Comparison Of The Chinese And Czech Culture In The Joy Luck Club

There are many Chinatown in this world, and the Chinatown of San Francisco has much historical significance; The Chinatown of San Francisco is the largest Chinatown in the United States, the largest community of Chinese Americans outside of China. Today I want to write about the of San Francisco base on my personal experience because there are many historic things I can illustrate. Before I started traveling this field trip, I did some researches carefully in San Francisco city guide, so I eager to travel as soon as possible. Finally I attended a free tour with San Francisco city guide, also they assigned a tour guide, Marann.

Whenever traveling to different countries they notice every culture is different from their own. Every country has different cultures but many times there can be similarities, For example, if you travel to both Honduras and Dominican Republic you notice a lot of differences from the way they dress to the food they eat. They both have great cultures and they are different cultures but they can be similar at times. Firstly, the food they eat are similar foods like both of their dishes consist of beans, rice

An author's cultural background can play a large part in the authors writing. Amy Tan, a Chinese-American woman, uses the cultural values of Chinese women in American culture in her novel, The Joy Luck Club. These cultural values shape the outcome of The Joy Luck Club. The two cultural value systems create conflict between the characters.

When they arrived in America most of the Chinese immigrants moved west. Most of the Chinese immigrants moved west because they wanted to get jobs in rural areas and build homes for their families. A lot of Chinese immigrants got jobs working on building railroads. The Chinese immigrants were very good at this job, because they got paid very low wages, and that affected the pay rates of white Americans, European immigrants, and Russian immigrants. In the 1882 Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. This act stated that Chinese laborers could not enter the country, because chinese immigrants accepted low wages, and also affected the pay rates of others. However Immigrants from Italy and Russia did not have to go through this. They also had an easier time getting jobs because of

In the 1800s, after the Civil War (1861 to 1865), massive waves of new settlers migrated to the United States. May these were Chinese immigrants who sought to take advantage of the Gold Rush in California. Most of them were men, without family. Between that time, hundreds and hundreds of Chinese immigrants arrived, mostly in San Francisco, where they established a place called “Chinatown.” Establishing the place helped encouraged around four thousand Chinese women per year to immigrate to the United States, to be with their husband or father, helping Chinamen managing household. The gold attracted so many immigrants to California, and the desired for wealth attracted Southerners, who brought with them their racial attitude from the south. Work was well paying; a prejudice against Chinese was born. Hate and violence accompanied the competence against Chinese; and brutality against

The motivations for the Chinese to come to the United States are similar to most immigrants. These motivations are what most people call "The American Dream." These could be looking for a better life, having a better job, running away from political issues. However, for Chinese these American dreams were not too easy to achieve at first compared to other immigrants. Chinese suffered a lot more obstacles and discriminations because they are relatively small and easy to be targeted on. Even more the legal system passed a law in 1963 forbidding Chinese to testify against white men in court. This anti-Chinese action was most critical in the Pacific Coast; as a result, it caused the dispersion of Chinese that had settled in California to the

In the late 1800’s European, Chinese, and Japanese immigrants traveled To the United States. The Europeans came looking for opportunities while Japanese were recruited from Hawaiian planters as for the Chinese immigrants they came for many reasons some were attracted to the gold rush, while the others came to work for the railroads, farmed or became domestic servants. While immigration and urbanization was beginning to unfold they began creating social, political, and economic problems. These problems made life hard for immigrants but one race that seemed to be affected was the Chinese not only was it because they became successful but also because they increased in a big amount and as technology started improving labor was not needed as much. Chinese arrived between 1851-1882, 300,000 Chinese arrived on the west coast When the Chinese immigrants first came to work in the gold mines , agriculture , and railroads the Chinese were very instrumental in building railroads and at the time Chinese immigrants started to grow successful but as they increased so did the strength of anti-Chinese sentiment among other workers wanting to limit the amount of Chinese immigrants.

In the early 1800’s industrialization of the northeast and other national endeavors such as railroads and road building required much manual labor. This vast manual labor job market opened the flood gates into the United States for immigrants seeking prosperity and a better life for themselves and their families. By the mid 1800’s many Chinese immigrants had made the voyage to the U.S. and sought work mainly in the factories of the prosperous northeast as well as the California gold mines. Culturally the Chinese people’s actions are motivated by the concept of bringing honor and respect to the family as a whole, and less concerned about individual successes or prestige, which resulted in Chinese immigrant’s willingness to do high quality work for long hours for very little pay. This was beneficial to the employer and company, but displaced many other immigrant workers which caused racial tensions. Chinese immigrants were accustomed to living in tight quarters, working together as families or community units and making do with what was available. These qualities assisted in the development of China Towns, housing and cultural centers for the Chinese immigrant population, near or in the large cities where their populations were greatest such as New York and San Francisco as. Many Americans viewed these China Towns as unsanitary and unhealthy brothels where prostitution and smoking opium was commonplace.

