(Apologies that this is a bit late. I've been doing battle with sickness and an extremely time-consuming video production project. Argh.)
One thing that I found interesting about The Woman Warrior was the role of ancestor worship in all of the characters' lives, and the differences between those still living in China, the immigrant generation, and the first generation to identify as Asian-American. Early on in the book it is articulated that Chinese families (and possibly Chinese-American as well) try very hard to preserve 'roundness' as described here: "The frightened villagers, who depended on one another to maintain the real, went to my aunt to show her a personal physical representation of the break she had made in the roundness...the villagers punished her for acting as if she could have a private life, secret and apart from them"(pg 12-13). The villagers are preserving a traditional culture and punishing those who act outside it by taking part in a ritual; a physical, public representation of the "wrong" that was done and the percieved effect that it has on the culture/society as a whole. In short: these people ransacked the protagonist's house because her aunt had created a disturbance by being impregnated by a man who was not her husband, so they are disturbing her house in return.
Regardless of whether the Aunt was raped/forced or whether she willingly had sex with this illicit lover, what she's being punished for is secret-keeping; allowing events to remain unknown, or not having the courage to speak up for herself. Having been raised the strongly individualistic American society and culture, I was fascinated by the paradox that appears to exist in Chines or Chinese-American culture concerning the role of the individual. Talking about a rape or confessing to adultery takes a great deal of personal strength and security in oneself; the Aunt's story suggests that these are valuable qualities in Chinese culture.
Family members continue to rely heavily on one another for resources and marriages are carefully arranged to ensure the best future for the family line, and yet there are many stories (mythological or not) about warriors, male and female, who find their strength within and are not governed by the wishes of others. This "warrior" image seems to be what is admired; and yet there is constant obligation or submission to the family. Is American influence what starts making the 2nd gen/"Chinese-American" characters start to reject this system? Because at the end of the book, one of the girls begins to express moving past such reverence for ancestors and Chinese history in order to claim her individuality: "I don't need anyone to pronounce English words for me. I can do it by myself. I'm going to get scholarships, and I'm going away. And at college I'll have the people that I like for friends. I don't care if their great-great-grandfather died of TB. I don't care if they were our enemies in China four thousand years ago..."(page 201).
I found this passage very interesting: "She stares straight ahead as if she could see past me to her grandchildren and grandchildren's grandchildren. She has spacy eyes, as all people recently from Asia have. Her eyes do not focus on the camera. My mother is not smiling; Chinese do not smile for photographs. Their faces command relatives in foreign lands--'Send money'--and posterity forever--"Put food in front of this picture'. My mother does not understand Chinese-American snapshots. 'What are you laughing at?' she says" (pages 58-59). This suggests that native Chinese and immigrants are different from Chinese-Americans because they either live in the past, fulfilling obligations to the dead, or in the future, thinking about their grandchildren's lives. Chinese-Americans (possibly Asian-Americans by extension, because of the influence of American culture) focus more on the present, laughing and enjoying current life. Is this difference a common source of conflict, maybe? It could contribute to that "split" feeling I've heard others describe, of being half in one culture and half in another.
My main purpose in writing this was to point out patterns that I noticed, analyze them some, and then open them up for discussion, so please comment! : )
Monday, March 31, 2008
Births in Woman Warrior
Something that struck me as really interesting in Woman Warrior was the two different types of births that were described; one in No Name Woman and the second in White Tigers. Both the aunt and Fa Mu Lan gave birth during inconvenient times and both include images of space, the sky, and stars.
In contrast,
I have to mention that both stories both used in stories that
I think the two examples are used to contrast the two different females and their roles in the novel. The aunt was portrayed as helpless woman who was shunned to the point where suicide seemed like the only answer to her problems. And the allusion to her child as being a girl supports the stereotype of the inferiority of women. Then there is Mu Lan whose role is as masculine as possible and delivers a baby boy. She does not receive any consequences from masquerading as a male and is even celebrated for her achievements. I wonder if Mu Lan’s story has a happier ending because of her role as a more masculine figure and the aunt’s story ended with death because she had a more feminine role?
Sunday, March 30, 2008
The No Name Woman and her Substitute
I was interested by the first story, “No Name Woman,” because of the way that the narrator imagined the type of person that her aunt was in her attempts to understand the past. I though that this introduced the reader to the type of stories and self-exploration that would follow in the novel.
Firstly, I thought that it was ironic that in trying to understand the truth of what really happened, the narrator speculates about the type of person her aunt was and fills in the details with her own imaginings. I think that this was an integral story for the narrator, however, because it shows how important it was for her to name the unnamed and to sort through the silence within her family.
