While industrially similar, China and America have very different social cultures. Maxine Hong Kingston’s “No Name Women” provides me insight with the Chinese culture and how sexual activity is handled. The overall response may have evolved over time, but it is quite interesting seeing a different, cultural response to adultery and misconduct. I wonder why Kingston’s mother fixated her time on telling such a story as if it were her own, and why Kingston’s aunt kept her life secret from her friends and family.
Unlike the United States, China emphasizes collectivism; friends of friends and family members of different households give priority to the whole community, not the individual. Thus in a collectivistic culture such as the Chinese culture, …show more content…
The story told by her mother is full of intricate detail “as if [Kingston’s mother] had seen it.” Kingston’s mother is also very secretive about sharing the story, urging her daughter to “not tell anyone.” The circumstances surrounding her mother’s behavior when expressing the story are questionable since the mother and aunt lived in a “different household.” However, it is possibly a tactic employed by her mother to scare her, as Kingston explains her mother “told stories that ran like this one” to “warn” her children about life. Presenting oneself as a beautiful Chinese women garnered the attention of “Caucasian, Negro, and Japanese boys.” It made “Uncles, cousins, nephews, [and] brothers” look in awe. It could surely attract a man of “secret evil.” The story presented to Kingston was part of a larger lesson to be learned; men in the world who cannot control their lust will prey on women that attract them. The fallacies surrounding the story are possibly to make it Kingston “establish realities” and “grow up on.” If it were a fake story, Kingston’s mother would not want her father to confirm its validity, and this is why her mother urges her to not to “tell anyone [she] had an aunt.” Kingston’s mother possibly wanted to protect her daughter from a “tits-and-ass man” who’d please himself only with her
Unlike the United States, China emphasizes collectivism; friends of friends and family members of different households give priority to the whole community, not the individual. Thus in a collectivistic culture such as the Chinese culture, …show more content…
The story told by her mother is full of intricate detail “as if [Kingston’s mother] had seen it.” Kingston’s mother is also very secretive about sharing the story, urging her daughter to “not tell anyone.” The circumstances surrounding her mother’s behavior when expressing the story are questionable since the mother and aunt lived in a “different household.” However, it is possibly a tactic employed by her mother to scare her, as Kingston explains her mother “told stories that ran like this one” to “warn” her children about life. Presenting oneself as a beautiful Chinese women garnered the attention of “Caucasian, Negro, and Japanese boys.” It made “Uncles, cousins, nephews, [and] brothers” look in awe. It could surely attract a man of “secret evil.” The story presented to Kingston was part of a larger lesson to be learned; men in the world who cannot control their lust will prey on women that attract them. The fallacies surrounding the story are possibly to make it Kingston “establish realities” and “grow up on.” If it were a fake story, Kingston’s mother would not want her father to confirm its validity, and this is why her mother urges her to not to “tell anyone [she] had an aunt.” Kingston’s mother possibly wanted to protect her daughter from a “tits-and-ass man” who’d please himself only with her