Diversity In Fish Cheeks

Improved Essays
Could you imagine celebrating a holiday with a family of a different culture than yours? The Chinese narrator of “Fish Cheeks” celebrated Christmas Eve dinner with a United States family. The diverse cultures become evident throughout the short story. Culture diversity only makes one’s culture more unique. The diversity between Chinese and United States culture is unique and is easily shown in “Fish Cheeks.” Chinese customs, traditions, and popular holiday food differ greatly from United States customs, traditions, and popular holiday food. To start, Chinese customs are unique. Chinese people are always laughing at themselves when a mistake arises. Slurping and belching is a respectful way to show one is enjoying their meal (China - Language,

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In the memoir, Stealing Buddha's Dinner, by Bich Minh Nguyen, we can see the cultural struggles refugee children have growing up in America. Nguyen's life starts off fleeing to Michigan with her family from the Vietnamese war in 1975 when she was just eight months old. Throughout the novel, Nguyen's family lives an average life that consists of her grandmother Noi, her older sister Anh, uncles and a father that works endlessly for a small place to shelter in. Until her father meets Rosa, a Mexican American single mother, life gets harder for Nguyen when she has to learn to balance each culture to survive. Overall, Nguyen was born with a love for food, however, she see’s it as a sign of social status and because of this, she is influenced to neglect her Vietnamese identity and uses books to escape her reality.…

    • 945 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Introduction- Halichoeres bivittatus, commonly known as Slippery Dick, is a type of fish called wrasse. There are many different types of wrasses across the globe but this species in particular is commonly found in tropical waters. This species, like most species of fish, change its sex as it grows. Unlike other Halichoeres, this species does not have direct correlation with its sex as it grows.…

    • 986 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The country locals have a significant preference to cooked food as opposed to processed foods, which is very common with the western nations. The hot and cooked food concept in China attests to their excellent culinary skills in the country. Chinese tea is a great manifestation of the Chinese art and one of the favorite drinks among the locals (Chen, 2002). China is the origin of tea processing and drinking methods that have been adopted across the globe. Tea ceremony is a joint practice in China because it promotes friendship and nourishes the locals.…

    • 991 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    You can quickly pick up her desperate tone in order to be a white American. The setting of the story is a traditional Chinese family hosting a Christmas Eve dinner and having a minister and his family over as guests. She depicts her lack of excitement by discussing the menu her mother is cooking in an undesirable way for example she states, “A slimy rock cod with bulging eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil.” The narrator is not at all pleased with the idea for she is afraid of being embarrassed in front of the minister’s son. While eating dinner she portrays how embarrassed she feels of her family and the way they eat in front of the minister and his family.…

    • 1976 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Amy Tan's "Fish Cheeks" and Naomi Shihab Nye's "Museum" are both humorous stories with an underlying lesson. In Amy Tan's "Fish Cheeks," Tan relays an experience from her 14-year-old self. Tan had a crush on the pastor's son at this time. Tan was Chinese and the pastor's son was not. It just so happens that the pastor and his family was invited to Tan's home for charismas dinner.…

    • 1675 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Many people consider family to be a very important and significant part of their lives. Our modern and mobile world makes it hard to maintain close family relationships. With practice and effort, we can not only maintain but build quite strong family relationships. The first chapter in the textbook Interface English, by John Green, forces the reader to come to a conclusion: Do family ties tangle or strengthen?”…

    • 1147 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    One thing you can never change is who you are on the inside, your origins, and a beautiful quote that represents this understanding is “Some people like you, some people don't. In the end, you just have to be yourself “ ( Andres Iniesta). Similar to this quote, in the passage “Fish Cheeks” by Amy Tan, the narrator Amy falls in love with a boy named Robert (The Minister's son). The way her culture lives is very distinct to the way Robert lives, because of this she is appalled by the way her family eats in front of their family and is disgusted by their actions. Similarly in the Passage “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” by Richard Rodriguez, the narrator Richard is distinguishing himself from his family because he grew more attached to…

