Monday, 11 March

Reader: Will Frith
Respondent: Susie Gibson

Nellie Wong “When I Was Growing Up”

(Unsettling America, p. 55-56)

Biographical Information:  Wong was born and raised in the Chinatown area of Oakland in the 1940s.  She began writing in the 1970s, speaking out against oppression in general, though much of her focus has been the mistreatment and exploitation of workers, women, minorities, and immigrants.  She is involved in a host of organizations whose goal is to achieve radical justice.  She is the author of three poetry volumes and is the co-editor of Voices of Color, an anthology of political essays.  She has won many awards, including the Woman of Words award from the Women’s Foundation of San Francisco, and has taught at several colleges in the Bay Area.

Objectives: The objectives covered are as follows:

L.O. 2a: Narrator viewpoint.  Who writes the immigrant narrative?  Wong follows the standard pattern of second generation immigrants in that she writes of the experience, in the way that second generation immigrants usually learn English and typically feel a sense of division between ethnic and mainstream identities.  The title suggests this assertion, that the child of the immigrant is telling the story.

C.O. 1a: “The American Dream versus the American Nightmare.”  Wong’s issues with the so-called American Dream include the voluntary/forced participation aspect, in which, no matter one’s cultural ties, participation in the American way of life is in fact mandatory.  Usually, second generation immigrants find a longing to be a part of the American “culture” in every way, from action to appearance.  With this pattern, though, the immigrant children find disappointment, and even ridicule.

“…I read magazines and saw movies, blonde movie stars, white skin, sensuous lips, and to be elevated, to become a woman, a desirable woman, I began to wear imaginary pale skin…”

L.O. 2b:  Ghetto, barrio, or “ethnic enclave” as transition or limbo between two worlds.  Many immigrants find comfort and stability between their two worlds (old and new) in these neighborhoods.  Only some “escape” to assimilate into American culture.

“…when I was growing up, I swore I would run away…with space to breathe, uncongested with yellow people in an area called Chinatwon, in an area I later learned was a ghetto, one of many hears of Asian America…”

Interpretation: Obviously a reaction to her life growing up in America as an immigrant child, Wong’s poem represents all of the feelings a typical example of an immigrant may experience in their own.  The alienation, the unreal expectations, and the dismay are all indicative the immigrant’s experience with assimilation (or the resistance to it).  She feels that she is not “white enough,” not beautiful, and not smart enough to participate in normal American society.  She felt that, by being Chinese, she was limited to the things she could accomplish and become.  By the end of the poem, in contrast to the rest, she asserts that she has realized the baseness of these expectations of her and all others, that there is no longer a desire to become “American” in the sense of conventional terms, that being American meant being herself.

Questions:  The main question was one concerning the significance of the grey water, to which some replied that it was a sign of murky water, such as when one bathes for too long.  An allusion was made to Yezierska’s “Soap and Water.”  I also mentioned the plain grey-toned style of the Dominant culture, their unassuming and unobtrusive colors.

            One student inquired to the significance of the indented stanzas.  Another replied that they were indented as the narrator looked within and without.  She indicated that when the stanza was indented, the narrator was speaking of her own thoughts and feelings, her personal world.  When the stanza was not indented, the student cited that the stanzas were of the outside world’s view of the narrator.