There are several different ways the novel plays with Asian-American themes: basing New China off of China, Asian first and last names, descriptions of people and appearances, Asian food, and so on. I loved the Seneca Circus scene, filled with references to Korean food that I know and love to eat. The food tents somewhat reminded me of Korean street carts:
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| excited to move back to Seoul for this! |
Anyways. One way that I thought OSAFS could be seen as an Asian-American story was, well, Fan. Fan, our favorite tiny protagonist. If we imagine Fan's appearance to be that of a small Asian-American girl with dark hair, we should also consider the stereotypes of Asian-American girls and how Fan either performs or breaks them.
The main stereotype I want to write about is the one that deems Asian-American girls passive, submissive, and quiet. Now, I want to know what you guys think - does this or does this not sound like Fan? What's your initial reaction?
I have mixed opinions, but I imagine many readers would argue that that stereotype does not seem like Fan. After all, she takes action in the beginning of OSAFS by leaving B-Mor and pursuing a tremendous journey through the counties and into Charter villages, all (?) for love. The narrator(s) certainly seem to agree that Fan's departure from B-Mor was unbelievable. But as the story progresses, in both Fan's world and the narrator(s)'s, it becomes clear that the tellers of Fan's story are not so sure about Fan's agency: "The funny thing about the tale of Fan is that much of what happened to her happened to her" (263).
So is Fan passive or active? Or both? Is she the epitome of the stereotype or does she kick it down? And what, if anything, is Lee trying to say about Asian-American stereotypes of girls?
Again, I'm left with more questions than answers...
I think that it comes down to your definition of passive. Fan is definitely quiet, so you can argue that her being quiet makes her passive and submissive but their are different forms of rebellion. She doesn't need to speak to fight against an oppressive system, her act of leaving B-Mor does that by itself. I think part of this problem comes down to the unreliability of the narrators and how we don't actually know Fan's thoughts, just her actions. It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the end of the book.
ReplyDeleteJen,
ReplyDeleteAwesome post (as usual). This was something that also struck me. In class, we seem to always come back to the idea of Fan not really doing all that much, at least in the sense that as a character, she doesn't seem to fulfill the action-packed role of a traditional hero. There certainly does seem to be some sort of connection between Fan and Asian stereotypes as portrayed in the media. The way in which Fan is quiet and passive, yet simultaneously is incredibly powerful and commands the respect/affection of everyone around her feels like a combination of some kind of 'Dragon Lady' archetype, and the whole 'mysterious Oriental power' type deal. It's hard to say whether or not Lee is enforcing or breaking these stereotypes, or even adhering to them in the first place at all. One thing that did stand out to me was the importance of these characteristics to 'the tale of Fan'. The entire story is kind of built on her personality being so distinctive and almost one-dimensional. I wonder if it has something to do with the almost mirror-like affect her character has within the context of the story that we touched on last class. Regardless, you brought up some really interesting points.
- Terrence