Family History Similarities: Immigration GO!

In reading the posts of family stories from my peers, I came across two blog poss that were similar in the form of families immigrating to the US. In the family histories of Alex Tang and Peter Chen both of their families immigrated to the US.  These stories show how far our families and different races have gotten as far as race and rights.

In Alex's story he talks about the struggles his family had to go through in order to find a place to live after his grandmother died in 1998 and the house that she owned was sold so they could split the profit they got from it with the family. The struggles they went through were, 

"This story shows me and my family going through some very tough times, the death of a family member. We lost our home and were nearly homeless, my dad and sisters had to get multiple jobs. It was all pretty bad, but we managed to persevere and get our selves out of this situation. Instead of splitting apart, going into crisis, and giving up we came together as a family and became stronger."

 In this you see that Alex's family has been through a variety of things that any other person would have given up on. The significance of this story is that it was recent and he was about three when this happened.

In Peter's story he also goes over the struggles his family faced with the immigration system we have. He goes into depth of what immigrants have to do in order to live in the United states.they have to have someone here with a stable income and they have to go through a bunch of processes.He became a legal US resident at the age of four-teen. He is now fifteen so this is also a very recent story that affected his life greatly.

"I immigrated to the United States when I was about 14 years old, but my parents told me that they turned in the application forms of immigration to the staff before I was born, actually both of my parents did know my mom was pregnant at that time. That means it took 14 years to get a stamp at my immigration passport. I always feel funny about how my parents turned the application form in before I was born, since they don’t have any information of me yet and it took such a long time to add my name onto the list after I was born."

In this it is a very significant story that is recent and if it was not done he would not be here, he would not have been able to immigrate here. Peter's parents did not know his mother was with child so they did not get papers for him. Luckily they did or he would not have been here with us or his family.

Cycles: The Joy Luck Club

In the book The Joy Luck Club there are many cycles that occur. One of the cycles that I will focus on is the cycle of tradition. In the book there is a lot of traditions, when the girls are young they are brought up in the Chinese tradition as they get older they stray away from the tradition but after they experience life away from tradition for a while they all stray back to the Chinese tradition they grew up in.

One tradition that we see in a lot of Asian families according to "Tiger Mom" and examples in this book is the strictness as well as persistence they display to keep their children on the right path. In the book the example is when Jing-Mei Woo's mother wanted her to be the best and wanted the best for her and become a prodigy.

"'Of course you can be prodigy, too.' My mother told me when I was nine. 'You can be anything. What does Auntie Lindo know? Her daughter, she is only best tricky.'"

In this quote we see that she wanted her daughter to be the best. She felt that her daughter was better than her niece. And her daughter being better than her niece was the most important thing ever. Later in the story the mother has her daughter try all different kinds of talents until she is embarrassed by the daughter at her piano recital because all the pressure and false dreams presented by her mother wa too much so she gave up and did not try at her practices. this is one of the things that let her to stray away from  her tradition.

Another part of the book that shows that they always go back to the tradition of the Chinese and back to where everything began in at the end of the book. This one was also told my Jing-Mei Woo, she went back to China to find her mother's twin daughters. In the end she went back to where everyhting began. Her mother died and she fulfilled her mother's born mission to find her daughter.She lives with the tradition her mother shows her for most of her life but she does not know how different it will be for her when she actually gets to China.

"The minute our train leaves the Hong Kong border and enters Shenzhen, China, I feel different. I can feel the skin on my forehead tingling, my blood rushing through a new course, my bones aching with a familiar old pain. And i think, my mother was right. I am becoming Chinese."

She feels a change within herself as she enters China. She has never felt as if she was fully Chinese even though her mother is Chinese and she grew up in a very traditional Asian home. In this book there are a lot of examples of cycles that are showed. Some of them agree with the traditional asian culture while others seem random and only connect to the characters in this book. This is only one of many cycles in this book.

Family History: Beat for Love

My family history story is about my mother's grandmother and  how what she did made a difference in my existence and location.

