Jasmine, the men killer ?

Jasmine is an interesting book to read.  It is the adventure of the main female character of the story. I think this book is relevant in that it ties everything we have learned for the past six weeks into one complete story. Previously, we learned about the hardships of the immigrants in the US. Those hardships were what they had to face when they came to America. However, we did not learn much about why they chose to come to America or what happened to them afterward. The story of Jasmine is a complete chronological order of the life of the main character.

                One thing I found interesting is that the main character has so many names. Her names are Jyoti, Jasmine, Jase, and Jane. What important about this is that she is a different person with each different name she has. The name Jyoti and Jasmine were her names while she was in her homeland, India. Jase and Jane were her American names. There is much to say about her character. However, I think I will talk about the pattern which happens a lot in this story. That pattern is the fact that almost all her loved ones either died or left.

                This must has something to do with the fact that when she was seven years old, an old fortune teller “foretold … widowhood and exile” of the character. (Mukherjee 3) Although that seems to be so superstitious, things did happen as they were foretold. Her dismay actually did not only come from the fact that she became a widow at the age of seventeen but also because she really lost all the important men in her life.

                The first victim on her list was her father; he “was gored by a bull.” (Mukherjee 58) She was Jyoti at the time. She did not have anything to do with her father’s death. At this point, I did not see a pattern yet. It was unfortunate because her father really cared for her.

                The second victim was her husband, Prakash. This was also her first transformation. She changed her name to Jasmine. Prakash’s death, perhaps, impacted Jasmine’s life the most among all her lovers. For the first time, she was taught to stand up for herself. For the first time, she was given hope about a brighter future. For the first time, she heard about America. Prakash transformed Jasmine completely. But then “the sidewalk surges, men scream.” (Murherjee 93) Prakash died to the bomb planted by the “Lions”. Jasmine blamed herself for everything this time, and the foretold was true.

                I thought her dismay would stop there but following her husband’s step was Masterji, her professor. Lilian Gordon who sheltered her was also imprisoned later. Du, who was her Vietnamese adopted son, left her after he found his sister in California. Bud, her 50-year old lover, was immobilized by gun shots. Half-faced, however, was an exception. He was not Jasmine’s loved one. But he died nevertheless, by her hands. It is interesting to see how many people who interacted with her suffered, and also brought suffering to Jasmine.

                I just really wonder about Taylor. He is Jase’s (Jasmine’s American name) lover. Will he be able to survive?  We do not know the result. Everything that happened in this book is coincidental and mysterious. I would like to read about what happened later to Jasmine but the book ended early. In any case, this book is a great book to read.

Mother & Daughter

                This week’s reading theme is “mother & brothers”, so I think the reading for this week should cover topics over family relationship. I decided to read Beccah which is a story about a Korean American family that has a mother and a daughter.

                The plot of this story is somewhat confusing at first. At times I had to re-read certain parts more than once to get the meaning. In addition, I had to look up the biography of the author. Reading her biography really clears things out. So it happened that the author is born in the US and her mother never taught her any Korean so that she can mix in with the rest of the people. That is an interesting point. Because Beccah has always thought that her mother was crazy at times when she just started to dance and sing for no reason. Especially whenever, her mother confessed to her “I killed your father” that she think her mother is out of her mind (Keller 192).

                Beccah believes that her mother is possessed by ghosts and spirits at these times. And one of the indicators is whenever her mother “confessed” her “crime.” Beccah did not think much about the motivations or reasons behind her mother’s craziness. She just assumed that her mother is crazy. This is to show that her mother did not really teach Beccah anything about Korean culture. I derive this from the fact that the author’s mother chose not to teach her Korean. I do not know why her mother chose to do so but it is interesting regardless. Maybe her mother was hoping to make the daughter’s status closer to white people. Anyway, the lack of understanding of Korean cultures demonstrates that fact.

                In any case, Beccah finally realized what was wrong with her mother went Auntie Reno found out about this. I personally have seen this kind of phenomenon before, I do not know what to think of it because you can’t tell if people are faking or not. Anyway, Auntie Reno explained to Beccah:”All my life, I heard about people like dis. You know, my maddah said dis kinda things supposed to run in our family, but I nevah seen anyone wit dah gift dis strong.” (Keller 199) Only then that Beccah understands more about the Korean culture which she came from. The point is that between different generations, there are not only different ways of thinking, but also different culture backgrounds. I think the author want to show the lesson which she learned from this incident.

