Kelly E. Tumy
LITR 5733 Seminar in American Culture: The Immigrant Experience
27 July 1999
Dr. Craig White

Kelly E. Tumy

She worked as a bartender, a switchboard operator, a horoscope writer and a pizza maker. Many of her vocational choices were made to spite her mother’s controlling directives. After a brief stay in Switzerland following her father and brother’s deaths, Tan wanted nothing to do with authority, and her job selection reflected her personal feelings. Her parents had high hopes for her education and when she switched her major from medicine to English, her mother would not speak to her for six months. Although her early relationship with her mother was not good, a later reconciliation with her mother revealed three siblings living in China who the pair would eventually go see. This trip along with the newly formed relationship with her siblings would eventually become the seeds of The Joy Luck Club.

But what perhaps stands out the most about the life of Amy Tan is her desire to be an American writer. In several interviews, the cultural heritage question inevitably comes up, and there could not be a more false view of Amy Tan than one as an Asian writer. She does claim her cultural heritage of Chinese, and she writes about Chinese-American women, but she is not trying to define Asian issues. She wants to be a writer appreciated for the aesthetic value of her writing. In her own words, "It’s not that I hate being called Asian-American. It’s just that I wonder why we feel we have to add this sub-category all the time. Asian-American writer. I am an American writer, but a Chinese-American, if you ask about my personal background."

Tan, Amy. The Chinese Siamese Cat. Illustrator: Gretchen Schields.

New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.

--. The Hundred Secret Senses. New York: Penguin, 1995.

--. The Joy Luck Club. New York: Putnam Publishing Group, 1989.

--. The Kitchen God’s Wife. New York. Demo Media, 1992.

--. The Moon Lady. Illustrator: Gretchen Schields. New York: Atheneum, 1992.

A. Ling, Huping. "Part III: Contemporary Chinese American Women, 1965-1990’s" Surviving on the Gold Mountain: A History of Chinese American Women and their Lives. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998.

Huping Ling’s book Surviving on the Gold Mountain: A History of Chinese American Women and their Lives has a well-defined scholarly argument, especially in the third section reviewed here. However, some of the evidence used is almost too casually anecdotal, while other evidence used is incredibly straight forward and research based. The combination of the two evidences makes it difficult to assess the validity of the information in certain sections, but most of the conclusions she is trying to reach are backed up by her more researched and documented statistics. Luckily, her argument is based on many of the education and political statistics and not the anecdotes and modern life examples.

Ms. Ling’s assertion with regards to contemporary Chinese-American women is that dramatic changes occurred in Chinese-American women’s educational, occupational, political, and psychological experiences since the 1960’s and all of the changes directly or indirectly were related to the social reform movement in the 1960’s and the liberalization of American immigration policies in 1965 (139).

And what Ms. Ling goes on to prove to her reader is just that. Chinese women were succeeding during this time period because of these two dominant forces and also because of their own determination. Their success was not linked to any type of Affirmative Action. In fact, many Chinese-American women felt that Affirmative Action was actually detrimental for most women and was doubly ineffective for the Chinese in America (169-170). Their successes were directly linked to the Civil Rights social movement.

Probably the soundest base for Ms. Ling’s argument is her extensive use of statistics when outlining for her reader the prowess of Chinese-American women in the field of education, or rather in their educational excellence. With Asian-Americans in the system of higher education, the fields of higher education had to change from the models of the late 1940’s and 1950’s. Asian-Americans were deemed the "most economically successful minority group in American exceeding all other groups in income and education" (140). It is though sweeping statements such as these backed up by three or four tables that allow the reader to see the dominance of education in this culture.

Although some of the anecdotes about Michelle Kwan and Connie Chung somewhat diminish the power of her argument, she jumps right back with political examples of women in California. The Chinese-Americans were often called the model minority and in 1990, 14 out of 22 women who ran for state office won their respective races (144).

She concludes this final section of her book with a look at how the process of immigration has helped establish the Chinese-American as a race who are finally afforded the respect they deserve. She admits the uneducated shortcomings of the early Chinese immigrants, but affords America a second chance in praising our realization of the problems of Tiananmen Square and the foresight to allow many political refugees and chance to immigrate. She feels these immigrants have truly helped to elevate the Chinese middle class into a contributing factor in American society.

