Today we read an extract of the novel “The Joy Luck Club” written by Amy Tan, a first generation American
author with Chinese origin.
The extract we read is also known as “When Rich Came To Sunday Dinner”.
Waverly Jong, who is the main character, brings her boyfriend Rich over to her
parents for Sunday dinner. Waverly Jong come from a Chinese family with strict
traditions, and with a mother that is very proud of her cocking. Rich is a
small American man who works with Waverly, and they plan to get married.
Waverly have not told her parents about this, because she does not believe they
would accept it. Her parents, Lindo and Tin Yong, are very strict, but Waverly
hopes that after a dinner with Rich, they will see why she loves him. Her
parents are not impressed when they for the first time lay eyes on Rich, and
the night does not get any better. Rich does not understand the culture, and
without knowing it, he disrespects the family several times. The way he eats,
and the way he talks to the parents is not acceptable in the Chines culture.
After the dinner, Rich is really satisfied with the way it went, unaware of his
actions. Waverly on the other hand, knows that her parents got a really bad
impression of her boyfriend, and she figured that it was not the time to tell
them that she and Rich are engaged.
Last week I wrote about the movie “Gran
Torino”, which also focuses on the meeting of different cultures. There are similarities between the stories,
but there is one major difference. “Gran Torino” is mostly shown from the
American point of view, through the grumpy old veteran Walt Kowalski. The
extract “When Rich Came to Sunday
Dinner”, focuses on the viewpoint of the immigrant family, Yong. While Walt
has problems accepting that the Hmong people move to his country and keeps
their culture, the Yong family has problems accepting the American boy Rich. The
Yong family knows that Rich is not familiar with their traditions and norms,
but they do not make it easy for him. It is possible to draw the conclusion,
that Waverly’s mother wants her to marry a Chinese man, and is unsatisfied that
she is dating an American. Walt wants the immigrants to adapt to the American
culture, while the Yong wants to keep their own culture. This is the problem in
the stories, and also in the World. A big problem in the World is that most
people want others to adapt to their ways, and have a hard time adapting to
others. This leads to conflicts, such as the ones shown in “Grand Torino” and “When Rich
Came to Sunday Dinner”.
Yes that is true. A lot of conflicts in the world are because we have different cultures and values and that we want everyone to see the world as we do. Tolerance is easy when the problems are far away! Informative post! Many interesting facts here!
SvarSlett