Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Where is Su Sin Far Going with this book?
Here are a couple of questions for this new post: WHERE IS SUI SIN FAR going with this book? And if she is going somewhere what are her audience supposed to do with all her bias, and unreliable stories? I have been saying this from day one, how could someone who has not experienced the chinese traditions and cultures, in other words how could Sui Sin Far who has only experienced half of what she really is be reliable and trustworthy. She has never been to china and experienced what real imigration to America from a REAL third world country (Britian and Canada do not count) REALLY feels like. How could some one who only knows what being a mixture is like (she is both half chinese and white), really be the one who is reliable with accurate decriptions of what really went on back then. I mean come on, half of what she writes is tended to protect only her Chinese background and her chinese people. Has she waked up and had some coffee, or should someone tell her that she is half white and american too. What really made me angry in one of her stories, The Story of Wah on page 235 is that she ended with the Chinese man saying no to doing an illegal business of selling opium, she writes "But Wah refused to have anything to do with business...I wish for my countrymen to rise, not to fall" (Far, 236). The real truth that she is trying to convey to her readers is that ALL Chinese people always say no to bad things and that they are all good people. I guess i was born yesterday and realized that when i say no to drugs, or any other white, black or american person says no to drugs they are not as pure and moral as the Chinese people she is trying to support, i guess we are all like Mark Carson who hurts, mocks, misleads, and betrays the Chinese people . But wait Sui Sin Far, you forgot something your parents weren't both Chinese. Yes i know it might not feel right, and your skin might not show it, but you are white too...sorry baby, blame your parents not the rest of the world for your ordeal. However this is not the point i am trying to make, because you are half white and half chinese does that mean you are rightfully and allowed to be singled out from this purism and moralism of the Chinese people you speak of, just like you singled out the "one friend who was both Chinese and american" from the story, A Love Story from the Rice Fields of China on page 266. Sui Sin Far i am sorry but this is not a carnival, we have different races breeding all the time, and if you didn't know - YOU ARE ONE OF THEM. Sui Sin Far needs to get to her point, most of her readers are lost with copied work of previous written books and short stories by great men and women from the past. I admire Sui Sin Far's admiration to help her Chinese people during the rough and the bad times they faced when coming to America, but when one forgets about there true identity of what they truely are, one tends to lose touch with the real meaning of the cause they are trying to support. Yes Sui Sin Far's stories are delightfull but she tends to forget that she is an American and white too, and when she loses touch with this side, she loses touch with the American white public. There was a reason why she was given a chance to be both white and chinese, somebody gave her the power and reason to state that we are all the same people, race, and color- this is because if we weren't there would be restrictions on the chromosomes for interbreeding. With this book she lacks the effort for both white, chinese, and mixture to unite as one.
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5 comments:
Just because they are not 100% full of something doesn't mean they have no insight of one's culture or society. Don't we look at different point of view other than our own? Looking at from your parents' view, your friends', & etc. Sui Sin Far IS half Chinese, half American. She had an opportunity to see this world from both or rather 3 different perspectives. I may agree that she didn't write her plots from all 3 different views but this is just her mere expression on things she had faced.
I think it’s pretty clear where Sui Sin far is going in this book. You have to remember that it was written in the very early 1900's in like 1909. There was racism, and out right bigotry were much more main stream then they are by today's standards. She wanted to give a voice to the Chinese people living in America that did not have any one speaking out on their behalf. She used story telling as a formant to humanize same people that others were demonizing. And by writing about both the good and the bad in Chinese American society she was showing that they were the same as any other group of people with both good and bad members but that the majority were good hard working people that were trying to adapt to American society while still reaming true to their core beliefs.
As for her perspective she is actually at an advantage by being of mixed decent. It allows her to tell her stories through unobstructed eyes; with out the pride of feeling she is more European or more Chinese.
Pulse being of mixed race during the 1880s and early 1900s was not at all a common thing. Its common now but even that does not make it easier. Believe me I’m of mixed decent to. My family is Irish and Porto Rican two cultures that have little in common out side Roman Catholicism. Much like the Chinese and American culture were. You spend a lot of time struggle with self identity when your back round is mixed. You’re often segregated in some way from both sides. And you don’t really feel like your one or the other you’re just left to be yourself or worse nothing.
And then there are those pesky questioner boxes that say pick only one: Identify your decent: Then gives a list that almost t always includes Hispanic or White(non-Hispanic) in those exact words. It’s as though they are mocking me. I can never decide what to pick!
I don't think Sui Sin Far was excluding the fact that she was both Chinese and American. I feel that she was just trying to expose the American and Chinese women and culture to her Chinese side. Everyone knew about the life of an American during this time. However, the Chinese culture in America was something that was new here. Like moonspell said, this was written in a different time period than we are in now. Back then, the races weren't so mixed up as they are now. Therefore, throughout her stories, she just wanted to show the experiences that the Chinese had to go through during this time. I feel the point of this book was just an exposure to the life of the Chinese. Whether you think she is a reliable source or not, i feel that she shouldn't be frowned upon doing it just because she was only half Chinese.
First of all relax before you type your next post.
I think she is trying to show her audience a new side to Chinese-Americans that they before was unaware of. Even though Sui Sin Far's purpose for writing these stories is to enlighten ignorant people, I wish she was not concerned with how her audience felt and just wrote from the heart about what she saw and felt. I think the book would be a lot better if she was able to write freely and truthfully. I would want to see the Chinese-Americans worst moments and their best moments in equal proportion to give the book some depth. But I guess that would not be possible in that era, so its just wishful thinking.
I agree with jadedjane. Looking at a situation or giving insight on experience is not a one-sided view. Depending on which perspective you tell a story and how an individual feels themselves about situations, that is the side you are going to see and be exposed to in their writing whether you agree with it or not.
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