Tuesday, April 30
Book: “The Chinaman Pacific & Frisco R.R. Co.”
Heroes- manhood/ masculinity, cowboys “the west”; incest; time/ linearity- watches, the railroad, food; identity crisis; Chinatown; death
Railroad- thousands of people died to build railroads in the past
What the author’s love of Chinese American is? He involves anger in this book. The community in Chinatown is dead. Maybe, the experience in Chinatown?
Film: “The Joy Luck Club” (1993)
Image: https://missionplayhouse.org/event/joy-luck-club-1993
8 women’s stories: Lindo and her daughter, Waverly. Ying-Ying and her daughter, Lena. An Mei and her daughter, Rose. Suyuan and her daughter, June.
Three generations- grandmother in China, mother immigrated the United States, daughter born America. Women’s issues, generational issues, traditional things.
Waverly: When Waverly was a child, she was embarrassed by her mother’s showing off her chess. Children are not parents’ property to show off. Hope and expectation are different.
Lindo: Lindo had a hard experience when she got arranged marriage. It was a part of how arranged marriage was like. She was like a slave, there was no right for her. I thought that cultural or traditional things are sometimes hard and sad.
Waverly-Lindo: Lindo made arranged marriage for Waverly. However, it didn’t work well and in the result, they divorced. Then, Lindo got mad because it was Waverly’s fault.
Waverly-Lindo: Waverly’s white husband didn’t understand the chinese culture at the dinner. When he put soy source in Lindo’s meal, Lindo got shocked. Food is also culture. When people have a different food culture, they should respect it. Lindo grew up in Chinese and grew up with Chinese food culture. She has own Chinese food culture. I bed what that husband did was really shocking for her. For the first immigrant generation, sometimes it’s difficult to recognize, accept and fit (I don’t say they should though) a new culture.
This movie describes wide issues of parents and their children and generational issues. Parents’ hard experiences in China and America, and daughters’ hard childhood and adult’s experiences in the U.S.
Ying-Ying: After she got married in China, she was cheated. She lost her son. In her story, also the patriarchal system has existed.
Lena: She got married to Asian American(?). Her husband was too strict to be fair. I wondered if this setting was necessary. I didn’t know what his character implied in this movie, compared to other stories.
An Mei: Her mom was kicked out of her husband’s house. She got married to another guy and it was awful. Polygamy is? was? a part of Chinese culture. But, it was hard for her.
Rose: She was trying to keep a good relation with her husband like by giving a present. Once she realized her own worth, she knew that she didn’t need to do that.
June and Suyuan: I didn’t know why Suyuan kept swan feather for June. But, I imagined even though there were a generational gap and language barrier between parents and their child, swan feather might imply family love and common culture which they had, something crossing over their struggles.
Wednesday, May 1
D&R
Lecture: Documentary film, Kungfu
In the U.S., is there any conflict between teacher (master) and students? Such as a passion or motivation for Kungfu.
Friday, May 3
“Chinese American: Final Thoughts”
Respect for other culture
-Food culture (From The Joy Luck Club): When Waverly’s family had dinner with her husband, didn’t understand Chinese traditional food culture, which Lindo cooked. I thought that there was less respect for Lindo’s meal. Lindo and even Waverly got upset. When we meet a new culture, we must have respect mind to it and people who are related to that culture.
-Media
If the media like film and TV-show represents any culture, it has to represent that culture carefully. It shouldn’t be for an economic reason or just for amusement. Respect for other culture is necessary. If there’s a lack of respect, definitely it’s cultural appropriation and people with that culture get hurts by it. We must carefully think about other culture with respect.