I think Du is the coolest character in this story. So, I chose to rewrite segment of his story. One thing before you read this blog, Don't laugh...


“Hi, Mom,” For whatever reason, I just can’t look straight to her eyes today. I tried, but I feel sorry whenever I look at her eyes. I hate that feeling. In a second, I noticed that Mom is looking John suspiciously. I then immediately introduce John to Mom. Afterwards, I turned back and continue talking to John because I want to escape from the guilt feeling. “Come sit with me, Du” Mom asked. “Okay” I replied. I stop halfway down the hall. For some reason, I started to recall my first day in this family. It was long time ago. I was only wearing a shirt and I was worrying what my life is going to be. Anyway, it is not important right now. “You owe me an explanation,” Mom broke the silence. “Do you mean John? No worry mama, I met John even before I met you and dad. I knew him in the camps. He is good. Anyways, can I have five hundred bucks?” “Very funny,” Mom replied. “How about three hundred bucks?” I asked again. “I am leaving today. John just found my sister. She is now residing in Los Angeles. I need to find her. I have been looking for her for years. Do not worry about me, she will look after me” I continued before mom answered me. “Sister?” Mom was confused. “Yes, the sister that saved my life years ago by feeding me worms.” I can still clearly remember that moment. I was starved to dead and she saved my life when I went completely hopeless. I promised myself that I will do whatever I can to pay her back. “I am pretty sure that you and dad will still be fine without me. Besides, your own baby is coming. It is still going to be a complete family without me.” I continued. “But we love you, and you are part of this family. You are our son, and we love you…, Du.” Mom says. “Stop, no matter what, we are not blood related. There is no way that I will be closer to you compare to your real son. On top of it, he never wanted me” I replied without looking at her. I don’t know why I said that, but I know it hurts. And probably, that is what I want. Deep in my heart, I love you too mama. However, this is the path I choose. I have to find her at any cost. Few fluids dropped from my eyes, and I just can’t control it. “Stop, damn it. Stop!” I told myself. I am so hopeless to try to control my tears. Next thing came up to my mind is “leave”. I don’t want her to see me crying. It is just not the right time. I run down the hall, slam my door and keep myself in the room. I sat on the floor in my room; feeling really sorry to mama. “Thank you for taking care of me, mama.” I whispered to myself. Someday, someday I will be back for you, but right now, I have to leave.




Work Cited:

Mukherjee, Bharati. "26." Jasmine. New York: Grove, 1989. 219-22. Print.

I want to blog Beccah from Comfort Woman by Nora Okja Keller this week. This story is very Asian. There are a lot of people in Asia that believe some people can deliver messages back and forth from our world to the other world (hell or heaven). I have not personally met one yet, but my aunt did. She told me that it was unbelievable because the medium or psychic was able to tell something that only she and her mother know. My aunt was first led to a dark room where a lot of candles were lighted up. Like Auntie Reno said in the story that atmosphere was just as important as ability. (Keller 199) After asking some question to my aunt, the psychic then started to prepare the summon ceremony. The psychic casted some spells and burned some yellow papers. Next thing my aunt heard was the conversation of the psychic to the guards from the other world. The psychic politely requested the guard to bring my aunt’s mom to her body so that my aunt can talk to her. Sometimes the guard will refuse the request, but my aunt was lucky. My aunt said, few minutes later, the psychic’s body started to shake and it lasted for a minute or two. Next thing was the when my aunt got shocked. The psychic was changed to a low voice and called my aunt by her nickname. The nickname that was given to her by her mom when she was young, no one knows that but she and her mom. That was their secret.

I was confused how the Daughter treated her mother. “I loved my mother during the normal time. She laughed and sang songs she made up. Instead of telling me to clear my papers and books off the table for dinner, she’d sing it to me.” (Keller 194) It looks like a happy family scene to me. The Daughter was enjoying the time with her mother. However, she mentioned that this was when her mother is normal. Unfortunately, her mother was abnormal for most of the time. It was claiming by Aunt Reno that the spirit of the Mother had left the body and filled up with other people’s spirit. (Keller 194) When these moments came, the Daughter seemed like not liking her mother anymore. The Daughter locked the mother in the room; sometimes even yelled at her mother. (Keller 194)