As a tool for research of Chinese women, I found this resource to be quite helpful, especially in this latter part. The quality of evidence does outweigh the early anecdotes. The evidence of statistics and tables in regards to education exceptionally proves her assertion that the change in Chinese-American women had to have come predominantly from the Civil Rights Movements of the 1960’s as well as the immigration changes after 1965.

B.Daniels, Roger. Coming to America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life. New York: Harper Perennial, 1990.

Of the three secondary texts reviewed for this section of my journal, by far the most outstanding would be Roger Daniels’ book. I first picked this book up in May when I registered for this course. I wanted to know a little bit more about the subject of immigration. I thought I would be terribly bored with this text as it did look a little encyclopedic. But what this turned out to be was an incredible source for quotations dealing with immigration, different viewpoints of immigration, especially colonial American. It was perhaps the most distinct source I found on the scores of different immigration ethnicities. Daniels succeeds in his scholarly argument that not all immigrants can be grouped into one or two categories and there are many different aspects to immigrant groups that many Americans never even imagined. He proves through his research that we need to know how each group arrived in America in order to understand the issue of immigration as a whole.

Each ethnicity was given a separate section and a specific claim to immigration. It was quite useful to see each distinction in order to draw my own conclusions about each nationality’s contribution to this country. The sections were not laden with statistics and charts. Instead many contained historical stories that I had not heard before. The quotations and stories helps to personalize each different immigrant group’s experience, specifically the information for me on New Asian Immigrants (350).

But even more useful that the divisions of immigrants was the chapter Ethnicity and Race in American Life. This chapter in and of itself was integral in helping me understand many different ethnicity’s contributions to America. Also, we tend to look at immigrants today with a calmer reserve and this section helps put the realities of immigration into the perspective of the immigrant. Daniels opens this chapter with a quote from de Crevecoeur’s What is an American? and really calls into question why we accept the definition of an American by a "petty Norman"(101). Not only do we accept this definition of de Crevecoeur’s, we actually embrace it as the "obligatory definition of an American" (ibid). This definition and his following commentary make me see that from the initial days of this country, we were relying on foreigners and immigrants for our first identities. Why then shouldn’t we rely on the immigrants of later years to further our definition of this country? I believe this is what he wants he readers to embrace "[that] the twelve million who have come in the quarter century since 1965 will, with their descendants, be an important factor in American life for the foreseeable future and will continue to contribute to its growing diversity (408).

I believe that is what Daniels was trying to do with this book. Remind us that we were all immigrants at one time and this country was founded by immigrants, for immigrants. It is something that is almost unique to the United States since our history is so young, and through the examples in this book we are allowed to see not only the historical story of immigration but also a personal one.

C.He, Shan Qiang. "Chinese-American Literature." New ImmigrantLiterature in the United States: A Sourcebook to our MulticulturalLiterary Heritage. Alpana Sharma Knippling, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1996.

Shan Qiang He’s assertions in the Knippling book were the most difficult to grasp. But after much careful reading and deciphering, it is easy to see why this collection of essays on immigrant literature has become such an influential piece of research itself. He’s assertion, although clouded at times in critical terms, seems to be that the Chinese-American literature that has emerged throughout the United Stated is a tribute to the diversity of the immigrants themselves. He’s discussion of several texts gives this piece quite a bit of weight in reliable evidence.

He begins the discussion with a descriptive introduction into the history of Chinese immigration. The author then goes on to connect many of the hardships suffered by these immigrants to the writing that came from these people. Although other scholars differ with their opinion on exactly what Chinese-Americans are doing in their writing, most notably Amy Tan’s earlier assertions, the quality of evidence is sufficient to convince any scholar that most, if not all, Chinese-Americans write out of the experience of their or their family’s immigration.

