...Becoming American: The Chinese Experience SOCY 100 February 18, 2012 Introduction The Chinese Experience records the history of the Chinese in the United States. The three-part documentary shows how the first arrivals from China, their descendants, and recent immigrants have “become American.” It is a story about identity and belonging that is relative to all Americans. The documentary is divided into three programs, each with a focus on a particular time in history. Program 1 describes the first arrivals from China, beginning in the early 1800’s and ending in 1882, the year Congress passed the first Chinese exclusion act. Program 2, which details the years of exclusion and the way they shaped and distorted Chinese American life, opens in 1882 and ends soon after Congress repealed the exclusion acts in 1943. Program 3 examines life during the Cold War, in the wake of immigration reform in 1965, through the years of the Civil Rights Movement, and to the present day with new opportunities and new challenges for Chinese Americans. These three themes discussing the history will be the focus of this paper documenting the journey of the Chinese American dream. Becoming American: The Chinese Experience Program 1 begins in the mid-1800s a time of civil war and famine in southern China. Young Chinese men left their villages to search for better opportunities in other parts of the world. When the news of a gold rush in California reached China in 1849, thousands headed...
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...Identity: American Born Chinese Asian American students today are faced with the issue of identity in the American society. They are faced with this issue because of their unfamiliar background to the American society. They want to fit-in and become accepted in school’s diverse environment. The graphic novel, American Born Chinese by Gene Yang, exemplifies the issue of Asian American students search for identity in the American society. He wanted to target teenager that are struggling to find an identity and acceptance in school. To target Asian American students, Yang uses the stories of three different characters: Monkey King, Danny, and Jin Wang. Each character in the story faces the issue of finding an identity and acceptance. Yang mostly focused on the story of Jin Wang because his Chinese background constantly plagues him. Jin tries to do everything to fit-in with the American students. He tries to conceal his Chinese background, and tries to change his appearance. In the end, he learns to accept his Chinese background; therefore, finding his identity and acceptance. Yang wanted to show that accepting yourself is the key to unlocking your identity and finding acceptance in the American society. Yang wanted Asian American students to connect with his book by strategically converging the three stories, negative experience of characters, and negative stereotypes to show that accepting themselves will allow them to find their identity and acceptance in the American society...
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...TS: The theme Gene Luen Yang conveys in American Born Chinese is that when people accept their true identity they can be content with life. CD: The very first example of this theme is when Wei-Chen and Jin become friends in elementary school. At first Jin denied his identity because of all of the stereotyping he experienced during the past year. This ends up pushing him away from the other children; however, when he meets Wei-Chen he starts to open up to him and starts speaking to him in Chinese about an action figure. Jin then goes on to say that, "Over the next few months, Wei-Chen became my best friend." (40) CM: By speaking Chinese and becoming best friends with Wei-Chen, Jin tells us that he is happy about his identity and that he can...
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...Chinese Americans are the largest ethnic group of Asian ancestry in the United States. Their population has been increasing tremendously in this century. Therefore, the topics or issues regarding Chinese Americans should be taken into active discussions as their presence in the United States has significant impacts on various aspects, such as politic, social, economic, and education, to name a few. One of the issues that could frighten most Chinese Americans is the rising suicide rate of Chinese American students. Compared to American society as a whole, Asian-American students harbor more suicidal thoughts and have a higher tendency to commit suicide (Suicide Among Asian Americans). Many people view Chinese Americans as smart achievers because...
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...Misunderstood Methods: The Positive Results of Chinese-American Parenting At the age of seven, Lulu had never been to a sleepover and was not allowed to watch TV or play computer games. Instead, she was told she would exert her efforts on maintaining perfect grades and mastering the piano. Her mother supervised three hours of piano practice every day to prepare for her weekly lesson. At one point, Lulu was working on a piece called “The Little White Donkey.” The song had complicated rhythms that easily got muddled between the left and right hands. The day before a lesson, Lulu got up from the piano and declared that she gave up trying to get it right. As she rose, her mother ordered her to sit back down. When Lulu protested, her mother threatened to take her dollhouse away and donate it to Salvation Army. Lulu continued to play, but after a short time, she put up more of a fight. The practice turned into a screaming match between Lulu and her mother, with Lulu kicking and punching in resistance. The threats continued as her mother told her she would take away Christmas and Hanukkah presents, birthday parties and meals; she told Lulu that she was being lazy, cowardly, self-indulgent, and pathetic. The fight continued, but Lulu kept playing. Finally, after a night of warfare, Lulu’s hands executed the perfect rhythms. She could play the piece. That night, Lulu and her mother snuggled, hugged, and laughed in celebration of her achievement. Lulu’s mother is Amy Chua, the author...
