The theme of the story “Bul-GO!-gi’ is that in every generation you have to find balance between honoring tradition and being unique. The story shows this development in theme between Ji-Suk, Ji-Suk’s mother and Seo-Jun. Ji-Suk grew up as both an American and a Korean. I was very important for Ji-Suk’s mom to teach her daughter her Korean heritage but also wanted her to live up to American standards. This helps develop the theme of striking a balance. This is recognized in the text when the narrator states “Even though she'd made Ji-Suk take Korean lessons every Saturday morning followed by violin lessons in the afternoon—and cooked kimchi and other Korean delicacies with her at least once a week—Ji-Suk's mother had wanted her to succeed by American standards.” …show more content…
She loved American food and sports. This is shown in the statement, “but she'd also learned to love burnt end barbecue, a local culinary favorite. She was an avid fan of the Kansas City Chiefs. She even loved playing softball; she had a wickedly fast windmill pitch, having played throughout college and graduate school and on the law firm's recreational team.” Once Ji-Suk grew up she realized that she wanted to strike a balance between her Korean heritage traditions and her American dreams like being her own boss and starting her own Korean food truck business "starting the food truck was Ji-Suk's way of honoring her mother and showing that she valued what her mother had taught her”
The deeply rooted history of a Confucian paradigm in Korea has for long limited women’s roles and rights. In the male-dominated and patriarchal society, women’s roles remained in the domestic sphere, where they were required to be submissive. However, with the introduction of westernization and modernity in the 1920s, modern generation was rapidly incorporated into colonial modernity. Korean women began to “redefine the Korean female identity” by displaying the “new woman” characteristics, in which some literate women initiated to “enhance their education, determine their own physical appearance, and contribute to the debate about changing gender roles and expectations”(Yoo, p.59) Fearing the threat of the emergence of the “new women” with the potential disturbance to the hegemony, Japanese colonial authorities as well as nationalist reformers veered the direction where the new ideologies of womanhood with modern sensibilities, also contained them within traditional gender boundaries, such as in education and social spheres(Yoo, 60). Park Kyung Won, the main female character in the film Blue Swallow, also lived during this era of the “new women” as well as restrictions under the Japanese colonial rule. In the film Blue Swallow, while her father encouraged her to stay at home for her to fit into the role of the traditional women, Park works as a taxi driver and eventually studies abroad to attend Tachikawa Flight academy, where she becomes the first civilian Korean female pilot. She displays the “new women” image, in which like the other “new women”, she does not conform to the traditional norms of a woman and strives in redefining the Korean female identity. However, her engagement in male-dominated education and profession, “ma...
Chang-Rae Lee’s Native Speaker expresses prominent themes of language and racial identity. Chang-Rae Lee focuses on the struggles that Asian Americans have to face and endure in American society. He illustrates and shows readers throughout the novel of what it really means to be native of America; that true nativity of a person does not simply entail the fact that they are from a certain place, but rather, the fluency of a language verifies one’s defense of where they are native. What is meant by possessing nativity of America would be one’s citizenship and legality of the country. Native Speaker suggests that if one looks different or has the slightest indication that one should have an accent, they will be viewed not as a native of America, but instead as an alien, outsider, and the like. Therefore, Asian Americans and other immigrants feel the need to mask their true identity and imitate the native language as an attempt to fit into the mold that makes up what people would define how a native of America is like. Throughout the novel, Henry Park attempts to mask his Korean accent in hopes to blend in as an American native. Chang-Rae Lee suggests that a person who appears to have an accent is automatically marked as someone who is not native to America. Language directly reveals where a person is native of and people can immediately identify one as an alien, immigrant, or simply, one who is not American. Asian Americans as well as other immigrants feel the need to try and hide their cultural identity in order to be deemed as a native of America in the eyes of others. Since one’s language gives away the place where one is native to, immigrants feel the need to attempt to mask their accents in hopes that they sound fluent ...