The opening paragraph of the chapter emphasizes the silence that we have discussed many times in class. As the speaker noted, “No one said anything. [They] did not discuss it” (Kingston, 3). The family acted as if the aunt never existed in order to protect themselves from the shame—shame of a child born of wedlock, shame of a wife’s infidelity to her husband, and shame of a woman who committed suicide.
It was also interesting that while the mother used stories like this to scare her children into silence and to keep them from humiliating the family, the narrator took the skeleton of the story and started to flesh it out with a strong, individualistic woman. The narrator imagined her aunt in many different capacities—someone who wanted to travel west, someone who dreamed about a different life, or even someone who was “a wild woman” who took care with her appearance to attract the attentions of a man. She also imagined her aunt as a woman who accepted her responsibility as a mother: “[s]he may have gone to the pigsty as a last act of responsibility: she would protect her child as she had protected its father” (Kingston, 15). Even though she knew that her aunt killed herself and her baby, the narrator sees the suicide as an act of loving because the aunt did not abandon her child.
I felt that the narrator envisioned her aunt as a strong and individualistic woman because she felt a tie to her ancestor. Perhaps this connection arose because the narrator felt distanced from her family in China—the same family that distanced themselves from her aunt. Or maybe these sentiments arise because the narrator is in the process of negotiating her role in Chinese society, in Chinese American society, and in American society. The connection that the narrator had with the aunt made me think about the mother in All I Asking For Is My Body. In this novel, the mother thought that she was a substitute for someone else in the family and accepted the punishment until she could find someone else to shoulder the burden. In a similar manner, it seems as if the narrator sees her aunt as her own substitute. The aunt accepts the punishment of the family, a punishment that has been perpetuated for fifty years.
With the telling of her aunt’s story, it is as if the narrator is now lifting the punishment off of her aunt. The narrator becomes the substitute that her aunt, “whose weeping ghost, wet hair hanging and skin bloated, waits silently by the water to pull down” (Kingston, 16).
Firstly, I thought that it was ironic that in trying to understand the truth of what really happened, the narrator speculates about the type of person her aunt was and fills in the details with her own imaginings. I think that this was an integral story for the narrator, however, because it shows how important it was for her to name the unnamed and to sort through the silence within her family.
The opening paragraph of the chapter emphasizes the silence that we have discussed many times in class. As the speaker noted, “No one said anything. [They] did not discuss it” (Kingston, 3). The family acted as if the aunt never existed in order to protect themselves from the shame—shame of a child born of wedlock, shame of a wife’s infidelity to her husband, and shame of a woman who committed suicide.
It was also interesting that while the mother used stories like this to scare her children into silence and to keep them from humiliating the family, the narrator took the skeleton of the story and started to flesh it out with a strong, individualistic woman. The narrator imagined her aunt in many different capacities—someone who wanted to travel west, someone who dreamed about a different life, or even someone who was “a wild woman” who took care with her appearance to attract the attentions of a man. She also imagined her aunt as a woman who accepted her responsibility as a mother: “[s]he may have gone to the pigsty as a last act of responsibility: she would protect her child as she had protected its father” (Kingston, 15). Even though she knew that her aunt killed herself and her baby, the narrator sees the suicide as an act of loving because the aunt did not abandon her child.
I felt that the narrator envisioned her aunt as a strong and individualistic woman because she felt a tie to her ancestor. Perhaps this connection arose because the narrator felt distanced from her family in China—the same family that distanced themselves from her aunt. Or maybe these sentiments arise because the narrator is in the process of negotiating her role in Chinese society, in Chinese American society, and in American society. The connection that the narrator had with the aunt made me think about the mother in All I Asking For Is My Body. In this novel, the mother thought that she was a substitute for someone else in the family and accepted the punishment until she could find someone else to shoulder the burden. In a similar manner, it seems as if the narrator sees her aunt as her own substitute. The aunt accepts the punishment of the family, a punishment that has been perpetuated for fifty years.
With the telling of her aunt’s story, it is as if the narrator is now lifting the punishment off of her aunt. The narrator becomes the substitute that her aunt, “whose weeping ghost, wet hair hanging and skin bloated, waits silently by the water to pull down” (Kingston, 16).
