Talking Points: The Chinaman Pacific & Frisco R.R. Co.

Railroad standard time:

1. Being lost in translation. When her mother was talking about her grandfathers watch and she was speaking about it in Chinese it made the watch more valuable, but when she reduced her speaking to a giggle the watch became cheap since the meaning and value was within the language that they were speaking.
2. Food in cultures is one of the ways to remember and honor someone. the person writing this used such vivid imagery related to food that it created a picture perfect canvas in my mind about where exactly I was in Seattle china town that smelled and sounded just like they described in the story. Food is also a way to identify people because food is so different from person to person and culture to culture.
3. Putting meaning in items is nothing new, we as humans do it all the time but its how we do it that makes it special. Meaning to something like a watch holds all of the struggles and past experiences of a loved one and is something that in my own culture we must hold dear to us because generationally, the ones who were here (America) first were the ones that struggled the most and so I feel the need to always be grateful and acknowledge their hard work in building the foundation because if it weren’t for them I would not have been able to be where I am now.
4. America as nothing. On page 4 and page 2 the author describes American tax and American culture in a way that seems, bland and already done. Like its nothing special. Well yeah, its nothing special to immigrants and to people who do not form America, because the feeling and deep connection lie within the language of the people that we identify as. As we all know, American has no “culture” because of its not a people.

The eat and run midnight people

1. Historical railroad Chinese workers
2. Storytelling to convey historical emotion
3. Ancestors

The Chinatown Kid

1. Interracial marriage: Pete’s family is resisting Maria and everything she stands for because she isn’t Chinese.
2. Mixed child: Mixed children of mixed families experience social life differently than Chinese or Mexican.
3. Culture clashing

The only real day

1. Minority VS Minority
2. Los connections with their home country (CHINA)

Yes, Young Daddy

1. Buddhism (religion) as a mean to keep ties with the community
2. Men and how they are just not good role models again, how the responsibility keeps falling back on women.

“Give the enemy sweet sissies and women to infatuate him, and jades and silks to blind him with greed

A Chinese lady dies

1. Generational issues and miscommunications in regards to values, beliefs, and behavior of persona.
2. death of culture

The sons of chan

1. asian stereotypes in film
2. YELLOWFACE
3. the fear