                Before that point, Beccah was just an American born Korean girl who did not know anything about her own cultures. She did not care to find out about it. She did not understand her mother, which led to her belief that her mother was crazy at times. This is understandable because as we discussed in previous classes – parents and children do not view the world the same way. But only by realizing the culture of her mother, Beccah was able to love and respect her more. She finally came to full realization when one day her mother told her that she was praying for her father’s spirit and not crazy. It is funny how Beccah has always thought that her mother was crazy for all that time. But ever since she realized what was going, she loves her mother even more.

                The story ends with a scene where Beccah was reminiscing about her mother at which point it has already been thirty years later. I think the last sentence is very interesting “My mother is dead” (Keller 202). My interpretation for this is that Beccah just could not get rid of the thoughts about her mother for all these time even though she has been dead for a long time. This is to show how great the love Beccah has for her mother.

Japanese Internment

                 I think this week’s reading is harder to read than our typical readings. One reason is that we have to read collections of articles, and poems on the topic of Japanese internments. In order to start, I think it is necessary to talk about the Civilian Exclusion Order No. 82. According to the order, “…all persons of Japanese ancestry, both alien and non-alien, be excluded…”

                The order shows clear discrimination against the Japanese Americans. Just because Japan launched an attack on the US does not mean Japanese Americans helped to make it happen. At the time, the US was fighting the Germans and Italians as well. Why did the US government not apply this exclusion act on the people of German and Italian ancestries as well? This point does not make sense to me. As the article from People’s World of February 23, 1942 stated that by imposing discrimination on the Japanese race alone, the US was helping Japan in this war. The fact that “…white Americans are just as barbarously racial-bigoted as the Nazis…” is an excuse for Japan to convince the colored people of the US to revolt against the government. In addition, the article also stated by targeting only Japanese people, the US government was actually protecting the spies that could have come from Germany or Italy. So why would the government do such an irrational thing? I am not sure but it may really have something to do with the long tradition of racial discrimination in the US.

                The next thing that caught my attention is the cartoon How to Spot A Jap. The cartoon is so racially biased that it is funny. Obviously, most of the facts stated by the cartoon are untrue, and the cartoon was actually designed for propaganda purpose. In this cartoon, Japanese were seen as always being unhappy, and have “odd” features which Chinese people do not. In a way, this cartoon is similar to those that attempted to demonize Chinese people in the past. However, it is ironic because Chinese used to be depicted that way. Now, Chinese suddenly became the good guy, which is funny. One of the topics which we often talk about in class is that people like to categorize people. In this case, the white public was trying to define what “A Jap” is.

                Finally, I want to talk about the Japanese sentiments during this time period. I think one of the poems which capture these sentiments is the poem Inside News. The main point of the poem was to point out that Japanese Americans were treated as “the enemy “in their own country.

We

Are losing the war?

Who is we?

We are the enemy

The enemy is the enemy.

…

The enemy is confused

The enemy is determined

And winning.

The people were confused; they did not know what to do. They were unable to identify themselves. They had virtually no identity. At heart Japanese Americans were loyal to the US, but they were accused by it. On the external side, their appearances, they were Japanese. They look like the “enemy.” What could they have possibly done besides being confused? I guess there were not many options for them.

Below is the song Kenji by Mike Shinoda which I’ve shown last week, enjoy !!!

Odd but Beautiful Childhood

                This week, I am writing about the reading Mango by Langworthy. The first impression I received even before I started reading was the author’s name. His last name is very interesting. I do not know where he got that from. After reading a few pages into the story, I found out that his mother was a prostitute and he does not know who his father is. Since he does not know, I assume that he just made up that last name. However, there may be a meaning behind the last name.

                I decided to write about this reading instead of Rico because the content of this story is very interesting. It talks about life of two little kids living with their mother who was a prostitute. It was about how they lived back then. I was about how his mother made a living out of everyday prostitution. I am not trying to say that prostitution was a bad thing back then. Sometimes, people just had to do what they had to do to survive.

                I found that it interesting how the children know about the nature of his mother occupation but they do not have any action about it. They did not feel angry neither embarrassed about what their mother did for a living. Maybe it is because they were exposed to it on a daily basis that it seemed normal to them. Maybe it is because she had to do it to feed her children. They even found it funny to sneak and watch their mother serving the clients which I found disturbing. However, they were good children. Obviously because the author grew up into a writer whose writing we are reading right now.

