Japanese people began emigrating to the United States in significant numbers in the
1880s, Koreans at the end of the nineteenth century, and Filipinos from about 1900.
Although the majority of immigrants from these Asian American groups tended to be
single men, some were married and brought their wives with them: with the result that a
second generation born in the United States – called nisei among the Japanese –
appeared earlier than it did among the Chinese. Here, the formative writers in the earlier
part of the twentieth century, respective to the different cultural groups, were Etsu
Sugimoto (1873–1950), Younghill Kang (1903–1972), and Carlos Bulosan
(1917–1956). Etsu Sugimoto produced what was possibly the first of a substantial
amount of nisei writing that appeared in the 1920s and 1930s, an autobiographical
novel titled A Daughter of the Samurai (1925). True to the rich mixture of cultural
influences at work in these texts, the book juxtaposes the American life of its author with
portraits of Japan that are both actual and fictional. Sugimoto has been called an
ambassador of goodwill, writing to promote understanding and appreciation of
Japanese Americans; and she combines a mostly favorable portrait of Japanese life
with a complimentary account of America.
Younghill Kang was born in Korea, educated first in the Confucian tradition and then
in Christian mission schools, and emigrated to the United States in 1921. Unlike
Sugimoto, who tended to see herself as a guest in the United States, Kang desperately
desired acceptance and to make America his home. Describing himself as self-educated,
Kang read English and American classic literature voraciously, and attended classes at
Harvard and Boston universities while working to support himself. With the help of his
American wife, he began writing in English in 1928; then, while he was teaching at New
York University, he became friends with Thomas Wolfe. Wolfe read some of the book
228 Making It New: 1900–1945
Kang was working on at the time, and took it to his own editor. It was published in 1931
as The Grass Roof. A novel about the life of a young man in Korea up to his departure for
America, it had plainly autobiographical roots. Well received, it was followed by East
Goes West (1937), the story of the life of a Korean in America. But, while the portrait of
Korea as a “planet of death” in The Grass Roof had been applauded, Kang’s account of
American prejudice and Korean problems in America hit a less responsive chord.
Carlos Bulosan also emigrated to America while he was a young man. In 1930 he left
his birthplace in the Philippines, after an impoverished childhood. He worked in the
United States as an itinerant laborer and union activist. Eventually, he became one of
the best-known Filipino writers in the United States, writing poetry, short stories, and
essays about Filipino American life between the 1930s and the 1950s. His fame grew
during and after World War II, when he produced such works as Letter from America
(1942),The Voice of Bataan (1944), Laughter of My Father (1944), andThe Dark People
(1944). But it is for his autobiographical narrative, America is in the Heart(1943), that
he is best known. Divided into four parts, the book opens in 1918 with the young
Carlos sharing the extreme economic hardship of his family. Aware of the gross
inequities of Filipino society, American cultural imperialism in the Philippines, and
the need for “radical social change,” Carlos embarks for the United States. Part two
then sees him arrive in Seattle. Traveling around, eking out a meager existence in a series
of seasonal jobs, he comes into contact with the Filipino labor movement. Forced into a
ghettoized existence, he also becomes aware of just how hostile and racist a society
America is. The second part of America is in the Heart ends, though, with a clear
articulation of hope from another character, who tells Carlos, “America is a prophecy of
a new society of men.” And part three documents Carlos’s transformation into a
radicalized union activist, working for the Filipino labor movement. The short, final
section, in turn, shows Bulosan achieving some literary success. ReadingThe Grass Roof,
he reflects, “Why could I not succeed as Younghill Kang had?” This spurs him on to
write his own story: an act which he sees as his means of fighting for a better life in
America. “The time had come, I felt, for me to utilize my experiences in written form,”
Bulosan explains. “I had something to live for now, and to fight the world with.”
Writing also becomes his means of feeling he belongs. “It came to me that no man ...
could destroy my faith in America again,” he concludes his narrative. “It was something
that grew out of the sacrifices ... of my brothers ... I know that no man could destroy
my faith in America.”
Native American voices
Among Native American writers
No comments:
Post a Comment