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
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.
Unbound Feet The immigration of Chinese women was one of the most overlooked and understudied significant event in women’s history, until now. Their rise from being considered slaves, to gaining respect and credibility, is one of the most influential for women’s equality across America. In Unbound Feet, Judy Yung examines the hardships and rise of Chinese women as they immigrate to America to fulfill their dreams, yet are bound by discrimination and bind together to rise above racism and sexism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Yung examines the immigration and rise of the culture in five decades. Yung asks herself “What sociohistorical forces were at play that can explain social change for Chinese American women in the first half of the twentieth century?” (Yung, 5) The book tells of their oppression in America through prostitution, gender roles, anti-Chinese immigration laws, and class discrimination.
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.
“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.
In Alice’s case, her characteristics and values have been drastically influenced by what her family has been through in the past. An example of the influence of past lives on the behaviors of family members is the relationship between Alice’s mother and her grandmother. There is great conflict between the two of them during Alice’s childhood because her grandmother has such high expectations of Alice’s mother that she finds difficult to fulfill. Alice’s grandmother is an old fashioned Chinese woman, who believes that the wife of the house must bring honor to her family by perfecting all domestic duties. Juggling four children, cooking, cleaning and adjusting to a new society puts pressure on Alice’s mother.
Introduction: - Joan Didion’s Play it as it Lays, Junot Diaz’ Drown, and Maxine Hong Kingstons’ The Woman Warrior all demonstrate different intersections of race, class and gender. Each novel provides a unique perspective of growing up in American society. In Play it as it Lays, Didon dictates a story of Maria Wyeth, a Caucasian wealthy actress, struggling with depression. Contrastly, Diaz’ introduces Junior, a Domincan male, who spent his childhood living in a third world country, and struggles with poverty even after moving to the States. Finally, Kingston shares her hardships of adjusting into the role of a Chinese-American woman in her memoir, The Woman Warrior.
The Joy Luck Club Assignment The film the Joy Luck Club was an excellent account of four different accounts of Asian American women and their grown up assimilated daughters. It dealt with the marked discrepancy in the story of the rough relationships of first generation Asian American mothers and the daughters’ complete assimilation. It was interesting viewing the mothers’ adherence to their customs and beliefs clashing with their daughters’ acceptance of the American lifestyle. In addition, the stereotypes that were perpetuated by the movie were intense, mainly of Asian men and women. By showing the beliefs and customs of the Chinese still done here in America, the film makes a massive effort to reinforce negative stereotypes such of Asians as sexist, poverty-ridden, cruel, and strange, exotic, and
ENGL 110 Essay 1 Final Draft Yi Zhang Cultural and Generation Conflict “Two kinds” is a story about the conflict between a Chinese-American girl Jing Mei and her mother. They immigrated from China to the United State and when Jing Mei was a little girl, her mother tried to discover Jing Mei’s prodigy. At first Jing Mei is also curious about being a prodigy but finally she lose interest in it. The author Amy Tan develops her theme of cultural and generation conflict through the choice of an appropriate setting, the use of strong character development, and strong plot development including exposition, conflict, climax, and resolution. The setting of the story establishes an appropriate background for the characters’ traits and leads to the exposition between two characters.
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.