And on the cusp of this experience-writing is the diversity of the writing itself. In the late 19th century, Sui Sin Far was the one voice of Chinese writers and possibly the first woman to articulate her experiences. Her experiences were among the first chronicled in English and her experiences tended to make many American uncomfortable for she was the daughter of a Chinese mother and an English father. These experiences demonstrate He’s assertion that "Chinese culture [and therefore Chinese writing] is marked by geographical and historical diversity (45), and it takes a broad look at many different writers and many different genres to get the full picture of what the Chinese-American literature legacy will be.

Probably the most interesting section of this piece was the extensive description of the emerging playwrights in Chinese-American culture. The only books that seem to get any study are the novels of Tan, Maxine Hong Kingston and especially the novels of Frank Chin. But Chin is also a playwright along with Laurence Yep and Genny Lim. But what is lacking in this dissection of Chinese-American Literature is the explosion of Chinese writers of children’s books. Hundreds of children’s books have been written by Chinese-American authors and this is an under-recognized contribution by He. It would have helped explain the intense bond the Chinese have to their family by explaining the concentration of Asian writers of children’s books.

Overall the evidence for this article was outstanding, although difficult to decipher at times. I’m not sure that Amy Tan would agree that her literature is "marked by diversity in subjects and volatility in political and aesthetic concerns, over determined by....post-modern sensibilities" (59). But I believe many Chinese-American modern writes are grateful for the opportunity to share their diversity with a nation who has just begun to see their value.

Sojourners or Immigrants?

When examining the history of Asian immigration it is perhaps the Chinese-Americans who stand out as the forerunners and precedent-setters for all subsequent Asian groups. The Chinese began arriving in the United States as early as 1785 and still to this day continue to immigrate to the United States for a variety of reasons. But the Chinese also set the precedent for the idea of thesojourner. Many Chinese initially immigrated with the thought of always returning to China. Not only was this a Chinese desire, but it was also an American one because the Chinese were the first immigrants who did not look European; this eventually became the Chinese’s hardship. Their existence in America became a threat to this predominantly European-looking nation and both races wanted nothing more than for the Chinese to return home. What Americans seemed to be missing at the time of this mistrust was that everyone in American was one type of immigrant. "Peopling the United States [was] one of the greatest migratory movements in the modern world" (Chen 5) and the Chinese should have been a counted majority in that peopling. But it was this bias against the look of the Chinese in America that clouded the entire Chinese-American immigrant experience from 1785 to 1943.

Jack Chen divides the Chinese-American Experience into three distinctive eras: The Coming (1785-1882); The Exclusion (1882-1942); and finally The Integration (1943 -1980). These distinctions helped to explain the divisions in the Chinese-American experience. Perhaps to better understand this, people must realize that these people were not recognized as immigrants. Americans and Chinese alike thought of the Chinese as sojourners. It was the Americans, though, who went so far as to exclude them from census counts in immigration because they were thought of as sojourners (Daniels 238). However, there was a dual nature to this term. It seemed to many that the Americans were reneging on the initial ideals of America that Jefferson set forth when he wrote that "all men are created equal." Initially the Chinese did want to return to their homeland. "The pull of home was stronger for the Chinese" (Chen 5) and although they left punishment for emigration, a declining feudal system and an undermined national economy behind them, many felt that time away would heal the problems and would allow them to earn money to return and make their homeland prosperous again.

What they did instead was become such an integral part of the Western Unites States’ economy that they were indispensable by the earliest part of the 19th century. The most significant Chinese immigration came in 1849 with the gold rush in California. This was the time of dominance by the Chinese in America. They did jobs no one else would do and became the backbone of the working class. They became so entrenched in the gold industry that, "The idea of California and America were so prevalent in the Chinese mind that the Chinese character that came to stand for California could also be read as gold mountain" (Daniels 239). If it were the gold that drew them here, it was the Chinatowns that kept them here.

These Chinatowns that developed in the mining communities were exclusively Chinese. They were unlike any Little Italies that had Anglos mixed in with them. The Chinatowns exemplified the communal life of the Chinese-American. It allowed them a chance to be a part of both cultures: the culture with which they were born and the culture in which they worked. The Chinese differed from other immigrant groups in that churches were not major organizations in their communities. The focus was instead on the family and these Chinatowns fostered the closeness of a family. The Chinatowns became their church, their unifying element. For a culture that did not plan on staying very long, their roots were beginning to sink deeper into American soil.