Jing-mei finds her cultural identity when she becomes and adult. One half of her wants to be that perfect, obedient child that her mother wants. The other half wants to have attention from her mother. She is that “Pleading Child” and “Perfectly Contented” daughter. Although Jing-mei and her mother’s culture clashed, she was able to find who she really
As the four women entered America, which is far from their motherland China, they experience a change of culture, the American culture, which was dominant than the Chinese. The Chinese mothers are faced with a difficult task of how to raise their American-born daughters with an understanding of their heritage. The daughters clearly show a gap in culture between the Chinese culture and American culture. The mothers wanted their daughter to follow the Chinese traditions, but the daughters followed the American traditions and even some of them got married to American men. The mothers tried to tell their daughters the story about the Chinese ancestors but the daughter could not follow them and the daughters thought their mothers were backwards and did not know what they are saying. As much as the mothers tried to show love to their daughters, the daughters usually responded negatively. They often saw their mothers’ attempts to guidance as a failure to understand the American culture. Being Chinese and living in America, both the mothers and the daughters struggle with many issues like identity, language, translation, and others. The mothers try to reconcile their Chinese pasts with their American presents; the daughters try to find a balance between independence and loyalty to their heritage
In the short story, "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan, a Chinese mother and daughter are at odds with each other. The mother pushes her daughter to become a prodigy, while the daughter (like most children with immigrant parents) seeks to find herself in a world that demands her Americanization. This is the theme of the story, conflicting values. In a society that values individuality, the daughter sought to be an individual, while her mother demanded she do what was suggested. This is a conflict within itself. The daughter must deal with an internal and external conflict. Internally, she struggles to find herself. Externally, she struggles with the burden of failing to meet her mother’s expectations. Being a first-generation Asian American, I have faced the same issues that the daughter has been through in the story.
In his own family relations, Jung-Sum must struggle with the Canadian and Chinese people that he encounters when he is boxing: “Jung-Sum is different,” I overheard her say to Mrs. Lim one day when I was waiting for a chance to do my daily round of shadow boxing” (Choy, 1997, p.87). In this way, Jung-Sum also differentiates his own identity from his Chinese family, which allows him to learn western sporting events, such as boxing. Jung-Sum is very similar to Jook-Liang because of their tendency to adopt western culture, which often goes against the Chinese traditions of the family unit. Often, this makes them appear as the “other” because they do not entirely fit into Chinese or Canadian ways of life. This is why they struggle through times of conflict in Vancouver society, which makes them vulnerable to differing people from differing backgrounds. This is also part of the confusion that Sek-Lung, the youngest son, experiences when he loses Poh-Poh and becomes obsessed with war games. These events define how the young people in the Chen family continually struggle with cultural assimilation and the conflicting sense of identity in Canadian society. These are the important aspects of conflict and cultural assimilation that occur in The Jade Peony, which reflect the struggles of Jook-Laing, Jung-Sum, and Sek-Lung in Vancouver’s
With the globalization and modernization, there is a social tendency to melt different individuals into an integral and international community. In America, individuals from different culture struggle with assimilation to the white mainstream. They find it painful but worth to mute racial identity for future success. Assimilation to an advanced culture is a somewhat progress and broaden the space for self-growth. But sometimes individuals feels pressure to force them blend in the surroundings. On the contrary, some individuals use the advantages of racial differences to exceed others in the mainstream. Amy Chua, in her essay “Why Chinese Mothers are Superior”, takes advantage of the fact that American parents underrate rote repetition and insists
Throughout the centuries, regardless of race or age, there have been dilemmas that identify a family’s thru union. In “Hangzhou” (1925), author Lang Samantha Chang illustrates the story of a Japanese family whose mother is trapped in her beliefs. While Alice Walker in her story “Everyday Use” (1944) presents the readers with an African American family whose dilemma is mainly revolving around Dee’s ego, the narrator’s daughter. Although exibiting different ethnicity, the reader should meditate that both families commonly share the attachment of a legacy, a tradition and the adaptation to a new generation.
