In The Joy Luck Club By Julie Otsuka's When The Emperor Was Divine

1. What is Leah’s attitude to her Chinese identity as she travels to China? How do we know? (page 10)

A world once filled with Asian friends and neighbors crashes harshly as Jin is left stranded in a white dominated school. Stereotypes and teasing are quickly placed on him from his racial background. Still new to the area, Jin presumes, “The only other Asian in my class was Suzy Nakamura. When the class finally figured out that we weren’t related, rumors began to circulate that Suzy and I were arranged to be married on her thirteenth birthday. We avoided each other as much as possible” (Yang 31). Embarrassment clouds Jin as he realizes that he’s not like the other kids in his class. With distinct features and his native tongue, Jin felt like a reject surrounded by his Caucasian classmates. He was entirely alone amongst his peers, and he didn’t like that one single bit. In this way, it’s clear how both Junior and Jin felt like outcasts in these two oceans of white students and teachers.

For starters, a young girl named June and her mother Suyuan Woo were both alike in one common idea that they had completely different views on everything even in speaking as she states, “ these kinds of explanations made me feel my mother and I spoke two different languages, which we did. I talked to her in english, she answered back in chinese.”(Joy Luck, Tan,34) In saying this June tells metaphorically that they don’t speak the same language as in her mother and her never really seen things in the same light and literally as she does not speak her mother's tongue. Even when they relate physically the mother relays to her daughter that she is a foreigner to her and her past as the story goes, “A friend once told me that my mother and i were alike, that we had the same wispy hand gestures, same girlish laugh and sideways look. When I shyly told my mother this, she seemed insulted and said, “you don’t even know little percent of me how can you be me.”(Joy Luck,Tan,27) This shows that while the daughter was trying to relate to the mother by telling of her friends thoughts of their physical similarities she dismisses these and says that her own daughter does not know her as a person.

Asian-American author, Amy Tan, reflects in her personal essay, Mother Tongue (1991), her perception of language and ethnic identity through an employment of anecdotes and repetition. The history of Asian-Americans goes back to the nineteenth century when thousands of men left their families and homes in China, as well as other Asian countries, to seek their fortunes in the United States (Huntley 21). The Chinese, forming the largest Asian immigrant group, “became the first Asians to experience institutionalized discrimination when the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was passed by Congress, barring the majority of Chinese from entering the United States” (Huntley 21). International and domestic factors during the Cold War finally prompted the abolition of the quota system and the passage of the 1965 Immigration Act (Lee 3). Amy was born in California in 1952 to parents who had emigrated from China several years earlier (Huntley 1). As a second generation American, Tan’s parents wanted her to have “American circumstances and Chinese character” (Huntley 2); to her traditional Chinese parents’ dismay, she fully embraced the dominant American culture outside her home. Through the dual lenses of her American identity and her ethnic roots, Tan creatively shares her own experiences with language and emigration, while exploring the many facets of biculturalism and the challenges of integrating two distinct cultures.

At the beginning of the short story, Jing-mei shares about “becoming Chinese” (Tan 152). Living in San Francisco area, she had always felt disconnected from her Chinese culture. The most significant moment of Jing-mei’s acceptance of her Chinese culture was when her father told her about her mother’s journey from China to America during the time of the invasion. She truly learns to appreciate her mother because of all she had gone through. Jing-mei also understand the existence of her half-sisters and feels the need to visit and meet them, as they are part of her mother. Jing-mei’s original lookout on Chinese culture was developed their prejudices and stereotypes. After living with her Chinese family and learning more about her mother’s past,

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June May lived her life for thirty-six years without really exploring her family history and heritage. She never took and interest in who she was or where she came from until her mother passed away later in her life. Her mother was very passionate about embracing their Chinese culture, but June May could not comprehend why it was so important, sometimes even embarrassed by it. June May spent her life surrounded by people who did not share her culture and customs. Because of this, she never questioned why her culture was insignificant most of her life. It is ultimately uniting with her family, connected through blood and history, provokes June May’s attitude towards her heritage. At age thirty-six, June May tells the reader, “My mother is dead and I am on a train, carrying with me her

