Transcript of After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town
A clash of cultures and the lessons of Capitalism "After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town"
Ha Jin (2000) Ha Jin- a short biography Jin moved to the States from China in 1985.
He has a Ph.D in English and now teaches at Boston University.
His writing mostly revolves around social issues relating to his homeland. He writes as "the writer, as immigrant, as self-exile, as scholar, as human-rights advocate" (Project Muse).
He describes his writing as about, "those unfortunate people who suffered, endured or perished at the bottom of life and who created history and at the same time were fooled or ruined by it" (Project Muse). The setting of an American franchise trying to set up shop in a Chinese town creates a clash of cultures and values. A Clash of Cultures While Western culture values the individual, the Chinese are much more collectivist. Their lives are centered around honor and respect. In the business world, the Chinese build very strong, formal relationships and do no like to work with people they don't know. They tend to be very mistrusting of foreigners (Kwintessential). "That was because to us a Jew was just another foreigner, no different from any other white devil. We still cannot tell the difference." ~Hongwen "Amercian dogs" "Foreign lackeys!" Throughout the story, Hongwen and his fellow employees learn a lot about Capitalism and more specifically American business. The Lessons of Capitalism Mr Shapiro has a number of practices and "company policies" that upset his employees including:
No employee discount
Employees could not take home leftovers
He rarely talked to them or respected their wishes Mr Shapiro has to learn his own lessons about business in China when he attempts to have a buffet, hosts a wedding dinner, and gets strike threats from his employees. Employees vs. The American Boss The main conflict that arises in the story is between the Chinese employees and the American boss. After moving to the states and getting a Ph.D, Jin decided to become a writer. He then had to decide whether to write in his native language or the language he had spent years studying, for he could not do both because "life would be too short". Chinese vs. English "...but in the English language, there is a great tradition where nonnative writers became essential writers. I was aware of that tradition and thought my success would depend on whether I had the ability and the luck. That's why it took a year for me to decide to write in English. Also, I realized this would be a lifelong devotion once it was decided." ~Ha Jin (Project Muse interview) The reader can see the collectivism of Chinese culture in the way the employees react when they are angered by their boss. They do not strike out individually as we might, but arrange meetings, come to agreements, set plans. All of their actions are done as a whole. They even sign a contract promising to share any profits they might benefit from their uprising. They also experience the upside of American business, receiving higher wages that always come on time. Compared with Chinese, state run companies, they are very lucky. "When I was a graduate student at Brandeis, the embassy, the Chinese embassy, used to send us The People's Daily, the overseas edition, not the same paper read in China but the overseas edition. They used to send it to us free, so once I read an article in it, oh, a terrible article, about an American fast-food chain that burned unsold fried chicken at night. And for the Chinese people this was crazy, but the article claimed that this American way would eventually reduce waste, because they would not fry too many pieces of chicken anymore. I just couldn't buy it, no matter what, because I knew there were people who were starving. And there were homeless people and starving people. How could you burn chicken at night? I just couldn't take it. I was bothered by it. So many years later, I started from that feeling, from that episode. Of course, it has a lot of episodes. It's not a story with a plot, just one episode after another. It's like a piece of life." ~Ha Jin (Project Muse) Where did you get the idea? Sharing the Wealth Of Course, in our culture it is very commonplace to see an entrepreneur rise in the business world and become very rich from their profits. This story exemplifies two ways of thinking when it comes to how individuals and societies should handle wealth. The employees of Cowboy Chicken are outraged to find out how much more their manager makes than them and also that he burns the leftover chicken after every day. These practices go against their Chinese values. Kwintessential. "China- Language, Culture, Customs and Etiquette". Web.
Siciliano, Jana. Book Reporter. "Review: The Bridegroom: Stories". January 21, 2011. Web.