                I do feel curious about what the author actually thought when he was a child about his mother. However, what seemed odd to us was not to him. Instead, he was always more curious about his father because he has never seemed him. I would be too if I was him. On this matter, I believe that it is possible that even his mother did not know exactly who their fathers were. If you imagine how many clients that their mother served in a year, they number would be insane. Back then they did not have good contraception, especially in Vietnam which was at war.

                The last passage of the reading was particularly beautiful as there was a moment of truth which came to the author that is – time. “I knew time as the moments Sa and I roamed the streets and harbors… Time was when we peeked through the cracks… Time was the number of water drops plunking into cistern… Though I didn’t know how to read the moving hands, I knew that it was a gift, that the watch was mine.” (Langworthy 236) When he talked about the “gift”, I believe that it was not the watch that he was talking about. Time was his gift. His childhood was odd but beautiful; it was the best gift to him.

Although this week's reading is related to the Vietnam War, and I am from Vietnam, I didn't write about the war. Instead I do have a trailer from a movie called We Were Soldiers which I would recommend to anyone. Obviously the movie presented the history with a little bias (that is - the US soldiers were far more superior to the Vietnamese soldiers), it was still a good movie:

Well at least we still "own" the French though lol, just kidding:

Homebase: An Interesting Way of Telling History

After I read the first couples of pages of Homebase, I thought the reading was about the family story of a little boy who became orphaned at the age of fifteen. The story was clear to me until the part where Rainsford’s father died. The boy said: I was left a father to myself after my father’s death (Wong 6). I kept thinking about what the meaning of that phrase was. On the paragraphs, I kept reading further where the boy talked about how if a child dies or a dog dies, they can be replaced. To Rainsford, his father was a really important figure. Father just simply cannot be replaced while other things can. In addition, after his father died, Rainsford was forced to become the man of a household. For a boy that is seven years old, that is too early. However, he had to because in order to help out his mother.

                Sadly, his mother also left him eight years later. At that point, he had to choice but choose to become an adult so that he can take care of himself. From what I understand, Rainsford started to think about his background or his family history after his mother died. He had no one to turn to. He was just a little Chinese boy living in America. He was home but he was not. His home was in America, but it also seemed like a strange place at the same time. He had another home called China, yet it was also strange. Rainsford was lonely and lost in a giant world.

                I found it really interesting that the story is told in a way where historical perspectives from past people were mixed into the present. At times, I got lost and did not understand what was really going on; or what really was the meaning of the story. The story sometimes was told on the behalf of the Great-grandfather. Sometimes it was from the perspective of the grandfather. Sometimes it was father. At each generation, a different story was told. When the Great-grandfather was telling story, it was about the hardships that the early Chinese miners, laborers had to endure. It was about the unfair treatments which this country gave them. It was about the harsh weather that they experienced. Grandfather then talked about the time they were locked up in Angel Island’s immigration station.

                Rainsford’s memory about his father was the most significant however, because he was his “father’s son.” These memories were mainly about the time when his family lived in Guam Island. It was the happiest time of his life that he could remember. For every generation of Chinese in his family, there was a place that they called home. However, he also mentioned that he had no home in America. After losing his parents, everything must have been hard on Rainsford. I think he is trying to make the connection between his situation and his Great-grandfather’s situation. After a long time living in America, little Rainsford who is a fourth generation Chinese boy still has no place to call home. His Great-grandfather came to America to find a home and ended up with none.

                In conclusion, the story of Homebase is trying to talk about the fact that Chinese Americans in the US have always been homeless. The story of Rainsford is just a comparison. The point that Shawn Wong is trying to make is that “after 125 years of our live here, I do not just a home time allowed me to have. America must give me legends with spirit.” (Wong 95) The Chinese Americans have been longing the recognitions from America itself for 125 years. That is the message of the story.

