Written by Gish Jen, the story “Who’s Irish?” is about a forced homogenization of culture and upbringing. A short story about an old Chinese woman who struggles taking care of her half-Irish granddaughter. It is a story of how the old woman failed to deliver her goal as grandmother to discipline her granddaughter the way she did to her own daughter. Although her method was revealed to be the most effective way of controlling her granddaughter, she was not allowed due to her daughter’s rejection of her Chinese culture and misunderstanding of an incident. In contrast, her daughter only believed in upbringing her child towards American culture.
The narrator of the story, which is also the main character and the grandmother, describes herself as
The narrator of the story, which is also the main character and the grandmother, describes herself as