Compare and Contrast Essay
Life was incredibly difficult for Chinese who stayed in China and for those who immigrated to Canada in the early 1900s. Discrimination, racism and mass extermination were all common things in the struggle to survive during that time. In Jung Chang’s Wild Swans and Denise Chong’s Concubines Children, they show the hardships of 3 generations of women and the scarring horrors they had to endure.
I will be comparing and contrasting generation from generation in China, and from Canada starting from the 1900s.
In Wild Swans, the grandmother, Yu-Feng, had a very hard life. During this time the Kuomintang were in control and they stole items and abused the citizens. It was every man for themselves and the ones with power …show more content…
Although they did not have the Kuomintang in Canada they had various rules where Chinese could not do certain things. No one would hire a Chinese person or want to live in the same neighborhood because they though they were uncivilized savages. She too had her feet bound although her May-Ying complained so much that her mother stopped. “Because of May-Ying’s cries of protest, her feet were unbandaged.” (P8) May-Ying was bought by a merchant as a concubine and immigrated to Canada. When she arrived, she was immediately put to work at a teashop. They lived very humbly and scraped by every year with a few coins because the pay was so low, and they had to send money back to China. “ When the owner took his leave of them, Chan Sam told May-Ying that she was under contract to the Pekin tea house until she’d worked off what it cost to bring her to Canada.” (P28) In Chinatown and various Chinese locations there was a big sense of community. If anyone ever needed money they would gladly be willing to help out. The Chinese were forced to help each other because the government was not willing to help Chinese immigrants. May-Ying has become less and less traditional over the years and has become more free acting as “A man” as most commented. Her biggest flaws were that she was lowed, would talk back and had a serious gambling and drinking problem; this was considered very unladylike and …show more content…
Although the communists did not have complete control over China, De-Hong was trying her hardest to stop the fighting and bring in the new government. She went to school and was one of the best students of her class, until the communist came. They branded everyone who had education “bourgeois” and were forced to go through thought reform. “Every week a meeting for “thought examination” was held for those “in the revolution.” Everyone had both to criticize themselves for incorrect thoughts and be subjected to the criticism of others. The meetings tended to be dominated by self-righteous and petty-minded people, who used them to vent their envy and frustration; people of peasant origin used them to attack those from “bourgeois” backgrounds.” (P164) De-Hong later joined the red guards where their main purpose was of the banning of culture; this was to help further the revolution. She has heard and seen family killed by the communists, but she still holds faith with them because she thinks that nothing can be worse than the
Life was incredibly difficult for Chinese who stayed in China and for those who immigrated to Canada in the early 1900s. Discrimination, racism and mass extermination were all common things in the struggle to survive during that time. In Jung Chang’s Wild Swans and Denise Chong’s Concubines Children, they show the hardships of 3 generations of women and the scarring horrors they had to endure.
I will be comparing and contrasting generation from generation in China, and from Canada starting from the 1900s.
In Wild Swans, the grandmother, Yu-Feng, had a very hard life. During this time the Kuomintang were in control and they stole items and abused the citizens. It was every man for themselves and the ones with power …show more content…
Although they did not have the Kuomintang in Canada they had various rules where Chinese could not do certain things. No one would hire a Chinese person or want to live in the same neighborhood because they though they were uncivilized savages. She too had her feet bound although her May-Ying complained so much that her mother stopped. “Because of May-Ying’s cries of protest, her feet were unbandaged.” (P8) May-Ying was bought by a merchant as a concubine and immigrated to Canada. When she arrived, she was immediately put to work at a teashop. They lived very humbly and scraped by every year with a few coins because the pay was so low, and they had to send money back to China. “ When the owner took his leave of them, Chan Sam told May-Ying that she was under contract to the Pekin tea house until she’d worked off what it cost to bring her to Canada.” (P28) In Chinatown and various Chinese locations there was a big sense of community. If anyone ever needed money they would gladly be willing to help out. The Chinese were forced to help each other because the government was not willing to help Chinese immigrants. May-Ying has become less and less traditional over the years and has become more free acting as “A man” as most commented. Her biggest flaws were that she was lowed, would talk back and had a serious gambling and drinking problem; this was considered very unladylike and …show more content…
Although the communists did not have complete control over China, De-Hong was trying her hardest to stop the fighting and bring in the new government. She went to school and was one of the best students of her class, until the communist came. They branded everyone who had education “bourgeois” and were forced to go through thought reform. “Every week a meeting for “thought examination” was held for those “in the revolution.” Everyone had both to criticize themselves for incorrect thoughts and be subjected to the criticism of others. The meetings tended to be dominated by self-righteous and petty-minded people, who used them to vent their envy and frustration; people of peasant origin used them to attack those from “bourgeois” backgrounds.” (P164) De-Hong later joined the red guards where their main purpose was of the banning of culture; this was to help further the revolution. She has heard and seen family killed by the communists, but she still holds faith with them because she thinks that nothing can be worse than the