Railroad Standard Time

• The narrator devalues the words in English. Later, there are even more characters that devalue the use of English and prefer Chinese. This is a common theme in chin’s work.
• Through most of the stories in the book, food seems to be a sacred part of the characters. On page 3, it says “food crawls with culture” indicating that a lot of the cultural ties will be connected to food.
• Kowtow is a submissive bow. In the context of the story, the children are kowtowing to their dead relatives. But the narrator is commenting that they are kowtowing to dead chicken, disregarding/denying the sentimental value it has.
• Oakland’s Chinatown and San Francisco’s Chinatown get compared to a lot in the book. Oakland tending to be the more deprived side as described in the last paragraph in the story.

The Eat and Run Midnight People

• The text is very hard to follow. It constantly switches between the past, abstracts, and the sex on the beach with a nun. It is never really clear where they are in the first place.
• On page 10. “tv movies were in my blood” stands out to me. He watches these movies to take him away from Hawaii. He wants to leave this life behind him.
• Page 14. “I’m always in the way” reminds me of Yamamoto’s stories where the father was in the way of his son’s success. Will this be a theme that will spread between different Asian ethnic groups?
• Was the entire story made up of flashbacks? I think he was trying to forget his previous (failures) in life be trying to have sex? It was very hard to follow what was happening and what was used as an allegory.

The Chinatown Kid

• Chin’s use of repetition of words reminds me of poetry. It is somewhere between prose and poetry. There is a narrative device, but chin is not afraid to diverge from it.
• On page 25. “His own iron lung” is referring to the machine that keeps a pressure around the patient in order to keep the body alive from various ailments. Hyacinth is Pete’s machine that is keeping him going.
• The accents of relatives speaking in English are present in the dialogue. It is confusing to since there are not many distinctions between English and Chinese languages in the conversations.
• Death of family and remembering them is a theme in a majority of the stories. There are mixed feelings about people dying and remembering the dead.

The Only Real Day

• This is one of the more cohesive stories in the collection. The following ones are of a similar structure. I wonder what the significance of this format, over the previous format.
• There is disdain in the bad Chinese that Dirigible speaks. However, he still appreciates it more than English, which he refuses to learn when it comes to reading and can’t really speak it.
• Age is very hard to define in the stories. In some cases, they appear to be very old. But in others, very old is used for 30 and sometimes it is used for 18 or 20. It makes it hard to distinguish the time passed between stories.
• The talk about Huie little brother and the revolver under his pillow is foreshadowing his death. I think Yuen see himself dying soon so he’s trying to avoid it but ultimately accepts his death. Death is once again a major theme in chin’s collection.

Yes, Young Daddy

• Is the Dirigible in this story the same as the one from the previous one? It’s hard to tell with how surreal the stories are.
• The conversation they are having consist of someone who knows English well, and someone who does not. I find it interesting that the letter is written out in English with grammatical errors, similar to how English dialogue is used.
• There is a consistent sexualization of women in the stories. Not in a sense of them being sexual objects, but in what the characters seem to notice or gravitate towards. The characters seem to take note of female characters in similar ways, usually with the breast and thighs.
• The first few stories were expressing a lot of discouragement of American and English over Chinese, but it seems to be the opposite of this story. If Dirigible is the same character, then there might be an evolution to this idea.

“Give the Enemy Sweet Sissies and Women to Infatuate Him, and Jades and Silks to Blind Him with Greed”

• The character Dirigible is used again. This time, I think it must be the same character. That or Chin is using the same assets over and over again. But the similar perspectives and backstories suggest that it is the same character.
• Precious toy is used by Jimmy Chen to signify how white people see him, as their toy to use. On page 95. Dirigible uses this word to describe how his white girlfriend is taking him to bed. It is a similar scenario to how Jimmy used it.
• On page 96. There is a very thick accent on the announcer for Chinese New Year. This really shows in this story because almost no other character has an accent aside from the announcers and vendors. It emphasizes Dirigible’s distance between him and his Chinese heritage.
• On page 102. Sharon is asking him if he is having fun. A similar question of what Huie asks of Yuen, “Are you happy?” Both give a similar answer; they lie.

A Chinese Lady Dies

• There is a lot of irony and juxtaposition in this story. The poetry either reflects reality in the opposite way or there are situations presented that are just ironic.
• On page 117, it says that Dirigible’s mother is a good cook. It is later confirmed that it is the same character from the previous stories, starting with “The Only Real Day”. It seems like he has the opposite philosophy of Chinese and English. Perhaps highlighting the generation perspective.
• I wonder if the perspective of Dirigible reflects the same ideals and principles that Frank Chin has. It would align with what Dirigible thinks about death and the other stories.
• Dirigible does not care about his mother Dying. He doesn’t want to feel things that people say he should feel. That said, when his mother Dies in front of him, similar to Yuen, he is much more emotionally attached to her death then when Yuen Died.

The Sons of Chan

• Charlie Chan is one of the most famous yellow-face portrayals in cinema. He was an indicator of what White people thought of the Chinese at the time. To the narrator, it was a window into to how whites saw him thus labeling himself as a son of Charlie Chan.
• Country music/ blues is a stark contrast to pop according to the narrator. In the pop world, you grow old and you fade away. But in the blues world, the older you get cements your position until you retire or die.
• This story is written more poetically that the last four but is still carrying a narrative base. It is easier to follow than the first two however, it is definitely more surreal.
• The perspective to hating English and wanting to surround himself in Chinese, no matter what form, is showing again. Unlike Dirigible’s story, it is focusing on distancing himself away from America and becoming closer to China once again. It is an even split between pro-Chinese and pro-American.