As she is able to separate, she looks back at her culture fondly rather than with anger. The last talk-story Kingston adds to her memoir is a collaboration of China and America, old and new. She leads into the story with, “The beginning is hers her mother’s, the ending mine Kingston” (206). Kingston acknowledges that while she may still be strongly influenced by her mother and her Chinese culture, she is in the process of breaking away to create a personal identity. This is the first time that Kingston explicitly tells which additions to the story are her own.
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.
Much of the Chinese values moved with them to America. In the movie Mulan, all the parents want for their daughter, Mulan, is to bring honor to the family. But Mulan is not your typical Chinese girl; she has her own opinions, and can’t hide who she really is. (Mulan) In the story “Two Kinds”, Jing-mei’s mother and father want her to be a prodigy in order to make a life for herself. At first Jing-mei liked the idea, but after all of her attempts and fails she wanted to live a normal American life.
First of all, the American family structure compared to Adeline’s family structure have some similarities. First, Adeline’s father and Aunt Baba want Adeline to have a good education, so Aunt Baba and her can live together when she gets a good career. Her father said, “You will go to England with Third Brother this summer and you will go to medical school” (193). Adeline wanted to be a writer, but her father said you will starve and not make any money. Next, most American and Adeline’s Chinese family have a mom and a dad.
Lilly was worried about this because Snow Flower was from a higher class than her. The concept of a lao tong is two women who give each other themselves in friendship. Snow Flower and Lilly write back and forth on a silk fan in Nushu, a secret language that only women knew about. As the story progresses Lily marries a scholar's nephew who belonged to one of the richest families in China while Snow Flower marries a butcher, which was seen as low class. They stay in touch throughout the years by the fans and meetings but their relationship falters when Lily misunderstands a message from Snow Flower.
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. It is interesting to note that when Jing-mei Woo is asked by her three “aunts” to go to China in order to fulfill her mother’s long-cherished wish to meet her lost twin babies, Jing-mei shocks and upsets
When Celie initially looks at Shug’s photograph she is amazed by Shug's lavish appearance. Shug reminds Celie of her “mama.” Celie compares Shug to her mother countless times throughout the novel and it is evident that ever since Celie lost her mother, Shug is the closest thing she has to a mother in her life. Celie looks up to Shug and admires her not only as a mother like figure but also as a sister, a teacher, and a friend. Shug greatly influences Celie's personality and the decisions she makes. Shug is the primary reason why Celie gains a sense of self identity and importance in the book.
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
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.
Chinatowns were formed for many of the same reasons as other areas of large cities like the Irish areas in Boston and the little Italy section of North Beach. The immigrants were not accepted readily by Americans and needed a place to stay together with others who shared the same beliefs and traditions; it is there the story begins. Jade Snow Wong is the fifth Chinese Daughter in the Wong’s family. In the first act of the book, she briefly describes what her childhood was like growing up in the Chinatown of California in the early 1900s. 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.