In this emotional essay, “Being a Chink” Christine Leong discusses the meaning and definition of the word chink. She begins by noting the extreme power of language, that it provides us with communication and can be used to define individuals. Leong then recounts the first time she saw the word chink. While completing her weekly chores at her father’s business, she discovered an envelope with the word chink written on it. It did not take long before she concluded that it had been her father who wrote it in the likely scenario that a customer had called him a chink and that he wrote it down to later look up because he was unfamiliar with the definition. Leong felt a wave of anger that someone had tried to degrade her father. Next, she examines how in Naylor’s essay “The Meaning of a Word,” that the meaning of derogatory remarks can vary with context. She explains how within her circle that chink can be used as a term of endearment and that among her Asian friends it loses all power as a disgraceful remark. The essay is concluded with her belief that despite the intention of the term, chink, to degrade, that it had perhaps done the opposite and had brought the Asian community together. …show more content…
The whole point of a hatred label is to put a person down and to degrade them. Yet, while Leong mentions the extreme grief the term brought her in childhood, she notes that her community uses it “without malice or harmful intent” (Leong 525). When we look at how this word has affected Leong, it would not be surprising to find that it had been a great barrier in her life. Instead, we find that it has led to deep reflection and personal growth. Her decision to not let the term, chink, defeat her is admirable and I’m not sure if I’d be strong enough to make the same decision as she
In the text “The Meaning of a Word” by Gloria Naylor, the author discloses on how her personal experiences altered her life and presented another perspective on how words can have different effects depending on its context or the situation. She emphasizes and outlines how a racial term can adopt a positive connotation by those whom it is being used against. The second text “Being a Chink” is about a woman who _____. The anecdote also provides experiences where the narrator focused on the existence of a racial term that remained effective throughout her childhood. The meaning of the word varies from ____. Naylor’s story shares similarities with “Being a Chink” by Christine Leong in regards to discussing the essence of a racial term. Both individuals demonstrate how racial acts can ________. Yes, racist language can be
In "The Meaning of a Word" and "Being a Chink", Gloria Naylor and Christine Leong examine words of hatred that are meant to scorn, hurt and disgrace people. But these same words could also be used without harmful intentions and in a fashion of endearment amongst the people those words were created for. They each had a different word to discriminate their different culture and ethnicity. These writers discuss the words "nigger" and "chink", which are words in our language mostly ignorant people use. Naylor and Leong are also both minorities who were raised in America. They talk about how discrimination and hatred towards minorities is almost always inevitable in America, which is mostly populated by Caucasians. Naylor and Leong observe how these racial acts of discrimination can unify a group of people even closer together. Naylor didn't know the true meaning of the hate word nigger until it was used against her in a degrading manner. On the other hand Leong already knew what chink meant but wasn't traumatized until she found out her father discovered it.
Imagine feeling and looking different from all those around you. Imagine if you weren’t understood the same way as the majority. In the book “American Born Chinese”, two characters, Jin and Monkey King who went through the same situations, but in different societies. The Monkey King insight into the impact of society on Jin as they both face social exclusion through experiencing internalized racism. Further as Monkey King transforms into another character, Chin-Kee, which Jin sees as an embarrassing Chinese culture.
According to Harris and Sanborn (1989), media portrays Asians more positively than other minorities, as they are shown to “succeed academically, commercially, and socially” (p. 104). Though London is certainly not an example of this, her father still expects nothing but the best, suggesting her upbringing is not far off with the stereotypes that go along with Asian
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 ...
Traditionally, Twinkies are usually thought of as cream-filled yellow sponge cakes. To Chinese Americans, a different image is conjured. When Chinese Americans integrate with the American culture so much that their Chinese culture is much less apparent, they are known as “Twinkies”: yellow on the outside and white on the inside. In Amy Tan’s essay “Mother Tongue” and Elizabeth Wong’s essay “The Struggle to be an All-American Girl”, both girls are Chinese American trying to fit in with the American society while their Chinese mother’s are very traditional at home. Tan and Wong are trying to please their image in America and their mothers at the same time. While these essays are similar because they focus on the native languages used in America and the struggles of being a Chinese American in America, they differ in both their attitudes toward their mothers and personal reflections of being Chinese American.
