Journal entry (5/11)

Assimilation- Shishir Kurup

This reading included many different monologues that portray the experiences and struggles immigrants face. The first excerpt talks about the common struggle immigrants deal with as they face exclusion, which results in a lack of sense of belonging. The quote “This is not your home, you’re only renting” on page 341 demonstrates this issue by showing how people view immigrants as incapable of fitting in and telling them to go back to their “home lands”. The second excerpt illustrates the fears immigrants have as they come to America. Fears include not being able to quickly adapt to the culture and learn the new language and terms. Other excerpts talked about the stereotypes and racism immigrants deal with and the concepts of assimilation,. I thought many of the excerpts were interesting and took different approaches on showing different perspectives, but they all touched upon the topics of experiences and struggles immigrants have when they come to United States.

Heterogeneity, Hybridity, Multiplicity: Asian Differences – Lisa Lowe

            The first two powems the reading begins with touches upon the concept of “breaking tradition”. The first poem talks about the breaking of tradition by each generation. The author narrator uses  the example of how her own daughter breaks tradition of their Japanese heritage. However, her daughter;s actions also remind her of her own actions and her own breaking of traditions that she did when she was her daughters age. The narrator’s daughter thus resembles her. Lowe explains, “the three generations of Japanese descent are separated by their different histories and different conceptions” (61). This relates back to the concept of how culture is constantly changing and is never fixed. Therefore, generations are separated as we all experience different things and have different beliefs, values, cultures. The second poem also illustrates the break of tradition through a different approach- the division by generation by class and language. It is a common Asian tradition for younger people to always respect the elders. However in this example, the Chinese American is in a higher position than the older Chinese worker, putting the elder in a inferior status where the elder has to respect the younger Chinese woman. This demonstrates a break from tradition. The author incorporates the two poems to demonstrate the theme of the disruption and distortion of traditional cultural practices.