Even though the family was the stronghold of the Chinese culture, there was still the homeland in the back of their minds. As they spent more time in the United States though, the pull of the homeland began to wane. It was replaced by the clans of Chinatowns which were reputed to be growing even stronger than the Chinese family unit from the homeland (Chen 19). But by 1848, conditions for the Chinese began to worsen. There were roughly 300,000 Chinese in America who were beginning to be treated even worse than slaves. This idea of coming to America for prosperity slowly drifted away from them as they saw racist taxes levied against then and even saw murders of Chinamen that categorically went unpunished (Chen 127). It was in 1882 that American finally drew a racial line between themselves, the Chinese and the Chinese-Americans: the country passed The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

This Act forbade most any Chinese from becoming United States citizens. The only noted exceptions were scholars and diplomats and through extensive background checks and screening processes, these two classifications would possibly be recommended for citizenship (Chen 147). What was perhaps even more shocking was the wording of the Act itself. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 read, "Chinese are unassimilable, and take low wages, compete with white labor, send money home to China, and introduce loathsome diseases..." (ibid).

The Chinese thus became the only ethnic group to be excluded from America in her entire history. Perhaps it is best to remember that what made the Chinese experience in America so singular was not what they did but what was done to them: extralegal violence, discrimination ordinances, foreign miner’s taxes in California, denial of education for their children, bans on fireworks and gongs that were used in their religious celebrations, and even laundry taxes--taxing the only vocation that was run by immigrants. All these injustices were leveled at the Chinese for one simple reason: they just did not look European. Perhaps all of these instances look like the worst part of America’s relationship with Chinese and immigration, but America went further than it ever should have for a group of people who initially didn’t even want to stay. America did not repeal The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 until 1943.

After World War II, immigration, especially Chinese immigration began to see changes in the United States,. Although there was still a quota system in effect, no one ethnicity was categorically excluded as the Chinese had been in the 19th century. "The Immigration and Nationality Acts of 1965 reflected the... rapid advances of the civil rights movements fighting for ethnic and minority rights" (Chen 216). America was finally realizing that Jefferson was right when he said "all men are created equal" and were finally passing legislation to ensure it.

The Chinatowns still exist today as tight communities and are still the defining element of the Chinese-American culture. Although their density is ever increasing, few leave the tenements; so the same square blocks that used to house 10,604 now house 21, 796 (Chen 219). But the Chinese-American writers are the ones who are leaving the Chinatowns and making a name in America. They are drawing on the stories of ancestors and immigrants alike. They are still devoted to the family and have an innate, creative story-telling in their immigrant make up. "And while most immigrants were, almost by definition, future oriented, their visions on both past and present and the future would be modified significantly by the cultural environment of their past,"(Daniels 118) and nowhere is this more evident than in the writers that have emerged from this oppressed and yet triumphant culture of Chinese-Americans.

Works Cited

Chen, Jack. The Chinese in America. San Francisco: Harper & Row Publishers, 1980.

Daniels, Roger. Coming to America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life. New York: Harper Perennial, 1990.

Butler, Robert Olen A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain. New York: Penguin Books, 1992.

Chan, Jeffrey Paul and Lawson F. Inada, eds. The Big Aiiieeee!: An Anthology of Chinese-American and Japanese American Literature. United Kingdom: Meridian Books, 1991.

Fowler, Melanie. Personal Interview. 24 June 1999.

1.Do you feel like the child of an immigrant?

Yes and no. I still celebrate the Korean holidays with my family. These holidays are big family and extended family events. It isn’t just family either, it’s many different Koreans, especially for Korean Thanksgiving. I also have two different sets of friends. I have Asian friends, they don’t necessarily have to be Korean, and then I have my American friends. I find it difficult to be both people, both a Korean and an American/white. I find myself in two different worlds at times and that is when I really fell like the child of an immigrant. My Asian friends have stricter rules and their parents are much more involved in their kids' lives. My parents are too, even though my father is white and my mother is Korean. My American friends have more freedom and are allowed to do many different things without checking with their parents first.

2.What can you tell me about your education habits of both yourself and your parents?

