Daughters of Amy Tan

From a stranger's perspective, I'm a wonderful hybrid of two cultures: Chinese and American. However, I can't identify completely with that label. I am a rather light-skinned Asian. I speak fluent English, but choppy Chinese and even worse Korean. I'm part of the rather large Asian minority at my high school, but I can't eat with chopsticks- or, to be fair, I really dislike to. I am Amy Tan during her high school years.

In "Fish Cheeks", Amy is embarrassed by her Chinese heritage and is given a lesson by her mother: (simply) be proud of who you are. Whereas there is nothing wrong with assimilating into a new culture, the way Amy tries to do it is shameful. She rejects her favorite dishes and despises her loud family, turning red at every reminder. She needed to do so, though. In passing through this immature phase, she, finally, understands the importance of her history. She knows that staying "Chinese on the inside" helps her find her identity.

However, if she progressed through high school with only absorbing half the knowledge her mother imparted on her, she'd turn out similarly to me. She'd admit that it's hard to hold onto traditions of the old land when contemporary, Americanized behaviors are thrown at her. She'd know that when elderly Chinese Aunties tell her (in Chinese, of course), "Oh! You look so beautiful! Almost like a white girl!" that it's okay to cringe at the racial stereotype. She'd understand that being split in two cultures is too hard to do and that she can't succeed in fully maintaining both halves of the whole.