Seagull Essays: "No Name Woman"
I felt that the book was very insightful and interesting in that it delves into the difficulty of living with a Chinese culture in American culture and explores the Chinese culture using a personal experience as a means of exploring. We learn much about the Chinese culture through the habits and stories of Kingston's mother about her aunt. We learn about some of the Chinese people's values, such as their ancestor worship. The essay highlights vital parts of Chinese morals while telling the tragic story of Kingston's aunt. The foot binding of women and the severe social stigma on adultery in China are just some of the aspects of Chinese culture that is emphasized in this essay. There is much more evidence that can be inferred in the depth of this essay that reflect the cultural values of the Chinese. In the beginning, Kingston describes living in America while living with Chinese culture at the same time. She talks about the struggle about balancing the two lives and cultures and choosing which aspect to show in American culture and which to keep in Chinese culture. When Kingston begins talking about her aunt, we learn about the chasm that sets apart the Chinese culture and the American culture. While learning about Kingston's family life in China up until their move to America, we also learn about the Chinese and their beliefs. We learn that family is an integral part of their life and the man decides everything in the family. We learn that adultery is prohibited and punishable (by vandalism) and women were not allowed to deliberately attract men. Women were only allowed to wear their hair in bobs and too much attention to their physical appearance was looked down upon. Relationship decisions were clearly slanted towards the men, which is one thing in Chinese culture that was similar to American culture. It is a wealth of knowledge about Chinese culture that can be inferred from a relatively small essay about the scandal involving someone's aunt. We learn that people shouted at each other to more easily display their emotions and get their ideas across to each other. Whispering and talking quietly was discouraged, as "only sick people had to whisper" (Kingston, 180). Chinese practices in America are out of place, such as when Kingston calls people "older brother" or "younger brother", which is acceptable in China because all village people are considered kinsmen but is not acceptable in America, which by the early 20th century was no longer a village society like the ones in rural China. Daily life in China was expected to be public, no secrets voices or tricks. The fact that Kingston's aunt attempted to hide her illegitimate pregnancy was appalling, perhaps as appalling as the illegitimate pregnancy itself. Whereas in America people stress individualism and self-expression, in China people stress community and respect for others. Overall Kingston gives us a very clear window into life in China before the early 20th century, which reflects on life in China today.
Your post did an amazing job contrasting the cultural aspect of the essay. Indeed, some of the cultural differences mentioned in the essay are kind of shocking and Kingston's description of her aunt's story shows the different values in Chinese culture.
ReplyDeleteYou also mentioned author's reflection on her personal struggling in America. Actually, author throws out all these facts about cultural distances because she wants to highlight her own personal struggling by doing so. So instead of summarizing all the points the author mentioned in the essay, it will be better if you put more effort to analyze how the author reflects her own struggling by telling this story.
I like how you focused on the extensive amount of information can be exerted from just one story about her aunt and a few assumptions. I also think it is interesting how she can cover so much, i.e. Chinese culture, American culture, and identity struggle, in only 13 pages. While she is explaining aspects to help describe Chinese and American culture, she also exploring these ideas maybe to help herself try to figure out her true identity or to simply show the reader the struggles she is going through to find which identity best describes her.
ReplyDeleteThis story was definitely very insightful to me too. I understand that China had stricter rules before the 20th century because times were harder. I also understand that America is guilty of this too. People in America and China had less rights back then and looking back on those customs today are difficult to look at with an open mind. A considerable question, to me, would be is the woman being selfish for getting pregnant or is the community being selfish for taking out the stress of the time period on her and not being considerate to the fact that people make mistakes sometimes. It is evident from Kingston’s essay that during this time period, Chinese culture would lean more towards the aunt being selfish. Now days, this could be a more difficult question because both sides have a point and people are more open-minded to both sides of the story. I think it is important to be understanding of everything and not judge something solely because it is foreign to you. Therefore I think it is good that you realize the difference between Chinese and American culture then and now.
I like how you developed on and gave examples of how Chinese and American cultures are different. I think that is very important insight to this story because she is explaining the differences to convey the difficult in categorizing yourself into two things that can be so polar opposite or even so closely related.
Good job on expressing what is most important to you and I would love to talk about Chinese culture with Du and you to gain more knowledge about Chinese culture.