Assimilation is usually meant to indicate what happens to immigrants in a new land. However, “rejection, loneliness, discrimination—these were the byproducts of living in the United States” (Ghymn 37). In Marilyn Chin’s essay on assimilation “How I Got That Name,” the speaker acquaints the readers how she got the American name “Marilyn.” The tension between the two cultures is evident, for the speaker is treated as “Model Minority.” Her race and ethnicity define her; in fact, the stereotypes inscribed with her race restricted and cage her significance in the society. Similarly, David Hwang’s 10-minute play “Trying to Find Chinatown” centers on an encounter between Ronnie, a Chinese-American street musician, and Benjamin, a Caucasian tourist from Wisconsin who identifies himself as Asian-American, in the busy street of New York. In the play, “each character defines who he believes he is: Benjamin is convinced he is a Chinese American, and Ronnie sees …show more content…
However, Ronnie does not see himself as a Chinese-American, but as a musician—a violinist. In Ronnie’s situation, Hwang wants the audience to see another perspective of self-identification. Self-identification must be from within, rather than from society’s expectations of race and ethnicity. Ronnie sees himself and identifies himself based on his passion and occupation. However, Benjamin accuse Ronnie of assimilating incorrectly. According to Karen Dabney’s Oral Performance/Aural Traditions: Cultural Identity in David Henry Hwang’s Trying to find Chinatown, “a common problem Asian Americans encounter is generic racial identification by outsiders, rather than precise recognition of their ancestral and ethnic roots.” Benjamin feels that Ronnie surrendered himself to his adopted country and has failed to preserve and protect his heritage and
Chapter six examines the anti-Chinese sentiment with the emerging class antagonism and turmoil between white capitalists and workers. The unwelcomed arrival of Chinese immigrants brought along their own social organizations such as the huiguan, fongs, and tongs. These types of social organizations secured areas of employment and housing for Chinese immigrants in California. This social structure that was unknown to Anglos led them to also categorize Chinese on the same level as Indians by depicting them as lustful heathens whom were out to taint innocent white women. These images were also perpetuated onto Chinese women, thus, also sexualizing them as all prostitutes.
Richard Rodriguez essay “Blaxicans and Other Reinvented Americans” reveals Rodriguez’s attitudes towards race and ethnicity as they relate to personal identity. An evidence to support Richard Rodriguez’s claim in this section is when he says “ I am chinese, and that is because I live in a chinese city and because i want to be chinese”. (163-165) This evidence reveals, rodriguez point that ethnicity has nothing to do with race . He says that a person can choose their ethnicity based on the way they want to act and on things they want to be value. Rodriguez got used to the differences and actually started to like them.
A History of Asian Americans, Strangers From a Different Shore, written by Ronald Takaki, displays an extensive history of Asian Americans as he combines a narrative story, personal recollection and spoken assertions. As long as we can remember, many races such as the Chinese, Filipinos, Koreans, Vietnamese and Japanese have dealt with some type of discrimination upon arriving to the United States. A particular part in the book, Chapter 11, mainly focuses on Asian immigrants and Southeast Asian refugees from the 1960s to the 1980s that were treated as the “strangers at the gate again.” Ronald Takaki refers to them as “strangers at the gate again” as a figure of speech for the people who are from Asian background who have struggled to settle in the United States, only to find out that old
Richard Rodriguez’s claim about a person's identity is the using race as a basis for identifying Americans is not valid; culture should be what defines a identity. Richard Rodriguez says that newcomers were being “welcomed within a new community for reasons of culture. “ (136-137). Richard Rodriguez says that newcomers were welcomed when they were identified by their culture. Richard Rodriguez also says “I am Chinese, and that is because I live in a Chinese city and I want to be Chinese.“
A review of Eric Lius', The Accidental Asian, and his search for self-discovery. Looking at how his experiences growing up relate to current and future generations of students who are trying to find where they belong in this ethnically structured society. Through Liu’s experiences, we can understand the struggle of identity and help students find their own. Finding that we do not have to have a strong connection to our heritage to have a strong identity and looking for our roots does not make us any less of the person we are now. Breaking stereotypes and understanding others is how we can help students in the future.
Asian American Identities There are people all over the world who have come to America to seek a greater life. With America having the largest immigrant population compared to other countries, there are always people migrating into the country. People all over the world may be coming here to pursue their own dreams or to escape persecution. The immigrant population has increased so much, that about one-third of U.S. population are now people of color.