“I killed your father.” (Kelly 192) I was shocked when I read this in the first paragraph of the story. The Mother was confessing to her daughter that she killed her husband. “Shh, Mommy,” the Daughter said. “Don’t start.” (Kelly 192) Why did the Daughter stop her mother? Was that because the Daughter knows that her mother was talking nonsense? Or it is just that the Daughter can’t stand her mother’s craziness anymore. I think it is the latter one because she mentioned in the story that she was angry at her mother not because of her mother’s confess, but because she was slipping into one of her trances. I think she was lonely and she was trapped in the dilemma of losing her father at young age. She was mad. Because she has to take care of her mother and she doesn’t have someone to take care of her and give her love. Time after time, she started to ignore and avoid her mother. In the extreme extend, she even wished that her mother can pass away so that she will be free from taking care of her crazy mother. “She leaned toward me, and she bent forward to kiss or hug me, I could see vein of white hair running through her black braid.” “Before she could touch me, I pushed away from the table, turning toward the sink to prepare the shrimp for the annual mean that made my mother’s hands crack open and bleed.” (Kelly 202)


PSYCHIC MINISTER

Camp Notes by Mitsuye Yamada

Nationality can be acquired by birth within the jurisdiction of a state, by inheritance from parents, or by a process of naturalization. However, no matter what nationality you are, you will never be able to change your race. Race describes genetically divergent populations of humans that can be marked by common phenotypic and genotypic traits. Some people can take advantage of their race; others have to suffer greatly with their race. The readings of this week are mainly about Japanese in the United States during the World War II. Civilians are always the victims of any social turbulence. What have they done wrong? Most of the people just want to have a normal life; to have a complete home where they do not have to worry about where they will be the next moment.

Evacuation

As we boarded the bus
bags on both sides
(I had never packed two bags before on a vacation lasting forever)
the Seattle Times
photographer said
Smile!
so obediently I smiled
and the caption the next day read:
Note smiling faces
a lesson to Tokyo.

It is so sad to read this poem where people were evacuated from their home due to the war between Japan and United States. Although they were sad and anxious about what will happen to them next, they were asked to smile. It is a smile with bitterness because nobody wants to be kicked out of their own community. I feel like the author of the poem was forced to smile since he mentioned that he obediently smiled to the photographer. Also, I think the exclamation mark could mean that the action was instead a command. The title of this poem is “Evacuation” however; the poem ended up with a note that says smiling faces a lesson to Tokyo. It is just an illusion that the media want to deliver to the public that evacuating Japanese or Japanese American is under their will or they are happy to be relocated.

Curfew

In our area
was a block head
who told us
what’s what
in a warden’s helmet.

Turn off your lights
it’s curfew time!
I was reading
with a flashlight
under my blanket
but the barracks boards
in the hot sun
had shrunk slyly
telling
bars of light

Off with your lights

There must be no lights

There is no freedom when people were put into the control camp. They have no freedom for everything even reading books. All the things has to be under controlled and under the instruction of the warden. In other words, people are treated as prisoners and all the rights have been taken away. Also, reading is a transgressive act and this will be the heaviest punishment to the Japanese or Japanese Americans locked in the control camp because they were being decivilized. What else can these people do after they were released? They can only become another Chinese men since what they only know to do are rough works.

The poem “Cincinnati” is the story after Japanese Americans were released from the control camp. However, due to the level of hatred, Japanese American or Japanese immigrants were still largely discriminated. It is interesting that the author started the poem by telling “I walked against the rush hour traffic. My first day in real city where no one knew me.” and ended the poem with the phrase “Everyone knew me.” “Dirty jap” “I” in the story was offended by the people in the city because he is Japanese. Although people don’t know this person, but people know Japanese in general, and they are the enemy of the public.


Works Cited

Yamada, Mitsuye. "Evacuation." Camp Notes. Print.
Yamada, Mitsuye. "Curfew." Camp Notes. Print.
Yamada, Mitsuye. "Cincinnati." Camp Notes. Print.

Let's go Pinoy let's go.........

I especially like this week’s reading because “Rico” by Peter Bacho is mainly talking about a Filipino kid in the US and his talents, behaviors, characteristics, and plans. One reason why I like this very much is because I am from the Philippines. On top of it many Filipinos are good fighters. In old days, when we talked about boxing, we will automatically refer to Muhammad Ali. However, in recent years, Manny Pacquiao is the rising star in boxing. His full name is Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao. He is a Filipino professional boxer. He is a seven-division world champion, and the first boxer to win nine world titles in seven different weight divisions. He is also the first boxer in the history to win the lineal championship in four different weight classes. (Wikipedia) One interesting thing about Manny Pacquiao is people created a nickname for him. “Money” Pacquiao is a more common nickname to be called. Manny is similar to money” and Pacquiao in Filipino means grab all of them. And one reason why this is more of a common nickname is because he won most of the fighting and took all the money.

I have personally met Manny Paquiao in several awarding ceremonies in the Philippines. We both were selected to be the Top 10 outstanding sportsman of the year in the Philippines. On top of it, he had visited our training venue for couple times. Now that I read the story “Rico” I found some interesting common traits from Filipino fighters. “Rico was short and wiry, but he made up for it by being strong, fast, and clever.” (Bacho 18) This is what exactly reporters and people praise Manny Pacquiao in the news. He is about my height, but his fists are so powerful that I can almost compare him to Bruce Lee. He has a very good sense of fighting. His moves are sharp, neat, and effective. He is definitely a gifted boxer.

