especially Chinese. Chinese immigrants arrived by all means of transport; and despite barriers, they flooded into the United States. In 1880, according to the “Background Timeline of Chinese Immigration and Exclusion”, the Chinese population in the America passed one hundred thousand and seemed to still increasing rapidly. Such large number of “foreigners” raised the feelings of nativism and opposing among the Americans. Thus, in 1882, the United States government passed the Chinese Exclusion…
In Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, the author chooses to primarily focus her novel on the miscommunications between traditional Chinese mothers and their American-born daughters via the use vignettes from almost every character. Throughout the novel, Tan writes about several characters that have made a hero’s journey according to Joseph Campbell. Campbell states that a hero’s journey includes: a departure, how a hero sets off onto their journey, a fulfillment, their goal that is being accomplished,…
In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act, created to prohibit the immigration of Chinese people to America, was passed. If this legislation was passed today, in regards to any demographic, there would be national uproar. But, because of negative stereotypes, as well as fear of societal changes; the United States passed the act that forbade Chinese immigrants from seeking opportunity within the United States. Chinese men began to arrive in the United States in substantial numbers in 1848. This was…
thought about why Chinese perspective of life is so different from that of Western cultures? Do you think anyone is right or wrong? If so, you probably know several differences that both cultures involve. These differences define the character of each individual in each of these cultures and also diverse factors affect our perspective of the world, for example; how we define success, our religion and traditions. My perspective of life is more similar to the American’s than the Chinese. I do…
2.0 Interviews reproduce There were two participants invited to join this project. The first participants Ambor is a 31 years old female from Taiwan. Now she is a store manager of Daiso in Brisbane (large-scale retail stores sell thousands of product under 3 dollars). According to her words, she described herself as a traditional Taiwanese with a good Australia culture integration. Taiwanese culture constitutes by local Taiwanese culture, Hakka culture and new culture brought by mainlanders. On…
Chinese Dining Etiquette and Customs It is no grand surprise that when two cultures converge together, there are bound to be differences. It is strange to imagine another being embarrassed by their own culture. In the short story, Fish Cheeks, by Amy Tan, she starts out the plot with a very powerful sentence: “For Christmas I prayed for this blond-haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose” (Tan 1). This line launches the foundation of her piece by explaining that not only does she long…
Duchampian Sunflower Seeds Ai Weiwei's photograph titled Profile of Duchamp, Sunflower Seeds represents the face of the French-American painter Marcel Duchamp. This photo was taken in 1983 as a re-imagining of Duchamp's Self Portrait In Profile that was completed in 1958, by utilizing a coat hanger. The photograph's present location is the Moriss and Helen Belkin Art Gallery in Vancouver, and is one of the series of Ai Weiwei: New York Photographs, 1983-1993. The artist personally picked 227…
In the essay “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, it shows how Chinese-Americans are affected with the proper english language than Americans. In this essay, Chinese-Americans are represented as human beings who do not have those same high abilities educationally as Americans do. Chinese-Americans have the chance of not being understood, which is a thing that can affect them in life. To show how Chinese-Americans do not have the same high abilities as Americans, educationally, Amy provides an example of…
The desire to fit in and have friends can be found in everyone, even the characters from Gene Luen Yang’s graphic novel American Born Chinese. Yang takes the reader through three different stories that all aim to show the importance of being true to yourself. Two of the main characters, Monkey King and Jin, attempt to assimilate into the societies that they live in, which results in the characters losing who they truly are, until they are finally willing to embrace their true selves. While…
well as the setting. This change is when Jing-Mei goes from not accepting her Chinese heritage and culture to in the end accepting that she is Chinese. At the beginning of the short story, Jing-Mei has a hard time believing that she is Chinese. In the beginning, we find that her mother is trying to convince her that she is, in fact, Chinese, “when I was fifteen and had vigorously denied that I had any Chinese whatsoever below my skin… ‘Someday…