The Jade Peony Analysis

Thesis: one’s personal culture and sense of tradition will always be a strong part of the self, regardless of external factors which can have a profound influence on one’s life.

The Jade Peony, is a beautiful short story about the relationship between Sek-Lung and his grandmother Poh-Poh. The story deals with many complicated social and emotional issues including change, death, and acceptance. I chose tradition because everything Poh-Poh did was based off her tradition. The things she did that were based off her tradition were she went through people’s trash to find items to use to make her wind chimes. She also kept her jade pendant in a tiny red silk envelope and in her pocket until her death. Plus she had made her wind chimes out of trash that looked decent for a wind chime.

“My two older teenage brothers and my sister, Liang, age 14, were embarrassed by my parents’ behavior. What would all the white people in Vancouver think of us”(Choy

“The Jade Peony” by Wayson Choy is about a Chinese immigrant family struggling to adapt to their new unfamiliar lifestyle in Vancouver. As the older children begin to neglect Chinese customs and become accustomed to the Canadian culture, 8 years old Sek-Lung is the only child interested in Grandma’s traditional customs. Sek-Lung accompanies Grandma as looks for abandoned fragments of glass and metal to finish her precious wind chime before she passes. As Sek-Lung spends time bonding with Grandma, she also reveals her past and first love “the juggler”.

Throughout the short story “The Jade Peony” by Wayson Choy the character of the grandmother is shown through her actions, physical descriptions of her, and from the way family members act with her. The Grandma in this story is a very old fashioned lady, who follows family traditions beliefs and practices, and teaches valuable lessons to her loving family.

A strong, intelligent, independent boy is what every traditional Chinese family wants. Unfortunately, Sek-Lung is not such an ideal child. In the novel, The Jade Peony, Sek-Lung is a marginal character. He is rejected by the dominant group, first being made to feel insignificant and second to feel uncomfortably visible.

Seek-Lung believes that it’s very important to value a family member. Seek –lungs older brother doesn’t appreciate his grandma and how much she tries to favor everyone. Seek-lungs grandma made chimes that were not just any ordinary ones it was like the ones from that you find in the Chinatown stores. The ones that grandma made created problems in Seek-lungs family and also shame. This is because “ Each one she made was created from a treasure trove of

People lived in Vancouver Chinatown were far from the flames of war, but they were so concerned about what was happening in Old China. Not only because they cared about their hometown, but also because they cared about their families, friends, or relatives who were still living in China. From this point, the concern about the war that was showed by people were regarded as strong feeling connection with Old China. Although war did not directly caused pain to people in Chinatown, the suffering it caused in Old China was also brought to Canada. In chapter eight, one of stepmother’s childhood best friends, called Chen Suling, was killed by an explosion of a bomb. In the beginning of this chapter, we can see Sek-Lung’s family was looking forward to the Chen Suling’s visit to Canada, and appreciated her talents of English. All of them, except for Sek-Lung who disliked her because he would be controlled if Chen Suling came, hoped to see her eagerly. But a bomb turned their hope down. Stepmother felt extremely painful for losing her best friend, just like Sek-Lung said in the end of this chapter “I never heard stepmother mention Chen Suling’s name again.”(161). Later, with the war becoming fiercer, the social order in Vancouver also became instable. “Gangs of older, jobless boys roamed back streets hunting for Japanese. Fights broke out. There were knifings on some

On the other hand, Nguyen talks of the language difficulties that she experienced being a Vietnamese in the United States. At first, she is enrolled to a school far from home as it offers bilingual education to help her integrate with the system of learning. She works hard to raise her academic performance with hopes of falling in favor with the teacher. However, as the teacher knows her Vietnamese origin, she manifests her stereotype on Nguyen’s comprehension in literature readings. For instance, while it was her turn to read, the teacher would interrupt her making sentiments such as “you are reading too fast….things she did not do to other students” (Nguyen, 35). She also faces a “school-constructed identity” together with her sister with all sorts of jibes thrown against them. As Vollmer puts it, “such assumptions affect the interpretations made of student behavior and school

Another question arises: what is a “narrative of ethnicity” in diasporic context? Choy explains how immigrants are to preserve their ethinic identity, yet they adapt to their social context. The children feel the same resentment and distaste for Chinese. Jook-Liang forces herself to speak English at home in her efforts to be more like Shirley Temple. She speaks to herself in English while practicing her dance routine (Choy, 36) and uses it as a tool to feel less Chinese. The children have jarring associations to learning and speaking

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

In the story “Two Kinds”, author Amy Tan, who is a Chinese-American, describes the conflicts in the relationship of a mother and daughter living in California. The protagonist in this story Jing-mei Woo’s mother is born and raised in China, and immigrates to the United States to escape from the Chinese Civil War. For many years she maintained complete Chinese traditional values, and has been abided by it deliberately. This kind of traditional Chinese culture has also affected her daughter profoundly. However, Jing-mei is born and raised in the United States. Despite she has a Chinese mother; she is unfamiliar and uncomfortable with Chinese

Beautifully written by Wayson Choy, The Jade Peony is truly a work of art. Despite the midnight oil I’ve burnt, upon grasping an understanding I began appreciating the subtle yet powerful style of storytelling. The story follows the perspectives of three children each with different flaws confronting the injustice in World War 2 and during World War that were present in society. Through the three vastly different point of views we explore the idea of gender gap,mental states and effects of war on community.

Elizabeth Wong is a Chinese-American playwright who wrote “The Struggle to Be an All-American Girl”. In her essay, she describes her resentment of her Chinese roots and her protest against her parents who want her to learn and appreciate her heritage and culture. Her essay exposes the pressure that society places on immigrant children to fit into the dominant culture. The proposed solutions to fixing this problem is thinking and implementing long term plans. I make the argument that his ethical problem of society placing such a heavy burden on immigrant children to fit into the dominate culture can be solved with the implementation of multicultural classes, language classes, additional counselors and child psychologists in public schools.

One day, from the back seat of the car, “Luke announced that he didn't want to go to Chinese school anymore.” His parents looked to one another, while Jen said “Oh, really?” and continued driving. Though Luke is only four years old, he voices his opinions - twice eve – yet they are still quickly overtaken by those of his parents. Luke’s parents wanted him to grow up “embracing his whole complex ethnic heritage” and not being “more” Chinese than Irish. It could be that his parents yearned to show Luke what being Chinese really means – its language, its culture, and its people. With this knowledge, he might feel confident to display this part of his identity. It could also be that they have a deep rooted bias for Luke not to ignore his Chinese heritage, thinking they know what is best for him. It is like what Emerson once wrote, “These are the voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world.” His parents hold a heavy influence on Luke’s future. The weight of parents’ ideas stretches farther than a stranger’s, for we emulate their words, their ideas, and their values and these soon replace our own. Yet, the more one thinks about this, the more one will find it absurd. It does not mean that his parents are right. Acceptance looks so normal, but his mother’s opinions that replace his own will never be as strong as his own conviction. His