Gish Jen’s In the American Society is, on the surface, an entertaining look into the workings of a Chinese American family making their way in America. The reader is introduced to the life of a Chinese American restaurant owner and his family through the eyes of his American-born daughter. When we examine the work in depth, however, we discover that Jen is addressing how traditional Chinese values work in American culture. She touches on the difference in gender roles, generation gaps between immigrants and their American-born children, and the hesitance of these immigrants to conform to the American way of life. To truly understand multicultural literature, one must first try to understand the cultural background of the author. In the case of this piece, we are examining the Chinese culture and Jen’s experiences which shaped her writing.
Gish Jen is a second-generation American. Her parents immigrated separately in the 1940’s. Her mother came to America to go to graduate school and her father came as part of the war efforts during World War II. With the rise of Communism in China, both were forced to remain here and ended up building a life together and raising their 5 children as Americans. Because they came in the second of three “waves” of Chinese Immigration, their reasons for coming and the process of assimilating into the American way of life was very different than other Chinese immigrants. During the first wave, from 1849-1882, the reasons for immigrating were mainly economic.
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Thousands of poor young males came from China to labor in America. In 1882, however, the Chinese Exclusion act was passed, making it so the second wave of immigrants contained only diplomats, merchants, and students. Chinese immigrants were segregated from mainstream America and lived in Chinatowns with no diplomatic rights until the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Along with this act came the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which allowed more Chinese to come to America to be with their families. This was also the time where equality was being demanded by many young Chinese Americans. We are currently in the third wave of Chinese immigration.
At this point, most of the people coming over are either select well-educated Chinese or those looking to escape repression and political instability in their homeland. Chinese culture is rich with tradition and values, which paired with the conditions Chinese immigrants were forced to live in so long, makes assimilation very difficult for first-generation Americans. Many of these values are expressed in In the American Society. Loyalty is a cornerstone of Chinese culture. In her story, Jen uses several examples of how Mr. Cheng exhibits the loyalty to his pancake house employees and expects that loyalty in return.
Much like his family in China would give bags of rice to the poor at New Year’s, he would sometimes give an employee “two green envelopes instead of one” because their family was facing a financial hardship and “who else is going to take care of (them)?” He also hired illegal workers like Booker, remembering “when (he) first come to the United States, (he) also had to hide-and seek with those deportation guys. If people did not helping (him), (he’s) not here today.” In return for his loyalty to his workers, he expected to get the same in return. He expected his cooks and busboys to fix radiators at the restaurant as well as his home. He had the waitresses run errands and chauffer him around. In return, most of his employees quit. They didn’t understand this idea of loyalty.
This isn’t how it is in America. In America there are specific job duties outlined and stepping out of those expectations to help out an employer just doesn’t happen. Booker, however, returned that loyalty to Mr. Chang.
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Being Chinese himself, he understood and worked very hard, even sending replacements when he wasn’t able to make it in to work. Mr. Chang’s loyalty to his employees even compelled him to not fire Fernando for stealing from him. It wasn’t until Fernando punched Cedric that he was fired.
When Booker and Cedric were arrested, Mr. Chang’s loyalty extended to bailing them out of jail. He even wanted to sponsor them as American citizens. When questioned by his wife about his loyalty to “his boys” over his family, Mr. Chang quoted his father as saying “the province comes before the town, the town comes before the family.” Mrs. Chang was much more interested in Americanization than her husband was.
In China women are treated as second-class, not expected to work, and obey their husbands no matter what. Mrs. Chang, however, had worked as a supermarket manager, “she could pump her own gas and check her own oil” and “she was now interested in espadrilles, and wallpaper, and… the town country club.” She still didn’t feel as though she could “simply up and do as she pleased” but she did secure an invitation to the country club without her husband’s knowledge. That invitation was courtesy of their daughter’s desire to fit better into society. Although it wasn’t addressed much in the story, Mona seemed to have a great desire to fit in.
She wanted very much for her family to join the country club and “let it drop to Annie’s mother” which was most likely not simply a slip of the tongue but a conscious hint for Annie’s mother to write the recommendation letter. The problem with the letter being written was the possibility that the Chang family would actually be invited to join the club. That would mean that they would have to dine there twice a month and Mr. Chang would have to dress up. As he didn’t “believe in joining American society” he had “no use for nice clothes.” The instance in the story where he was forced to wear nice clothes, the party, speaks the most of Mr.
Chang’s pride and desire to stick to his own way of life. Throughout the confrontation with Jeremy, Mr. Chang remained calm. When Jeremy was telling him to take off his shirt so he could accept Jeremy’s shirt as an apology, that pride came out with the declaration “I do not take orders like a servant.” When Jeremy was taunting Mr. Chang with his suit coat hanging over the water, Mr. Chang put that pride above his better judgment by throwing both the shirt and the suit coat in the water.
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The Lost Ones – Young Chinese Americans Due to harsh immigration laws, in American history, Chinese have often relied on illegal means of entering the United States. For example, in 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act (Chinese Exclusion Act, Documents on Anti-Chinese Immigration Policy.) was passed, the first and only act that restricted immigration from one particular ethnicity. This act ...
This story is an allegory of life for many Chinese Americans. Many came to America for the opportunity to lead a better life. Entrepreneurship is a big part of that American dream. The Changs’ owning a pancake house represents so many of the Chinese people that own their own restaurants upon coming to America. Mr.
Chang’s hesitance to Americanize and his idea that “to embrace what he embraced was love” also represents the views of many Chinese immigrants. Jen’s own parents maintained some of their own ideas of how she should live her life. They didn’t believe that writing was an honorable thing for a woman to do and didn’t support her in her decision until her picture and story was run on the front page of a Chinese newspaper and “their people” accepted it. Works Cited Chinese Immigration to the United States. Accessed 03/27/2005. Later, Paul.
The Health Anthology of American Literature. Accessed 03/20/2005. Moyers, Bill. Public Affairs Television ‘Becoming American: Personal Journeys’ Interview with Gish Jen. 2003. Accessed 03/23/2005..
