Native Speaker Chang-Rae Lee Analysis

Through the personal stories of his hair, love life, and behavior, Liu is able to show the effects of his assimilation. The second section deals with Liu’s struggles to conform to white stereotypes as an Asian American. With his personal anecdotes, he establishes himself as a more credible source to speak on the subject of assimilation. The second section uses narration to provide evidence about Liu’s definition of assimilation.

There is a linguistic gap between the mothers, who are the first generation of Chinese immigrants, and their American-born daughters. The mothers speak only fragments of English and their daughters speak little or no Chinese at all. So the communication often becomes a matter of translations and leads to misunderstandings. The first misunderstanding with translation is shown when Jing-mei tries to explain the significance of the club’s name,

What would he think of our noisy Chinese relative who lacked proper American manners? What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food (74). But as Tan grows older she begins to realize that giving up her Chinese heritage for more American customs is not what she truly wants in life. Similarly, “Museum” by Naomi Shihab Nye conceals irony in the authors thoughts. Nye thinks that mistaking the strangers home for the McNay was a big mistake in her young life. But as it turns out this “mistake” unintentionally taught a valuable lesson to the residents of the home. This is reveled to the reader by Nye through a quote from one of the residents “That was my home. I was a teenager sitting with my family talking in the living room. Before you came over, I never realized what a beautiful place I lived in. I never felt lucky before” (80). Including these traces of irony helps add character and comedy to the already entertaining articles.

My mother was in the room. And it was perhaps the first time she had heard me give a lengthy speech using the kind of English I have never used with her.”(417) Overcoming the barrier between languages she spoke aided Tan in building a bridge between cultures. She changed her language to assimilate into American culture while also keeping familial culture. A piece of heritage that uses a language of intimacy, a different sort of English that relates to family talk. Tan grew up with this language and she still uses it with her mother, husband and in her books. (418) Another method to find identity in a new host society is through appearance. In the essay, “No Name Woman” by Maxine Kingston ideals in appearance were passed from generation to generation. Altering ideals when creating identity is noticed in Kingston’s essay. A long held tradition in many Chinese families is that many generations live under the same roof and this can cause a conflict in ideals. Conflicting ideals between generations is shown as Tan tells how the younger generation hid the identities of their sexual color and their character. Hiding these new identities they hoped to avoid potential conflict with generational ideals. Kingston did not hide her identity, she found herself “walking erect (knees straight, toes pointed forward, not pigeon-toed, which is Chinese-feminine) and speaking in an audible

Sui Sin Far’s short story, “In the Land of the Free” touches on the reality of being a Chinese immigrant in late-19th century America. The story revolves around a Chinese couple. The husband is ready for his wife, Lae Choo, to arrive from China with their new son, later named Kim. However, due to policies on immigration, the American government was forced to take possession of the child due to a lack of paperwork. However, Far’s short-story has a deeper meaning than just focusing on unfair immigration policies. She takes advantage of the story’s ending to symbolize a rejection of immigrant culture, most especially Chinese immigrant culture, by taking advantage of Kim’s change in behaviors, appearance, and dialect.

Henry was born and raised in the United States. When he was twelve years old, he was “scholarshipping” in Rainier Elementary School, a “top white school” (Ford, 183). As the war progressed between Japan and America, his parents were desperate for him to become more “American”. As a result, they insisted for him “to stop speaking their native Chinese” and become fluent in English (Ford, 12). However, this created a problem, because Henry’s parents could not speak English, and they scolded him if he spoke Cantonese to them. Due to this, Henry had a difficult time conversing with his parents, which means that they rarely spoke with each other. Although his parents forced him to only speak English for his own safety, it ended up isolating Henry from his own family. They obviously could not form a close family relationship if they did not communicate with one another. Moreover, Henry befriending Keiko made the situation worse. His father could not accept the fact that his only son became friends with a Japanese girl.

The tale “American Born Chinese” by Gene Luch Wang depicts the story of three characters, Monkey, Jin, and Danny. They all have the problem of fitting into their new environments. Jin Wang has to deal with Asian stereotypes. Danny has to deal with embarrassment of his cousin. Lastly, Monkey has to deal with the fact that there is no position for him in the heavenly ranks. However, over time, these characters have to come together to fit in. Yet the question remains: what exactly about fitting in is the problem? Although Jin Wang takes the form of Danny to reject his Chinese roots, the embarrassment of Chin-Knee shows he cannot hide behind a false American identity, thereby delineating that race is the source of his problem.

