Stealing Buddha's Dinner Essay

1201 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Development as a writer

In the Stealing Buddha’s Dinner, the author Bich Minh Nguyen recounts her story settling and growing up in America. As an immigrant, she recounts her experience leaving her motherland and arriving to this nation of diversity. Nguyen began to see the “American” ways of life. As because of being considered as the “other” who is living in America, she looks to be a part of this culture by adapting to anything considered American while still maintaining her Vietnamese culture. Throughout the book, she also crosses religious paths especially when encountering America’s prominent faith: Christianity. She’s put at this crossroad to either conform to the standards in order to fit in or to continue on being the outsider. This book reveals the tough …show more content…

It was used as another bridge for her understanding of American culture. With Nguyen being Buddhist, she was exposed to Christianity throughout the region. In America, it was the dominant faith where a majority of people in her community were Christians. Many wouldn’t even befriend her because of her different background. She was told by many that she would go to Hell because she is non-Christian. Although Nguyen is a Buddhist, is was difficult for her to pray in the temple because she felt too American within herself saying, "I felt so out of place - too American, not truly Buddhist - that I never did muster the nerve to enter the prayer room, let alone approach the imposing statue of Buddha." (Nguyen 186). At home she was practicing the Buddhist faith but also attending a Catholic school at the same time. In school, she learned about the Catholic faith and questioned very heavily about the two religions. Since Buddhism was practiced at home, it was pulling her back from obtaining the American identity. Her family kept teaching Nguyen about Buddha, so it became habitual that Buddha was her supreme idol or “God”. Though she desires the American Identity, she decided not to learn about Catholicism. It appears to be that she was now interested in her own religion instead of the American

Show More
Related

  • The Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights

    1108 Words  | 3 Pages

    I arrived at the Hsi Lai Temple in the city of Hacienda Heights around 3:00 p.m. on March 7, 2014. Although I am Chinese, I have never been to this temple before because my family does not practice Buddhism. This is my first time collecting data about the His Lai Temple. This method is referred to as participant-observation which is, “the anthropological method of collecting data by living with another people, learning their language, and understanding their culture” (Arenson and Miller-Thayer 521). The temple is built on a hill top. After driving up the long hill into the parking lot, I found that before entering the temple, I walked up many stairs. In the brochure For Guang Shan Hsi Lai Temple, it said that the name Hsi Lai stands for “coming to the West”. The temple, which was founded by Venerable Master Hsing Yun, signifies the dedication of Taiwan’s largest Buddhist organizations called the Fo Guang Shan. It took ten years to build the temple and was completed in 1988. This $30 million Temple on 15 acres of land was financed by donations from Buddhist devotees from around the worlds.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down

    1623 Words  | 4 Pages

    How would it feel to flee from post-war Communist forces, only to face an ethnocentric population of people in a new country? In Anne Fadiman's The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, a portrait of a disquieting, often times touching, ethnography (i.e. a book that details particular data of an extended period of time an anthropologist spent living closely with a community of individuals during his or her field work) of Fadiman's experience living in Merced, California, which was home to the largest population of Hmong refugees, such as the Lee family, from Laos who suffered mass confusion when trying to navigate the American health care system. Because the Hmong could not speak sufficient English until the children gained language skills native to the United States, residents of California were not accepting of the Hmong community. Fadiman aims to better understand how knowledge of illness among Hmong and Western medical practitioners differ, which pushes the reader to understand how the complicate medical treatment in the past as well as the present from a perspective of an American observing a Hmong family's struggle with the system. In America, it isn’t uncommon to be judged for your clothing, your house, or the amount of money your family makes, so it is easy to believe that the Hmong people were not easily accepted into American society. As a whole, ethnocentrism, or the tendency to believe that one's culture is superior to another, is one of America's weaknesses and this account proves ethnocentric behavior was prominent even in the 1970-80's when Fadiman was in the process of doing her fieldwork in post-Vietnam War Era California.

