China Men : Study Questions
Reading Questions
As you read, consult the glossary of terms listed on the HCC website. Most of the reading questions are devoted to the six non-italicized chapters. Except for "The Laws," which we will be looking at closely, the non-italicized chapters are re-told and re-created myths, legends, fantasies, and parables. As you read them, try to come up with their meanings and how they relate to the adjacent parts of the book. But also let your imaginations go. Enjoy them. Also enjoy the book. There are some funny parts. You are allowed to laugh.
1. What is Tang Ao looking for? What happens to him? Where, according to some scholars, is "the Women's Land" (5) located (3-5)?
2. "The Father from China": Whom does the narrator address at the start of the chapter? What does she want from her father? What prompts her to start telling stories to her father (15)?
3. Turn to the glossary for an explanation of the word "Center" (15). Are the Chinese the only people to think of themselves in "the middle?" How does the description of Chinese people in the United States as "ec centric people" play on the Chinese word for China? What does the Chinese word for maternal grandparents as "outsiders" reveal about the patriarchal structure of Chinese society (29)? Look way ahead to p. 301. "Of course, the Center was elsewhere." What is Kingston doing to the belief that one group of people can be the center of the world?
4. What is a "Sojourner" (44-45)? How will immigration officials respond to someone who does not speak English (45)? What is a "paper son" (46)? Why do wives agree with "American antimiscegenation laws" (47)? Which is correct, the story about the "illegal father" (49-53) or the "legal father" (53-60)? Why are Japanese treated better than Chinese by immigration officials on Angel Island, so that they "left in a day or two" (55)? What happens to the father in NYC? Why is the "Gold Mountain" considered "free" (61)? How does Ed get his name (71)?
5. What does the existence of a black Chinese cousin do to the notion of national identity according to race (85)? What two Chinas does the narrator want to compare (87)? Where does she search for her ancestors (90)? What does she learn about Bak Goong? What sort of addict is he (110)? How does he indulge his addiction? Why can Bak Goong and his fellow workers claim to be the "founding ancestors of this place" (118)?
6. Why is Stockton special (126)? What is Ah Goong's job working for the railroad (131)? To whom does he make love (133)? Do we know how many die working on the railroad (138)? Why or why not? What results from incentives to increase productivity (139)? What happens to the strike (140-4)? Why are China Men the "binding and building ancestors of this place" (146)? What happens in the SF fire of 1906 (150)? How are those of Chinese descent "reborn" out of that catastrophe?
7. How did California deal with "the Chinese problem" in 1878 (153)? When was the first Chinese exclusion act passed (154)? What was the Geary Act (155)? Why was United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898) a victory? Why were Japanese children allowed to attend white schools (156, see also 55)? What happened in 1943? 1965? 1978?
8. Who is Sao Elder Brother? Kau Goong? Uncle Bun? What are their different responses to America?
9. Why is the narrator so unclear as to where her father was born (237)? What are "father places" (238-40)? What is the father's profession? Why is the "power of naming" important (242)? What does the narrator do to combat her father's despondency (250)? "What is the narrator's theory about males" (251)? Is she right? What does the father's ownership of a house and planting of a garden say about his relation to America (255)?
10. What happens to Japanese Americans during WWII (268, 273)? What happens during the Korean War? What is the significance of the dog tag 0 (276)? What happens to the brother during the Vietnam War? Why doesn't he leave the country to avoid the draft (283)? Compare the brother's attempt to exploit a "teachable moment" (278), his scene of teaching reading (289-90) and the father's scene of teaching writing in China (37)? What happens to Chinese Americans when they "set foot on China, even just Hong Kong" (294)?
11. What is the last word of the book (308)?
Discussion Questions
1. Remember the two different definitions of a nation from the first lecture. According to an ethnological definition, a "nation" is "A people bound together by a common descent and language." According to a political definition, a "nation" is "a body of inhabitants of a country under the same government." Remember also Professor Haynes's argument that national membership and belonging entails a set of inclusions and exclusions. Why would many people, including most from Asia, be excluded from US citizenship, if the country employed the ethnological definition of the nation? What changes in US immigration law and in the Constitution have made national membership in the US more inclusive? How?
2. In 1885 Minister Josiah Strong complained about the increase in immigration to the US because, according to him, it had created more and more official US citizens who, were, nonetheless, not true Americans because they did not share American culture. What would Kingston's response be to Minister Strong?
3. How does Kingston answer the question "Who is an American?" How does her definition relate to legal definitions of citizenship?
4. One of the themes of the book is silencing. What forces contribute to silencing? What helps to break silence? What is the role of listening in cultural understanding? What is the role of talking?
5. Is it possible for Kingston, a woman, to represent China Men? Rather than claim to be "representative" of all Chinese Americans, indeed, all Americans, Kingston implies that each reader should represent him or herself. How does she do so?
6. What do you make of Kingston's use of the term "white demons"?
7. Share your own story about what it means to be an American.