2004-1-4
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VOICE ONE:
The United States is made up mostly of people whose ancestors
came from other continents. Writers who came here from other
countries continue to explore how immigrants become American. I'm
Phoebe Zimmermann.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Steve Ember. We tell about four Asian- American writers
this week on THIS IS AMERICA from VOA Special English. Future
programs will tell about immigrant writers from South and Central
America, the Caribbean Islands, Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
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VOICE ONE:
One of the most popular American
writers is Amy Tan. Her best-known book is "The Joy Luck Club." It
is based partly on her life in the United States and her mother's
life in China. Amy Tan's parents left China just before the
Communist government took power in nineteen-forty-nine. Mizz Tan's
mother had to leave behind in China daughters from an earlier
marriage. The family settled in San Francisco, California. Amy and
her two brothers were born there.
A few years later, Mizz Tan's father and brother died of brain
cancer. This affected the family so much that her mother moved the
family to Switzerland. Mizz Tan developed a very difficult
relationship with her mother. It continued after she returned to the
United States.
VOICE TWO:
As an adult, Amy Tan operated a technical writing business for
many years. But she says she was not happy. She began writing short
stories. Some of them were published. They later became part of her
first book, "The Joy Luck Club," published in nineteen-eighty-nine.
The book was a great success. It remained on the New York Times
newspaper's best-seller list longer than any other book that year. A
popular film based on the book was also made.
Some of "The Joy Luck Club" takes place in China before the
revolution. It also describes the lives of Chinese-Americans in San
Francisco who do not get along well with their parents. The older
people feel closer to their old country, China. The children want to
be more American.
VOICE ONE:
Amy Tan also explores relationships between mothers and
daughters. One part of the book says: "And I was born to my mother
and I was born a girl. All of us are like stairs, one step after
another, going up and down, but all going the same way." Mizz Tan
said it was only after going to China with her mother that her own
identity became clear.
Amy Tan's other books include "The Kitchen God's Wife," "The
Hundred Secret Senses," and "The Bonesetter's Daughter." She also
wrote two books for children. Mizz Tan says many of her readers,
especially Chinese-Americans, feel she has presented the truth about
their issues and their lives.
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VOICE TWO:
Ha Jin is another important Chinese-American writer. His most
well-known book is "Waiting." It is about a doctor at an army
hospital in China. It won two main American prizes, the American
Book Award and the Pen/Faulkner Award, in nineteen-ninety-nine. Ha
Jin lives in Atlanta, Georgia. He teaches English and Creative
Writing at Emory University.
Ha Jin was born in
nineteen-fifty-six in Liaoning province, in northern China. He grew
up during the Cultural Revolution. Ha Jin joined the army at the age
of fourteen and served for six years. Colleges in China re-opened at
the end of the Cultural Revolution in nineteen-seventy-seven. Ha Jin
was made to study English, which had been his last choice. After
completing two degrees, he came to the United States in
nineteen-eighty-five for more study. He got a Ph.D. in English from
Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts and also studied
writing.
VOICE ONE:
Ha Jin and his wife had planned to return to China. However, he
says they changed their plans after the killings at Tiananmen
Square, in Beijing in nineteen-eighty-nine. He says he believed it
would be impossible to write honestly in China. He looked for jobs
at universities but could not get work, so he decided to write.
Ha Jin said he decided to write in English because he did not
think he would have readers in China. He said writing in English was
hard work but it also gave him freedom. Critics have praised his
language as being clear and powerful. Ha Jin has written two books
of poetry, two short story collections, and three novels.
VOICE TWO:
Most of Ha Jin's books are set in China. He has been called the
first Chinese writer in English to write about daily life under
Communist Party rule. Ha Jin does not talk directly about political
dissent in his work. But his writing is political because it shows
how the system affects the daily lives of Chinese people.
You might ask, what makes Ha Jin an American writer? He has
chosen the United States as his new home and he has chosen to write
in English. He says that he no longer knows what life is China is
like now. Ha Jin says the immigrant experience and American life are
meaningful to him now. He says he will soon write about this
experience.
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VOICE ONE:
Bharati Mukherjee has written a lot about the immigrant
experience, mainly of people from South Asia. She was born in
Calcutta, India, in nineteen-forty. She moved to the United States
in nineteen-sixty-one and married a Canadian-American writer. They
lived in Canada for fourteen years. Then they moved back to the
United States.
Mizz Mukherjee has written thirteen books. Five of them are about
true events. She wrote two of these non-fiction books with her
husband, Clark Blaise. The first, "Days and Nights in Calcutta," is
said to be Mizz Mukherjee's attempt to find her identity in her
Indian culture. She and her husband wrote it after living in India
for a year.
Mizz Mukherjee says during that time she realized that she was no
longer Indian in mind or in spirit. She now calls herself an
immigrant American writer. She tells about a "new America" made up
of people who have left a more traditional society to search for
happiness.
VOICE TWO:
Bharati Mukherjee came to North America before there was a large
population of South Asian immigrants. She says this made her life
difficult. She got advice from professionals who help get a writer's
work published. These agents advised her not to write about the
immigrant experience. They said she should write only about India.
She strongly rejected this because she considered herself an
American writer.
Some South Asian critics disagree with Mizz Mukherjee. They say
her books are popular because she writes about South Asian culture.
Yet she refuses to take a lead in the community life of South
Asian-Americans. However, Bharati Mukherjee says that as an
American, she can define herself in whatever way she chooses.
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VOICE ONE:
Experts say there is a clash between what the new and old
countries expect of immigrants and how they identify themselves.
This is important to the work of another South Asian-American
writer, Jhumpa Lahiri. But her experiences and opinions are
different from those of Bharati Mukherjee.
Mizz Lahiri's first book, "The Interpreter of Maladies," won
America's Pulitzer Prize in nineteen-ninety-nine. The writer was
only thirty-two years old. "The Interpreter of Maladies" is a
collection of short stories about Indian immigrants in America and
Indians in their own country.
Jhumpa Lahiri was born in London, England to Indian parents. The
family moved to the United States soon after Jhumpa was born.
However, they traveled to India many times while she was growing up.
Mizz Lahiri says the United States is her home, even though she
feels like an outsider. She says she shares some of her parents'
concerns. They consider India to be their home even though they have
not lived there for thirty years. These are the issues the writer
explores in her stories in clear and beautiful language.
VOICE TWO:
Mizz Lahiri's first novel, "The Namesake," was published in the
United States in August. Critics say the book is as good as her
first collection of stories. It is about an Indian-American boy
dealing with his life as a new American.
Experts say the immigrant experience is an adventure that each
generation deals with differently. More and more immigrants continue
to arrive in America from different parts of the world. They will
continue to write about immigrants' lives in different ways. Experts
say this new writing makes American culture richer because it
includes influences from around the world.
(THEME)
VOICE ONE:
This program was written by Doreen Baingana who is a
prize-winning writer from Uganda. It was produced by Caty Weaver.
I'm Phoebe Zimmermann.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more about life
in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS
AMERICA.