Yay, blog time, my favorite time of month! To be honest however, I am a bit more enthused for this month’s post, since I actually think I have something to say, and three whole days before the deadline no less!
That being said, this post is going to be a bit of a throwback; I want to go back to “Reminiscing About a Chinese Restaurant”, and just spew my musings about this poem out there. I know we just about beat this poem to death in class, but I recall I had a bunch of stuff to say about this poem. Alas, I’m nowhere near as articulate as I wish I could be so I’ll spew on this tonight on the blog!
To begin examining the poem, I’d like to look at the last stanza. By writing
“What would the glasses, the ovens
and chopsticks tell, what grease
on uniforms, what language
beyond food?”
The author clearly directs the reader to look for a deeper meaning in the food she uses as details in the poem. With this in mind, the focus of the poem is taken from the food that each individual or group of people eats, and given to the actual Chinese restaurant and the people who “inhabit” it. If the inhabitants are taken as Chinese people, and the Chinese restaurant is symbolic of Chinese Americans, this poem becomes an exposé on the state of the Chinese people in America.
The author introduces the poem with a scene describing the variety of dishes being served in the Chinese restaurant. This introduction alludes to the diversity among Chinese Americans. Looking at the poem in this light each individual/group mentioned in the poem becomes symbolic the different types of people that make up Chinese America.
The first person mentioned specifically is the chef working in the kitchen of the restaurant. With a reference to “stick[ing] a needle into his arm” the author suggests a drug dependence in the Chinese community. Next a man with only one leg is mentioned. Details surrounding his character are the “Aloha Hotel” and “sugared ‘bombs’”, which could be subtle hints at war injuries (aloha brings up images of Hawaii, and the word bombs creates the image of the bombing of Pearl Harbor and World War II).
A family dinner is the scene described after the disabled man. The father and mother here are eating a grand dinner of “halibut steak, rice and gravy, and apple pie.” Though they are eating well, they only feed sixty cent dinners to their daughters. They are the vanity of Chinese people, a very common fault among many Chinese: the over emphasis of social status. What follows next, is someone who represents the poverty of Chinese people, someone who cannot afford more then “three slices of wholewheat bread”.
“A young gypsy girl” is the next topic of the poem. A poor sexualized woman, she may represent the remnants of the female Chinese immigrants that were tricked into sexual slavery as the cost for immigration to America. Lastly a blue collared worker is mentioned. The most normal of all the people mentioned in this poem, that he “pays to eat and look at the other waitress” is a subtle hint at a sadder existence, then on initial inspection.
A post like this isn’t anywhere near enough to analyze this poem. Besides the just the above mentioned (which I feel is only beginning to scratch the surface of each of those individual topics), there is still to analyze how the narrator fits into this whole situation. If anyone else has anything more to say about this please feel free to comment. To be honest, by the time I got to the end of my post, I was less convinced of my initial argument then when I began.
Oh and one more thing. This line completely stumped me: “This man paints red in my father’s eyes”. I don’t know what to make of it or what it’s supposed to mean. Red is very important color to the Chinese people, and symbolizes many different things. Unfortunately the things that it symbolizes are sometimes complete opposites of each other. Any thoughts?
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