Assimilating to the standard

Francis Espiritu

ENGL 48B

Sui Sin Far Journal

Author Quote: "She withdrew for a moment--it seemed like an hour to the mother--then she reappeared leading by the hand a little boy dressed in blue cotton overalls and white -soled shoes. The little boy's face was round and dimpled and his eyes were very bright.

'Little one, ah, my Little One!' cried Lae Choo.

She fell on her knees and stretched her hungry arms toward her son.

But the Little One shrunk from her and tried to hide himself in the folds of the white woman's skirt.

'Go'way, go'way!' he bade his mother. (Sui Sin Far 886)

Internet Quote: "While working as a legal secretary she continued to write and although her appearance and manners would have allowed her to easily pass as an Englishwoman, she asserted her Chinese heritage and wrote articles that told what life was like for a Chinese woman in white America. First published in 1896, her fictional stories about Chinese Americans were a reasoned appeal for her society's acceptance of working-class Chinese at a time when the United States Congress maintained the Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned Chinese immigration to the United States." (Wikipedia; Sui Sin Far)

Summary: As Lae Choo picked up her son from the place her son was being detained, she did not stop to think that the possibility that her son wouldn't recognize her never crossed her mind. In the end, her own son did not want to be part of her life, and told her to just leave him where he was staying.

Personal Opinion: The sad thing about this story isn't the fact that the child doesn't recognize his mother, but the fact that by being away from his parents and with the Americans, he loses himself and his culture daily. I think that this is a struggle that many Asian-American children go through each day. Being able to distinguish the difference between being Asian and American. If anything, the thing that defines them is the hyphen between Asian and American. The pro in all this is that The Little One would not have a problem in knowing what exactly he would be if he did not go back with Lae choo. The only struggle would be knowing that his skin tone and face are different from his white counterparts. I mean in just a short amount of time he was able to identify who his mother was and tell her to "go'way". This shows that the mother had already lost her son to American culture. If anything, I think it is a tragedy that the children of immigrants lose their culture, even today. It is hard being able to live by the American Standard and Asian Standard. That is why I think that Asian-American children are unique in the sense that they have to battle between two cultures, as opposed to European-American children in which their cultures are somewhat similar to American culture, so assimilation would not be as difficult. So in a sense, would these European-American children be "hyphenated"? Or is it only Asian-American children? That hyphen is unique, once Asian-American individuals can find the balance, they do not have to associate themselves as being Asian, American, or Asian-American, but find the beauty in saying that they are the hyphen that brings Asian and American together into one.