The Prejudicial Effects of Ethnic Myths in Frank Chin’s The Year of the Dragon
In The Year of the Dragon, Frank Chin makes great use of dramatic devices in order to illustrate the tragic results of ethnic stereotypes on families and identity.
Frank Chin is considered to be one of the pioneers in Asian American theatre. In his work, he mainly depicts the effects of human stereotyping. His vision on the fate of Chinese Americans works as a background to his depiction of individuals and their families who are damaged by the roles that they are forced to play in white America’s society. The particularity of Chin’s work is that he stresses the great damage of preconceived opinion more on the relations between family members than on the individual
…show more content…
She opens the window and the sound of exploding firecrackers outsides become louder. She comes out of the bathroom, takes the stick of incense to the shrine on a high shelf. (p.106)
The family does not seem to be shocked at all, the relations with the father are at their lowest, as the contrast with the festivities outside suggests it.
The sounds could also be used as a mean to demonstrate that the district has internal problem, exactly like the family but at a bigger scale. The festivity would therefore be seen as a mask whereas the recurrent arguments in the family would be evil that consumes it.
Furthermore, the decline of the family relationship is also symbolically shown through the lighting of incense. Indeed, the fact that MA put the stick on a shrine is already quiet revealing, but then we learn with the stage direction that: “Behind the shrine are family portraits of individuals and groups, pictures of various sizes in different frames from various periods” (p106). This gesture could therefore suggest that the family is waiting for the father to die, expecting that it would release all of them from their problems. Later during the second act, the family lights more incense as a morbid reminder, then finally at the
…show more content…
We can easily notice his condition thanks to a series of monologues scattered throughout the play that inform us about his degenerative mind. Primarily, Fred seems able to separate his disdain for his work from his introduction speech he is always doing. He is thereby able to wear the kind of mask Chinatown uses to hide its internal problems, when he is the happy tour guide. Until there, he could find an outlet for his despise by cursing after he has finished his speech. Nonetheless, while the tours pass, Fred is less and less able to maintain is integrity and starts to weaken under the strain of stereotypes. Thereby at the end of the first act, Fred starts his tour by saying to the tourists: “Well, folks, we been up and down these Chinatown hills sucking up the sights faster’n the eye can see” (p.113). There is no more phony accent, fake laughs or Chinese proverbs. The monologue becomes cynical as the mind of Fred is being crushed progressively. At the end of the play, when the family bonds have been definitively destroyed and the last piece of dignity has disappeared, Fred appears entirely dressed in white like Charlie Chan, the ultimate stereotype for a Chinese man. This symbolic disguise is referred to as a “symbol of death” (p.141) and shows that Fred has completely lost
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.
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.
From the beginning of the novel, Small presents various characteristics of his household structure that promoted dysfunctional relationships when he was a child. “From the book’s very first pages, he presents their home filled with a nervous potential violence.” (Pedler) Small begins the novel, being the age of six, by describing each family member’s non verbal vocabularies. He begins with his mother’s language which was slamming cupboard doors, than his father’s, punching a punching bag, next his brother’s, beating on a drum, and lastly himself, getting sick. The lack of verbal communication in the household can create tension within the family because there is no exchange of feelings or concerns. If someone is going through mental or physical pain, others in the family wouldn’t know about it because there is no communication of that sort within the household. Another household characteristic that prompted dysfunctional relationships was the amount and way the mother had input. For example, there is a
Similarly, Wong also grew up in America with a traditional Chinese mother. In contrast, Wong’s upbringing involves her mother forcing her into attending two different schools. After her American school day, Wong continues on with Chinese school to learn both cultures. Her mother felt it was her duty to “[. . .] learn the language of [her] heritage” (Wong 144). This puts a burden on Wong as she starts to despise the Chinese culture.
It was the best new play in San Franscisco produced at off-Broadway ground North America. He wrote the play based on what he learned in Vancouver about his Japanese-Canadian parents history. As a result of its success, Rick Shiomi was awarded the bay Area Theatre Circle Crititcs award. In 1999 , he wrote another play in conjuction with Sundraya Kase titled ‘ Walleye Kids’- a musical play which was produced by Mu Performing Arts in 2008. This play was derived from the Japanese traditional fable story of a boy called ’ Peace Boy’. The setting of this play was focused on warmer climate of Japan but Rick in ‘Walleye Kid’ shifted the setting from Japanese climate to the iced mountains of Minnesota where the baby who emerged from a peach in ‘Peace Boy’ protruded instead from a massive Walleye. In essence, these plays explains what Asians in diaspora have experienced as they live in America. Yellow Fever launched the theatrical career of Mu performing Arts. Production. Consequently, this paper investigates the relationship between a playwrights personal experience of racialization and how he or she represents the world of U.S race relations in their plays and performances of the plays. Rick’s play was developed from a racialized
Lee, Josephine D.. Performing Asian America race and ethnicity on the contemporary stage. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1997. Print.