    • 744 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Elizabeth Wong’s story, The Struggle to Be an All-American Girl, she reveals denial and shame towards her parent’s culture to illuminate the importance of having multiple cultures in a person’s life. Though reading this story one can discover her denial towards her Chinese culture was because she just wanted to integrate and be like the rest. The majority of children will be forced into ideas that are presented and taught by the parents. The parent is only passionate to keep the traditions that are passed down through generations. This is where high expectations are enforced by the family members which could lead to pressure.…

    • 941 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    People should be proud where there family came from and who they’re family are and not be embarrassed of their heritage. Many people today are uncomfortable of their backgrounds and do not have the pride everyone should have today. In Amy Tan’s story "Fish Cheeks" displayed imagery, figuration, and mood in her story. Ehast the story mostly reviews over is that people today do not take pride on who they are today, even though people do not like who they are personally, Tan does not stay true to herself and wants to fix everything who she is in the beginning of the story. The story uses irony Around the end of the story the author shows an important message that one should be proud of your roots and who you are.…

    • 826 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    High- Risk Nutritional Behaviors among Ten Cultures Different people have their own cultural practices to prepare and consume the foods. There are many high- risk nutritional practices among different cultures such as alcoholism, smoking, drug abuse, consumption of high fat and high sugar diet and others (Purnell, 2013). As a health care worker it is very important to understand and observe the high- risk nutritional practices of people from a various cultural background so that necessary health education can be given to promote the health status and prevent many diseases associated with high- risk nutritional practices. This paper will describe regarding the high- risk nutritional practices of ten cultures and beliefs system that influence…

    • 1767 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Have you ever wondered how other countries are celebrating the same exact holiday as you are? Well in “Fish Cheeks” the mom invited over a family for a Christmas Eve dinner. The main character was not happy about them coming over because she wants to be like all of her friends and doesn’t want to be different. “You want to be the same as American girls on the outside. But inside you must always be Chinese” (Tan).…

    • 892 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Character Trait Essay “Most bade and unusual behavior comes from insecurity” (Winger). Many people struggle with insecurities. In the stories “Fish Cheeks” and Identical, the two main characters, Raeanne and Amy, both struggle with insecurities in their own ways and handle them both differently. First of all, Raeanne the novel Identical; is a girl who is emotionally abused by her parents and struggles with many insecurities.…

    • 85 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    As globalization prevails, many companies venture into different countries which create high complexity for marketing as the culture elements are deeply embedded in consumer behavioural, and can cause significant misconception on the brands. A comparative analysis between Pepsi’s TV advertisements in China and the US will help to demonstrate both the differences and similarities of marketing presentation and examine the effectiveness of the market communication. By applying Hofstede’s framework on dimensions of cultural variability, these two ads reflect fundamentally different cultures and further prove the importance of tailoring the marketing strategy accordingly to fit the culture. The Chinese Pepsi ad depicts a story that a young man (starred by famous Taiwanese actor Vic Chou) cannot celebrate the Chinese New Year with his parents because of his work.…

    • 1904 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Have you ever felt that you had to choose between your own culture or the american culture? This is understanding since many people go through this one point in their lives when They are trying to fit in or they just don’t like where they came from. In Ken Liu’s “The Paper Menagerie” the main character, Jack, experiences trying to fit in at school. By that, he had to choose between his chinese culture or the all american life. This only happened because Mark called his paper menagerie “chinese garbage”.…

    • 994 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There are a wide variety of food that are significant to Chinese New Year (CNY). The foods served on CNY is a combination of symbols and sumptuous flavours. The dishes served during CNY suggests wealth, luck and splendour by the way of their appearance or because they rhyme with certain auspicious Chinese words. Proportions are generous as customs dictates that one should not be stint at the festive table as abundance brings luck. (Moey, 2006, p. 10)…

    • 988 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays