5/11 Kurup/Lowe

Both Kurup and Lowe’s pieces talk about the ideas of breaking away from tradition. They both utilize different stories in which relate to the idea of a form of rebellion and going against traditions that have been places on people since birth. In Lowe’s analysis, I felt like the short story I could relate a lot with is the story of Connie and Lisa where they avoid conversation about who is considered “more Chinese.” I related to this because to some people, they consider Taiwanese to be the same thing as Chinese. Not only throughout my youth, I was one (or only) of the few Asians in my class. People such as other students and even a teacher thought I was Japanese. This made me ashamed of my culture because of how often I had to correct people and eventually got tired of it. As I got older, I learned to embrace my culture similar to Connie and Lisa. In fact, I face the same struggle where I see myself as “not Chinese enough.” In fact, because my life is revolved around American culture, I feel like that my original heritage is breaking away from the regular Taiwanese tradition. Even at times, I want to break away from the American culture due to the ignorance that is typically revolved around it. This can be seen in multiple stories where children of immigrants want to break away from their Asian heritage in order to fit in with the American culture.