Kingston's goal is to encourage ways in which humans can interpret and understand (or "read") one another. On page 3, she tells the reader that she wants the experience of reading the book to be a process of discovery. This story is a narrative about discovery. The protagonist discovers the land of women. Rather than being welcomed as a lone man, he is rather kidnapped and turned into a woman. They bind his feet, which is a practice meant to make a woman beautiful but it essentially immobilizes him. He is also turned into a servant. At the conclusion of this little story, we find out that this place is America.
This can be interpreted as a metaphor for the emasculation of Chinese men in America or as a tale about the oppression of women in China. Likely, both interpretations are true. Kingston uses humor to engage the reader and to disprove the stereotype that Asian Americans are not funny. She also tries to take up stereotypes and rather than abandon them, she tries to change them and make them her own. Her goal with the book is to honor and still be critical towards her male ancestors.
The book is made up of myths and legends and then gives the tale of four generations of male ancestors. This makes it a special blend of fiction and non-fiction. In doing so, she not only defies traditional categories applied to Asian Americans, but she also defies traditional categories about genre.
What is the role of law in this book? Well, part of the story is about becoming an American after immigrating, which is a legal issue. To be an American, one must be born here or be naturalized. The process of naturalization is controlled by congress. The Naturalization Act of 1870 excluded immigrants from Asia from the process of naturalization. In 1879, Chinese immigrants were banned from owning property or having access to work. In 1882, legislators from CA helped the federal government create a law that all but completely banned anyone with Chinese descent to enter the country. In 1892, a new Exclusion Act added the provision that any illegal immigrants from China would serve a year of hard labor before being deported.
Why was there so much hatred and racism towards people from China? One simple reason is just because they were different from Americans with European heritage. Also, there were a lot of very racist images that people were exposed to, including "Yellow Peril", commissioned by the Kaiser of Germany in late 19th century. Another issue was that people from China were not Christian. Because Chinese immigrants were not well assimilated into the dominant white culture, they were seen as sojourners, or temporary visitors of America (155). Rest assured, there was also economic motive to exclude Chinese immigrants from American culture. People thought that Chinese immigrants would lower the standard of living in America because they were willing to work harder for less money.
In 1898, US v. Wong Kim Ark ruled that the any person, regardless of their heritage, is a citizen so long as they are born on U.S. soil. There are two kinds of jurisdiction: jus soli and jus sanguinis. In this case, it was declared that American jurisdiction is not a matter of blood (sanguinis) but a matter of territory (soli). In 1906, the great fire in San Francisco destroyed all proof of citizenship, thereby providing all Chinese immigrants to claim to be citizens (150). Also, many young men claimed to be the sons of men born in America and thus gained entrance into the country. These men were known as paper sons (46).
The father figure in the story has two alternate stories about entering the country. In the story about his illegal immigration, he comes in through Cuba into NYC (48-53). In the legal story, he enters through Angel Island in San Francisco, where in reality many people were denied entrance (53-60). She leaves this ambiguity in order to protect her father. Just as Douglass had to keep his escape secret, Kingston wants to keep the details of her father's immigration a secret.
No comments:
Post a Comment