In the early years of my life, adapting to the foreign customs of America was my top priority. Although born in America, I constantly moved back and forth from Korea to the US, experiencing nerve-racking, yet thrilling emotions caused by the unfamiliarity of new traditions. Along with these strange traditions, came struggles with accepting my ethnicity. Because of the obvious physical differences due to my race, the first question asked by the students in elementary school was, “Are you from China?” These inquiries were constantly asked by several of American students until middle school which transformed to “You must be good at math” referencing the stereotypical intellect that Asian are perceived to have. Through continuous insult on my Asian heritage, I began to believe and later hate the person I was due to criticism made by teenagers which I started to see true despite all the lies that was actively told. This racial discrimination was a reoccurring pattern that
In this paper I will be sharing information I had gathered involving two students that were interviewed regarding education and their racial status of being an Asian-American. I will examine these subjects’ experiences as an Asian-American through the education they had experienced throughout their entire lives. I will also be relating and analyzing their experiences through the various concepts we had learned and discussed in class so far. Both of these individuals have experiences regarding their education that have similarities and differences.
This is evident in the persistence of elderly characters, such as Grandmother Poh-Poh, who instigate the old Chinese culture to avoid the younger children from following different traditions. As well, the Chinese Canadians look to the Vancouver heritage community known as Chinatown to maintain their identity using on their historical past, beliefs, and traditions. The novel uniquely “encodes stories about their origins, its inhabitants, and the broader society in which they are set,” (S. Source 1) to teach for future generations. In conclusion, this influential novel discusses the ability for many characters to sustain one sole
Chinese-Americans authors Amy Tan and Gish Jen have both grappled with the idea of mixed identity in America. For them, a generational problem develops over time, and cultural displacement occurs as family lines expand. While this is not the problem in and of itself, indeed, it is natural for current culture to gain foothold over distant culture, it serves as the backdrop for the disorientation that occurs between generations. In their novels, Tan and Jen pinpoint the cause of this unbalance in the active dismissal of Chinese mothers by their Chinese-American children.
On a city bus a drunk man is given complete authority to harass an Asian passenger. Esther, the passenger's seat neighbor, is at first not bothered by the racial remarks. She tries to justify her passiveness by telling herself that “she was Japanese, not Chinese, and therefore in the present case immune,” but it is not enough and eventually she does feel guilt. DeSoto use of the scene highlights the reluctance we have to speak up and the justification we use to defend our cowardness.
Knowing that it would be four years of relentless pestering, I knew that someday I would surpass my tormentors; I would keep under cover of my books and study hard to make my brother proud one day. It would be worth the pain to someday walk into a restaurant and see my former bully come to my table wearing an apron and a nametag and wait on me, complete with a lousy tip. To walk the halls of the hospital I work in, sporting a stethoscope and white coat while walking across the floor that was just cleaned not to long ago by the janitor, who was the same boy that tried to pick a fight with me back in middle school. To me, an Asian in an American school is picking up where my brother left off. It’s a promise to my family that I wouldn’t disappoint nor dishonor our name. It’s a battle that’s gains victory without being fought.
In essence, he was shunned” (Hongo 4) by the white people who could not believe that he would attack their superior American ways. According to writers such as Frank Chin and the rest of the “Aiiieeeee!” group, the Americans have dictated Asian culture and created a perception as “nice and quiet” (Chin 1972, 18), “mama’s boys and crybabies” without “a man in all [the] males.” (Chin 1972, 24). This has become the belief of the preceding generations of Asian Americans and therefore manifested these stereotypes. Those authors who contest these “American made” stereotypes are said to betray the American culture and white power around them, and to be “rocking the boat” in a seemingly decent living situation.
Lindo Jong provides the reader with a summary of her difficulty in passing along the Chinese culture to her daughter: “I wanted my children to have the best combination: American circumstances and Chinese character. How could I know these two things do not mix? I taught her how American circumstances work. If you are born poor here, it's no lasting shame . . . You do not have to sit like a Buddha under a tree letting pigeons drop their dirty business on your head . . . In America, nobody says you have to keep the circumstances somebody else gives you. . . . but I couldn't teach her about Chinese character . . . How to know your own worth and polish it, never flashing it around like a cheap ring. Why Chinese thinking is best”(Tan 289).
In speaking with his boss Dennis Hoagland after a recent malperformance, Henry is forthright about his displeasure with the conversation so far as to say “f**k you”, mirroring the blunt language of American his employer (46). By using expletives with his boss as Dennis had done prior to, Park exhibits a strong sense of candor, thus symbolizing his distinctly American method of communication. Furthermore, Dennis’ lack of response implies that this type of conduct is deemed acceptable in the American corporate world. By contrast, dating back to Henry’s youth, this pattern of behavior sharply juxtaposes with his Korean culture’s ethics of deference. When interjecting in an argument between his mother and father as a child, Henry spoke in “complete sentences about his [father’s] cowardice and unfairness” for which his mother reprimanded him (63). Thus, his mother’s deep rooted adherence to the Korean value of respect juxtaposes both Henry’s forthright conversation habits and Dennis’s reaction to said habits. While Koreans may emphasize subtle ways of delivering negative news or statements, American communication is blunt, therefore illuminating Henry’s adoption of kurt