Assimilation

Page 453 Seeing 2 – Blog 6
Page 261-3; 446-53

Amy Tan is considered to be a Chinese American in her interview in 1995 (Page 263). As I finished reading this essay I could relate it to Stanley Crouch’s Goose-loose Blues for the Melting Pot because of the way he talks about being American, and the whole “melting pot” metaphor. In Tan’s essay, Fish Cheeks, she talks about a time when she’s fourteen, having a crush on the minister’s “all-American” son (blond hair, blue eyes, ETC.). “The different groups that make up the nation need and attract and influence each other…” (Crouch Page 447) “For Christmas I prayed for this blond-haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose.” (Tan Page 261)
Tan tells the story of a girl being embarrassed about her parents inviting him and his family over for Christmas dinner. She doesn’t think her Chinese Christmas dinner will impress these “all-Americans.” She goes on about how her family embarrasses her by following their Chinese traditions. Though at the end, her mother surprises her by giving her what she considered an “American-style skirt”, and telling her not to be ashamed of her heritage. “You only shame is be ashame.” (Page 262) This goes back to Crouch’s piece where he’s talking about being a true American. “Assimilation is not the destruction of one’s true identity.” “…we can see that what it means to be American has never been fixed…we are continually creating and re-creating our traditions.” (Page 446)
There is so much Crouch talks about in his piece. Crouch talks about American culture and how is has changed so much over time from different cultures assimilating together, from immigration leading to cultural changes, all the way back to when the 3/5’s Compromise existed and there were slaves seen as less-than human, then going up to the 1960s. Both of their assimilations are similar in a way of different cultures coming together. Crouch's peice is more about the overall view of being a "True" American. Crouch talks about more historical content to prove his point of how being "American" has changed over time, where Tan focuses more on experience of being Chinese American.