I did not learn Korean, my parents were adamant about that. We lived in America and they wanted me and my sister to be educated in English. But oddly enough, I was expected to abide by Korean customs and I was educated culturally in that sense. I always bowed in front of the elderly, I always addressed them with a formal title and would never think of disobeying these traditions. I feel like I got a different kind of education at home, like I said before, a more cultural one. My parents wanted my sister and I to be smart. They read to us at early ages and usually had us in competition with other Asian kids who were friends of ours. It was so much like The Joy Luck Club. When I saw that movie, I immediately went home and told my mother that we had to see this movie, together.

3.How would you describe your reading habits?

Well, other than being read to at an early age, I think my reading habits are pretty much the same as any student. I read a lot in lower grades, and read for assignments once I got into high school. That is when I really found myself with no time to read for pleasure. But now that I have graduated, I have spent my summer reading just for fun. It has been a great change.

4.You mentioned an earlier connection to The Joy Luck Club. Can you expand that a little?

Yes! I just saw so many similarities, not with the fighting or the uncomfortable stress in the adult relationships, but when the girls were younger and the mothers compared them constantly, that really hit home. And the expectations that the mothers had for the daughters, but unlike the daughters, I really didn’t see my mother’s expectations as unreal or even a burden. I look back on all she did for me and I am grateful for all the pushing and determination on her part.

5.Have you ever been to Korea?

I was only there as a baby, so that really doesn’t count. I would like to go, though. My mother goes back every five years and it completely refreshes her. The first thing she says when she returns is always, "I got to eat Korean food every day!" It just makes her happy. She visits her brother, sister-in-law, and her nephew. That is all the family that she has there.

6.Do you feel split between two cultures or do you consider yourself just an American?

Well, I have thought about that a lot. I always fill out forms for college as Caucasian because that is what my birth certificate says. But the more I grow up, the more I see I am a product of two cultures, so at times I am torn. But all of that aside, I simply have friends who happen to be from two different races; it doesn’t change our friendships, we are just friends. So if I choose to be Korean-American, it seems I am choosing the title for someone else besides myself. I have seen my parents decide how they handle different decisions about race and culture before they talk to my sister and me about them. They know there are hurdles and they usually cross them for us or at least make us aware of them before we get to them. They have brought both of us up well and we know we are a blend of the two cultures, but the label really is for someone else, we don’t need it.

Ko, Henry. Personal Interview. 24 June 1999.

1.Do you feel like the child of an immigrant?

No, I have never really had that feeling. I was born in the United States, my parents have been here for thirty years. They came to American initially from China, but also through Hong Kong, so the British influence was there. It feels like my parents were born here even though I know they weren’t. I guess with the restaurants and their work in business in Houston, they simply seem like Americans.

2.What can you tell me about your education habits of both yourself and your parents?

My parents weren’t involved in my education except to encourage and reinforce what was being taught in school. Both of them were pretty limited in their knowledge of what was going on in the schools my brother and I were attending, so they tried to help as best they could. But one particular area I remember my parents reinforcing is Mathematics. They would both give me simple problems to do out of the blue, just to see if I were keeping up my math skills. They would drill me every chance they got. I had much encouragement from outside sources, teachers mostly, to keep up with homework and to go beyond the simplicity of the assignments.

3.How would you describe your reading habits?

For me, reading was a grand challenge. The language was hard for me. I can speak Mandarin, Cantonese and I understand Taiwanese. I had all these languages running through my head at home and at the restaurants, but was being educated in English. No one at school spoke my language. So when I was expected to read by myself, it was difficult to start the process. The other item about reading that differentiated me from most students is that I never found any pleasure in reading. My parents taught us that something practical should always come before something pleasurable. I read magazines that have to do with my father’s business. If the reading isn’t going to help my life, then why waste time reading for pleasure when I could be reading to understand something better.

4.Have you ever been to China? What is different about being in China than being in America?

