1. Identify and briefly define important words, terms, concepts, or characters
2. Summarize the main idea theme, action, or event of the reading. Be sure to include quotation that best captures the overall feeling or mood of the reading.
3. Formulate a question for discussion. The question should be relatively substantial, based upon a specified passage or scene from the text, and capable of sustaining a thoughtful discussion.
Setting: 87 Mott Street in New York’s Chinatown, Money Come club house, and Wang Ben Loy/ Mei Oi’s house
Chong Loo- rent collector and gossiper
Ah Song- youthful looking man in his forties, considered lucky, doesn’t explain himself clearly.
Lee Gong- friends with Wang Wah Gay
Wang Wah Gay- present in the club house throughout the reading
*Lee Gong and Wang Wah Gay came from China through Ellis Island together as immigrants.
Mei Oi- Lee Gong’s daughter who just moved to New York from China after marrying Wang Ben Loy
Wang Ben Loy- just married to Mei Oi
Gimshunhock- sojourner
Would you say that Ah Song is a little full of himself through the way his attitude and behavior is portrayed through this reading?
Each of these men is present at one point or another in the Money Come club house.
These men sit to share news of their pasts including how they presently are where they are, what circumstances occurred for the present to be the way it is and the occasional gossip of affairs. For example, Gong worked in various laundries and then ended up starting his own in the Bronx. He sold everything, went to China, got married and left before his daughter, Mei Oi, was born. Also, the topic of women comes up and they discuss that girls born in China are better due to being more courteous.
Do you feel there is a cultural difference from the girls of America when compared to China?
Mei Oi had help from her father, Lee Gong, when she married Wang Ben Loy. Lee Gong lived in America, whereas Mei Oi lived with her mother in China. After she became the wife of Wang Ben Loy, things between them were not on point. They had moved from China to the United States and Mei Oi was thinking about her marriage along with the choice to leave her mother. “A few short weeks ago she was still a girl. Her mother’s daughter. Now she was a woman and a wife. She had looked forward to her marriage with excited anticipation. Like many girls of her own age, she had hoped to marry a gimshunhock and come to America to start a new family” (Chin, Chan, et al., eds. 85). It seems as though this whole marriage ordeal is not what she thought it would be. Just a few short weeks ago, she was still mommy’s little girl and now she was expected to play the role of a wife.
How do you think Mei Oi was feeling about coming to America? Wang Ben Loy?
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5 comments:
Well I think she had high hopes at first but as soon as she got to America everything went downhill. She is still recovering from her sickness, her new young (attractive?) husband can not make love to her, she's miles away from home which is her comfort zone and she desperately misses her mother. It is no easy thing just up and leaving. China is way different from America, their customs and values are not the same, so it will be a bit of an adjustment. Also she doesnt seem like she adds much to the house/relationship in the sense that she doesnt seem like the working type and im not sure if she makes up for it in personality. Meaning can her sort of arraigned marraige work well ?
The husband, Im not sure I have much to say about him. He just seems like the type to do what he has to. Like the daily routines in our life. When we wake up we do everything we do in the same order everyday, kind of like robots. He appears to be nice though
I think that Mei Oi did not have much say in her arranged marriage and her trip to America. She was told that is what she is going to do and that is the final word; her opinion did not matter to her parents. I think she might have been scared at first, but at the same time hoping for a better life in America. Her hopes about a better life were not necessarily true because shortly after she married Ben Loi, they began to have problems in their marriage.
Your question really made me wonder the difference not only between the Chinese girls and the American girls but the overall changes in culture when someone becomes assimilated to another culture. Even with the Chinese American girls there is still many adjustments to their first culture.
Ruzanna Amram
I reviewed "Eat a Bowl of Tea" and I also took into consideration the feelings that Mei Oi and Ben Loy had about America. In the case of Mei Oi, I believe she was neither excited nor afraid of coming to America, for when she was in China she was obedient and customarily "Chinese" in nature. For Ben Loy, the American experience caused him troubles for his impotence was ridiculed publicly and the pressure to have children was immense. In a way, we can see America as a tool of corruption for this Chinese immigrant family.
I didn't think of it much before but yes i think that there is a different between American girls and Chinese girls. When people come to a new country the majority feel the need to fit in so that they can be accepted and even if it includes doing things that your family or culture won't be proud of.
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