My great grandmother on my mother's side of the family was destined to be a teacher according to her parents wishes. Back in those days a teacher was not allowed to be married, so she was not allowed to court (date). But when my great grandfather saw my great grandmother he just had to have her, so he set out to get her. The thing was, my great grandmother did not like him because he had a big head. But she grew to like him, and her parents did not like that idea. They soon started to date and he would go over her house to be with her. Everytime after he would leave from her house she would get beat with the whip hanging over the top of the door. But that did  not stop her because he love was to strong. It got to the point where before he even came over to her house she would go to the door grab the whip and give it to her dad so he could beat her to not waste any time after he left. After they dated for a while, my great grandfather asked my great grandmother to marry him. She knew it was wrong and totally against what her parents wanted for her, but love cannot be stopped so she agreed. They could not get married in a church because this had to be a private ceremony. So he told her to meet him on the bridge and he would be there with a minister waiting. So she followed his instructions and met him on the bridge and that is where they became man and wife. He told her to not tell anyone about their marriage, to keep it a secret. Because this as an important event in her life she had to tell someone, and that someone was her sister in law. But her sister in law told on her and that changed her life forever.

When her dad heard about her being married, he went up to my great grandmother's high school (she was about 17 or 18) and told her that her mother was sick and they had to get home immediately. When they walked in the house my great grandmother immediately knew that her father lied, but before she could do or say anything, her dad jumped on her and beat her like there was no tomorrow. when the beating was done she ran away to my great grandfather;s aunts house. My great great aunt ran a domino house, and a young lady was not supposed to be there because that was a place for old men to be and play dominoes. So she sat there scared for her life hoping that her dad would not get there and find her. She waited until my great grandfather came and got her, when he got her they went to his parents house. She said she did not like it there because it was a dirty place but she could not complain because my great grandfather was well off. He had chickens, cows, pigs and horses so he was more then able to provide for his family. while living with his parents they had two sons (not twins) one named Charles and the other named John Edward. They lived a pretty good life there until one night. (We do not know if this little part is true but I was told this so yes.) My great grandmother and father lived with his dad in Arkansas in the Jim Crow era where the whites were superior. So one specific night when my great grandfather went out with a couple of guys he got into it with a white man and had to rush home. As soon as he got into the house he woke up the family and said they had to leave and get out of there right away. So they packed up, said their good byes to his parents and were on their way. they dropped my  uncle Charles off at her mother's house because they planned to go back and get him when they were settled down. So they left the baby and came to California. They got settled in and were doing their thing, when my great grandmother got word that her baby Charles and her mother died in a burning house. they said the KKK was responsible for it but they did not know, so she had to go back and confirm it to make sure. She got there and sure enough, it was her mother and her baby. So she buried them and came back to California. They stayed here and had more kids. They had my auntie Cynthia is married to my uncle Troy and had Christopher and Cameron. My untie Bebe had my cousin Drina who is married to my cousin Jason had Jade and  Baby Jason, my cousin Tina who is married to my cousin Chris and they had Dominique and Michael, My cousin Charles named after my uncle Charles who had kids who's names I do not remember. My uncle Alvin who had my cousins Belinda and Alexis, my uncle John Edward who's kids i never met. My auntie Lee Lee who had my cousin Kiesha who had Devandre, Arion and Adonijah, La' Marque who had Malaysia and Niasha. My grandmother Jackie who had my auntie Roshanda who had Markus, Mario, Mark, Montrischa, and Montisha who had Rico; My auntie Gernisha, my auntie Ga'Kia who had Khalid and Kaliyah, and finally my mother Rischa who is married to my father Ronald who had Ron Jr. ,Re'Jon, Riahna, Randyn, my sister Kiara who is married to Antonio who had my neice Kimoni and Finally me Rahni Risje' Johnson. And this is my mother's side of the family story of how i got to be in California.

In this story I learn that on my mother's side I originate from the south. In learning about this story I see how far my family has come, we used to get beat with whips for dating, and bullied by the whites. Now I can date and choose my own future and not have to get hit by my parents about the decision I make about the type of future I want for myself. And no whited person can make me fled a town by threatening me. This story also tells me how strong my family is, we have been through a lot, and if they gave up back then to take the easy way out, then I would not be here today. but my great grandmother got beat everyday for the man she loves. I know little to no people who would get beat for someone they say they love, that is some strong loving right there,I could probably do that if i truly loved that person. and if she did not have the courage to put her trust in her husband and leave her parents at that age then I would not be here, and my family would not be in California, we would probably still be in Texas, Arkansas or some other places in the south. I do not yet know my role in my family because I am still growing and maturing, but I do know that I am strong willed, courageous and have a family who is there for me like her his family was there for them. IN a lot of ways I am similar to her, I am strong, and I am courageous. If I ever do love a man as much as she loved my great grandfather, if not more then that. I would get beat on his behalf everyday after he left from visiting. But until that day comes when I do love a man like that, I will not get beat for no man everyday after he visits me. My great grandmother is strong in many ways and that is the moral of the story, just like the title says "Beaten for Love" If love is that strong, nothing can tear it apart. And that is what I got from this story.