Philippines is called as the Pearl of the East. It is the country of music and art. Actually my first impression to Manny Pacquiao the first time we met was his fancy music sunglass. The music was a little big loud. He was listening to rap songs. I think the reason why athletes like rap songs is because of its rhythms. It is fast and strong which fits for many athletes. However, I can sense some discrimination or racism in the story. “Filipinos always hired black bands: this was black music, not white, and the horns make it raw and powerful, something white bands could never do.” (Bacho 19) It is more of between black people and white people. I think the author was sort of separating Blacks from Whites, and he also mentioned that Blacks are more masculine and Whites are more feminine.

Manny Pacquiao was poor when he was young, yet he became rich from winning many games. Millions of dollars then flow into his pocket. Since he is the center of the media, he has to be responsible of his behaviors and characteristics. While in the story, Rico Divina was from a poor family and he has nothing else to lose. But people want to be given attention and become popular. So, he chose to be the baddest which worked well. People scared of him and girls wanted to follow him. He even got a collection of many girls’ contact information. This maybe is not the best way, but it worked for him at that time.

I think Rico treated Buddy as his brother. In fact, at some point, I thought that Buddy is the imaginary friend created by Rico. Just like having dual personality. I watched a movie about a tough nut having dual personality where his friend always advised him to hold his tempered and avoid him to be impulsive. Buddy is another side of Rico where he wants to stay for another year, goes to college, and receives education. Buddy is a good listener to Rico and someone that he can talk to. The main reason why I have this weird thought was because of the movie I watched. Also, Rico became somehow sentimental when talking to Buddy which I think a touch guy like him would never do because he doesn’t want to look WEAK?!

Homebase

The story started with the author recalling his youth. He recalled his father and personally expressed that his father is important to him. He loved his father very much. “When a son or daughter dies, the parents have another or adopt another child to raise and love”. “When a father dies, there is only violence” (Wong 8). I think I can feel how the author felt that time because I treated my parents as the center of my life. When I was young, I love to be around with my father. He taught me things and told me stories and different things. Now that I am here in the US, everything is just different and I miss my parents. I think the author want to express his loneliness and that loneliness has a large impact on him. Interestingly, he also revealed that her mother had the loneliness moment too where her mother received a letter from China after she married to Rainsford’s father telling her that China was closed to her, that it is no longer her home (Wong 10).
The loneliness expanded to Ransford's great grandfather where he worked alone in the US as a railroad worker. His great grandfather came to the US illegally. The risk of getting in to the US is very high where they were chained together on the lifeboat and cannot escape or swim when disasters happened. His great grandfather has a wife in China, yet they can’t get to see each other. Although she eventually made the way to the US, she was killed in this land. To the great grief, the great grandfather determined to move deeper into this land. But then, the great grandfather sent his son back to China for being rejected by this land. From here, we can see there is another separation which eventually leads to loneliness.
“The wind did not bring death, but the dread of it in any season was even more powerful than the freezing nights of winter that stiffened the limbs of the sleeping workers”. “After few hours, the wind makes them deaf, and after a few days of the strong wind, they begin to lose their sense”. The author is excellent at using or creating these scenes to show reader that loneliness is more intimidating than death. He vividly presented to readers how lonely people were during the railroad construction period in 1800’s. How much dedication should one made to stay and work under such a condition? Probably no one, but Chinese workers had no choice, but to bear the loneliness so that they can earn income for their love ones in China.
This story is full of sorrows and memories. Rainsford showed his loneliness by tracking the history of his family through letters. I especially like the part when he talked about many Chinese workers had contributed their time, effort, skill, and even lives here in the US, yet not being recognized in the history today and just quietly buried in this land. Also there were funny conversations between Rainsford and the Indian old man. The Indian old man was making fun of Rainsford that he was more Chinese than Rainsford. Another thing that I think is great was when the Indian old man told Rainsford: “This is your country. Go out and make yourself at home.” (Wong 83). I think this is the message to tell Rainsford that is it time to get out of grieves and loneliness.