Doug's Roots (and mine??)
well that was bomb that doug posted that thought and brought up questions on it, because that was exactly what i wanted to talk about.
when i saw the reading we had to do from the ROOTs compilation, i was so excited. the yellow power movement is something that i have a huge interest in, particularly as it helped construct many things that i take for granted now in my politics and identity. the yellow power movement brought into national focus the struggles and issues of the API community, and even gave a name to this community, that is, the term Asian American. and while there are problems with this term, such as in its essentialism and its connotation for e. asians only, etc, providing an umbrella for these racialized asian/asian descent groups to come together under is really incredible to me. i thus really wanted to reexamine these readings with doug's question in mind of how i relate to the selections.
in particular, i found the parts in the articles when they discussed race relations for the API community to be very interesting. these young men and women rather directly discuss the issues of being a more "privileged" ethnic minority, even when these apparent privileges can be misleading. they also own up to the fact that by participating in the model minority myth, this behavior can be detrimental to other marginalized communities. Amy Uyematsu bluntly states that "Asian Americans have formed an uneasy alliance with white Americans to keep the blacks down", which is admittedly a bold and contentious statement. however, her following comment of how Asian Americans "close their eyes to the white latent white racism toward them which has never changed" is something that i find can be true still today. i find it amazing that API/As can still claim that racism (or at least racism against API/As) has been eradicated when on any given day you can find something on the Internet that day that proves to the contrary. Uyematsu, along with a few other authors, bring up the idea that by accepting our roles as the 'model minority' and remaining passive, we are ultimately detrimental to other marginalized communities. and i find myself in complete agreement, for in my mind, there can be no end to these intersections of domination and oppression if each marginalized group does not come together.
further in that vein of thought, Violet Rabaya [I Am Curious (Yellow?)] brings up a point that is still often ignored today, that is, the construction of "asian american". Rabaya writes that "the term oriental has been interpreted by most to mean peoples of yellow skin, [and] the Filipino is not yellow, but brown." thirty years later, rather than finding ourselves in a more inclusive state/community, it seems that we have only perpetuated this habit of exclusion. in fact, this really brings us to the issue of why the term "asian american" is so problematic. connotatively, it does not spread its umbrella over south asians, southeast asians, pacific islanders, and other invisible groups. further more, there is not even a single generalized 'asian american experience' that one can point to. i find today that we have reached a place where there is not even a shared JA experience, particularly with the arrival of the shin-issei (a new current set of Japanese immigrants).
reading all the works from the ROOTS compilation, i was really overwhelmed by all the different emotions that they evoked. recently, i've been looking and studying the different progressive movements of the recent past i.e. from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. looking at these different movements (in particular, the women's movement, and the yellow power and black power movement), i become both exhilarated and depressed. it seriously lifts my heart and i find myself so moved that people were able to come together and create this glorious social change that we benefit from so much today almost without even any gratitude. but then i reflect on the state of today, and i can't help but feel that what happened was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and we will never be able to coalesce as they did then. we are in a state of society where we are far from being done with achieving social equality, justice, and freedoms. the very fact that, as doug points out, we are still struggling for many of the same issues is something i find to be absolutely shit. this particularly frightens me, because i really do fear that this could remain status quo, given what i perceive as apathy among youth. that isn't to deny the presence and power of activism currently in existence, but rather, a comment on what i see as our nation's inability to really come together and fight for something we believe in. for example, if Obama were to win the popular vote but lose in the convention due to super delegates (or vice versa with Hillary), how would the nation react? would we rise up and protest? or simply accept it and complain about it to ourselves/each other. i admit, i can't help but feel no matter how hard some people try to bring about a revolution, the latter would prevail.
ok i realize this was all very disjointed and weird but it was kind of a thought in process deal, and i might try to go back and add other thoughts from when i was reading it, but for now, holler.
when i saw the reading we had to do from the ROOTs compilation, i was so excited. the yellow power movement is something that i have a huge interest in, particularly as it helped construct many things that i take for granted now in my politics and identity. the yellow power movement brought into national focus the struggles and issues of the API community, and even gave a name to this community, that is, the term Asian American. and while there are problems with this term, such as in its essentialism and its connotation for e. asians only, etc, providing an umbrella for these racialized asian/asian descent groups to come together under is really incredible to me. i thus really wanted to reexamine these readings with doug's question in mind of how i relate to the selections.
in particular, i found the parts in the articles when they discussed race relations for the API community to be very interesting. these young men and women rather directly discuss the issues of being a more "privileged" ethnic minority, even when these apparent privileges can be misleading. they also own up to the fact that by participating in the model minority myth, this behavior can be detrimental to other marginalized communities. Amy Uyematsu bluntly states that "Asian Americans have formed an uneasy alliance with white Americans to keep the blacks down", which is admittedly a bold and contentious statement. however, her following comment of how Asian Americans "close their eyes to the white latent white racism toward them which has never changed" is something that i find can be true still today. i find it amazing that API/As can still claim that racism (or at least racism against API/As) has been eradicated when on any given day you can find something on the Internet that day that proves to the contrary. Uyematsu, along with a few other authors, bring up the idea that by accepting our roles as the 'model minority' and remaining passive, we are ultimately detrimental to other marginalized communities. and i find myself in complete agreement, for in my mind, there can be no end to these intersections of domination and oppression if each marginalized group does not come together.