According to Forbes, 147 million people worry about their identities but one billion people don’t have an identity. In the novel American Born Chinese there are many different cultures within one community which causes a collision between the people. Jin Wang moved from a San Francisco Chinatown to a more Americanized neighborhood where he finds himself immediately getting bullied for being Asian. Jin Wang's interaction with the American culture had a significant impact on his development, so he tried to change himself physically and was willing to throw away his identity, showing that most people have this ongoing desire to change to be accepted. Jin Wang was so adamant about fitting in that changing himself physically after getting bullied at school.
In American Born Chinese, there are many plot elements used to make readers feel multiple things. Three elements I will be talking about in this essay are parallel plots, foreshadowing, and conflict. I will give some examples from the story that show how the author used the three plot elements. I will also explain whether or not I think these plot elements were successfully used.
Richard Rodriguez and Gloria Anzaldúa are two authors who both immigrated to America in the 1950s and received first hand experience of the assimilation process into American society. During this time, Rodriguez and Anzaldúa had struggled adjusting to the school system. Since understanding English was difficult, it made adjusting to the American school system increasingly difficult for Rodriguez. Whereas Anzaldúa, on the other hand, had trouble adjusting to America’s school system due to the fact that she didn’t wish to stop speaking Spanish even though she could speak English. Both Rodriguez and Anzaldúa had points in their growing educational lives where they had to remain silent since the people around them weren’t interested in hearing them speaking any other language than English.
Throughout America’s past and present, Asian Americans have been consistently invisible in political discussions. From analyzing historical events such as the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act to the modern day discrimination from Chris Rock’s Grammy speech, this paper will accentuate how Asian Americans have been demoralized and neglected by American society. Reflecting on the intersectionality of the Asian American image will bring attention to the issues that this community faces. Problems within the Asian community have been undervalued in comparison to other marginalized groups, creating detachment and omission from fellow minorities. This essay will not only stress the disparage of Asian Americans through socioeconomic statistics and anecdotes,
Historically, Americans rejected Asian people and culture, obstructing their assimilation into mainstream American society. Integration was never a viable choice for Chinese Americans, who were excluded and denied citizenship because they were deemed non-assimilable by the white mainstream. The treatment of larger ethnic groups towards a foreign minority has a major impact on the extent of the minority’s assimilation or isolation. In Letter to my Nephew, James Baldwin, an African American writer and social critic, shows the treatment of blacks during the mid to late twentieth century and their low expectations in society. Caucasian Americans have an inability to accept minority groups.
In the essay “The Chinese in All of Us”, written by Richard Rodriguez, shows how America has become a melting pot. People in America have mixed their cultures instead of being their own culture from the country they are from. Now a days, America has grown to be a country that includes many different cultures. The issues covered in the essay, were more social cultural based because Rodriguez talks about how people think that he has forgotten his background but, he mentions that he has not forgotten who he is and instead has become a new person. “In The Chinese in All of Us”, Richard Rodriguez consistently used pathos, ethos, and a style of writing to convince the audience that people have ‘melted’ as a whole, but they are still themselves in
How does Jin Wang change throughout the graphic novel American Born Chinese? Why does he change, and what is his motivation for change? Jin wang is a young, Asian male who, at the beginning of the novel, is absolutely okay with his personality and race. But, as he and his parents move to a different location and he enrolls into a new school, his idea of being himself was completely distraught. He wanted to be like the other kids who attended his school: “American”.
His ranting about ethnic pride leaves one with pride and reflects the liberal education he had at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where he majored in Asian American studies. I empathize with him when I notice that Benjamin’s last name and his ethnic identity are the products of his adoption as an infant into an Asian American family. There is a similarity of character between his and mine ,this happened when few of my cousins took a trip to Calabar a state in Nigeria to go find the grave of my maternal great grandfather who was sent on exile for mix communication,he died and was buried there,a thing that never happened in the Benin kingdom a to a king. We experience the same attitude Benjamin character got from Ronnie. The first person we met as we enter the city misdirected us,after all said and done we find where he was buried we were filled with joy and we paid homage.furthermore the reason for Benjamin’s visit to New York City is a kind of pilgrimage during which he wants to pay homage to his recently deceased father.
Consolisa Edmond Professor Sanati English Comp. 102-12 22 March 2017 Analysis of” Trying to Find Chinatown” Shortly after birth, we have our identity written on our birth certificate and we are forever defined by that. The world often defines the people within it, instead of people going off to discover their own identity themselves. Race, ethnicity and other factors like it describe who we are but not represent our identity. In David Hwang’s 1996 play “Trying to Find Chinatown” Hwang considers the role of race and ethnicity in how we identify ourselves and how others identify us.