She has never had to experience the idea of fitting in with her own culture. Being American is simply natural and a way of life for her. Traveling to another country, especially to one that was nothing like she expected it to be, helped to her stumble upon some important insights. She states being away from her own culture did not change her but made her able to realize what values and habits were the most important to her. In the other story, author Patricia was of Korean descent, but was born and raised here in America. Due to her Korean descent Patricia never really knew for sure where she belonged. She used a name to describe it, “hyphenated Americans,” because she looks like she is from another country but was born and raised here. People right on the streets of New York will ask her where she is from and compliment her on her good English skills. This makes it difficult to truly identify as an American. To really know what values and habits are her own. Traveling to Korea, visiting what they have called her homeland, taught Patricia some important insights of her own.
In analyzing these two stories, it is first notable to mention how differing their experiences truly are. Sammy is a late adolescent store clerk who, in his first job, is discontent with the normal workings of society and the bureaucratic nature of the store at which he works. He feels oppressed by the very fabric and nature of aging, out-of date rules, and, at the end of this story, climaxes with exposing his true feelings and quits his jobs in a display of nonconformity and rebellion. Jing-Mei, on the other hand, is a younger Asian American whose life and every waking moment is guided by the pressures of her mother, whose idealistic word-view aids in trying to mold her into something decent by both the double standards Asian society and their newly acquired American culture. In contrasting these two perspectives, we see that while ...
Amy Tan’s “Fish Cheeks” describes Tan’s upbringing as a Chinese-American caught in between two cultures. In “Fish Cheeks” Tan’s crush Robert and his family were invited to Tan’s house for Christmas, Amy was embarrassed of Robert’s impression of her Chinese relatives, cuisine, and culture (Tan 110). Tan’s situation is not uncommon as millions of first generation Americans encounter similar situations while living within two cultures. Albeit the extreme embarrassment Tan endured throughout the encounter, she contends that her mother taught her a valuable lesson in appreciating her Chinese culture (111). Ultimately, Tan's purpose was to implore first generation Americans to embrace both of their cultures, in spite of its unique traditions (Tan
Throughout Asian American literature there is a struggle between Asian women and their Asian American daughters. This is the case in The Joy Luck Club, written by Amy Tan and also in the short story "Waiting for Mr. Kim," written by Carol Roh-Spaulding. These two stories are very different, however they are similar in that they portray Asian women trying to get their American daughters to respect their Asian heritage. There are certain behaviors that Asian women are expected to have, and the mothers feel that their daughters should use these behaviors.
“Whenever she had to warn us about life, my mother told stories that ran like this one, a story to grow up on. She tested our strengths to establish realities”(5). In the book “The Woman Warrior,” Maxine Kingston is most interested in finding out about Chinese culture and history and relating them to her emerging American sense of self. One of the main ways she does so is listening to her mother’s talk-stories about the family’s Chinese past and applying them to her life.
Her ability to balance her Chinese-American identity is completely dependent on his participation in the two spheres and through Jack’s rejection of his mother and Chinese identity, he ensures the suffering of them both. Just as Jack’s father becomes a physical manifestation of American culture for his mother, his mother becomes the embodiment of their shared Chinese-ness that is demonstrated in her letter’s line: “Why won’t you talk to me, son? The pain makes it hard to write” (192). He does not talk to his mother because he wants nothing to do with his Chinese self, preventing the balance of two heritages in both their lives and perpetuating the cyclical trauma present in their lineage. With his mother gone, the representation of his Chinese heritage shifts onto the woman who reads the letter to him, resulting in the shame he feels after the letter’s reading finishes: “The young woman handed the paper back to me. I could not bear to look into her face” (192).
In this interview Ben Bagley asks Theresa Han about the difference between Korean and American culture. Theresa is a teenager who recently moved to the United States so she has an excellent perspective for understanding the differences and similarities between these countries.