    Read More

  • Figurative Language In Amy Tan's Fish Cheeks

    520 Words  | 2 Pages

    When people are introduced to a new environment they feel a need to adapt to the dominant culture. In “Fish Cheeks,” a biographical narrative by Amy Tan, Amy’s parents invite the minister and his son, Amy’s crush, Robert to join them for a Christmas Eve dinner along with Amy’s relatives. Throughout the story, Amy is conflicted between embracing her culture and distancing herself from it in order to fit in. Tan’s use of figurative language and specific details throughout the narrative portrays contrasting perspectives between Amy’s view of the dinner and the view of the adults.

    Read More

  • The Journey Of One Buddhist Nun Analysis

    876 Words  | 2 Pages

    Buddhism is considered as one of the leading religions throughout the world today. In order for a Buddhist to follow the religion, there are certain set of guidelines that one has to follow to gain a better life, but most people have other factors that they have to face along this path. The story, “The Journey of One Buddhist Nun” by Sid Brown, is an account of a Thai woman, Maechi Wabi, who entered a spiritual life along with life struggles and outside influences. According to Brown, Wabi faced many challenges along the way to liberation and two challenges she faced most are the gender and socioeconomic issues which she overcame during her spiritual journey.

    Read More

  • Buddhism In America Essay

    804 Words  | 2 Pages

    Buddhism is a religion from the East that has spread to many different countries all over the world. It has spread to the West, and has had a great influence and impact, especially in America. However, the Buddhism that is practiced in the United States is not exactly the same as the one that is practiced in Asian countries. If Buddhism differs between the different traditions of the Asian countries themselves, it is obvious that it will differ greatly in America as well. However, even though there are obvious differences, it is important to maintain the core values and fundamental principles the same. This research explores how the three different types of Buddhist practitioners have adopted Buddhism in America, and it describes some differences

    Read More

  • final essay

    1135 Words  | 3 Pages

    What this tells us, or rather the challenges faced by South Asian Americans through the lens of Americans is that they are barbaric, living in close quarters, with more than the “normal” number of individuals in a room or even a building. Another interaction with Erica was when they were both in the ocean and Erica comments “I don’t think,” she said finally, “I’ve ever met someone our age as polite as you” (Hamid 25). What this tells us, or rather the challenges faced by South Asian Americans is that they have to be extra nice and polite in order to compensate for their “barbaric and backwardness” view that Americans tend to associate with these group of people. And of which has been heightened following the aftermath of 9/11. Another interaction with Erica was when she invited Changez over her parent’s apartment for the very first time and during a conversation with Erica’s father, he asked Changez how things were back home, to which he had replied back as “quite good, thank you” (Hamid 54). Erica’s father response to this:

    Read More

  • The Refugee Journey In Thi Bui's The Best We Could Do

    1508 Words  | 4 Pages

    The main coping mechanism, then, became suppressing of the memories and emotions attached to the traumas of the Vietnam Wars. Their home served as the host of these demons, but the demons impacted parenting styles. Thi acknowledges that her parents taught her and her siblings many lessons, some intentional but others, quite the contrary. It was the “unintentional ones [that] came from their unexorcised demons and from the habits they formed over so many years of trying to survive;”(“The Best We Could Do,” 295) these lessons were indeed unintentional because just like the suppressed communication, they derived weak communication between the parents and the children. In Min Zhou’s article “Are Asians Becoming ‘White’?” she concludes by including a picture of a Vietnamese family celebrating the 1998 Lunar Year, looking happy. This happy family in the article is much like the Bui family because on the outside, they appeared happy, but inside their home and their hearts, a darkness

    Read More

  • I am Vietnamese, I am American

    3127 Words  | 7 Pages

    Just like the durian, my Vietnamese culture repulsed me as a young child. I always felt that there was something shameful in being Vietnamese. Consequently, I did not allow myself to accept the beauty of my culture. I instead looked up to Americans. I wanted to be American. My feelings, however, changed when I entered high school. There, I met Vietnamese students who had extraordinary pride in their heritage. Observing them at a distance, I re-evaluated my opinions. I opened my life to Vietnamese culture and happily discovered myself embracing it. `