Varsava, Jerry A. "An interview with Ha Jin". Project Muse. Contemporary Literature, Spring 2010. Journal. Works Cited This story was published in a book of short stories
เสียงบรรยายจากคาวบอยมาไก่เมืองการปะทะของวัฒนธรรมและบทเรียนของทุนนิยม "หลังจากคาวบอยไก่มาการเมือง"ฮา จิ (2000) ฮา จิ - ประวัติโดยย่อจิย้ายไปอเมริกาจากประเทศจีนในปี 1985เขามีปริญญาเอกอังกฤษ และตอนนี้ สอนที่มหาวิทยาลัยบอสตันการเขียนของเขาส่วนใหญ่ revolves รอบประเด็นทางสังคมที่เกี่ยวข้องกับบ้านเกิดเมืองนอนของเขา เขาเขียนเป็น "ผู้เขียน เป็น immigrant เป็น self-exile เป็นนักเรียนทุน เป็นทนายสิทธิมนุษยชน" (โครงการมิวส์)เขาอธิบายการเขียนของเขาที่เกี่ยวกับ "ผู้โชคร้ายที่รับความเดือดร้อน ทน หรือ perished ที่ด้านล่างของชีวิตและผู้ที่สร้างประวัติศาสตร์ และ ในเวลาเดียวกัน ถูกหลอก หรือเจ๊งโดย" (โครงการมิวส์) ค่าแฟรนไชส์เป็นอเมริกันพยายามตั้งอยู่ในเมืองจีนสร้างความขัดข้องของวัฒนธรรมและค่า แคลชของวัฒนธรรมในขณะที่ตะวันตกวัฒนธรรมค่าบุคคล จีนมี collectivist มาก ชีวิตของพวกเขาเป็นศูนย์กลางรอบ ๆ เกียรติและเคารพ ในโลกธุรกิจ จีนสร้างความสัมพันธ์ที่แข็งแรงมาก อย่างเป็นทางการ และทำเหมือนไม่ทำงานกับคนที่พวกเขาไม่ทราบ พวกเขามักจะ mistrusting มากของชาวต่างชาติ (Kwintessential) "ที่ได้เนื่องจากเรา ความรอด ต่างด้าวเพียงหนึ่ง ไม่แตกต่างจากปีศาจสีขาวอื่น ๆ เรายังไม่สามารถบอกความแตกต่างได้" ~ Hongwen "Amercian สุนัข""ต่างประเทศ lackeys " ตลอดเรื่องราว Hongwen และคนของเขาเรียนรู้มากเกี่ยวกับทุนนิยมและอื่น ๆ โดยเฉพาะงานในสหรัฐอเมริกา เรียน Shapiro นายทุนนิยมมีแนวทางปฏิบัติและ "บริษัทนโยบาย" ที่พนักงานของเขารวมถึงอารมณ์เสีย:ไม่มีส่วนลดพนักงานพนักงานอาจจะเหลือที่บ้านHe rarely talked to them or respected their wishes Mr Shapiro has to learn his own lessons about business in China when he attempts to have a buffet, hosts a wedding dinner, and gets strike threats from his employees. Employees vs. The American Boss The main conflict that arises in the story is between the Chinese employees and the American boss. After moving to the states and getting a Ph.D, Jin decided to become a writer. He then had to decide whether to write in his native language or the language he had spent years studying, for he could not do both because "life would be too short". Chinese vs. English "...but in the English language, there is a great tradition where nonnative writers became essential writers. I was aware of that tradition and thought my success would depend on whether I had the ability and the luck. That's why it took a year for me to decide to write in English. Also, I realized this would be a lifelong devotion once it was decided." ~Ha Jin (Project Muse interview) The reader can see the collectivism of Chinese culture in the way the employees react when they are angered by their boss. They do not strike out individually as we might, but arrange meetings, come to agreements, set plans. All of their actions are done as a whole. They even sign a contract promising to share any profits they might benefit from their uprising. They also experience the upside of American business, receiving higher wages that always come on time. Compared with Chinese, state run companies, they are very lucky. "When I was a graduate student at Brandeis, the embassy, the Chinese embassy, used to send us The People's Daily, the overseas edition, not the same paper read in China but the overseas edition. They used to send it to us free, so once I read an article in it, oh, a terrible article, about an American fast-food chain that burned unsold fried chicken at night. And for the Chinese people this was crazy, but the article claimed that this American way would eventually reduce waste, because they would not fry too many pieces of chicken anymore. I just couldn't buy it, no matter what, because I knew there were people who were starving. And there were homeless people and starving people. How could you burn chicken at night? I just couldn't take it. I was bothered by it. So many years later, I started from that feeling, from that episode. Of course, it has a lot of episodes. It's not a story with a plot, just one episode after another. It's like a piece of life." ~Ha Jin (Project Muse) Where did you get the idea? Sharing the Wealth Of Course, in our culture it is very commonplace to see an entrepreneur rise in the business world and become very rich from their profits. This story exemplifies two ways of thinking when it comes to how individuals and societies should handle wealth. The employees of Cowboy Chicken are outraged to find out how much more their manager makes than them and also that he burns the leftover chicken after every day. These practices go against their Chinese values. Kwintessential. "China- Language, Culture, Customs and Etiquette". Web. Siciliano, Jana. Book Reporter. "Review: The Bridegroom: Stories". January 21, 2011. Web.Varsava, Jerry A. "An interview with Ha Jin". Project Muse. Contemporary Literature, Spring 2010. Journal. Works Cited This story was published in a book of short stories
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