Written by Margaret K. Pai, the Dreams of Two Yi-min narrates the story of her Korean American

For millions of immigrants, America has been seen as the land of opportunity where anyone could become anything he or she wanted to be. A family that believes strongly in the American dream can be found in Amy Tan’s short story, “Two Kinds.” The story centers around the daughter of a Chinese immigrant who desperately wants her daughter to become successful. In the story, the author shows the difficult lives immigrants face when moving to a new culture. In this short story, the theme shows the protagonist’s conflict with her mother on the type of daughter her mother wants her to be. The author establishes the theme of how difficult mother-daughter relationships can be through characterization, setting, and symbolism.

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.

The Asian American experience primarily narrates a story of hardship in assimilation into the American society. However, these stories are heavily nuanced depending on the generational perspective. The Asian American experience from the first generation emphasizes the practical concerns in surviving economically in a foreign land. On the other hand, the second generation recounts social and personal conflicts that primarily deal with questioning their identity. Given these differing Asian American narratives, these immigrant families are oftentimes confronted not only with clashing cultural values, but also mismatched perspectives on life. Asian American scholar, Erin Khue Nihn, examines these intergenerational conflicts using a socio-economic perspective in her novel, Ingratitude. Her argument builds on the economically driven mindset of the parental generation and concludes the following: “Asian American intimate relations reveal themselves to be profoundly ordered by capitalist logic and ethos" (Nihn 6). Employing Nihn 's interpretation, the parents enforce a strong adherence to their ethnic heritage, whereby these cultural reminders serve as a means of economic survival to provide stability within the nuclear family. Attempting to internalize these ethnic values while assimilating into society, the second generation becomes conflicted in resolving their Asian American identity. Essentially, the Asian

Beginning in the late 19th century and continuing to the early 20th century, many Chinese families struggled to gain social, economic, and educational stature in both China and the United States. In the book, A Transnational History of a Chinese Family, by Haiming Liu, we learn about the Chang family rooted in Kaiping County, China, who unlike many typical Chinese families’ exemplified hard-work and strong cultural values allowing them to pursue an exceptional Chinese-American lifestyle. Even with immigration laws preventing Chinese laborers and citizens to enter unless maintaining merchant status, Yitang and Sam Chang managed to sponsor approximately 40 relatives to the states with their businesses in herbalist

To begin with, The Joy Luck Club centers its content around the lives of eight women of Chinese heritage each with their own stories to tell; yet, all striving to satisfy their aspirations in America. A concisive cross is common between the mothers’ hopes compared to those of the American born daughters. Immigrating to America for various reasons, the four mothers all had one goal in mind, to not only construct themselves a better life, but also ensure the finest future for their daughters. For the mothers in the Joy Luck Club, the American dream was to instill Chinese history, heritage, and habit in their daughters while providing American opportunities of growth, gratification, and gallantry. Carrying heavy pasts, the four original American Joy Luck Club members arrived in The United States to start anew, “America was where

The emergence of the second generation bloomed quickly and by 1930, 41% of the Chinese population in America was naturalized born citizens. The birth of a child in America was symbolization of an elite status in an Asian American’s family (Lee 177). First generation immigrant parents feared the worst for their children who were second generation Asian Americans. The parents of the children feared that their children will grow up learning the American culture and language that they would become too “Americanized” and forget

He starts by expressing how Koreans of New York’s metropolitan area made only 68 percent of the median income of those who were not Asian. Takaki adds that more than three-quarters of greengrocers came to America with a college education (p.124). Those who were engineers, teachers, or administrators in Korea, took a step downward in status when coming to America and becoming a shopkeeper. Although they put in long hours and worked hard, Korean shopkeepers earned $17,000-$35,000 a year. This usually represented the work of an entire family not just one individual. Takaki used these examples to show that although Korean Americans seem to make the average income but they do not. Their earnings displayed the work of the entire family, while in non-asian families one individual might make this

Ideally, immigration to America has been noted as a step in the right direction for several years. The concept of the “American Dream” has been one of the main reasons behind immigrants choosing to leave their hometown and in other cases, changes in government and enslavement has led immigrants to the States. It is no wonder why they fight through battles most would have never known existed. Asian American Thuy Lee, is daughter to immigrant parents who escaped Vietnam during the communist takeover. Her story in particular, was a very detailed experience with words that helped me perfectly envision her family’s hardships on

Fong See is holding on his lap very firmly and sturdy his youngest son Eddy, while Letticie very protectively holds the small of her daughter’s back with her hand. And how could they not be on the verge of protectiveness. During this time, the Chinese immigrants were viewed with much negative sentiment by the American citizens. They believed the Chinese were taking away their jobs and if they were successful business owners this sentiment against them was even greater. “For many Chinese American, life in California was marked by daily rounds of humiliation and intimidation” (Bean and Rawls, 193). And this did not excluded the See family, who despite being a very successful family, they were still viewed as Chinese immigrants who emigrated from China as laborers, and as Chinese descents they were subjected to the discriminatory treatment of that

Since the first immigrants moved into American neighborhoods, many issues have arisen between Americans and the Korean community. In 1911 and 1913,

For millions of immigrants, America has been seen as the land of opportunity where anyone could become anything he or she wanted to be. A family that believes strongly in the American dream can be found in Amy Tan’s short story, “Two Kinds.” The story centers around the daughter of a Chinese immigrant who desperately wants her daughter to become successful. In the story, the author shows the difficult lives immigrants face when moving to a new culture. In this short story, the theme shows the protagonist’s conflict with her mother on the type of daughter her mother wants her to be. The author establishes the theme of how difficult mother-daughter relationships can be through characterization, setting, and symbolism.

About the book: This book is a realistic fiction historical story. The book relates a unique point of view from Chinese immigrants in America during the early 20th century in the city of San Francisco. The story is about a boy called Moon Shadow who is eight years old by the time he leaves his country China to join his father that lives in America. His father called Windrider lives in the city of San Francisco’s Chinatown and works in a laundry store. The boy doesn’t know how his father looks like because he hasn’t seen him since he was a baby, but he admires and feels affection for his father. His father is an intellect man with marvelous dreams. Windrider with the support of his son, he is disposed to bear the jeering from the other Chinese,

The American dream if you work hard and play by the rules you should be given a chance to go far as God-given ability will take you,” says Cohen-Marks & Stout (824). People from all over the world come to America to seek this opportunity. The ability to come to a place of such promise, immigrants bring young children and bare more children here and hold them to this standard in order to obtain that dream and accomplish what they came for. In “Two Kinds” Tan describes a mother (Mrs. Woo) and daughter (Jing-mei) life in America. Amy Tan uses “Two Kinds” to show how immigration to America has the power to cause turmoil between a parent and child because of the parents predigested thoughts, forced plans, and comparisons all in hopes of finding the American dream.

Reading Asian American Literature. “The Politics of Mobility” .Ed. Wong, Sau-Ling Cynthia. Princeton University Press. (1993): 118-33. Print.

Twenty-six year old Soojin was born to a loving Mother and Father in Korea in a homogenous Korean neighborhood near Seoul. Both Soojin and her brother, who was born two years later, had secure attachments with their mother. High school graduates, her father worked in construction and her mother raised the children at home. Soojin was a cheerful child. Spiritually, Soojin was mostly raised without a religion, although she sometimes attended temple with her Buddhist grandmother. A friend’s father was a pastor in a Christian church where she loved to attend after school and soon was baptized. In 2000, wanting more opportunities and a better education for their children, Soojin’s parents decided to immigrate to the United States to live the American