    Read More

  • Catfish and Mandala, by Andrew Pham

    903 Words  | 2 Pages

    Phillips, Delores B. "Quieting Noisy Bellies: Moving, Eating and Being in the Vietnamese Diaspora." University of Minnesota Press 73 (2009): 47-87. Print

    Read More

  • Culture Exposed In Amy Tan's Fish Cheeks

    113 Words  | 1 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Americanization in The Joy Luck Club

    1951 Words  | 4 Pages

    Oftentimes the children of immigrants to the United States lose the sense of cultural background in which their parents had tried so desperately to instill within them. According to Walter Shear, “It is an unseen terror that runs through both the distinct social spectrum experienced by the mothers in China and the lack of such social definition in the daughters’ lives.” This “unseen terror” is portrayed in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club as four Chinese women and their American-born daughters struggle to understand one another’s culture and values. The second-generation women in The Joy Luck Club prove to lose their sense of Chinese values, becoming Americanized.

    Read More

  • Amy Tan Fish Cheeks Essay

    826 Words  | 2 Pages

    This quote shows how Americans were cruel and discriminatory towards Chinese Americans. This quote shows how her favorite food, may seem disgusting to people who never grew up Chinese or around Chinese culture, and she is embarrassed by this. She is especially embarrassed by the way her dad says this nasty looking fish is her favorite food, even though she actually thoroughly enjoys eating it. Amy very much struggles with trying to please both the American, and Chinese side of herself because she wants to please everyone when in reality she just needs to accept herself for who she is.

    Read More

  • In the American Society

    1242 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gish Jen’s In the American Society is, on the surface, an entertaining look into the workings of a Chinese American family making their way in America. The reader is introduced to the life of a Chinese American restaurant owner and his family through the eyes of his American-born daughter. When we examine the work in depth, however, we discover that Jen is addressing how traditional Chinese values work in American culture. She touches on the difference in gender roles, generation gaps between immigrants and their American-born children, and the hesitance of these immigrants to conform to the American way of life.

    Read More

  • The Seated Buddha Symbolism

    1666 Words  | 4 Pages

    People admired the overall concept of the religion and how it brought peace and enlightenment not only into their life, but the people that they are surrounded by. Many different artist began to create what they thought Buddha and how he, being the face of the religion, demonstrates how one can find these qualities in their life. Author of the book History of Chinese Philosophy, Bo Mou states that “....an affectionate concern for the well-being of one 's fellows in the community, society, or a state governed by a wise and virtuous ruler”, when referring to Buddha. In Seated Buddha, it can be mistaken that this sculpture does not posses a lot of great detail, but upon further inspection, it is obvious that it holds very detailed designs. This sculpture has a halo-type structure around the head of the Buddha and he is seated on an elevated surface. I believe that by placing the Buddha on this surface it then emphasizes his holiness and his importance to and in the community. One main feature that the Seated Buddha holds is the fact that he is seated in the lotus position, which ultimately was done to support the concept of peacefulness and calmness. The man has his right-hand open resting on his knee with his palm facing up. By doing this, I believe that the artist is showing the concept of openness and the idea of the Buddha figure being welcoming to others. The Seated Buddha is depicted with his eyes shut and a smile on his face. To me, this is showing that one can be happy regardless of what they can and cannot see and that you do not have to observe something in order to be happy. This can also mean that even if there is bad happening in the world, you can not look at the bad and just help others through their pain, which can then boost the amount of happiness that you

    Read More

  • Dharma Essay

    857 Words  | 2 Pages

    The other source has been Puranas which are eighteen in number and contains information about the creation and dynasties of god, sages and kings and detailed description of yugas. All the sources are on the same footstep and no one has supremacy over the other.

    Read More

More about Stealing Buddha's Dinner Essay

Open Document