Nine Chinese American Stories A Review of Cultural Knowledge

Cultural Reflections in Narrative Culture: patterns of behavior and systems of knowledge Individuals belong to groups (i.e., ethnicities) Groups influence individual behavior and identity formation (i.e., institutions like school, religion or family) Understand the general through the specific (i.e., discrimination) Find the behavior patterns of groups and relations between groups

Chinese American Stories We Read to Date Sui Sin Far, “Pat and Pan” Gus Lee, “Toussaint,” from China Boy Pardee Lowe, “Father Cures a Presidential Fever,” from Father and Glorious Descendant Jade Snow Wong, “The Taste of Independence,” form Fifth Chinese Daughter

More Stories from Chinese America Frank Chin, “Railroad Standard Time” Amy Tan, from The Joy Luck Club Maxine Hong Kingston, from The Woman Warrior Shawn Hsu Wong, from Homebase Sigrid Nunez, “Chang”

Sui Sin Far, “Pat and Pan” Idea that “American” means White School as a socializing institution Group formation: boys/girls, Americans/”Chinese”

Jade Snow Wong, “A Taste of Independence” Narrator’s acceptance of familial authority (father’s discipline) Her denial or complacency with prejudice Her focus on the picturesque aspects of Chinatown, e.g., food and cooking

Gus Lee, “Toussaint” Friendship of Chinese American and African American boys Toussaint’s “theory of fights” Culture Clash: to fight or not to fight Dysfunctional families

Pardee Lowe, “Father Cures a Presidential Fever” Contradiction of the “American Dream” and Racial Barriers Persistence of anti-Chinese Racism Confucian values: father encourages learning of Chinese language and culture (separatism)

Frank Chin, “Railroad Standard Time” Narrator’s identification with grandfather who worked for the railroads Assertion of new Chinese American identity, not tied to “Chinatown” Affirmation of Asian American men’s masculinity and sexuality

Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club The mothers’ mah jongg group gives them a chance to “talk-story” The narrator asserts her independence: refuses to play chess The refusal produces a permanent break between mother and daughter Mother’s denial of daughter’s independence

Maxine Hong Kingston Narrator’s identification with the heroic swordswoman Fa Mu Lan Confronting the anti-female prejudice Her personal battle with discrimination Author “sorting out what being Chinese American means” ‘The Woman Warrior is about a Chinese American’s attempt to come to terms with the paradoxes that shape and often enrich her life and to find a uniquely Chinese American voice to serve as a weapon for her life’ (Kim 207).

Shawn Wong, Homebase Homebase is about a Chinese American’s journey to search for and claim roots in American soil. The book emerges as a triumphant reaffirmation of the Chinese American heritage and ends with a reconciliation between father and son, who are linked by their American roots’ (Kim 194).

More on Homebase Rainsford’s remembrance of great-grandfather’s generation who built the railroads Narrator’s attempt to learn from his father (memories of Guam, the U.S. military base) Identification with ancestors: ‘When he reconciles his life with his father’s he finds his strength and his roots in American soil: “I knew then that I was only my father’s son, that he was grandfather’s son and grandfather was great- grandfather’s son and that night we were all the same man”’ (Kim 196).

Homebase Theme of driving through America, searching for identity, finding roots in the American soil ‘When he reconciles his life with his father’s he finds his strength and his roots in American soil: “I knew then that I was only my father’s son, that he was grandfather’s son and grandfather was great-grandfather’s son and that night we were all the same man”’ (Kim 196).