Introduction
The movement of people from a certain socioeconomic condition is known as migration. Migrant refers to a person that moves or migrates and is used to express the difference between them and the natural-born citizens. In a cosmopolitan nation, the citizen evolves as a stranger who starts with the ‘other’ to define his or her own cross-cultural identity. Through immigration, the migrant, from the perception of the receiving country is seen as the "Other" to the citizens of that nation. The host nation does this in an effort to try to defend its statehood. On the other hand the citizens victimize the migrants in a reaction to the difference they have. For the migrant, who at this point is gradually transforming into a much easier to communicate “Other” sees working hard to gain citizenship as the way out (Trottier & Arsenault, 2011, 56).
In this essay I chose to compare and contrast the two cases of literature first by Levy, “Small Island”; and Xiaolu Guo’s “a concise Chinese-English dictionary for lovers”. Of importance to note is that Levy an English writer who traces her origins to the islands of Jamaica. Her parents sailed to England from where she was born (Levy, 2010, 15). On the other hand Xiaolu was born in China. She rose to become a respected author with her novels being written in many languages. Small Island brings to light two families, the first being a Jamaican one and the second is an English one. The collision between these two families from the divergent socioeconomic background comes into focus. A concise Chinese-English dictionary for lovers brings to light how the east meets the west (Guo, 2008, 25).
A Chinese English dictionary for lovers
The author starts her book by being apologetic about her E...
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.... Hence the society strikes a balance between changing the new immigrants and the existing citizenry. The British society is open to exploring the large culture its empire was once made up of and novels such as a small island and English-Chinese conscience dictionary help to meet that vision. In both stories we see the culture shock that migrants come to terms with as they try to settle in a new country. One is also able to learn different culture and by so be better prepared in the case an opportunity to shift from one sociocultural society occurs.
Works Cited
Guo, X. (2008). A concise Chinese-English dictionary for lovers. London, Vintage.
Levy, A. (2010). Small island. http://www.contentreserve.com/TitleInfo.asp?ID={C85906E2-EEF0-497B-8BFF-57C97EB1E1A6}&Format=410.
Trottier, M., & Arsenault, I. (2011). Migrant. Toronto, Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press.
Although Mrs. Spring Fragrance has only lived in America for a short amount of time, her husband states “There are no more American words for her learning” (865). It is obvious through reading this statement that Mrs. Spring Fragrance has become quickly acquainted with not only the English language, but also with American customs and traditions. However, not every character in Mrs. Spring Fragrance adjusts to American culture as easily as Mrs. Spring Fragrance; some characters have a difficult time leaving their Chinese traditions of marriage and accepting that in America, love comes before marriage. Throughout Mrs. Spring Fragrance, Sui Sin Far describes the process that the Chinese characters experience as they slowly begin to alienate traditional Chinese culture and becoming Americanized through accepting American culture as their own.
Thru-out the centuries, regardless of race or age, there has 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 believes. While Alice Walker in her story of “Everyday Use” (1944) presents the readers with an African American family whose dilemma is mainly rotating around Dee’s ego, the narrator’s daughter. Although differing ethnicity, both families commonly share the attachment of a legacy, a tradition and the adaptation to a new generation. In desperation of surviving as a united family there are changes that they must submit to.
He, Qiang Shan. "Chinese-American Literature." New Immigrant Literatures in the United States: A Sourcebook to Our Multicultural Literary Heritage. Ed. Alpana Sharma Knippling. WEstport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1996. 44-65.
These struggles of assimilation are revealed in Choy’s writing, who draws on his own experiences to provide vivid imagery and deep insight into the emotions felt by immigrants. In her analysis of Wayson Choy’s works, literary critic Deborah Madsen writes, “growing up in Vancouver’s Chinatown was instrumental in shaping Choy’s [...] writing” (101). Madsen explains that “the immigrant condition of a failure to belong, both in the nation of ethnic origin and also to the nation of residence” (101) is a recurring topic in Choy’s novels as a result of his own experiences. Madse...
