The origins of Asian-American literature date back to the 1970s. However, the turning point in its development occurred no earlier than 1982 when Elaine Kim published her seminal book of criticism, Asian American Literature: An Introduction to the Writings and Their Social Context. Since then, the field of Asian-American literature has expanded significantly and grown to incorporate a multitude of themes concerning race, politics, gender roles, and ethnicity. A special focus is put on integrating diverse cultural influences and searching for one’s own meaning of Asian roots and the reality of living in America. The lived experiences of Asian-American women take a special place within the body of the literature as their identities find themselves at the intersection of race and gender. The Asian-American writer Laura Chow Reeve’s short story 1,000 Years-Old Ghosts that coming to terms with one’s identity requires respecting ancestral memory.
The story 1,000 Years-Old Ghosts revolves around three generations of Asian-American women, with the oldest one, referred to as Popo, being the newcomer to the United States from Vietnam. This makes her daughter, Anne, a second-generation immigrant who further assimilated to the new country by marrying an Asian raised in America. In turn, Katie, the granddaughter, has never lived in her family’s country of origin, and her only vehicle of connecting with her ancestry is through the other two women. Unfortunately, Katie is having a difficult time learning about family history because both the mother and the grandmother prefer to keep silent about past events. Reeve describes the process of memory suppression with a metaphor of pickling. Popo and Anne are literally “bottling up” their feelings: they never let them out and, instead, confine them in jars. Katie adopts this family practice early on and does so with inconvenient and traumatic memories herself.
Asian-American women’s reluctance to share feelings has roots in Asian traditions and historical events. Kim explains that the United States has a long history of discrimination against Asian immigrants (22). In the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, racism was overt and translated into race-specific taxes or prohibition of school attendance by Asian children (Kim 22). After World War II, discrimination against Asians turned from overt to covert as the Asian-American community became recognized as an important contributor to the economy (Kim 22). However, the remodeling of the Asian-American identity toward the “model,” “successful” minority came with a price. Now Asians had to work hard to keep up their image and conceal all the problems that their community might have been experiencing (Kim 22). The demands of retaining the newly acquired status intertwined with Asian traditions that prescribed one to never lose one’s face. It could be that Katie’s family’s suppression of emotions was a result of these two influences.
Moreover, women’s role comes into play when it comes to processing the past. Kim argues that Asian-American women are targets of both White sexism and gender-specific stereotypes stemming from their respective Asian cultures (35). Confucianism that formed gender roles in East Asia prescribes women to be obedient, sacrificial, and distrust themselves because they are inferior to men (Kim 35). In American society, Asian women are often seen as shy, submissive, demure, and childlike (Kim 36). It is readily imaginable where Popo and Anne’s fear to be inconvenient because of their emotional expression comes from.
The youngest woman, Katie, faces the choice of critically assessing the elements of her native culture, accepting or rejecting them. The other women in the family are quick to express their opinions. For example, Popo thinks that it is better if Katie does not learn the language because this way, she “will stop longing for things they cannot have” (Reeve). She reasons that “not everyone can survive being split into two” (Reeve). The assignment of meaning to things and phenomena are part of affective economies, as described by Ahmed (120). Ahmed argues that structures of feelings are social; they are born in interaction and, thus, capable of impacting other people’s experiences (121). Meaning and feelings are not inherent properties of objects because, originally, everything is neutral. It is people who actively create meaning and “stick” it to things (Ahmed 121). In other words, the circulation of emotions in the affective marketplace defines the value of objects.
Popo and Anne’s attitude toward their cultural identity can be understood from the perspective of Ahmed’s affective economics. Growing up in a country hostile to Asian immigrants, Popo internalized the feeling of inferiority. At the same time, she externalized her identity and all the related memories and stored them in jars. Inadvertently, the oldest woman passed her views down to younger generations and shaped their understanding of what it is like to be an Asian-American woman in the United States. Katie’s alienation is amplified by her negative experiences, such as being catcalled on the street by men fetishizing Asian women or told that she is pretty only because she is mixed.
The question arises as to whether it is at all possible to make race a relic and racial issues a thing of the past. Santa Ana opines that neoliberal multiculturalism appraises colorblindness and seeks to build a post-racial society where racial belonging will be completely absent (180). The author explains her skepticism about “getting over race” because people of color are reminded of who they are by society throughout their lives (Santa Ana 181). In fact, denying race is not only improbable but also harmful because it robs people of opportunities to “feel ancestral” – deeply emotionally attached to their native roots (Santa Ana 181). Reeve’s 1,000-Year-Old Ghosts demonstrates that “feeling ancestral” may be key to healing and integrating the two separate parts of self. The story ends with Katie opening pickle jars after the death of her mother and reliving all the emotions to which she has never had access. Though the character is overwhelmed, she discovers that she is “lo longer split into two.”
Identity issues and assimilation are two common themes in Asian-American literature. In 1,000-Year-Old Ghosts, Reeve explores the two topics but puts her own spin on them by adding the complexities of female experience to the mix. The short story’s mother and grandmother prefer to silence all memories, which can be explained by historical racism against Asians in the US and Confucian traditions. They translate the inferiority of being Asian and speaking Vietnamese to Katie, the daughter. The older women assign their own negative meaning to Asian-American experiences and hide them from Katie, preventing her from having a full picture. However, it is the revelation of these memories that ultimately heals the heroine and makes her feel whole.
Works Cited
Ahmed, Sara. “Affective Economies.” Social Text, vol. 22, no. 2, 2004, pp. 117-139.
Santa Ana, Jeffrey. “Feeling Ancestral: Memory and Postracial Sensibility in Mixed-Race Asian American Literature.” Racial Feelings: Asian America in a Capitalist Culture of Emotion, edited by Jeffrey Santa Ana, Temple University Press, 2015, pp. 174-200.
Kim, Jean. Processes of Asian American Identity Development: A Study of Japanese American Women’s Perceptions of Their Struggle to Achieve Positive Identities as Americans of Asian ancestry. Dissertation, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 1981.
Reeve, Laura Chow. “1,000-Year-Old Ghosts.” Hyphen, 2016, Web.