The Need for Asian Differentiation in Literature
The Need for Asian Differentiation in Literature
Michelle Ly
University of the West
LIT 410: Asian American Literature
Professor Danielak
December 8th, 2020
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Throughout United States history, immigration has been a hot-button topic since the
beginning of the 19th century. Immigrants have come to the United States searching for greater
economic opportunity and religious freedoms from their home countries. Chinese immigrants
were the first to come to the United States around the 1850s, mainly on the West Coast during
the Gold Rush. Along with Chinese immigrants, in 1899, due to the annexation of the
Philippines, the United States saw an influx of Filipino immigrants. However, through the
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, immigration for Chinese immigrants was restricted due to
declining wages and a faltering economy to the influx of Chinese workers which, in turn,
allowed the first influx of Japanese immigrants to immigrate to the United States from 1902 to
1908. Though it seems that the United States had a carousel of highlighting one ethnicity for
another as the “enemy,” we can see through the use of the works of Amy Tan, Carlos Bulosan,
and Lawson Inada, that each ethnicity had a different experience when it came to seeking better
opportunity and working towards achieving the American Dream. Through the use of the
readings this semester, the experiences that different Asians have, especially in literature, though
immigration is difficult, highlight the differences between the cultures and that there is a need for
us as a society to be able to differentiate them to highlight the importance of identity, no matter
who you are and where you’re from.
In the readings this semester by Amy Tan; Mother Tongue, Rules of the Game, and Two
Kinds, the works highlight the problems that each narrator faces with their identities. Most of the
narrators are first-generation Chinese-Americans, however, the narrators in these stories discuss
the problems that they have with their mothers or the problems that their mothers face. In Mother
Tongue, Tan tells the audience of her mother’s experiences of prejudice and the assumptions that
are made because of her mother’s English being “broken.” In the story, though Tan’s mother
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reads Forbes magazine daily as well as listens to Wall Street Week, she chooses to allow her
daughter to speak for her in a conversation with her stockbroker who had not sent a check on
time. Frustrated, Tan’s mother angrily expresses her sentiments to Tan by saying, “Why don’t he
send me check, already two weeks late. So mad he lie to me, losing me money.” When the pair
head to New York and arrive at the office, Tan tells us, “I was sitting there red-faced and quiet,
and my mother, the real Mrs. Tan, was shouting at his boss in her impeccable broken English.”
In this story, we see the pitfalls of immigrants that have accents or do not understand English
well. Though Tan’s mother understands English, she is overlooked due to her accent and not
being able to speak English in what others see as “perfect,” which leads to Tan having to become
her mother’s voice in the world. However, Tan tells us that her “..expressive command of the
English belies how much she really understands.”
In Rules of the Game, Waverly, a young girl who is trying to figure out who she is, is
given a gift of a chessboard and learns the game quickly, and can master the game in a short
amount of time. Though she begins to excel at the game and “defeat[ed] her opponents one by
one,” she soon begins to find her childhood slipping away due to the immense pressure that is
placed upon her by her mother. This causes her to begin to see herself in a “prison” of sorts, her
hobby becoming a way for her mother to confine her to these expectations that are placed upon
her and watching as her childhood begins to diminish. The expectations that are placed upon
Waverly hinders her ability to experience the innocence and carefreeness that comes with her
youth leading her to begin to see the pressure that begins to build up and grows more critical of
her mother and the controlling behavior that she exhibits. This pressure ends up leading to a
boiling point for Waverly, eventually having her erupt and run from her mother and the
expectations that have built up since the beginning of her chess career.
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In “Two Kinds,” a young girl dreams of becoming a prodigy however, she is unsure of
her own personal talents. Her mother, understanding of her dream, begins to test the narrator to
see what her strengths and weaknesses are so that they can figure out her talents. The narrator
tries her best to pass these tests, however, the narrator never finds her prodigal side which leads
her to resent her mother for pushing the narrator to find her niche. As time goes on, the narrator
begins to show the audience the volatile relationship she has with her mother. As the narrator
grows increasingly resentful of her mother and pulls away from doing the tests that her mother
has created to figure out her dreams, her mother would continually push the narrator harder to
the point where the anger and resentment the narrator would foster would not only be placed
upon her mother but also herself. The narrator tells the audience,
“And after seeing, once again, my mother's disappointed face, something inside me began
to die. I hated the tests, the raised hopes and failed expectations. Before going to bed that
night I looked in the mirror above the bathroom sink, and I saw only my face staring back
- and understood that it would always be this ordinary face - I began to cry.”
