综合英语4 unit6 notes(5)

新世纪英语专业本科生（修订版）综合教程4（第2版）电子教案 Unit 6

Section Five Further Enhancement

I. Text II

1. Lead-in Questions

1) In what way are Chinese values different from the American ones?

a. For Chinese, higher values are put on group cooperation and individual modesty; while for

Americans, self-reliance and self-promotion are more accepted.

b. Chinese people attach much importance to interpersonal relationship. Maintaining a

harmonious relationship has priority over accomplishing tasks. While American people are more task-oriented. Relationships are less important than getting the work done.

c. Americans spend more than they have, so they are almost always in debt. Chinese usually

spend less than the amount they have, so they always have money left in the bank for emergency. …

2) What contributions do you think have the Chinese immigrants made to American society and culture?

a. building the railroad in the West

b. Chinese cuisine and Chinese restaurants

c. technological innovation and entrepreneurship

d. introducing Chinese culture to America, such as Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Kungfu ...

2. Text II

STUCK IN THE MIDDLE

Lisa See

In 1871 my great-grandfather Fong See, an illiterate peasant, left his village in southern China for Sacramento, California, in search of his father, who had disappeared during the building of the transcontinental railroad. At about the same time, Letticie Pruett’s family crossed America in a covered wagon3 and homesteaded in Oregon. By the 1890s, after years of manual labor, Fong See owned the Curiosity Bizarre, which manufactured underwear for brothels. Letticie had run away from home and ended up in Sacramento. When no one would hire a single, uneducated woman, she drifted into Chinatown and the Curiosity Bizarre, where she begged Fong See for a job. He hired her, one thing led to another4, and they decided to get married.

It was against the law in California and many other states for Chinese and Caucasians5 to marry. It was also against the law for Chinese to own property in California, and unlawful at the federal level for Chinese to become naturalized citizens6. These laws had grown out of the so-called “Driving Out7,” when Chinese had literally been driven from Western towns － when they weren’t hanged, shot, burned or stabbed by members of the white community, who had no fear of retribution because Chinese could not testify in court against Caucasians. What started as informal harassment was formalized with the Exclusion Act of 1882, which barred the immigration of Chinese laborers and led to even more institutionalized racism.

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新世纪英语专业本科生（修订版）综合教程4（第2版）电子教案 Unit 6

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But with a contract marriage drawn up by a lawyer, my great-grandparents set out to achieve the American Dream. Fong See and Letticie raised five mixed-race children and ran five antique stores in southern California. Fong See became the patriarch of Los Angeles Chinatown. He was the first Chinese in the U.S. to own an automobile and was one of the few Chinese to do business with the white community by selling props11 to the nascent12 film industry and antiques to customers like Frank Lloyd Wright. Despite these successes, Fong See’s four sons － all American-born citizens － had to go to Mexico to marry their Caucasian fiancées.

Drop down another generation. I am only one-eighth Chinese, with red hair and freckles. People often ask me where I fit in and how I define myself. My answer has to do with where I grew up and what I saw around me. Fong See had four wives, as Chinese traditional codes dictate for men with great wealth and prowess, so the Chinese side of my family in Los Angeles numbers close to 400, with only a handful that look like me. It’s been 130 years since my great-great-grandfather left China, and we’ve become educated, changed our way of dress and lost our Cantonese. But there’s a deep core that connects to our peasant ancestors.

Many small rituals in my daily life mirror what I experienced as a child. I tell my sons to put only what they’re going to eat on their plates, and I still pick at their discarded chicken bones. When they want comfort food, I cook them rice. (Shortly after going to college, my older son called to announce happily that the girls next door had a rice cooker.) When my younger son boasted that he’d told his chemistry teacher to stop checking her e-mail during class, I made him go back the next day with a gift of a perfect orange and an apology.

