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9 comments:
"And then my mother cut a piece of meat from her arm. Tears poured from her face and blood spilled to the floor" (p 48)
Although I wasn't aware of this when I started reading this book, I had seen this chapter being performed as a speech piece last year. I remember the performance clearly. I remember that, when the performer reached this part of the story, she started to cry and look disgusted to the point that it looked like she was going to be sick. In fact, her portrayal of the words made me a little queasy as well. However, reading it on paper did not evoke nearly as strong of an emotion. This may be because I respond more to things when I see them happening, but I think that it's also because the story was simply not as horrific as the performer made it seem. When I read this passage, while feeling the disturbance of the young An-mei, I also felt comforted by the passage after in which An-mei herself states that this was a ritual that had happened for generations. I realized that, while the dramatic, stomach-churning performance of the girl on the speech team was effective in disgusting the audience, it was ultimately not true to the story. This shows the remarkable ability of the author to make the reader accept these Chinese customs that, taken out of context, could be considered brutal or even disgusting. This ability to "understand" Chinese customs not only makes the book more enjoyable, but makes a maybe otherwise ignorant reader more informed, less prejudiced and more accepting.
"So Huang Taitai could never accuse my mother of losing face." (p 55)
This quote is very important and represents a big part of Chinese culture: face. Face is a chinese concept that is similar to a reputation. In this quote Lindo Jong is being sent to a family which she is going to marry into. As a young girl she is sent to live there to meet the family. She is not treated very well but is told to "obey [the] family. Do not disgrace [her own family]" (54). Her mother however also meets the family and is not treated with repect by the matriarch of the familly, Huang Taitai. She tries to keep her face and not act out due to this mistreatment because she wants the best life for her daughter. She is about to marry into a wealthy family so that she will have a better life. The mother shows the importance of family because she is trying to give her daughter a good life. This quote is also important because face is an important part of Chinese culture and Lindo Jong follows her mother's example and shows face later in the novel with her own child. Waverly, her youngest child and only daughter is a national chess champion. Lindo brags about her daughter's many wins to friends and when Waverly finally gets upset about it, and screams at her mother in public, Lindo keeps her face, which later leads to the two of them makingup. Face is a very important theme in this novel.
"Better to lose less, see if you really need." (p 97)
This is a quote in Waverly Jong's narration, however the quote comes from her mother. She is talking about her daughter's chess game saying that even though Waverly won, it would have been better to lose less of her pieces. The concept of losing important things is reoccurant in this novel. The novel opens with the story told by Jing-mei Woo about her mother's rough journey out of China. She had a husband in the army, a nice house, friends, and two twin daughters. When the Japanese were coming to her town, she was warned, and fled with few belongings and her two daughters. As her journey became longer, she left belongings behind. Then when she couldn't go any further she put her babies on the ground and left them. This is a huge loss for her and she returns to China many times later to look for her daughters. From this novel one can tell that it is important to cherish what you have. Furhter in the novel readers find out that the mother left a note with her babies saying the location of the mother's family if these children should be found. When their new family finds them, and brings them to this place, it has been turned into a factory with many workers. China has been changed, and turned into a Westernized, industrialized place with many workers, in factories being mistreated. It is important to cherish what you have because if you dont, you lose opportunities. While Lindo Jong was just telling her daughter a skill for her chess game, she was also giving her a life lesson based on past experience from both her and her friends of the Joy Luck Club.
"I have been envisioning my first real Chinese feast...apple pie a la mode (p 277-8)
This is a quote from Jing-Mei Woo. She has just arrived in China for the first time. She is staying in a luxury hotel, and her relatives from China are with her. She is looking foreward to her Chinese feast of peking duck and other China delicasies. Instead her family is astounded by the nice hotel and decides to order room service of hamburgers, french frieds and reading travel and leisure magazines. This theme is very similar to Cowboy Chicken when the family throwing a wedding is eager to have a wedding with Cowboy Chicken, american wines, champagne, ice cream, and cheesecake. The need to try American things is big in both Cowboy Chicken and Joy Luck Club. The American culture facinates them, and they want to try their foods. Much like how companies like McDonals have spread across the world (it is big in China now) american cultures are being passed along to different countries. Is this soft power? I think it is, because we are not forcing Chinese to eat our food, we are just making it available to them and trying to make it look more appealing. Also, in the article "Goodwill Games" it is described that our sports teams apparel and souveneirs are spreading across the world. Names like "Kobe" and "Lebron" are being used, because they are seen as idols not only here in the US but also in other countries. These examples of soft power are a key aspect of globalization. While it starts with some american food and apparel in other countries, it can turn into American companies opening factories abroad, mistreating workers and making globaliztion dangerous, instead of a cultural experience.
