Quote: Maxine Page: 52 Paragraph: 3 Quote: "I read in an anthropology book that Chinese say "Girls are necessary too." I have never heard the Chinese I know make this concession. Significance: The question this relates to is What was the life/role of the characters in their home country? The significance is that this says a lot about the culture of China. It also says a lot about the Americans conception of Chinese culture. It is saying that Americans see China as a changing place where girls are beginning to be able to be successful, but really in China the women are still not being taken seriously.
Character Judgement: Maxine is a very brave, strong minded girl. She knows that she can be great, but the culture of China is bringing her down. She is trying to get up and succeed, but she keeps getting taken down. My feelings toward Maxine are that I really want to see her succeed.
Question: When, if ever are the women of China going to be thought of more highly? When are things going to change for the Chinese women?
Quote#2: Page 52: Paragraph 1: Maxine( in perspective of her dad) When the police came around asking questions, my father said, "No read Japanese. Japanese words. Me Chinese."
Significance: How do Americans treat the characters? (Specifically those born/raised in US)
This is significant because in this quote the police came around and asked if they could read Chinese. They assumed that everyone who is Asian speaks the same language. Everyone just gets lumped together. It's very sad.
Personal Connection:
This quote really relates to my life because everywhere today you see assumptions that everyone of one race is pretty much the same. It's these assumptions that lead to racism, and racism leads to hate. No one likes hate.
Question #2: How can you celebrate each Asian culture differently? What are some examples?
TKAM. The 8th post !
14 years ago
Jessica-
ReplyDeleteQuote #1: I agree with what you said about girls being given a lower role than men in the Chinese society (although, according the the quote, women may be viewed of importance sometimes). However, I do not believe Americans think women get equal rights in China. I think everyone knows and excepts that the Chinese culture is very different than the American. America is a place where everyone gets equal rights, but in unfortunately (for the women), in China it is not the same.
Question #1: Since neither I, nor my direct family has immigrated to China, I am not so familiar with how their culture works today. I do know, however, that the setting of this book is not modern-day (since the mother immigrated to America in the 1930s). Women's role in the culture/society might have changed a little since the book was written. If it has not changes, only the authority in China could make a change for Chinese women.
Quote #2: I suppose it could be considered sad that people can not tell the Asian races apart. I agree that it could be racially offensive to misunderstand someone's ethnicity, but since we live in America, the culture is different than that in Asian countries. I do not think it would lead to so much hate if people did not recognize others' races because they would not be making fun of them, persecuting them, or violating their American rights. It could just be a mistake of thinking a Chinese person was Japanese or vise versa.
Question #2: Well, the most important holiday in almost all Asian cultures is the lunar (moon) new year. ("Gung hay fa choy" is Happy New Year in Chinese"!). Other than that, each culture (and more specifically, family) has their own way of celebrating the culture and holidays. For example, in my family, we clean the house for the Chinese new year, put out oranges for good luck, and exchange "hung bows" (lucky red envelopes with money). In different Chinese homes, the new year could be celebrated differently. It would be celebrated even more differently in the all diverse Asian countries. The point is that most Asian countries' cultures are similar, but all have small details that set them apart.
Good job on your blog altogether!
-Matty :)
I really like how you state you opinion strongly.
ReplyDeleteFor Quote 1 I feel exactly the same way with the way the aunt was treated and other books that i have read it is sad how the woman are treated. No one ask or cares about the opinion of the woman and how they may feel. They make decisions for the woman even if the aren't fair. As for your question i don't know at all when things are going to to change for woman. It will have to be a group effort and everyone will need to work together to make it happen.
For quote I can really connect to that one when ever me or my family say something in spanish or say that our names are spanish they wanna ask if were mexican. Or when my mom speaks in spanish they always wanna know where she learned and are surprised to now that it was her first language. It is frustrating to be immediately assumed as mexxiacn because we can speak spanish so i can definitely connect to your qoute. As for your question I'm not sure how you could celerate their culture differntly. I think there culture is a very important part of who they are and it can't be changed.