I do look different, and nothing will ever change that or people’s reactions. Some friends mistook my father, a professor, for a Chinese waiter. I’ve had Chinese Americans and Chinese-in-China talk about me as though I weren’t there: “I had a cousin from the south who looked like her, but her hair is disgusting.” On book tours, Caucasians will often ask point-blank, “Why would you choose to be Chinese when you have all the privileges of being white?” Given my family and the era in which I grew up, I don’t know I had a choice. The last of America’s miscegenation laws were overturned in 1965. Intermarriage is common, and if you walk into a classroom today, it’s impossible to tell a child’s exact race, or what race or ethnicity he or she may identify with. You certainly can’t with my own sons, who are only one-sixteenth Chinese and otherwise Irish, English, Scottish, Spanish, Russian, German, Austrian and Polish. I tell them it’s up to them to choose their own identities － just so long as they marry nice Chinese girls. They think I’m kidding. I’m not, really. Who, I wonder, is going to cook them their rice?

Additional notes 1. the transcontinental railroad (Paragraph 1) － The First Transcontinental Railroad is the

popular name of the U.S. railroad line (known at the time as the Pacific Railroad) completed in 1869 between Council Bluffs, Iowa/Omaha, Nebraska (via Ogden, Utah and Sacramento, California) and Alameda, California. By linking the existing railway network of the Eastern United States, the road thus connected the Atlantic and Pacific coasts by rail for the first time. Opened for traffic on May 10, 1869, it established a mechanized transcontinental

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新世纪英语专业本科生（修订版）综合教程4（第2版）电子教案 Unit 6

transportation network that revolutionized the population and economy of the American West.

2. contract marriage (Paragraph 3) － By writing marriage contracts, couples attempt to make

a legal, civil agreement tailored to their individual situations. 3. deep core (Paragraph 4) － the essence of a culture that has transcended from generation

to generation

4. Who, I wonder, is going to cook them their rice? (Paragraph 7) － By asking this question,

See may be hoping to convey to her own children and the readers the importance of maintaining one’s cultural heritage.

Questions for discussion

1. What difficulties did Fong See experience after he arrived in the U.S.? 2. Is it easy for Lisa See to identify herself? Why or why not?

3. Do you think it is good for people like Lisa See to feel in-between in American society? 4. Do you think the Chinese who were born in a foreign country and have lost their native

language can still be considered Chinese?

Keys to questions for discussion:

1. He was faced with racial discrimination. American law prohibited him from owning any property or becoming a naturalized citizen, to name only two examples.

2. No. Although she inherited some rituals from her Chinese ancestors such as being thrifty and polite, she is also influenced by Caucasian culture and American culture.

3. It is good for people like her because it is easier for them to merge themselves with the local people and get equal opportunities in education, employment and other things.

4. It depends on how you define a Chinese. If we look at the blood relationship, no matter whether they are 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, or 1/32 Chinese, they are unquestionably Chinese in origin. But they need to have much more to be a Chinese in a broader sense. Language is one of the many things they must possess. Without being able to speak or read the Chinese language, it is simply impossible for them to know, to feel or to sense what a Chinese really is or what Chinese culture really means.

II. Memorable quotes

And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.

― John Kennedy

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917–1963), often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. The public murder of President Kennedy remains one of the most shocking public events of the 20th century.

Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real estate above principles.

― George Jean Nathan

George Jean Nathan (1882－1958) was the leading American drama critic of his time. Active from 1905 to 1958, he published thirty-four books on the theatre, co-edited The Smart Set and The

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新世纪英语专业本科生（修订版）综合教程4（第2版）电子教案 Unit 6

American Mercury with H. L. Mencken. He was the first important critic to extol the genius of Eugene O’Neill, publishing O’Neill’s early work in The Smart Set, and in later years he championed the plays of Sean O’Casey and William Saroyan. Nathan wrote during the most important period of American theatre’s history and set critical standards that are still being followed.

Questions for discussion:

1) Discuss with your classmates about how you understand patriotism and nationalism.

The difference between patriotism and nationalism is that the patriot is proud of one’s country for what it does, and the nationalist is proud of one’s country no matter what it does; the first attitude creates a feeling of responsibility, but the second a feeling of blind arrogance that may lead to war.

2) Boycotts of foreign products are considered patriotic by some people. What do you think about this?

Pros: Buying foreign products may weaken the national economy. Cons: Such boycotts may isolate the country from the world.

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