Chinese men began migrating heavily to California in the early 1850s in hopes of finding a fortune mining gold, these men, however, were largely unaccompanied by Chinese women (Hurtado 90). Out of 2,973 Chinese people in San Francisco, only nineteen of them were women. Chinese women came, just not with Chinese men. By 1960, there were nearly 600 Chinese women selling themselves in San Francisco, with less than 100 traveling for other reasons (Hurtado 91), White prostitutes also did not accept Chinese clients, though Chinese would perform services for Whites - indicative of the superiority felt by Anglos in relation to other races. Women of all races succumbed to prostitution, but races other than white made up the great majority of prostitutes (Hurtado 94). The

In the article “Being an immigrant in the United States today means..,” an interview from one of the many immigrants here in the United States stated that they “try our best to look American” because of the worry that anytime they might have to prove their citizenship and documentation just for being Indian. Similarly, in the prologue of the book The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, the narrator describes the journey of a woman across the ocean towards America while saying, “Over there nobody will look down on her, because I will make her speak only perfect American English!” Both these scenarios describe how immigrants are not being fully accepted by American society. It shows that different ethnicities and races are still widely separated no matter the country both live in together. The fear of being frowned upon by Americans and fellow Chinese civilians in America by the woman and the fear of getting picked out because of the color of their skin by the interviewees prove that these people have to live with the pressure of perfecting American ways and culture.

In the 1850’s, Chinese immigrants began entering California in search of gold and the California dream. They had heard that California was the new frontier, a frontier that would provide them with the opportunity for economic riches. Young and ambitious, many of these Chinese immigrants quickly married in their homeland and set out for the gold rush, promising to return (with wealth). Likewise, in the 1880s, when the state of California was undergoing rapid economic transformation, Japanese immigrants — just as young and ambitious as their Chinese counterparts — set out for America where they had heard the streets were “paved with gold.” But little did these Chinese and Japanese immigrants know that what they would discover in California

San Francisco played and continues to play an integral part in the founding culture of California. The largest city in the state for a long time, San Francisco brought together everyone who came to California for a better life; one of the largest groups of people to arrive were Chinese immigrants. The large influx garnered much tension between former gold miners and other new residents of state. It was during this time, in the mid 1870s and 1880s, that Joseph Tape began his business ventures in goods transport. His work led to extensive networking within the growing Chinese community in San Francisco and his skills garnered him attention as a broker between American and Chinese cultures.

Chinese immigrants had a monumentally positive impact on the West Coast, predominantly in California, during the Gold Rush period. However, they were not treated with the respect they deserved. In 1870, a merchant named Pun Chi wrote an article called “A Remonstrance from the Chinese in California, ca. 1870” that protested how he and his fellow Chinese immigrants were deceived and treated with malice in California. He argued that they came to California, because it was expressed unto them that the people of the United States were very affable towards the Chinese and that they were welcome to travel to California to search for gold. The Chinese were quick to discover that the people of the U.S., including other foreign immigrants, did not see them as equals and went so far as to treat them

His recounting is unique because Davis was the son of a Polynesian mother and a Boston ship captain and even though he has an Asian heritage he is still staunchly against the Chinese. In his book he writes about his life as a prosperous merchant in San Francisco from 1845 until 1909 and details the different governments in California and the issues that Californians faced. He cites several reasons for disliking the Chinese, one is a visit to Chinatown where “the smell from the filth that surrounded their habitations was so offensive that he [a friend] and I were glad to retreat to the street above us and into the pure air.” Another example is morally tinged and he explains that the Chinese “presence was demoralizing to the youthful people of the young State.”[2] Unlike Brewer, Davis also gives an economic reason to exclude the Chinese and explains that they “will, unless they are kept out of the country, in time obtain the control of all branches of business, the same as they have done in Manila.” Which would be a tragedy because “Their immorality is of the most iniquitous character.”[3] Like Brewer, Davis cites moral reasons to discriminate against the Chinese, but he also asserts that if the Chinese remain they will take over economically. This scare tactic is cited by many of the authors for the desire of people to exclude the

The “melting pot” culture refers to people from various cultures coming together to create a new unique culture. (Lorenzo, 2000) In other words, these cultures have ‘melted’ together in a ‘pot’. For example, Chinese, Koreans, Germans and more cultures blended in together to create a whole new American culture. They are not Chinese-Americans, Korean-Americans or German-Americans anymore but just Americans. On the other hand, “salad bowl” culture refers to immigrants who do not lose the aspects of their cultures. . (Lorenzo, 2000) To put it in another way, you can still clearly see the different ‘ingredients’ in a ‘salad bowl’. As a contrast to the melting pot theory’s example, Chinese-Americans, Korean-Americans and German-Americans will still keep the unique traits of their cultures while living together in the country. America has been traditionally referred to as a ‘melting pot’, but recently; there are people who argue that ‘salad bowl’ will be a better description of America’s society today.