Theme Of English Language In The Jade Peony

The Jade Peony is a novel that concentrated on the life of early Chinese immigrants by describing a series of stories happened in a four-kid family. The novel told the reminiscences of three children’s child life in that family, therefore it was divided into three parts according to the different characters. But apart from the family routine portrayed in the novel, it can be clearly seen in the whole book that war, as another implied clue, played an important role in the development of the story.

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.

Written by Margaret K. Pai, the Dreams of Two Yi-min narrates the story of her Korean American family with the main focus on the life journeys of her father and mother, Do In Kwon and Hee Kyung Lee. Much like the majority of the pre-World War II immigrants, the author’s family is marked and characterized by the common perception of the “typical” Asian immigrant status in the early 20th century: low class, lack of English speaking ability, lack of transferable education and skills, and lack of knowledge on the host society’s mainstream networks and institutions (Zhou and Gatewood 120, Zhou 224). Despite living in a foreign land with countless barriers and lack of capital, Kwon lead his wife and children to assimilate culturally,

We have all been in a situation where we have immigrated to a new country for different reasons regarding, better future, or education. In the book Jade of Peony, Wayson Choy describes a struggle of a Chinese family as they settle in Canada, with their new generation of kids born here, the family struggles to keep their children tied to their Chinese customs and traditions as they fit in this new country. The Chinese culture needs to be more open minded as it limits the future generation’s potential. Chinese culture limitations are seen through the relationship expectations, education, gender roles and jobs.

In order to begin to understand this intricate movement and its many facets, it is vital to note the relevance of consumer culture during this time period, and the role it played in altering the course of the suffrage movement. Historian Margaret Finnegan dives into the finer points of this juxtaposition in her book, Selling Suffrage, her main argument insinuating that the two aforementioned subjects indeed go hand in hand. By the end of this work, the author identified numerous ways in which suffragists used different avenues of consumer culture to promote their agenda, and peddle their suffrage products and ideas. In order to support this thesis, Finnegan dissected the very roots of consumer culture, finding significance in subjects like fashion, alcohol, advertisement, theatrical performance and film, public speaking, and capitalism. It is intriguing to note how

On the other hand, Nguyen talks of the language difficulties that she experienced being a Vietnamese in the United States. At first, she is enrolled to a school far from home as it offers bilingual education to help her integrate with the system of learning. She works hard to raise her academic performance with hopes of falling in favor with the teacher. However, as the teacher knows her Vietnamese origin, she manifests her stereotype on Nguyen’s comprehension in literature readings. For instance, while it was her turn to read, the teacher would interrupt her making sentiments such as “you are reading too fast….things she did not do to other students” (Nguyen, 35). She also faces a “school-constructed identity” together with her sister with all sorts of jibes thrown against them. As Vollmer puts it, “such assumptions affect the interpretations made of student behavior and school

Amy Chua suggests that it is important for the children to acknowledge their parents and respects them. Chua expands on this positions when she states “Despite [the Chinese] parents’ brutal demands, verbal abuse, and disregard for their children’s desires, Chinese kids end up adoring and respecting their parents and wanting to care for them in their old age” (Chua 211). This shows that even though it seems like Chinese parents and their children are always bickering and arguing about things, it is only out of love and respect. Although the relationship between daughter and child in this book seems bleak, it is clear that Amy loves her kids very much and would never imagine losing them. The love conveyed between Amy and Lulu is evident because after they fight, they sit down and laugh together. Amy Chua considers herself a typical Chinese mother who aspires that someday her children will grow and take care of her and her husband.

Ng’s portrayal of Leila as a school teacher and how difficult it was to connect with the Asian children’s parents is a situation relating back to the separation of education and the home in Asia. Another difficult barrier in education was the role of the student. In Asia the student learns what material is given to them and interaction with the teacher is uncommon. The parent – teacher – student interaction was a brand new idea to Asian families. Adapting to this new system could take generations of work by devoted teachers.

As a child, we’re presented with ample information that is all relatively new to us. The knowledge acquired in childhood is given to us by our parents and relatives. This allows us to grow, but the influence of our family is what shapes our culture and beliefs. Although our parents believe this is the best culture to follow, we often find ourselves questioning it. This creates complexity within the acceptance of being part of one’s culture. Shyam Selvadurai and Marjane Satrapi, use this theme within their respective novels, Funny Boy and Persepolis to demonstrate the transcendence from innocence to experience. Both main characters are introduced as children that go through an evolution to reach adulthood. Culture challenges the characters

The purpose of Amy Tan’s essay, “Mother Tongue,” is to show how challenging it can be if an individual is raised by a parent who speaks “limited English” (36) as Tan’s mother does, partially because it can result in people being judged poorly by others. As Tan’s primary care giver, her mother was a significant part of her childhood, and she has a strong influence over Tan’s writing style. Being raised by her mother taught her that one’s perception of the world is heavily based upon the language spoken at home. Alternately, people’s perceptions of one another are based largely on the language used.

A strong, intelligent, independent boy is what every traditional Chinese family wants. Unfortunately, Sek-Lung is not such an ideal child. In the novel, The Jade Peony, Sek-Lung is a marginal character. He is rejected by the dominant group, first being made to feel insignificant and second to feel uncomfortably visible.

Thesis: one’s personal culture and sense of tradition will always be a strong part of the self, regardless of external factors which can have a profound influence on one’s life.

Another question arises: what is a “narrative of ethnicity” in diasporic context? Choy explains how immigrants are to preserve their ethinic identity, yet they adapt to their social context. The children feel the same resentment and distaste for Chinese. Jook-Liang forces herself to speak English at home in her efforts to be more like Shirley Temple. She speaks to herself in English while practicing her dance routine (Choy, 36) and uses it as a tool to feel less Chinese. The children have jarring associations to learning and speaking

At the end of the story, Lae Choo is finally granted the paperwork to collect her son after ten harrowing months. However, her expectations of a perfect reunion would soon be crushed. As the caretaker walks Lae Choo to Kim, she discusses his behaviors at the mission nursery school. She mentioned how difficult he was to manage at first, but how “’children so soon forget, and after a month he seemed quite at home and played around as bright and happy as a bird’” (Far 1727). With this change of behavior, Far draws a parallel between Kim and the American rejection of Chinese culture. His difficult behavior when he arrived at the mission nursery could be seen as his retainment of Chinese culture. However, at the end, he is happy and is compared to a bright and

Tan’s attitude towards her mother’s English begins with embarrassment and humiliation. Growing up in an immigrant family which speaks imperfect English, Tan witnesses many discriminations that her mother has encountered in department stores or at banks, those experiences help to shape Tan’s opinion to her mother’s English. For example, Tan states that “[she] was ashamed of [her mother’s] English. [She] believed that [her mother’s] English reflected the quality of what [her] mother had to say” (508). In young Amy’s opinion, her mother’s expressions and thoughts are broken and imperfect like the way she speaks, and she believes that linguistic expression is linked to a person’s intelligence. As a result, she was ashamed of her mother in public because of her fractured English.