From Fifth Chinese
Daughter by Jade Snow Wong (593-603)
Chapter: A Person as Well as a Female
After graduation from the Chinese school, Jade Snow
seriously sought a solution to her money problem. (593)
Jade Snow worked in
seven different homes and was exposed to a series of candid views of the
private lives of these American families. (593)
“Education is your path to freedom,” Daddy had said. “In
China, you would have had little private tutoring and no free advanced
schooling. Make the most of your American opportunity.” (596)
“But Daddy, I want to be more than an average Chinese or
American girl…..”If you have the talent, you can provide for your own college
education.” (597)
No, his answer tonight left Jade Snow with a new and sudden
bitterness against the one person whom she had always trusted as fair to her.
(597)
She was trapped in a mesh of her tradition woven thousands
of miles away by ancestors who had had no knowledge that someday one generation
of their progeny might be raised in another culture. (597)
Chapter: “Learning can never be poor or exhausted” – Chinese
Proverb
Jade Snow’s years at Mills College were inseparably colored
by living at “Kapioani,” the dean’s little brown-shingled home. This simple
structure located on a hillside road wore a charming crown: a garden of gaily
colored fuchsias, bamboo….(598)
Now, living became fun! The fun was partly in being able to
participate in the home activities of one of the campus’ central figures. (599)
Jade Snow though hard, wove her best Chinese and English
knowledge into the paper, and felt satisfied with her work……. He told her that
he had chosen the paper for reading at an English conference to be held at the
college…. Jade Snow heard this announcement, smiled, but could find no words to
answer when her classmates congratulated her. (603)
After reading the passages that you have provided, the story shows the idea of how a person could be greatly affected by their traditions in life, most especially when they came from a family who are strict when it comes to their own beliefs in life. As what I see in my surroundings, Chinese are very focus when it comes to academics, their parents push them so hard in order to obtain high grades in order for them to have a bigger and brighter future. I believe that this story has shown this type of idea.
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