The second and third sections are about the daughters' lives, and the vignettes in each section trace their personality growth and development. Through the eyes of the daughters, we can also see the continuation of the mothers' stories, how they learned to cope in America. In these sections, Amy Tan explores the difficulties in growing up as a Chinese-American and the problems assimilating into modern society. The Chinese-American daughters try their best to become "Americanized," at the same time casting off their heritage while their mothers watch on, dismayed. Social pressures to become like everyone else, and not to be different are what motivate the daughters to resent their nationality. This was a greater problem for Chinese-American daughters that grew up in the 50's, when it was not well accepted to be of an "ethnic" background.
Media often exaggerate the characteristics of Asian and Asian Americans. Stereotypes in film maintain common ones like Asians who are masters of martial arts a...
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 ...
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
Immigrants' lives become very difficult when they move to a new country. They are often discriminated against due to their race and/ or nationality. This problem occurs many times throughout Dragonwings, a book by Laurence Yep. In his book, the Chinese characters who immigrate to America face many challenges in their new lives. They are thought of as inferior, have to endure many hardships, and become lonely due to the fact that they must leave the majority of their families in China. In this book, the immigrants face multiple difficulties and challenges in the new world they know as the Land of the Golden Mountain.
In n the play entitled Trying to Find Chinatown, Hwang implements polemical stereotyping by establishing a contemporary theme with a vernacular tone that is based on the various stereotypical factors depicted in both Asian-American and Caucasian communities. The author, in the play, succeeds in considering two chinese characters who express their interchangeable tirade with the same innate cultural conflicts they experience but in different ways. Ronnie is a genetically chinese New Yorker whose assimilation to Americanization seems to cost him his cultural identity, while, Benjamin tries to further explore his chinese identity which was nurtured by his adopting parents. Both characters in Trying to Find Chinatown seem to not only identify themselves in life, but also do so in the process of
Hwang’s father has been victims of racism since 1996, we can’t tell by the last name or by the way the look like where they come from. We aren’t allowed to ask at auditions legally, a person’s race. Therefore, the fact that DHH a character in this play mistakes a white man for being part Asian shows us that we can’t necessarily tell where a you really from by looking
All women are too sensitive! All Mexicans are illegal immigrants! If you’re from the South, then you are ignorant! Most people have heard at least one of these stereotypes pertaining to a certain group. Some people believe them whilst others do not. American Born Chinese illustrates three stories depicting the custom of stereotypes surrounding society: “The Monkey King”, the story of Monkey King’s thirst for infinite power, and his quest for atonement; “Jin Wang”, the story an awkward boy who tries to “fit in” the community around from but constantly fails; and “Danny”, the story about a high schooler who feels uncomfortable by his stereotypically negative Chinese cousin Chin-Kee. In this day-and-age, stereotypes are what bring people together, and stereotypes are what set people apart. To be ignorant of stereotypes would be a disastrous event as one would consequentially be ignorant to the prejudices engulfing them daily. Even though this causes problems throughout different communities, the way some individuals choose to address stereotypes is through laughter. From start to finish the graphic novel, American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang purposefully satirizes Asian stereotypes in hopes that the reader opens up to the fact that stereotypes are indeed existent in today’s society.
It is as though Asian Americans are succumbing to the thought that America is the only place to be and that they should be grateful to live here. On the other hand, keeping silent due to pressures from the white population means being shunned by the members of the Asian American population. I disagree with Chin’s assertion that “years of apparent silence have made us accomplices” to the makers of stereotypes (Chin 1991, xxxix). I agree with Hongo’s argument that the Chin viewpoint “limits artistic freedom” (Hongo 4). Declaring that those writers who do not argue stereotypes of the good, loyal, and feminine Chinese man or the submissive female, are in any way contributing to or disagreeing with them is ridiculous.