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 !!!
Hello Quan, I really enjoyed reading your blog. I agree with what you have said about western culture, particular the United States, missing the family attachment. I was also angry with Natalie when she made her mother move out. In my opinion, as sad as it is, the lack of family unity is becoming a problem in the U.S. I believe western society can learn a lot from eastern societies as far as family unity is concerned. With my own son I rely heavily on my mother for support as far as duties like baby sitting go. I also liked how you ended your blog on a positive note with the video. The “Who is Irish” short story is a sad one and I’m glad you lightened up the situation.
ReplyDeleteI too thought the story was going to be about Irish people before I read it, I imagine most of the people who have read it thought that initially. Although, I sort of felt like it was not going to be because the course we are taking is Asian American Literature and not Irish American Literature hahaa.
I too am against physical punishment. My son is five years old and to this day I never laid a single finger on him. I believe it’s counterproductive to punish with violence. Think about it say the child receives a bad grade in school so he gets a spanking. Now the child not only hasn’t learned a thing to correct the bad grade, but he did learn that violence is okay. Well done blog Quan.
Hey Steven, I can understand your point for going against physical punishment. But the physical punishments that I am talking about is... you can call it educationally physical punishments. It is bad if you beat up your children badly. It is OK to spank them lightly if they do something wrong. It is important that they realize that what they did is wrong. The most important thing is you have to show your children after a spanking. Like giving them an ice-cream. I got some spanking when I was a little kid so I kinda know how it's like, haha. Thanks for the comment though.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I like this short video clip by Peters Russell. I watched this video clip over 10 times and it is still very funny when I watch it again. Anyways, I agree with you that what Natalie did was wrong. She should never kick her mom out of the house especially her mom was 70 years old. The grandmother promised to her husband that she will keep the family unite, so she tried to be more Americanized by helping Natalie babysitting little Sophie and try to be “Supportive”. It is true that the grandmother should try to use other way to get Sophie out of the foxhole, but Sophie was just too stubborn. I think what Natalie should do was to listen to her mother’s explanation and try to help her mother explaining to John. Why? Because Natalie was raised with double cultural backgrounds and she should know that her mother will never intentionally want to hurt Sophie. “Confucius says a filial son knows what color his mother’s hair is”. It is actually sad that in the end, Natalie tried to use work to avoid visiting her mother. This is just not acceptable. I think spending time with parents when they get old is very important especially to the Natalie’s situation where she was raised by her mother alone. Not to mention that her mother cannot speak English at first and was an immigrant to the United States. She should love and take care of her mother unconditionally.
ReplyDeleteThis video was great! I have never heard of this comedian before but it was the perfect illustration to your point. Your blog spoke of both generational and cultural disconnects and I think the video really captured that in the sense that immigrant parents will spank their children but American parents will not because they will get in trouble and it has become socially unacceptable. One thing you said that I liked but had never really thought of was "why would people try and give children more power than their parents?" I think in the United States we have become a feel good society and nobody wants to hurt their kids feelings and we are all concerned with self-esteem etc. Not that self-esteem isn't important but the problem is now we have all of these disrespectful kids running around who think they are above all adults and authority. Kids are much worse today than when I was growing up...I think a lot of adults say that the current generation of kids is worse than the one before...
ReplyDeleteI was spanked as a kid and I have spanked my kids but I think there is a clear distinction between spanking and beating. I was always spanked for what my mom called "deliberate defiance" and I wouldn't have dreamed of telling my mom f**k you!!! like in the video clip....she would have thrown me out a window! Steven mentioned spanking kids for bad grades and I personally don't think that is what spanking should be used for however it is supposed to be a behavior modifier and I think a lot of parents began beating their children for things like bad grades or messy rooms and now we have laws in place that don't allow parents to use "physical force" in disciplining their own children.
I liked your blog though and I think you did a great job capturing through your video the point that Jen was trying to make in "Who's Irish?"
Hey Quan,
ReplyDeleteI had already read this before I started to write my blog last week. I like your post, and what’s more, I found creative ideas for my blog. You said in the first paragraph of your blog that, “The story has a somewhat sad ending.” So do I. After reading the story of “Who’s Irish?”. I felt sorry to both the Chinese woman and her daughter Natalie. Just like the title you created for this post, having been influenced by different cultures and seen things differently, the mother and daughter (different generations) could hardly come to an agreement for anything. As a result, Natalie did even hold of asking her mother to move from her place was not a big deal. She neglected about her mother’s true feeling by making this decision, and afterwards little cared about this. To satisfy our Asian traditional culture, I created this story a new ending by making Natalie’s daughter write a letter to her grandma many years later. According to my post, “I suddenly realized that what you told me about Chinese did mostly benefit of my life”, as well as “Without you, I would even never know how to control of my treacherous emotions. I feel sorry to you that I wasn’t your obedient grandchild, and please forgive me about my naïve” reflected my best wishes to this story. If you’ve read my post, I hope that you are feeling better now. If not yet, please try it.
I also feel interested in your post because you talked a lot about Asian and Western cultural differences. For true, it’s a matter if various cultures clash of opposing forces.
I built a new end to make this story a little bit happier, your video post of Russell Peters’s also bring us a lot of fun though. Thank you!
- Chao