Response to Emma June 2, 2009 12:02 PM
Emma-
I agree with what you're saying in regards to face being an important theme in the novel. However, I don't think reputation would be its only defenition. I took it to mean more of a facade or pretense. I belive this not only because of the similarities between the meaning of the word face and facade and how they go hand in hand, but also because of the context in which Lindo Jong tries to keep her face. Right before this quotation, Lindo talks about the pretense of the Huang household and how it is beautiful on the outside and in the room where they receive guests, but she describes the rest of the house as "plain and uncomfortable" (p 55). While I believe that her mother not losing her face does in a way mean the keeping of her reputation or dignity, I also believe that it menas keeping on her facade of being comfortable, both financially with the aftermath of the flood and emotionally with the abandonment of her daughter.
"I think they are saying China has changed in other ways as well" (p 268)
This quote is from Jing-Mei Woo when she visits China and notices that many of the city names have changed. "Chungking is Chingquin. And Kweilin is Guiling." This quote reminded me of the imperialism project. Mine was on the Democratic Republic of Congo. King Leopold II had made many changes when he was in power. Naming countries after western figures, for example Leopoldville and other cities after Queen Elizabeth. Western names was a big part of imperialism in the Congo. Names were no longer recognizable, masacres sending people out of their cities were not only treacherous, but also left some people unable to know where their old town was. In Poisonwood Bible, the family returns to the Congo after many years and is surprized to know that her town no long exists, names have changed, land has changed. This is the same in China. Names were changed, cities with many houses are turned into industrialized cities with large factories. This is also happening in America when one of the Chinese natives notices that the small bank across from the church when she arrived is now a multiple story bank where all of the Americans go. The world is becoming industrialized and globablized. In the eyes of the Chinese natives, China is rapidly changing, not only city names, but culture. (look at above quote about room service) From the beginning to the end of the novel, China has changed into a traditional place to a globalized place.
"These bodies were the anchors of my life: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Bing." (p 123)
I found this quote very interesting. The first book of the novel shows the oldest generation of narrators in each family: Jing-Mei, An-Mei, Lingo, and Ying-Ying. These characters (except for Jing-Mei whos mother died before this story takes place) are the mothers of the story. They were all born in China and have interesting stories of how they came to America which is revealed through out the novel.In the second book, their daughters' names and stories are revealed: Waverly (after the street in San Francisco where she lives), Lena, and Rose. Jing-Mei goes by her American name Jane. This generation is given traditional American names. However, Rose's four brothers are names Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Bing. With the exception of Bing, not only are the boys' names American but they are three of the gospels in the new testament. I the chapter when these three boys are introduced, Bing dies when he slips and drowns in the ocean. I found it interesting how out of the four boys, the one to die was the one who not only wasnt given an American name, but wasnt named after a gospel. This is a symbol for the importance of American ways in the younger generations of Asian-Americans. Christianity was not a dominant religion in China, they focused on Taoism, so these names clearly came from Western impact. Once Bing dies, there are no more characters in that generation with Chinese names. They are all traditional Americans.
"'Lena, what's she saying?' cried my father. For once, he had no words to put in
my mother's mouth" (p 111)
Throughout this whole chapter, whenever Lena St. Claire spoke about the relationship between her parents, I wondered what kind of relationship they
had. At times, I thought that he was just an ignorant person. Other times, I thought that they may have married just to get her citizenship or another reason not related to love. I didn't see how two people could get married speaking different languages and not make any real effort to learn each other's language. An important theme in both the novel and our studies of globalization is integration between cultures. We have seen cultures who resent other cultures living with them (imperialism in Africa-"Things Fall Apart") and cultures that have embraced the new culture (the Japanese wanted english to be their official language). However, we have never seen two cultures (or in this case, two people representing different cultures) coexist without any cultural interaction. For this reason, I think that the St. Claire's marriage was probably a device for Ying-ying to become an american citizen.
Response to Emma: 3:01 PM
I completely agree that the death of Bing symbolizes the death of their lifee as chinese people and the beginning of their life as americans. However, I found it kind of strange that they didn't just name Bing "John" in the first place.I know that it is a much more powerful literary device to have the child with the traditional chinese name die, but I feel like it would be unrealistic that one child would have a chinese name when there is another gospel character. I don't think that parents would single out one child like that. Also, if there were some reason why John specifically was omitted, wouldn't killing John serve the same purpose and make more sense? In my opinion, naming them Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Bing just hits you over the head with metaphor. Naming the fourth child John would have been more realistic without so obviously being a literary device.
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