Yes, I have been three times but none of them were pleasure trips. Each time we went back, my father and I or my brother, father and I, we were going for a family emergency. Someone was sick or dying and we had to be there, so that was very different. In China we are treated with a great amount of respect. Family means everything to them and that is why we were there. It simply wasn’t an option not to be there. We belonged there. Also in China there is so much poverty, even more poverty than they ever show the general public. So when we were there, I really felt like I didn’t fit in. People are dishonest, especially in Hong Kong and they know that I am an American even though I look just like them. But I guess the simple truth is that I don’t look poor, so I just don’t fit in.

5.Tell me how you keep your Chinese customs here in America.

Well, we speak Cantonese in the house all the time. My brother and I really only speak a little English when we are doing our homework. Also, we keep pictures of our grandparents and family from China in the house in a place a respect. It is considered our job to take care of the souls of those we do not have with us any more. they may be gone, but it is our responsibility to make sure that they are comfortable and still respected.

6.Do you feel split between two cultures or do you consider yourself just an American.

There are times when I feel split, but only because other people make me feel that way and really those times are rare. I feel like an American. I have the same opportunities that all Americans have. But this may come as a shock and I don’t want to offend anyone, but I feel like many of us who are affectionately called the hyphenated-Americans take better advantage of the opportunities afforded them here. Americans take their opportunities for granted many times, like the freedom that they have in education and the fortune they have in diversity of education. I feel like an American, yes, but when I take full advantage of all my chances, that is when I feel even more American than you.

When I first set up my interviews, I felt that they were going to be too similar because I knew both people quite well. But instead of changing the interviews I went ahead with them fully expecting to have to do more work in finding better or at least more diverse interviewees. I could not have been further from the truth. While my interview with Melanie Fowler took an expected course, I was surprised by how linked she was to the Korean culture. When I told her of my surprise she simply replied, "Ms Tumy! You are one of my white friends! How would you know about my Asian friends?" And I think I learned a valuable lesson not only about culture but also about listening. I was busy interviewing and structuring questions, I simply forgot to listen to the responses. Melanie showed me how much we really need to listen to understand.

My interview with Henry Ko turned out to be the greatest surprise of all. Here was a student who I thought I knew quite well and who I knew had great respect for me, but I gave him the opportunity to speak frankly and not to think of me as a teacher, just as an interviewer. And again, I learned better with the second interview to listen. I was taken aback by some of his comments but never really astonished. I guess that some part of me realized that he was quite passionate about his education and was never really able to express it in school. It simply is not part of his culture.

My interviews with these two Asian-Americans brought to light new ideas for me to consider in teaching but also taught me to listen, not just research.

Far, Sui Sin. "In the Land of the Free." Imagining America. Wesley Brown and Amy Ling, eds. New York: Persea Books, 1991. 3-11.

---. "Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of an Eurasian." Visions of America. Wesley Brown and Amy Ling, eds. New York: Persea Books, 1993. 22-33.

The writings of Sui Sin Far predate many of the common prejudices studied in multi-cultural literature courses: discrimination, unfair immigration practices, and racial hatred to name just a few. She seems to have transcended her time period and created two beautifully crafted views of America at the turn of the century. Although both show haunting and unsettling scenes, they achieve their imagistic quality in two very different ways. Far was in fact writing in a time period when common Chinese immigrants were restricted from American citizenship and when many Chinese were even spat upon in the street. So it is almost uncanny that she speaks directly to native American citizens in both her fiction and non-fiction pieces. Her bold writing style in both pieces is a skilled illustration of what a writer can do while drawing on her historical and cultural riches.

Far’s directness in her fiction In the Land of the Free, is encased in her elevated diction. The reader is immediately endeared to the mother at her first utterance "See Little One,--the hills in the morning sun. There is thy home for years to come. It is a beautiful place and thou will be happy there" (3). The reader identifies with the speaker as a caring mother-figure who wants on the best for her child. Far gives the audience just this little hint of detail so that we can identify with the hero. But as in all fiction, this detail has a specific intention and that is the stinging reality of the son’s rejection of his mother at the conclusion of this fictional narrative.

The story’s title also gives the reader that small bit of detail for a specific intention. We feel it may be a patriotic story with the direct reference to the National Anthem, and therefore the reader is at first heightened to a possible theme of the story. But this seemingly patriotic story is actually one of the exact opposite; it shames Americans. What happens to the audience is that we begin to identify with the mother, the hero, as most do in a fictional narrative, only to be defeated when her son is finally returned to her by the same Americans who took him away and he denies her presence with a haunting "Go ‘way, go ‘way" (11)!