The Difference Between Generations

I choose to write about the short story "Who's Irish?" by Gish Jen. The first impression I had comes from the title of the story. It asks a vague question trying to identify a person of a particular nationality - Irish. So I thought the story would be mainly about Irish people and their culture. To my surprised, the story is actually about a Chinese woman and her family.
In the beginning of the story, it is hard to identify what is the purpose of the story. After finishing reading the story, I found out that the story tries to point out the differences between generations within the family of the narrator. This is also the theme for the readings for this week. The story has a somewhat sad ending. The narrator ended up living with her in-law counterpart who is the mother of her daughter's husband.
I felt somewhat angry toward the daughter whose name is Natalie for the fact that she made her mother move out. To Asian culture, this is viewed as unacceptable, and even sinful. Children's duties include taking care of parents when they become old. Even if sometimes problems will arise, they will just have to bear with it. Asian culture believes what parents have done to their children can never be repaid enough. How come Natalie already drove her mother out just because of a small misunderstanding.
This obviously has something to do with the differences in generations as well the differences in the environments they grew up in. I think Natalie was born and grew up in the US. Therefore, her actions are heavily influenced by the US cultures. For instance, when it comes to taking care children, people in the US prefer hiring babysitter, while Chinese parents seek help from the grandparents. Some might argue that asking the grandparents to help is not a good idea because they are already old. However, to Chinese people as well as many Asian countries, grandparents actually feel happy when they are asked to do so.
The other difference which was mentioned in the text is about punishments for children. It is funny to me to even hear that spanking children should not be allowed by laws. Coming from a logical point of view, why would people try to give children more power than their own parents. I dislike it when Natalie told the narrator "I don't like you to touch Sophie..., period." (Jen 181) Considering that the narrator, who is Natalie's mother, has raised Natalie herself for 28 years, should she not deserve some credit? Natalie may be a mother now, but she is also still a child in the eyes of her mother. Then the story ends after Natalie and John drove the narrator out of the house because they think she wronged the child Sophie. The ending is sad. What Natalie told her mother before she moved out was "You are crazy!...Look at what you did! You are crazy!" (Jen 185)

Anyway, to make this subject a little bit happier, I have attached the video on Russell Peters (I believe a lot of you should know him) about the children spanking subject. This is one of my favorite clips of all time. Enjoy !!!

It is good to be a monkey !?!

 

            I am writing about American Born Chinese by Luen Yang. After reading the first part of the story, which is the part about the monkey king, I was confused because the story suddenly changes into another completely different story. In addition, since I had a lot of exposure to Chinese cultures, I also happen to know the entire story about the monkey king. The story about the monkey king does not just end like that. However, everything starts to make sense as I continue to read further. The part where everything comes together is when the monkey king, disguised as Chin-kee, was fighting against Dan-nee/Jin-Wang.  The monkey king told Jin-Wang that he "...realized how good it is to be a monkey" before he left. After that meeting, Jin-Wang started to be more "Asian" than he used to be.

            Although the story appear to have no connections at first, I realize later that the story about the monkey king is just a comparison to the story of Jin-Wang in America. The acts of the monkey king wanting to be at the Heavenly Party and trying to get rid of his monkey sense is similar to Jin-Wang trying to be "American." The part when Jin-Wang moved to his new school talks about a lot of common misconceptions that white people have about Asian people. The first one of all is that every Asian is Chinese and comes from China. This is not true, the Asia continent is huge and consists of many countries, not to mention that in this story Jin-Wang is actually American. I find this misconception very true because it also happens to me all the time. The second misconception is that Asians eat dogs, which is only partially true. The third is that Asian children are arranged for marriage at young age.

            With all the misconceptions about Asians, it is understandable how a lot of American Born Chinese try to remove their true identities and become "real American." Many of them adopted the complete American lifestyle and denied to do anything related to Asian cultures and customs. This is a sad fact but true. I have been in the US for almost 6 years now and I have seen many cases like such. The Asian students who came from Asia often compare the totally Americanized Asian as "bananas" or "Twinkies." These word imply a person that looks Asian yet thinks and does things in a totally American way.

            It is interesting to see how the author compared being Asian as being a monkey. It must be a hard feeling to bear for any American Born Asian in the US. Certainly, no one wants to be a monkey in a human world and it is understandable to see them try to become like human. However, once a person is born Asian, he will remain Asian forever no matter how hard he tries. This is true to anyone and not just Asian. The best way to live is to be who you really are and not trying to become what you are not. That is the message that I learned from the story.





Below is the theme song for the old Chinese series Journey to The West, which has the character monkey king in it. This series is about 15 - 20 years old so the quality is very low. Anyway, enjoy !!!

Next is the video "I Am Asian" that Anthony mentioned: