Ancestors and Respect for Age In Woman Warrior

(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! : )