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...American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang, shows the struggle of adapting to white American culture, from the viewpoint of a non-white race. It shows how white Americans tend to ostracize other races and because they are “different”. Other races are grouped as one culture, even if they aren’t in the same culture. Because you are ostracize, you also tend to look as yourself as different. Jin and the Monkey King are the perfect examples of how your race or looks can define you and your culture. It also shows how a person can change themselves to try and fit in with a race or status. Throughout the book, we see differences between Jin and his cousin, who turns out be the Monkey King. Even though Jin follows American culture and his cousin follows...
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...The graphic novel, American Born Chinese, written and illustrated by Gene Luen Yang, tells an amazing story that relates to many Asian kids living in the United States. The main characters are best friends, Jin Wang and Wei Chin, the Monkey King, and Cousin Danee and Chin-Kee, whereas the minor characters include Suzi, Wei Chin’s girlfriend, and Amelia, the girl that Jin Wang likes. Throughout the story, the presence changes from three different narratives, Jin Wang and Wei Chin to Danee and Cousin Chin-Kee to the Monkey King of Flower Fruit Mountain. To clear things up a bit, Jin Wang is representing Danee while the Monkey King is Cousin Chin-Kee who comes to check up on Wei Chin, a monkey from Flower Fruit Mountain that the Monkey King sent down to Earth. It may seem confusing right now which is why everyone needs to read it....
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...people like Anne Hutchinson voiced unpopular opinion. Throughout the history of the United States, there have been immigration laws, such as the Anarchist Exclusion Act of 1903 and the Patriot Act of 2001, that parallel the colonists fears of people who may be dangerous. Throughout American history there have been...
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...(Lee, 122). Chinese Americans made up the larger part out of the populace and were seen as the "yellow risk" and endured segregation. Lynchings of Chinese happen often, and an extensive scale of assaults additionally happened (Lee, 116). In 1875, Congress passed the Page Act, the first prohibitive migration law, which recognized constrained workers from Asia and Asian ladies who might conceivably participate in prostitution as "undesirable" and banished their entrance into the United States (Takaki, 257). The law was upheld to initiate prohibition...
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...Ch1~2 There are some forty thousand Chinese restaurants in the United States. They have spreaded nearly everywhere across America. Also, Chinese restaurants have been a weekly or monthly ritual for many Americans. There is a same point that Chinese restaurants had ended with a fortune cookies. Ch3~4 There was a battle between two cities, San Francisco and Los Angles. It was about who is the inventor of fortune cookies. San Francisco thought fortune cookies were introduced by Japanese immigrant. However, Los Angeles argued that the inventor of fortune cookies was a Chinese immigrant. The author began to investigate the fortune cookies. Maybe the question was still unanswered, but more evidences showed that fortune cookies were similar to Japanese deserts. In the past, Americans were always suspicious of Chinese immigrant, especially of the food and table manners. But Americans can accept more Chinese food and restaurants now. The popular dishes one Chinese menu is Chop suey. But Chop suey is not real Chinese food. It can be found in many places. Ch5~6 The Long March of General Tso, where she visited General Tso’s family in China in an attempt to understand how this became the ultimate Chinese-American dish. It also explains the differences between Chinese food in China vs. Chinese food in America. The Bean Sprout People are in the Same Boat We Are, on how fortune cookies became industrialized Ch7 Until the spring of 1989, there was one – and only one – farm...
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...14 April 2013 Gish Jen: “In the American Society” American Prose Project “In the American Society” is a short story wrote by Gish Jen. It was first published in 1986 in The Southern Review (Hunter,”MELUS Interview” 6). The short story “In the American Society” was the spring board for her novel Typical American. The author Gish Jen was born Lillian Jen in 1955 in New York. Her pen name Gish was her nickname in high school. Gish is a second generation Chinese American. She is one of five children. Her parents were educated in Shanghai and emigrated separately to the United States around World War Two. (TuSmith 1) Her father was a hydraulic engineer who had been invited to the United States to assist in the war effort and her mother was a young socialite who had been sent to the United States for graduate education. Neither was able to return to China following the communist takeover there. Now permanently in the United States, her father felt he was living “in no world”; he did not become a U.S. citizen for many years. (Lewis 1) Gish Jen’s work has been instrumental in introducing Asian American cultures to a reading public that, for the most part, has been casually familiar with an ethnic community that remains stereotyped in the United States. Jen’s presentations of Chinese families in the United States are so fully human, humorous, and admirable that they counteract bigoted preconceptions. (Lewis 1) When “In the American Society” was first published Gish...