The Sun of the Revolution by Liang Heng, is intriguing and vivid, and gives us a complex and compelling perspective on Chines culture during a confusing time period. We get the opportunity to learn the story of a young man with a promising future, but an unpleasant childhood. Liang Heng was exposed to every aspect of the Cultural Revolution in China, and shares his experiences with us, since the book is written from Liang perspective, we do not have a biased opinion from an elite member in the Chinese society nor the poor we get an honest opinion from the People’s Republic of China. Liang only had the fortunate opportunity of expressing these events due his relationship with his wife, An American woman whom helps him write the book. When Liang Heng and Judy Shapiro fell in love in China during 1979, they weren’t just a rarity they were both pioneers at a time when the idea of marriages between foreigners and Chinese were still unacceptable in society.
In America, it is a common misconception that all foreigners are similar; it is believed that they all have similar dreams and each of them end up chasing after the same jobs. However, this is not the case. Not only do immigrants from different countries hold different dreams, but those with a shared background even have varying hopes and dreams for the future. This is evidenced in Bharati Mukherjee’s essay, “Two Ways to Belong in America.” She utilizes several rhetorical strategies in order to show that immigrants have the ability to be assimilated into the American culture, but that they should not be deported if they choose not to conform to said culture.
Immigrants are defined as people who permanently move to a forgiven country from their origin country. Immigrants can move for the purposes of seeking better living, better education, or in order to avoid any sort of issues in their origin country. Despite the reasoning behind the decision of the movement, an immigrant will be affected by the change of culture, way of life, social system and community. The process of the movement effects each individual differently depending on their, age, gender and their level of connection to their past culture. Having that said, the younger the age of the individual, the more venerable and easily they become to changing their way of life in order to feel a part of a community. Gender however is also related to the race of the person. To elaborate, females and black males are more open to the idea of changing any of their factors to adjust to their ‘new society’. An individual’s connection with their past culture, has a great impact on their personality and their standing and belief in their values, morals and culture. Therefore, the stronger and deeper the connection with their original culture and way of life, the more satisfied the individual becomes. Therefore, they don’t feel the urge to compete with another culture. Therefore, their current standing with their own culture has a strong impact on their future judgment on other culture. The weaker the connection the more prone they are to changing their current culture. Thus, an individual’s stability level towards their culture depends on other factors that are concerned with them. [Different age groups are faced with different situation that leads them to deal with different issues and therefore they are exposed to different kinds of expe...
I will first begin by summarizing the plot of Family by Pa Chin and the plot of Some Prefer Nettles by Junichiro Tanizaki and summarizing the characters as I go along. I will then explain how the two authors constructed their characters on modernity and tradition and conclude this paper by explaining the themes of the novels and how I would compare the two novels.
Turning Japanese shines a light on the personal experience of an American in a land where the culture is much different from her own; it also tells of how Julavits coped and learned to love these differences. I found that this narrative used a style much more abstract than most writers’. Julavits uses compelling phrases such as “craving-cruller-gluttony-happiness”, which adds a layer of depth to writing as personal as hers. A portion of her writing also gets philosophical, as if the text had more meaning to the writer than the readers themselves. I have found that this interesting approach to writing only beckons to the audience, drawing them further in an attempt to understand more.
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.
... of language and education is the most important in this story and society. The make use of two different languages in a narrative, provides a reader a perplexing yet fascinating image of characterization and customs. Multilingual story telling pushes the reader to decelerate and acquire supplemental focus on the expressions which are in the small fragments, however as soon as the reader has figured out the foreign words, he or she acquires a priceless picture of the theme of this story. The panorama of native words and phrases, cultural perceptions, and class dispute taken from the incorporation of two different languages are helpful for the reader to obtain significance that he or she couldn't gain if exclusively one language was employed in the story. Just as the power of language is applied to unveil a society, a better comprehension is provided to the reader.
... World Literature. Ed. Martin Puncher. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012. 441. Print.
Dawson, Ema, and Pierre Larrivee. “Attitudes to Language in Literary Sources: Beyond post-colonialism In Migration Literature.: English Studies 91.8(2010): 920-932. Literary Reference Center. Web. 30 Jan. 2014
Chen, Zu-yan. Li Bai & Du Fu: An Advanced Reader of Chinese Language and Literature =. Boston: Cheng & Tsui, 2008. Print.
From the perspective of politics, foreignization helps to resist English supremacy and cultural imperialism of Britain and America; from the perspective of culture, foreignization can reveal cultural differences of other nations, making the target culture witness different values; from the perspective of poetics, foreignization opposes domestication characterized by fluency and pays more attention to the literary idea of “play of the signifier in the pursuit of multi-valence and polysemy.” (Wang Dongfeng,