Although I can’t specifically relate to Gloria Anzaldúa’s struggle between her languages in “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” I can relate to her “kind of dual identity” in which she identifies with neither Anglo-American cultural values nor Mexican cultural values (1566). Being half white, half Chinese, I struggle identifying as either identity, especially because my mom (who is Chinese) never learned Cantonese and largely became Americanized in her childhood. It’s an uncomfortable position to be in when racial and ethnic identity are so significant in America and when I must interact with the world as part of both the majority and the marginalized. Considering my own struggle and the conflict Anzaldúa describes, it became clearer to me the way race relations in American not only marginalize people of color but train our consciousnesses to damage ourselves. Before I turn back to Anzaldúa, a novel I’ve recently read, William Godwin’s Caleb Williams has also been on my mind, particularly in Godwin’s portrayal of how police surveillance transforms us into agents of our own oppression. Although Caleb is a white man, he also experiences a split consciousness as his values and characteristics are whittled away by the paranoia of constant surveillance.

Maxine Kingston's Making of More Americans like Amy Tan's Mother Tongue has been a controversial addition to Asian American literature. The writer has tried to answer the critical question of Chinese American identity and hence been criticized for adopting an orientalist framework to win approval of the west. Similarly Rendezvous by Frank Chin and Mother Tongue by Amy Tan also speak of a culture that neatly fits the description of the "Other" in the orientalist framework. It appears alien, remote and immensely degrading to women who were treated like non-human beings by Chinese chauvinistic society. However things changed for the generation of Chinese that grew up in the US or at least that is what authors wants us to believe.

Chang-Rae Lee’s Native Speaker expresses prominent themes of language and racial identity. Chang-Rae Lee focuses on the struggles that Asian Americans have to face and endure in American society. He illustrates and shows readers throughout the novel of what it really means to be native of America; that true nativity of a person does not simply entail the fact that they are from a certain place, but rather, the fluency of a language verifies one’s defense of where they are native. What is meant by possessing nativity of America would be one’s citizenship and legality of the country. Native Speaker suggests that if one looks different or has the slightest indication that one should have an accent, they will be viewed not as a native of

The biographical connection that the author “Amy Tan” draws in her short story “Two Kinds” with her main character Jing-mei, crosses in more than one side. First of all, they both are Chinese American whose struggle in their identities with their Chinese immigrant mothers. “Due to a cultural conflict and lack of proper understanding of each other’s perceptions” (Priya 1), and as a big gap developed between the two daughters and their two mothers, in which resulted a complex relationship between them.

Chan in addition to not being Caucasian, he’s overweight, speaks grammatically incorrect English and has a family (p. 212). These unique human characteristics in combination to cultural difference, simultaneously separate Chan from John Quincy and the larger white audience emphasizing “the great gulf” (p. 211) between societies with very degrees of multiculturalism and integration. These elements add a degree of ambiguity to the work, readers are unable to interpret Chan and for shadow any possible information about the killer. John Quincy’s inexperience thus represents a veil and formless distinction between the amateur sleuth and the genius savant Chan. Such is the interview of Lau Ho (p. 235), culture and suspicion prevents John Quincy and Captain Hallet from the information they require, but Chan’s race, language skills and 25 years of experience give him the advantage.

Ho Chi Minh’s speech was very concise and to the point. He did not add anything to his speech that could be consider superfluous. He started off my stating what he believed were “undeniable truths”, truths that other nations in their own country, specifically the United States of America and France. He then goes on to list some of the various actions of the French colonialists against the people of Vietnam. More about this will be explain in further detail later on. After citing all the mistakes of the French colonialists, he talks about how the Vietnamese still wanted to work together with the French to free themselves of the Japanese control. He closes by saying how after the war, Vietnam became free of Japanese control but they have yet at the tame to gain true freedom of French control. However, he stated that the people of Vietnam would no longer stand for French control and would fight to the bitter end to remain free of not only French control but of any country trying to gain power over their nation.

David Henry Hwang was born in Los Angeles into an affluent, ethnically Chinese family. He wrote the play M. Butterfly in 1988, which broke box-office records and gained numerous honors. The play deals with the Chinese immigrants that placed foot in the United States as a first generation or second generation that had to get adopted and used to the American culture and lifestyle from every aspect and point of view, and having to deal with the possible circumstances, from the aspects such as cultural differences and racial agendas. This play remarkably touches on showing the conflicts between man and woman and shows the possible differences between east and west and more importantly the racial stereotypes. We can see that this play is a brilliant illustration of gender and race that we know as Post-Colonial Drama. This play examines and goes over the perceptions and believes of Western thoughts towards Asian people and focusing more on the stereotypes about their culture and their nation in general.

Amy Tan’s short story “Two Kinds” describes a Chinese immigrant family who hope of finding success and an overall betterment of life in America. After losing everything in China, Jing-mei’s mother, Mrs. Woo, tries as a minority house maid in the 1960s to provide all the opportunities she can for her last daughter. This short story revolves around the interactions between the Jing-mei, who desires a ordinary life, and Mrs. Woo, who seeks only the best from her daughter. The values of these two characters are in constant conflict of which creates a lasting segregation between parent and child. Through Mrs. Woo’s death, Jing-mei questions her childhood upbringing and her mother’s true intentions that were masked by pure immigrant ambition.