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...eventually, Eastern and Southern Europeans, Asians, South and Central Americans came to America by the thousands. The American medley, what we call the melting pot was gradually emerging, but during progression, differences became noticeable. Such differences involved varied religions, races, and ethnic heritage. Two groups that I have researched are Chinese and Armenian immigrants. Chinese immigrants came to America in the mid-19th century. Chinese came to settle in California to join the Gold Rush that originated at Sutter’s Mill in Sacramento, California. But once the gold lessened, they came to seek work. The Chinese immigrants were mostly farmers who left china due to the economy and governmental dilemmas in China. Most anticipated on working hard, earn a large portion of money, so they could return back to country with their families as well-off men. During this time, the Chinese was no different than any other immigrant who came to America. They lived in neighborhoods and communities yet the Chinese maintained their culture. But, while a lot of Americans looked down on every immigrant, the Chinese were measured ethnically as well as socially inferior. Many Americans alleged that the Chinese were too unlikely to ever assimilate effectively into American values. Originally Chinese were welcomed, becoming an important part of the work force that placed the economic groundwork of the American West. Chinese could be...
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...The Chinese Exclusion Act There has been many intrusive stereotypes about many cultures, mainly because they were immigrants and so new to Americans. Theses stereotypes didn’t seem to validate them, but instead it invalidated them, in multiple ways. Many people still perceive different cultures with unfairness. The Chinese one of many cultures, were immigrating to America because of the gold rush. Most moved to American to boosted to financial status. There were many job opportunities for the Chinese so many more immigrants came into America, Eventually taking more and more jobs. Because they were coming to America for jobs and ultimately money, they were put into the stereotype of being greedy or selfish. Americans now felt that there weren’t enough jobs for the locals. The Chinese exclusion act was an act in order to band immigration from America. Because so many Chinese immigrants...
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...“Culture is most commonly described in three senses: • Excellence of taste in the fine arts and humanities. • An integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for symbolic thought and social learning. • The set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization or group.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture Even though according to Wikipedia culture is defined as such, to me food is one of the main definitions for culture. Different ethnicities have various traditions, and food is a main part of it. Countries as a whole have their own food traditions and so does the many states within a country, and if broken down further so do tribes. Delicacies are a major part of our lives. Thus, in this paper my topic is “Do you think food defines culture? If so, how? What are the aspects?” The meaning of food is an exploration of culture through food. What we consume, how we acquire it, who prepares it, who’s at the table, and who eats first is a form of communication that is rich with meaning. Indian food is a prominent part of our culture, its varied spice involved in one dish very well defines my culture. Indians prefer their food spicy, their food has five main spices used regularly for cooking; they are cumin, turmeric, coriander, mustard and red chili. Together, these spices embody the bold flavors, and unique textures that define traditional Indian curries. Best of all, some of them have...
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...the melting pot, “the United States has the largest ethnic Chinese population outside Asia” (Zhou 43). When people choose to step in the melting pot, their original identities will be blurred in some ways, languages, daily habits, religions, and the most important element, which is food. Panda Express, a fast casual restaurant serving American Chinese cuisine, is one of the most popular places that serving orange chicken. The company was founded in 1983 by Andrew Cherng, Peggy Cherng and Ming Tsai Cherng. It is also the largest chain of Asian fast food restaurants in the United States. As of year 2011, the company has approximately 1500 restaurants covering 42 states and Puerto Rico. To a sector that was used to be dominated by American fast food, burgers and fried chicken, the invention of Panda Express found a good market niche. The success of the company relies heavily on its unique concept, quick-service Chinese restaurant, and its locations, shopping mall food courts, supermarkets, key intersections, college campus, airports and casinos (Panda Management Company, Inc. History). Dishes featured in Panda Express are originated from different regions of China. Usually, adjustments have to be made in order to allow the dishes to be more acceptable by Americans. For example, cuisines from Hunan and Sichuan are usually “spicy and oily, often featuring a sophisticated blend of intense flavors” (Coe 99), so Chinese chefs in America have to make such dishes to be milder. The...
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