If it is Far’s directness in her fiction that showcases its mastery, it is her excessive amount of detail in her non-fiction that demonstrates the reality she wants her audience to see. In Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of an Eurasian, Far’s use of the metaphor of leaves throughout the piece actually makes the audience feel as if we see the leaves falling from her figurative tree of life. It is structured so that each missal falls at the reader’s feet and is left there for judgment to be made. Her almost offhand utterance "It was my first conscious lie" (23), makes the reader react in a most a personal way. It is a realistic detail that is wholly unexpected and like much non-fiction, immediately elicits a personal response. What is it in this piece that I feel a connection with? When was my first conscious lie? Although her removal as narrator is not too far from the center of the narrative, it is far enough away to give the reader a sense of involvement. People of all ages and walks of life can at one point remember " [not] leav[ing] the house without being armed for conflict" (24-25). It then does not become an immigration recollection, but an application for many different walks of life.

It is easy to see why Sui Sin Far was such a respected writer in her day as well as a necessary part of the multi-cultural cannon now. Her fiction teaches us lessons and rightfully shames our history while her non-fiction contains such profound ideas about discrimination and is replete with wonderful, stinging commentary. Her excessive detail in her non-fiction lets the reader know that these events really happened. She does not build a junky narrative with either genre, but instead crafts a non-fiction narrative reads like leaves falling off a tree and fiction that simply breaks your heart. Sounds like a skilled American writer to me.

Four daughters, four mothers.

All bound together by the old country,

yet torn apart by it as well.

Four mothers, four daughters.

Each thinking they know the other so well,

yet never really understanding even the simplest of terms.

Four mothers, wanting--assimilation,

wanting--control,

keep the traditions!

Wanting their daughters to find their own balance of the elements,

yet never allowing them to measure up.

***

A deep-seeded scar for one who was motherless,

peeling off her skin ,

until there is nothing--

becomes for her daughter...

No wood.

An inability to make decisions.

She becomes hulihudu--confused, heimongmong--in a dark fog

And begins to peel off her skin

until there is nothing

but the scar her mother left for her.

***

The red candle,

A mother, and yet a saboteur.

A calculating controller from the start,

A two-faced woman who-

manifests in her daughter...

Lost priorities

disrespect for customs.

She is a calculating controller from the start,

a perfect American girl, gloating over her kingly-skills,

becoming just what the mother devised:

a candle smothered, smoldering in the dark.

***

The Moon Lady,

petulant child, pampered child

lost one night--

predicts for her daughter...

A division of her own,

lost with her own husband--a marriage of distrust.

Always carefully planning,

but never quite measuring up to the architect’s plans

or even her own expectations.

Her mother’s spoiled beginning,

evident in even greater loss.

***

But for the Silent Force from the East where all things begin

A mother directs

and each day begins anew as she--

pleads from her daughter...

A respect of the past,

A search for family

forgotten and left long ago by the roadside.

A continuation of tradition,

A return to a homeland that need never be forgotten again.

***

These four daughters--

Listening to the parables

Three of them discard them as fancy.

One picks hers up from the East,

and inherits her mother’s world.

Bibliography

Chang, Suchen. This Bittersweet Soil: The Chinese In California Agriculture 1860-1910. Berkley: University of California Press, 1986.

Chen, Jack. The Chinese in America. San Francisco: Harper & Row Publishers1980.

Daniels, Roger. Coming to America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life. New York: Harper Perennial, 1990.

"First Person: Amy Tan." Sunherald. KRT Interactive: 6. 24 June 1999 http://www.sunherald.com/1ptan/html/1a.htm.

Fowler, Melanie. Personal Interview. 24 June 1999.

He, Shan Qiang. "Chinese-American Literature." New Immigrant Literature in the United States: A Sourcebook to our MulticulturalLiterary Heritage. Alpana Sharma Knippling, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1996.

Ko, Henry. Personal Interview. 24 June 1999.

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