Jan.20 Reading Question

v Who is Elizabeth Wong? (Remember that we talked about the importance of setting a context before reading).

Elizabeth Wong is a playwright and television writer who grew up in Los Angeles’ Chinatown. Wong wanna be a All-American girl, but her mother always compelled Wong and her brother to go to Chinese school when they were young. She does not like learning Chinese and speaking Chinese, but she cannot change who she is.

v After looking at Carrie’s essay,, White Buds on an Apple Tree, what are some similar “moves” that this writer is making in her essay?

When the author saw her mother’s bad situation, she thought her cannot do not know anything what the doctors talked. She wanna had some change. Maybe she cannot help her mother away from the pain, she could understand how was it going. So she started to learn some specific language that doctors would mention. She began her this literacy by helping her mother.

v How does she begin this essay (intro)?  How does she end the essay (conclusion)?

She begins the essay with a brief statement of her own thought and what she learned from the experience that waiting for her mum to get through all surgeries. She end the essay by explaining what she learned through the waiting in detail. It is an echo for the introduction. In the introduction she said waiting is a game that you need to play with strategy with a strong mind and in the conclision she just explained the strong mind she already had is the literacy skills so that she has begun to develop a new medical literacy.

v How do we know for sure that Wong regrets her assimilation into American culture?  Be specific.

At the last three paragraphs, Wong said she thought of herself as multicultural. Wong wants to fit in – to be an American, she like American culture, food, and even festival more than Chinese. But no matter how she against Chinese things, she cannot change she still one of them. Wong need to know her own country’s culture, not just American culture. I am a Chinese student, to be honest, when I read this essay I feel angry about Wong’s attitude with Chinese culture or language, even though I can understand her feeling. Maybe Wong regrets her assimilation into American culture because she realized no matter what she still part of China, she should balance these two cultures.