Overseas Chinese

s ignorance truly bliss? Ignorance is the lack of knowledge or information about a particular subject or fact. Such as, at one time, one would think that eating Chinese food, you would start to look Chinese. This portrays ignorance due to the fact that one has a lack of knowledge about a particular culture and it’s food that they misinterpret someone else's culture. Therefore, humans should become more knowledgeable about what is going on around them on a local, national, and global level in…

whole page is a double climax because on the one hand, Kingston breaks free from the repression she has felt throughout the childhood by her family and the Chinese customs (). On the other hand, she takes up the agency and “makes a statement” to her parents (): Kingston chooses to form her own identity regardless of the ethnic background as a Chinese American and rejects the idea of what her parents expect her to be. It might be true that her parents gave her an additional ethnic background the…

Pride and Prejudice and A Midsummer Night's Dream depict the different layers of relationships and marriage: the good, the bad and the ugly. The novel The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan, is no different. This novel describes the life of four pairs of Chinese immigrant mothers and American-born daughters, and their different struggles, ranging from the clash of cultures to adaptation to the american society and, in many cases, marriage itself. Most of the women in the story have, in some point or…

Documentary Concept Development I first learned about Simmone from a friend. Simmone is the fifth wife of my friend’s great grandfather. Simmone Kuo, in her 70s, owns a 30-year-old Tai-Chi studio in SF Chinatown. After moving to San Francisco, my partner and I have already paid several visits to Simmone’s Tai-Chi studio and started filming for this documentary. Every Sunday noon, she cooks for us. We sit together in one of the typical cramped living room in Chinatown, eating as she tells us all…

Growing up in the hardly diverse city of Richmond was not easy for a Chinese girl. Phrases like “All Asians look alike”, “All Asians can’t drive,” and “All Asians eat dogs,” became ingrained in my mind. Images of kids pulling the corner of their eyes while singing “Ling Ling” or “Ching Chong” became a video stuck on replay in my subconscious. In elementary through high school, on my dance and sports teams, and at after school daycare programs, I was the only Asian. The teasing never stopped…

decisions. For the Chinese, these practices range from a variety of superstitious beliefs such as a compatibility test between horoscopes and names or an oppressive belief such as foot binding. Bound Feet and Western Dress, written by Pang Mei Natasha Chang, is a memoir that exposes the effect these traditions have on the evolving Chinese population during the early twentieth century. In Pang-Mei Chang’s novel, readers are given the opportunity to experience the life of a Chinese women through…

overlapping timelines and embellishments manifested by the author, Maxine Hong-Kingston is able to examine female roles and their assimilation into Chinese/Chinese-American society and culture; an extensive projection of Kingston’s intimate past and selfhood. Within this memoir, Kingston attempts to resolve the complexity of her own identity, being a Chinese-American, as she continuously discovers her cultural roots and sorts their placement within her own life. In the memoir, envisionments of…

relationship. Another main thing that’s in Tan’s Stories is the “conflict faced by Chinese Americans who find themselves alienated both from their American milieu and from their Chinese parents and heritage” (Amy Tan Essay). Tan is a “Chinese American novelist” who “was born on February 19, 1952, in Oakland, California” (Amy Tan Bio). When Tan was young she has many problems because her parents wanted her “to hold onto Chinese traditions and her own longings to become more Americanized” (“Tan,…

Reader-Based Analysis: “Two Kinds” focuses on a mother and daughter’s relationship. Jing-Mei’s mother faced many hardships in China. The mother lost so many near and dear to her. For the mother, America was the country to offer them great living and opportunities. Jing-Mei’s mother wanted to see her daughter as a successful person. Jing-Mei's mother classifies success for her daughter as being brilliant at something, therefore, Jing-Mei was forced to take piano lessons in order to be a child…

The legend of Mulan, a brave young Chinese girl who pretends to be a man and joins the army in order to help her old father, is an example of stories of women characters that take the non-traditional role of warrior. This figure that challenges traditional role models had been a source of inspiration for many young Chinese girls. Inspired by this legend, Maxine Hong Kingston narrates the powerful memories that she recalls of growing up in a Chinese-American family. In her book The Warrior…