further in that vein of thought, Violet Rabaya [I Am Curious (Yellow?)] brings up a point that is still often ignored today, that is, the construction of "asian american". Rabaya writes that "the term oriental has been interpreted by most to mean peoples of yellow skin, [and] the Filipino is not yellow, but brown." thirty years later, rather than finding ourselves in a more inclusive state/community, it seems that we have only perpetuated this habit of exclusion. in fact, this really brings us to the issue of why the term "asian american" is so problematic. connotatively, it does not spread its umbrella over south asians, southeast asians, pacific islanders, and other invisible groups. further more, there is not even a single generalized 'asian american experience' that one can point to. i find today that we have reached a place where there is not even a shared JA experience, particularly with the arrival of the shin-issei (a new current set of Japanese immigrants).
reading all the works from the ROOTS compilation, i was really overwhelmed by all the different emotions that they evoked. recently, i've been looking and studying the different progressive movements of the recent past i.e. from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. looking at these different movements (in particular, the women's movement, and the yellow power and black power movement), i become both exhilarated and depressed. it seriously lifts my heart and i find myself so moved that people were able to come together and create this glorious social change that we benefit from so much today almost without even any gratitude. but then i reflect on the state of today, and i can't help but feel that what happened was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and we will never be able to coalesce as they did then. we are in a state of society where we are far from being done with achieving social equality, justice, and freedoms. the very fact that, as doug points out, we are still struggling for many of the same issues is something i find to be absolutely shit. this particularly frightens me, because i really do fear that this could remain status quo, given what i perceive as apathy among youth. that isn't to deny the presence and power of activism currently in existence, but rather, a comment on what i see as our nation's inability to really come together and fight for something we believe in. for example, if Obama were to win the popular vote but lose in the convention due to super delegates (or vice versa with Hillary), how would the nation react? would we rise up and protest? or simply accept it and complain about it to ourselves/each other. i admit, i can't help but feel no matter how hard some people try to bring about a revolution, the latter would prevail.
ok i realize this was all very disjointed and weird but it was kind of a thought in process deal, and i might try to go back and add other thoughts from when i was reading it, but for now, holler.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Back to the ROOTS of the matter ...
Like the title? My mama says that I should be an author with a wit like that.
With the invocation of the William Hung media figure (sitting smack dab in my second year of college, which I spent with the UC Irvine Asian Pacific Student Association), I feel compelled to talk about the student publications of ROOTS. Prevalent media stereotypes, institutionalized racism, the need for a united racial and gender front, and the need for political action to shatter the model minority stereotype - all things that even in 2004 we were still struggling to address in APSA. Reading through the articles and thinking about my experience at the UCI Cross Cultural Center, it seemed that the only thing that has changed in the Asian American movement in the past few decades is the need for a united front across the lines of ethnicity, gender, class, and sexual orientation - although the diversity of identities has changed, the language of the struggle hasn't seemed to progress very far.
Going back to your histories of politicization, how do you relate to the selections from ROOTS or Asian Women? For example, the representations have become more complex, but they still seem to hold on to some stereotypical baggage - every time I talk about Asian Americans in pop culture, I can't help but think of Raj in Van Wilder, Jackie Chan (and his many adventures), and Better Luck Tomorrow (all AA cast, but is the main drama really revolving around homework?).
All views welcomed. Happy Saturday!
With the invocation of the William Hung media figure (sitting smack dab in my second year of college, which I spent with the UC Irvine Asian Pacific Student Association), I feel compelled to talk about the student publications of ROOTS. Prevalent media stereotypes, institutionalized racism, the need for a united racial and gender front, and the need for political action to shatter the model minority stereotype - all things that even in 2004 we were still struggling to address in APSA. Reading through the articles and thinking about my experience at the UCI Cross Cultural Center, it seemed that the only thing that has changed in the Asian American movement in the past few decades is the need for a united front across the lines of ethnicity, gender, class, and sexual orientation - although the diversity of identities has changed, the language of the struggle hasn't seemed to progress very far.
Going back to your histories of politicization, how do you relate to the selections from ROOTS or Asian Women? For example, the representations have become more complex, but they still seem to hold on to some stereotypical baggage - every time I talk about Asian Americans in pop culture, I can't help but think of Raj in Van Wilder, Jackie Chan (and his many adventures), and Better Luck Tomorrow (all AA cast, but is the main drama really revolving around homework?).
All views welcomed. Happy Saturday!
Quick question that came up while reading "The Woman Warrior"-
Have you guys come across any Asian Americans (or any race for that matter) who had a similar mentality as Moon Orchid, especially her notion that young people should be modest. I found it surprising that Moon Orchid was annoyed that her nieces and nephews responded with "thank you" rather than something like "oh no, but I'm so ugly" etc, etc.
Another Look at "Reminiscing About A Chinese Restaurant"
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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