Gish Jen’s short story “Who is Irish?” is very interesting. First of all, her writing style is very different. While I read the story, I can feel that the author is very Chinese because she chooses to write the story with some kind of broken English, and it is sometimes funny. “My daughter tell me I should not say Irish this, Irish that”. (Jen 177) At first, I thought this story is mainly about Irish culture or something related to Irish topic. However, the main story is actually about an immigrant grandmother that shares her story about cultural gaps. There are different kinds of gaps presented in this story. First, the grandmother talked about how parents were treated differently in China and in the US. In China, children have to take care of their parents and serve them as their top priority. Yet in the US, it is the other way around. And if the parents did not offer the help, the children will complain that their parents are not supportive. (Jen 177) Actually this practice of children taking care of their parents when their parents get old is not only in China, but in different parts of Asia. It is our obligation to take care of our parents because this is one way to show our love.

The grandmother is somehow contemptuous of her son-in-law (John) because he was unemployed, yet he does nothing but going to gym and leave his wife (Natalie) to be the only source of income of the family. This is another cultural gap. In Asia, it is the responsibility of the husband to earn income for the family that’s why the grandmother said: “if John lived in China, he would be very happy”.

I think the most interesting part of the story is when the grandmother talked about spanking her granddaughter (Sophie) for her misbehaviors and the stories came with it. In Asia, many parents spank their children when their children did something wrong. When I said something wrong, it means something that is not tolerable or something really bad. This is actually very effective, because my parents used to spank us when we were young and did something silly. We did not complain nor hate our parents for spanking us because we understand the message that our parents want us to understand. It is just a small punishment that we need to keep in mind and should not repeat the same mistake.

I was kind a surprised with anger when Natalie asked her mother to move out of the house because she spanked Sophie. This is not acceptable especially Natalie was raised with Chinese culture. The grandmother was heartbroken when Natalie and John threw some heartrending words on her. “You are crazy!” said Natalie and “It is your family”, said John. (Jen 185) It is true that the grandmother should not use stick to hit Sophie, but Natalie should listen to her mother’s explanation first. Sophie was too stubborn, and the grandmother was too old to jump into the foxhole to bring Sophie out. Besides, if she wanted to blame her mother, it should be in front of her husband and Sophie because the grandmother will lose her face. In Asia, under no circumstances a child should take care of their parents at all cost. We will never exist if our parents didn’t bring us to this wonderful world and took care of us.



http://asianweek.com/062499/ae_gishjen.html

This is the link to an interview taken in 1994. I actually thought that Jen was the grandmother before I read this article. LOL

You are who you are

Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese is quite an interesting comics to read. The opening is pretty surprising because it made fun of the Chinese myth and gods. The story of Monkey King is different from what I known. From what I read, Monkey King is arrogant and never questioning his own identity. However, in this comics, the Monkey King felt somehow self-contemptuous to who he is and what he is. The Monkey King was thoroughly embarrassed in public. The gatekeeper made fun of the Monkey King’s identity by saying to Monkey King that he doesn’t even have any shoes. Also, the Monkey King was somehow felt ashamed of what he is (being a monkey). “When the Monkey King entered his royal chamber, the think smell of monkey fur greeted him”. “He stayed awake for the rest of the night thinking of ways to get rid of it”.

In American Born Chinese, Jin Wang shared the same difficulties too. First, Jin Wang disliked his own identity of being an American born Chinese because people made fun of his Chinese background by saying Chinese people eat dogs. Also, Jin Wang’s classmates were isolating and teasing him. They also made a nickname for him as “bucktooth”. Sadly, Jin Wang is actually an American, but people just overlooked that fact and mocking on his outlook and culture. Same as the Monkey King, Jin Wang felt somehow ashamed for having a Chinese descent. This made him out of favor to find Asian friends such as his classmate Suzy Nakamura and Wei Chen.

Danny is a pretty interesting character in this story because he is actually a blond hair American. His nightmare started when his cousin, Chin Kee, visited the family and enrolled in the same school as Danny. Danny’s social status was jeopardized by his embarrassing, yet stereotyped Chinese cousin.

Race is something that comes with us and can never be changed. People, especially in the past, like to made fun of Asian for their unique cultures such as the kind of food they eat; the way they speak English; and so on. That had put a lot of pressure on American Born Chinese because they cannot get rid of their race, yet they were raised with both American and Chinese cultures. They may have tried hard to get rid of the Chinese identity, but would that means people will consider them as a true or pure American?

It may be possible to grow up Asian in America; however, bearing multicultural background is not a bad thing. Indeed, it may help you in various ways due to the rapid expansion of globalization. I think it is more important to know who you are and what you can do with your advantages instead of dwelling in the race problem of where you from and how people is going to judge you. Always to be who you are and do not try to be someone that you are not because it is not helping at all. According to sociologists, culture is taken for granted. So, we should appreciate all types of culture and be proud of who we are.



I don't know how to upload a video here, but the following two links are the animation for "Journey to the West" where the Monkey King felt humiliated and decided to revenge the gods.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajt2k8gGKpU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm6KBP_Gkw0&feature=related

Hope you guys will like it.