan’s use of the setting is important to the development of June May’s character.
In this narrative the readers see that Charlie considers his culture and nationality much more superior to his wife’s but Christie values both the cultures equally because they represent the two individuals. Both of the readings content combined helps to understand how ones nationality strongly fits under their individuality. In Edith Eaton’s piece called “Its Wavering Image” she uses this short narrative to project her real life experience as a half Chinese and half British girl growing up in a Western society and her search to finding her true identity. In this story a young girl named Pan, a half white and half Chinese girl, whose mother had died and so she lived
Kingston’s story “A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe” employs numerous fantasy elements in depicting her separation from the restrictiveness of China and further, her discovery of harmony between her ancient family’s culture and her new American one. Navigating through confusion and anger, Kingston is ultimately able to remove herself her Chinese bindings and find a sense of accord between her past and her future. Kingston’s rhetoric conveys her struggle with the complexities of her Chinese culture and her inability to come to a core truth. Furthermore, she gravitates toward American culture for its simplicity. Kingston is having difficulties sorting fact from fiction in her mother’s story about Moon Orchid’s encounter with her husband.
“Two Kinds” is a story about a girl and her family, who moved to the Americas. Jing-mei went through different prodigies or prodigy attempts, trying to please her family. Both of the stories had the same cultural backgrounds. Mulan is a story located back in Ancient China (Mulan); “Two Kinds” is about a family who lived in China and then moved to San Francisco in 1949 (Tan, 124). Much of the Chinese values moved with them to America.
His mother remembered how lovingly the mother-in-law was looked upon at meal time. She wanted that. She wanted, of course, every good thing for her son. She started reading cookbooks as though they were novels. Then, she discovered the Food Network.
Even though the music was dominating through their ears and the gossip was flowing through their mouths, food is what is keeping everyone happy, smiling, and enjoying each other’s company. Some of the characters do not even want to leave the party without taking just one last bite of food from the Chinese buffet. Importantly and additionally, it is here at the dance where the love of two girls, Vivian and Wil, begins to flourish. The next scene where food is a dominating source of love and affection is when the mother fixes Chinese food for her daughter during meal times. No matter if they are on speaking terms or not, the mother always fixes a meal for her daughter and sometimes her neighbor or girlfriend if they are present.
The poem begins with the perspective of the sister in China as she describes the tradition of her people and the adaptations they have made. After some brief background into the Chinese culture, Song moves to focus on the relationship between the speaker and her sister. “And the daughters were grateful: They never left home. To move freely was a luxury stolen from them at birth” (Song); Song uses these lines to describe the realities that come with living in China and the idea that one may never actually leave to discover America. In the first part of the poem Song conveys that the life lived in China is not a glorious one.
She even stays home in order to prepare the dinner but, never the less, she thanks her family for this wonderful day with tears in her eyes. The author emphasizes that the family is conscious about the mother’s role in their life by using inversion to describe it: “how much Mother had done for us for years, and all the efforts and that sacrifice she had made for our sake”. Also he shows the importance of Mother’s Day with the help of comparison “A day just like Xmas” and epithet “such a big occasion”.