(Tan, 1989 )
This relationship highlights the narrator’s want to become a prodigy however, due to her lack of
discipline and resentment, her dreams begin to wash away because of her attitude towards
achieving her dream. The narrator ends up becoming her own worst enemy and hinders herself
from her dreams because of her actions towards her mother and her own internal lack of
motivation. Tan’s stories circle around this concept of filial piety in which though their parents
have done everything they can for this new life, the continuous need to achieve more than their
parents is surmounting to the point where, in each story, the narrator comes to a realization of
why they are put through these pressures. This highlights the first-generation Chinese experience
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in which their parents are overlooked, creating this boiling point of pressure for them which can
lead to resentment though they are given much better opportunities than that of their immigrant
families. Though Chinese-Americans deal with heavy pressures from their families, other
ethnicities are not as fortunate in the larger scale of the American Dream.
Carlos Bulosan’s readings this semester, Story of a Letter, Be American, and As Long As
The Grass Shall Grow, depict a more rugged experience, focusing more on the depictions of
Filipino immigrant workers searching for better opportunities in this new world. In Story of a
Letter, the story is centered around a letter that is written from the narrator’s brother, Berto, to
their father. Because no one in their village could speak or read English, the narrator and his
father go on a journey to get the letter translated. As time goes on, all three sons immigrate to the
United States in hopes of a better life and to help their families back home, however, by the time
the narrator can translate the letter and send it back to his father years later, the letter is returned
to him and he is told that his father had passed away. The letter in this story is a vehicle to
highlight the wants and dreams of Filipino immigrants to start a new life and support their
families, however, due to greed and ultimately, racism, many work toward achieving their
dreams while their families are kept in the dark.
In Be American, the narrator of the story has to face a barrage of challenges that reflect
the Filipino immigrant experience. Many Filipinos are treated as second class citizens that are
given menial tasks and treated as adolescents because they do not know any better and are trying
their best to survive, thrive, and achieve the American Dream. The narrator of the story finds
himself in a similar situation however, he tells the audience about how being seen and accepted
as American is imperative though the way society depicts them is a far-off dream. This need to
achieve his dreams becomes his drive and keeps the narrator ardent in his goals, no matter the
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cost. As the story progresses, we see that the narrator’s cousin, Consorcio dreams of becoming
American as quickly as possible. Though he tries as hard as possible to “be American quick,” he
realizes later that because of his immigrant background, he would never be able to attain his
dream as easily as he once thought. The narrator eventually finds his cousin again, however,
Consorcio is now a hollow shell of who he once was, dejected and run down from chasing his
dreams. He tells the narrator, “You have a wonderful dream, cousin.” The two end up going their
separate ways again and Consorcio begins to succeed due to his English being much better and
allowing him more opportunity. At the end of the story, we find Consorcio finally achieving his
dream of becoming an American citizen, though it costs him his entire life. Consorcio is able to
achieve the dream though life has thrown him a series of frustrating circumstances. The narrator
tells the audience,
“But Consorcio is not truly dead. He lives again in my undying love for the American
earth. And soon, when I see the last winter coming to the last leaf, I will be warm with
the thought that another wanderer shall inherit the wonderful dream which my cousin and
I had dreamed and tried to realize in America.”
(Bulosan, 1943)
Consorcio gave up his entire life to be able to “Be American” which allowed him to be able to
pave a path for other Filipino immigrants to be able to achieve the American Dream. The
narrator sees the journey of his cousin and the sacrifices that had to be made to be able to achieve
the American Dream but also paved a path for those ardently working toward achieving the
dream as he had.
In As Long As The Grass Shall Grow, the story begins with an unnamed narrator working
in a field next to a schoolhouse. The teacher of the schoolhouse, Miss O’Reilly, begins to notice
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the workers and offers to teach them English. Through their session, the narrator learns a lot
from Miss O’Reilly until one day he is beaten up by a group of white men for spending time with
her. This is due to the assumptions and prejudices that were put upon Filipino men as being
sexual predators. This story tells us that though many immigrants come to the United States in
search of a better life and the American Dream, which includes getting an education, there are
still stereotypes of those who are not like everyone else, causing fear and violence towards those
who are inherently different. In the story, Miss O’Reilly tells the narrator, “I will go on teaching
people like you to understand things as long as the grass shall grow.” Though she has been
forced to stop teaching in this area, she tells the narrator that though she must leave, where there
is a thirst within people to be educated, she will continue to help others become educated. As
long as there are people who want to learn and grow, there will be those who will be there to
tend to the gardens inside of their minds. There is a stark difference from the Filipino experience
to the Chinese experience due to the fact that Chinese immigrants did come to the United States
first and were able to assimilate better than that of Filipinos. Also, Bulosan speaks more toward
the hardships of immigration and the cultural biases that are assumed about Filipino because of
inherent racism which is seen best in the work that they are given. Tan speaks more towards the
problems that Chinese immigrants have which are having one foot in their own cultures and
another in assimilating to this new world, while Filipino immigrants were treated more like dirt
and forced to work in laborious jobs with no ability to achieve more whilst being racially
profiled. Understanding that they wanted to keep the immigrants under control, they chose to
give them laborious work rather than allowing them to learn and become educated to be able to
start a real life.
