Explain why the title could be considered ironic. Throughout our lives, many of us tried to assimilate with thier own culture espically if that person wasn’t born from their own country. One reason is that they feel that thier not in their own comfort zone because their not accustomed to any of the traditions toward the country. However that’s not the case with Elizabeth Wong because she in fact doesn’t even like her own heritage. In her article Ms.Wong clearly show her dislike for her heritage through chinese language.
The difficulty here is that for Shen “’I’ had often been identified with another ‘bad’ word, ‘individualism,’ which has become a synonym for selfishness in China.” And that “individualism’ have had negative connotations in my [Shen] mind.” These barriers that were set up by the Chinese ideology, made it hard for Shen to be his true self. While writing, the challenge for Shen was to abandon his Chinese ideologies and adopt an English identity to properly express himself. Mellix on the other hand, is able to be herself and write about the topic on mind. Though she also has to shut out a part of herself, the Black English, it is not like Shen’s situation where he has to change ideologies whenever writes, you get the feel that Shen knows that English
In her novel Kingston has challenged the traditional way in which to write an autobiography. "Kingston reconciles the Chinese collective identity and the American individuality through reinventing the autobiography: she creates herself through (re)creating the stories of others." This book is most commonly classed as non- fiction though it is infused with fantasy and imagination. She is trying to recreate her mothers talk stories which doesn't help the idea of it being a non-fiction novel as it has too many unreliable, imagined, variable and undocumented components. It is also not written in a linear timeline and if we look at the way in which it was written it becomes clear the Kingston is in fact unclear on many facts and has a tendency to either guess or make up what may have happened.
The vase symbolizes Lena’s relationship with her mother – neither one would prevent the accident from happening. This resulted in the vase breaking. Lena’s dire relationship with her mother was easily reconcilable yet no actions were taken to repair it. Jing-mei and her mother Suyuan constantly had clashing beliefs on how
One of the most powerful themes in the story that especially resonates with me is gender inequality. This essay effectively communicates unfair treatment of women in China and the amount of a support that women gave to the patriarchal system because punishment came from both: men and women. Punished women did not simply accept the treatment but acted in accordance with their culture: instead of standing up for themselves, they perpetuated the patriarchy by torturing other women. On the third page of the essay Kingston says that “to be a woman, to have a daughter in starvation time was a waste enough” (p.396). This passage effectively points out that women were considered physically and mentally inferior to men; it also implies that their job could be easily accomplished by men as if women are imperfect, mindless beings that are incapable of completing a task.
Maggie Greenwald did include opium smoking in her film, further propagating the belief that all Chinese were detrimental to the health of American society. Chinese women, a minority in Colorado and the United States, had to
Compare/Contrast Essay In ancient Chinese and Indian societies, women were not thought highly of, however they did play differing significant roles in their own societies. Their main points of significance were found in the qualifications for a wife, duties inside the home, and the relationship between them and their husbands. Chinese and Indian women are very similar in their societies because, although they go about it in different ways, they both have the ultimate goal of making their husbands, families, and villages look good. Qualifications for a wife are where the Chinese and Indian women differ the most. Chinese women are supposed to appear modest, which is why they must ever use inappropriate language, always keep their clothes on and fresh, and hide their chastity, if they have any.
Far from knowing Chinese culture and without the awareness to know, the mother generation is alien and ridiculous to them. June considers her mother and Auntie Am-mei’s dress as “too fancy for real Chinese people and too strange for American parties”, and she even imagined Joy Luck “was a shameful Chinese custom, like the secret gathering of the Ku Klux Kan or the tom-tom dancers of TV Indians preparing for war. (Tan 28)” The daughter is not only ignorant to Chinese culture, but also initiatively wants to get rid
They implemented a number of signification changes and introduced multiple laws which reduced prejudice and increased female involvement in society. Before 1949, China was a patriarchal society, in which it had become tradition for women to be subjected to discrimination and prejudice, playing a subordinate role to men. The shocking difference between the literacy rates of men and women was a clear demonstration of the low status of
170-171) “There are all these new books out there portraying Asian mothers as scheming, callous, indifferent people indifferent to their kids’ true interests.” The negative focus on Asian upbringing combined with the title, will be enough reason for pause in many Western parents’ bodies. This pause will by time build to a rage. This is caused by the way Amy Chua describes Chinese parents as good parents and Western parents as questionable parents – means that you are to make questions about whether the western parents are good or bad. It is all provocation. Amy Chua draws the reader into this rage.