Tiger Mom vs. The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates

There are a few similarities as well as differences between the article "Tiger Mom" by Amy Chua and part two of the book "The Joy Luck Club" titled "The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates" by Amy Tan. The stereotype about Asians is that they want their kids to be the best and they will do anything to keep their kids on top and they will make the decisions for them and basically live their lives because they want the best for them. In the article this is proved in a major way, throughout the article she says many things to back up this stereotype but one that I feel is similar to the story is,

"What Chinese parents understand is that nothing is fun until you're good at it. To get good at anything you have to work, and children on their own never want to work, which is why it is crucial to override their preferences. This often requires fortitude on the part of the parents because the child will resist; things are always hardest at the beginning...the Chinese strategy produces a virtuous circle. Tenacious practice, practice, practice is crucial for excellence; rote repetition is underrated in America. Once a child starts to excel at something...he or she gets praise, admiration and satisfaction."

In this excerpt from the article it is saying that work, work, work; and practice, practice, practice is all it takes for a kid to be better. and not only will it benefit the kid but it will benefit the parent. She is saying that children can not work on their own and they need the guidance of their parent, and the parent has to make the decisions for them. In the section of the book titled "The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates" the mother is Chinese and she wants the best for her daughter just like Amy Chua wants for her kids. She wants her daughter to be a prodigy, then she wants her to play the piano. Her daughter does not want to do that because she knows she can't live up to the expectations her mother sets for her so she slacks off and does not do her best. She later tells her mother she does not want to do this because she is no good, (pg 132. pg 137-138, pg 141-142). The differences between these two lives that these families have is that in the article she sticks strongly to her culture and she is very stricter, and because the kids were raised up like that they did not rebel and know of nothing other then what their mother is showing them. In the book her mother lets her rebel and she is not that strict to where she puts fear and restricts the daughter from doing what she wants to do.

I feel that the article is a little stronger then how the Chinese women in the story are portrayed. In the article Chinese mothers are portrayed as strict and always on their kids backs and not fun at all restricting them from having fun and running their lives how they think it should be ran. The mothers in the book are wise and posses powers of wisdom that are very strong. The mothers in the book are nowhere near being like the mothers described in the article, they may come a little close but not all the way there.

In Class Quickwrite: Joy Luck Club POst #2

In  my opinion I feel that the purpose of the introductory piece on page 87 in the book is to show that when kids do not obey their parents there is always a consequence to pay. In the introductory the little girl did not listen to her mother when she told her not to ride her bike around the corner because she would not be able to help her if she fell off. When the girl did not listen to her mother she did just as her mother predicted, she would off of her bike before she even got to the corner. So I feel that this is saying that mothers know what's best for their children and when they are not obeyed by their children the kids will always suffer the consequences. Or when they take their mother's words for granted, they wind up in trouble or in a situation they do not want to be in.

In the story "Rules Of The Game" her mother was very proud of her daughter's chess skills and she loved to brag about her to people she encountered. One day the daughter confronted the mother and said,

"I wish you wouldn't do that, tell everybody I'm your daughter... Aiii-ya. So shame be with mother?...It's not that, its just so obvious. its just so embarrassing... Embarrass you be my daughter?...I jerked my hand out of my mother's tight grasp and spun around knocking into an old woman. Her bags of groceries spilled to the ground...I took off , I raced down the street, dashing between people, not looking back as my mother screamed shrilly, 'Meimei! Meimei!..'"

in this quote the narrator Waverly Jong was embarrassed by her mother and she took her mother's praises for granted and she ran away. She did not run away for long, but she was out of her mother's sight and she could have gotten hurt. In a way she did get hurt because when she did finally make it home her mother said,

"We not concerning this girl. This girl not have concerning for us."

 So from this quote her mother basically disowned her and said they had nothing to do with her. That was her move and now the next move had to be made by the daughter. so all in all the introductory meant that when you listen to your mother, good will come to you, but if you do not listen to her then bad will greet you on your way to disobedience.