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In the last section of readings this semester, we looked at Lawson Fusao Inada’s poems
on the Japanese-American Internment experience. There is a sense of helplessness that many
Japanese immigrants had to endure when placed into internment camps. They were seen and
treated as a plague to society, rather than people who wanted to start a new life and live out the
American Dream. Inada’s poems show a range of emotion and tone which highlight the feelings
that many other Japanese immigrants had when placed into the horrific condition and treatment
within the internment camps. In his poem, “Everything,” Inada states “...that we kept our watch,
that we kept our wits about us and all the respect, we could muster, sitting in silence, sleeping in
shifts, and when the fire died, everyone was there to keep it alive.” In “Healing Gila,” Inada tells
the audience, “that concentration camp, on their reservation. And they avoid that massive site, as
they avoid contamination.” Finally, in “From Our Album,” Inada tells us that, “When a guard,
smashes one, the shell, cracks open and the muscles ooze.” Previous to the attack at Pearl
Harbor, we see that Japanese immigrants were highly prosperous in the United States. With the
Chinese Exclusion Act, many Japanese immigrants settled into the United States successfully
and began to live out the promises of the American Dream. However, when the attack occurred,
we saw a huge shift in the way Japanese immigrants were treated. Many were forced into terrible
conditions and violent attacks as they were being shifted into concentration camps, even if they
were born in the United States. This harrowing and overarching fear that resonated with many in
the United States after the bombings at Pearl Harbor forced Japanese immigrants into these
terrible conditions due to that fear and assumptions that all Japanese people were against the
American government and in turn, the enemy. Inada highlights the dark time that many had to
face throughout this period.
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Over the years, as the United States kept changing, we see that many immigrants of all
ethnic backgrounds come into this new world in search of the American Dream by integrating
themselves, adopting the culture, and the challenges that being different comes with this
integration. However, though many like to encompass all people of eastern descent as “Asian,”
we see through the readings this semester that every ethnicity has their own experience and we
should not assume that all Asians are the same. Amy Tan’s stories encompass the idea of identity
in which many understand that their parents have done a lot so that they can have this new life so
that they achieve more than their parents. This realization comes after a long journey for many of
Tan’s protagonists, however, when they come to that understanding there is a sense of reverie
and camaraderie when they reach the epiphany. Carlos Bulosan takes a more rugged approach to
his stories, understanding that many Filipino immigrants were not treated as well as other Asian
immigrants and had to deal with more violence and atrocities when reaching for the American
Dream. Many Filipino immigrants were not accepted into the United States culture because they
were seen more as a lower class than other Asian immigrants. Finally, Lawson Inada’s poetry
shows us that one can become the enemy at any time, no matter the circumstances. It is in that
realization that we see the idiom, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” Violence is
never an excuse for more violence and that is best depicted in his experiences in Japanese
internment camps. At the end of the day, each of these ethnicities highlight different experiences.
It is in this differentiation that we must realize that not all Asians can be roped into a single
category and that not all experiences are created equal and that everyone deserves a chance to
live and prosper while achieving the American Dream.
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References
Batalova, J. (2018, March 12). Filipino Immigrants in the United States.
Migrationpolicy.org. https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/filipino-immigrants-unitedstates
Bulosan, C., & Jr, J. (1995). On becoming Filipino : selected writings of Carlos Bulosan.
Temple University Press. (Original work published 2020)
Hooper, G. (1999). The Joy Luck Club. Science Press. (Original work published 2020)
Lawson Fusao Inada. (1993). Legends from camp : poems. Coffee House Press. (Original
work published 2020)
Staff, History. com. (2018, November 19). Chinese Exclusion Act. HISTORY.
https://www.history.com/topics/immigration/chinese-exclusion-act-1882
Wikipedia Contributors. (2019a, May 16). History of Japanese Americans. Wikipedia;
Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Japanese_Americans
Wikipedia Contributors. (2019b, December 12). History of Asian Americans. Wikipedia;
Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Asian_Americans