In Jen Sookfong Lee’s The End of East, the dreams and hardships of three generations of Chinese Canadians settled in Vancouver are explored profoundly. One dominant notion that is ever present is what leaving home symbolizes for Seid Quan – the first immigrant, Pon Man – his immigrant son and his youngest Canadian born granddaughter, Samantha. Leaving home for Samantha not only meant freedom from her own family, but also facing similar adversities like making countless sacrifices and enduring numerous obligations which both Seid Quan and Pon Man underwent as well. Although they are generations apart, they lived their lives in parallel lines; however, since they were not at ease with their own identities, they could not communicate with each other past their differences.…
The respondents came from various walks of life and different places in China, and the result is a book that goes into the lives and experiences of Chinese people ranging from artists to businesspeople, former Red Guards to rural migrants, prostitutes to Olympic athletes. However, for this assignment, it was asked to only read the interviews of a wealthy business man, a worker, and a Red Guard. I have heard about China Candid before and that’s why I know a lot about it. Sang Ye shows great interest in the personal experiences of his informants and they were presented not as representative of their occupation or class, but as interesting individuals with rich stories to tell. But with the context being modern China, political considerations affected the lives of all three people with whom he had conversations with. How the political expression was managed differed with every person. Some went along with the party line such as the Red Guard, while others distanced themselves from the authorities or make local officials a part of their schemes. Together, the personal stories told in this collection open a window onto what life is really like for both the Mao and post-Mao generations of…
It is important for children to make their own decisions on how they look at the world. But it is up to the parent to influence their child on how the outlook is. Children get most of their perception of culture from their parents. Three ideas that play a major role on a child’s perspective on culture are: social interactions between parent and child, the passing down of heirlooms, and emotional connections. These concepts are seen in the poems Hanging Fire by Audre Lorde and My Mother Pieced Quilts by Teresa Palomo Acosta.…
Li-Young Lee reveals the father’s fear of the his son aging and in time demanding more from him than he can give. While the son is only five years old in the present sense of the poem, the father still dwells on the future. Distracted by the what will come vs. the present moment, inhibiting him from focusing on what he has now. The father’s inability to tell a new story warps his imagination into something grim and dismal. Coming up with a new story is simple action but in the father’s eyes it’s the “burden” of not being able to please his son. At the same time the father loves his son immensely and is scared of the day his son will leave because he is unsatisfied. Overall, the father's love for his love and his inability to tell a satisfying story warp together, and create a future that haunts the father. Perhaps, this is why the father can not meet his sons demands; the father is too caught up in a possibly non existent future that it stops him from actually trying anymore because he believes he has already perceived the…
Even though there were hardships, JEU DIP, and his future family created their new life as Chinese Americans. Overall this book shows where the Chinese people fit in, in America, and what became of their lives. However, some families,…
Jan Wong starts out as a naïve, nineteen year old, Canadian student who is displeased with the capitalistic nature of her surroundings. It was the early seventies and to the author, she was experiencing a cultural revolution all her own. Opposition to the Vietnam War was strongly prevalent, the notion of feminism was beginning to arise, and there was a strong desire against conformity of any nature. The author grew up middle class to second generation Chinese citizens and was fueled by bourgeois guilt, and by a feeling of separation from her roots. “Curiosity about my ancestry made me feel ashamed that I couldn’t speak Chinese and knew so little about China” (14). After devouring every morsel of information that she could, she firmly believed Mao and his “comrades” were the only people who had a legit shot at establishing a utopic society. It was official. Jan Wong was going to Beijing.…
Changing to a different culture is difficult. When a family moves to a different country, they need to adapt to that country’s culture while still keeping most of their own. It is difficult, especially when you have children because they are the most vulnerable. In the short story “The Jade Peony” by Wayson Choy, a Chinese-Canadian family struggles not to lose their Chinese culture like other families. The children are bewildered about changing to the Canadian culture or keeping their Chinese culture. They have to think deeply about whether they should keep their old Chinese culture and traditions.…