Koreatown was not the first ones to be attacked by riots. Florence and Normandie Avenues were the first riots police officers had to deal with. The news always on cameras on the riots for every hour of rioting. Families would watch as the attacks on the avenues increased against police and stores. Rioters run around the streets destroyed cars and harming people as well. The rioters would retreat, but came

The tale “American Born Chinese” by Gene Luch Wang depicts the story of three characters, Monkey, Jin, and Danny. They all have the problem of fitting into their new environments. Jin Wang has to deal with Asian stereotypes. Danny has to deal with embarrassment of his cousin. Lastly, Monkey has to deal with the fact that there is no position for him in the heavenly ranks. However, over time, these characters have to come together to fit in. Yet the question remains: what exactly about fitting in is the problem? Although Jin Wang takes the form of Danny to reject his Chinese roots, the embarrassment of Chin-Knee shows he cannot hide behind a false American identity, thereby delineating that race is the source of his problem.

There is a linguistic gap between the mothers, who are the first generation of Chinese immigrants, and their American-born daughters. The mothers speak only fragments of English and their daughters speak little or no Chinese at all. So the communication often becomes a matter of translations and leads to misunderstandings. The first misunderstanding with translation is shown when Jing-mei tries to explain the significance of the club’s name,

     The focus of our group project is on Chinese Americans. We studied various aspects of their lives and the preservation of their culture in America. The Chinese American population is continually growing. In fact, in 1990, they were the largest group of Asians in the United States (Min 58). But living in America and adjusting to a new way of life is not easy. Many Chinese Americans have faced and continue to face much conflict between their Chinese and American identities. But many times, as they adapt to this new life, they are also able to preserve their Chinese culture and identity through various ways. We studied these things through the viewing of a movie called Joy Luck Club,

“But inside you must be always Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.” Amy realized the meaning of her mother’s words: “For

One day, from the back seat of the car, “Luke announced that he didn't want to go to Chinese school anymore.” His parents looked to one another, while Jen said “Oh, really?” and continued driving. Though Luke is only four years old, he voices his opinions - twice eve – yet they are still quickly overtaken by those of his parents. Luke’s parents wanted him to grow up “embracing his whole complex ethnic heritage” and not being “more” Chinese than Irish. It could be that his parents yearned to show Luke what being Chinese really means – its language, its culture, and its people. With this knowledge, he might feel confident to display this part of his identity. It could also be that they have a deep rooted bias for Luke not to ignore his Chinese heritage, thinking they know what is best for him. It is like what Emerson once wrote, “These are the voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world.” His parents hold a heavy influence on Luke’s future. The weight of parents’ ideas stretches farther than a stranger’s, for we emulate their words, their ideas, and their values and these soon replace our own. Yet, the more one thinks about this, the more one will find it absurd. It does not mean that his parents are right. Acceptance looks so normal, but his mother’s opinions that replace his own will never be as strong as his own conviction. His

June May Woo was an average girl. She was raised in San Francisco, and lived the lifestyle of a typical American. As time passes on, June May faces her ultimate fear: her heritage. In “A Pair of Tickets”, Amy Tan illustrates that a person’s identity is much deeper than their skin; it is exemplified by the person’s actions and family. Qun Wang was right when he said “Tan intermingles intercultural and intergenerational conflict” (Wang). She uses June May’s conflict between her and her cultural identity and her and her mother to illustrate the grey area of who the first generation Chinese Americans are supposed to identify. Tan also uses the setting of modern China to convince that the main character, June May, is indeed Chinese even though she tries so hard not to be.

In the short story “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan, the differences in the cultural identities of Jing-mei and her mother greatly impacts their perspectives and attitudes. Due to their divergent cultural identities, Jing-mei and her mother have opposing views on Jing-mei’s abilities and