Chinese vs. Irish

Blog #2




Gish Jen’s “Who’s Irish?” showed not only that there is a generation gap between grandmother, mother, and daughter but also a cultural disparity between the Chinese side of the family and the Irish. To add to the mix of culture, they are living in America in which a third culture comes into play. What I like most about this story the grandmother/narrator’s relationship with Sophie, her granddaughter. She does not understand this child nor does she agree with how her parents are raising her. All she sees is a wild child that needs to be tamed; needs to be, in her opinion, more Chinese. “Nothing the matter with Sophie’s outside, that’s the truth. It is inside that she is like not any Chinese girl I ever see. We go to the park, and this is what she does. She stand up in the stroller. She take off her all her clothes and throw them in the fountain” (Jen, 180). Multiple times, she references how children in China do not act like her. “Millions of children in China, not one act like this” (Jen, 183). Since Sophie is half Chinese and half Irish, the grandmother is convinced “there is more trouble with Sophie, but now I think I can help her Chinese side fight against her wild side” (Jen, 182). I take this to mean that the Chinese side will fight the Irish side and will win. Based on the above mentioned quotes, it appears that Sophie looks Chinese but the Irish side, her wild side, is what is controlling her behavior.

One thing about Sophie is her will power; her determination to get her way. Try as she might, grandmother cannot break her spirit. Repeated spankings, loss of food and no more trips to the park might work temporarily but Sophie continues to do as she wishes. “A Chinese child would give up but not Sophie” (Jen, 184). I must admit, the child did seem a little out of control or was she just being a three year old? Was grandmother unable to get Sophie to behave as she wanted her to because Sophie had two parents who were counterproductive when it came to disciplining her? They believed they could talk to her and rationalize with her. You cannot rationalize with a three year old! This is where cultural and generational conflict comes in. The grandmother I’m sure used similar methods on her daughter but by the time her daughter had her own daughter, she approached parenting and discipline in a much different way plus she was married to a man who came from a different background (Irish) than hers and based on how lazy he and his siblings appeared to be and the fact that their mother continued to take care of them into adulthood is most likely a reflection of what life was like when they were growing up. They didn’t have to do anything and mommy will take care of everything. There was also the American conflict in that “In America, parents not supposed to spank the child. It gives them low self-esteem, my daughter say. And that leads to problems later, as I happen to know” (Jen, 181). All of these factors clashed making it difficult for grandmother to understand Sophie and discipline her effectively.

I loved this piece. There were several parts that made me laugh but mostly I could feel grandmother’s frustration in trying to control a child that simply was not willing to be controlled. Was it is Chinese side? Her Irish side? Or simply a product of two parents who were too busy and diluted in their thinking about child rearing that created such an unruly little girl? I love that the Chinese grandmother had an elitist attitude in her assessment of Sophie in that it must be her Irish side that makes her wild, it could never be her Chinese side since Chinese girls do not act like she acted.

I've attached Mily Cyrus' video "Can't be Tamed".  While I know it has nothing to do with Asian/Irish culture, she claims she can't be tamed or controlled, just like little Sophie!