In The Struggle To Be An All-American Girl, Elizabeth Wong writes about her personal accounts of going to Chinese school to learn the language of her heritage and wanting to become All-American. Wong's purpose for writing this essay was to inform others of how she grew up and now she regrets her discussion. The genre of the essay is a personal essay because narrative and descriptive passages are used as well as first person. This essay's audience is other Chinese-American youth that want to become all-American or other that just want insight of her life. The social context of the essay is that there are others that are required to go to Chinese school and the cultural was the enlightenment regarding that not continuing to learn the language of her heritage. Wong's essay is a simple little passage telling about her life to others in the same situation.…
o f China, its history and people and the political situation at the time in 1989. The…
Beginning in the late 19th century and continuing to the early 20th century, many Chinese families struggled to gain social, economic, and educational stature in both China and the United States. In the book, A Transnational History of a Chinese Family, by Haiming Liu, we learn about the Chang family rooted in Kaiping County, China, who unlike many typical Chinese families’ exemplified hard-work and strong cultural values allowing them to pursue an exceptional Chinese-American lifestyle. Even with immigration laws preventing Chinese laborers and citizens to enter unless maintaining merchant status, Yitang and Sam Chang managed to sponsor approximately 40 relatives to the states with their businesses in herbalist medicine and asparagus farming. Though the Chang’s encountered many of the hardships typical of Chinese families for the time, they relied on their outstanding work ethic so that their families would always be supported, receive the best possible education, and preserve family and kinship relationships to get them through the tough times and long periods of separation.…
One tragic event in China, which was the Tiananmen square massacre sparked the curiosity of Grace specially for the safety of Chun-mei during that event. For the first time in her life she asked a question to Kevin her adoptive dad about Chun-mei. An example is a scene that happened in the book, ”What about Chun-mei?” I asked. “I’m sure she’s alright,too.” our eyes met briefly. I look away. It was the first time I had said the name Chun-mei without anger. Because of this tragic event, it was the very first time Grace thought about the safety of her mother Chun-mei. It also sparked her interest on what is happening in China even though she hated her cultural heritage when she was a child. A few years have passed, Grace started to learn how to speak and write Mandarin with the help of Mr. Frank. After years of learning she started to appreciate the idea of being able to speak in another language Grace quoted that “Many times, I basked in the sense of superiority it gave me.” (Ting Xing Ye 121). Grace starts to appreciate the beauty and benefit of speaking Mandarin even though she abominated her culture when she was a child. She starts to feel superior of being able to speak Chinese since she is the only person in Milford that can speak it. Grace hated the idea of stereotyping other Asians saying they're all the same and she classifies all of them are different,…
The text explores the instinctive human need we feel to belong culturally, within our family and to belong to a peer group. Following the life of an Eurasian teenager named Leah and her mother, Joan, as they journey to China in search of the missing half of a broken coin, which Joan’s father sent her before he passed away. The coin is the only connection the women have left with their lost family in China.…
I do not remember when I first reached for the coarse surface of a stepping stone. The stepping stones, relics from the Qing dynasty, were everywhere. The almost faded memory of my childhood started in hutongs, the original alleyway in Beijing, where I was born and grew up, where the legacy of Beijing’s past was within reach.…
One of the major ICC themes in the movie is the conflict between individualism and collectivism. Although not explicitly expressed, it has a strong impact on the whole course of the movie. The 4 immigrant Chinese mothers, having spent their childhood in Mainland China, embodied a strong collectivistic value. This is a dominant value in Asian culture, especially that of China. In such society, the priority of a group far exceeds that of an individual, and group-oriented interdependence is greatly emphasized. The negative experiences in China have, to a large extent, shaped the mindset of the 4 mothers. This is not the case for their daughters, who were born and raised in America, and embeded with the American values. They see themselves as independent individuals and their outlooks on lives greatly reflect the individualistic nature of their generation. This gave rise to a series of conflicts between them and their mothers.…
The Most Unforgettable Experience I was born and raised in Beijing. It is the capital of China, and also the center of China. Most of students come to Beijing right after they graduated from universities. They come to find a job or any kinds of opportunities. They think that Beijing is the city whe…