Summary Of The Chinatown Trunk Mystery By Mary Ting Yi Lui
In 1836, the gruesome death of a prostitute encaptivated the public eye and began a newspaper frenzy that centered on a morbid fixation of the life and death of Helen Jewett. Patricia Cline Cohen's The Murder of Helen Jewett pieces together the facts of Helen's life and death in an attempt to describe gender inequality in America by giving a meticulous account of life in the 1830s. (Insert small biography) Around three in the morning on Sunday, April 10, 1836 Rosina Townsend, the madam of the brothel, was spurred from her bed at the south end of Thomas St by a man knocking on the front door.
On the second night of March in 2016 in the quaint city of Burlington, Iowa, the body of 16-year-old Kedarie Johnson was found stuffed in an alley with two gunshots to the chest, a plastic bag shoved down his throat, and a bottle of bleach by his side. His murder in cold blood triggered a cascade of events that led to the murder trials of two men, questionable and controversial federal involvement backed by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and new light shed on continuing debates of gender identity inclusivity policies and legislature in the justice system. The Victim and His Murderers: Context A “popular junior, known for his infectious laugh and dazzling grin,” (Davey, 2017) Kedarie was an admired member of his community whose sudden death shook the inconsequential city he’d lived in. His family moved from the West Side of Chicago in hopes of a better future to the predominantly white area.
Her classmates stand in tight groups during school looking over their shoulders and whispering to each other and a neighborhood boy follows her home loudly chanting “Half-City Jiangs! Down with the landlord Half-City Jiangs!” Ji-li walks into the police station after a long moment of questioning if she really should. She looks in the directory for the household registration office and goes upstairs to where it is located. At first she does not see anyone but, after yelling a few times Officer Ma emerges from his chair with his chopsticks in hand.
Chinatown could be film noir on it’s, because it has the classic detective story, but it’s more of a neo-noir on it’s own, where a detective Jake gets caught up between lies, deceits, corruptions and murders. The film takes place in 1937 which is almost the time of Film Noir films, but not quiet. Chinatown has the look of film Noir, but with the trademark black and white and dark lighting gone. Neo-noir films are shot in colored, but has the style of a classic Noir. The style of Chinatown as a neo-noir film has similarities like a film noir, with the gentlemen in their suits, fedora hats, the ladies with the stylish dress and hair and everyone smokes.
Faced with stereotypes in America, Lee is also tormented in China for his American nationality and lack of modern cultural awareness. Both communities view Lee and Chinese-Americans as “others”, refusing to fully accept them culturally or socially. Lee is foreign everywhere, since he is not a white American or a Chinese citizen. Only able to find solidarity in the community of “othered” Chinese-Americans, Lee feels more accepted in America than in China. However, those that only see Lee for his ethnicity and not for his inner person are racist against him because he does not fit the mold of what a “perfect” American is supposed to look and sound like.
Everyone in Seattle might be familiar with a place called Chinatown. It is a place where you can feel a Chinese-like atmosphere. It was also constructed as the International District station (Thumbnail History). The Chinatown – International District has been the historical, cultural, and political center for Seattle’s Asian American communities. For the first generation immigrants, it was their first home in Seattle.
Groups who demand change to government policies and decisions are called pressure groups. There are many pressure groups, following the interests of economics, religion, health, human rights, or the environment. But are any of these groups successful? One environmental group that has made many accomplishments is Sierra Club BC.
William Rabe… demanded that the Common Council immediately investigate the Chinese settlement in the city” when there were only 2,000 Chinese individuals living in this area, yet this was enough to catch the attention of doctors and council officials (Shah, 171). Shah proves the American fear of the Chinese people by explaining “the city council’s unusual requirement that they build outside city limits… and in the end refused any plans for a Chinese hospital” due to the descriptions of the filthy living conditions alongside the plethora of rumors within the city (Shah, 174). The author explains that Bates, a health officer in a high position of power, created “comparisons to farm animals, feeding a perception not only of Chinese immigrant’s inferiority but also of their inhumanity” and uses visual descriptors to create an overarching image of the Chinese rather than purely uses fact-based evidence (Shah, 175). In addition, the writer disproves Thomas Logan’s investigation by his incorrect view of “behavior and body as both the cultural and biological heritage of the Chinese ‘race’” and how his “vivid and visceral narration of the midnight journey through Chinatown became one of the stand forms of knowledge used in both medical and popular accounts to establish the truth of Chinatown as the preeminent site of vice, immorality, degradation, crime, and disease (Shah, 177). It is explained that Logan’s eyewitness and use of overexaggerated descriptors were widely accepted without any real statistical evidence or proof.
“Money can’t buy happiness.” “Money isn’t everything, its just paper.” Anyone who has ever grown up without money and lamented about it has heard these kinds of phrases many times. In looking around our culture and society today it would be hard to say those statements are true. While everyone has problems, rich and poor alike, having money gives you access to more solutions to those problems.
Chapter six examines the anti-Chinese sentiment with the emerging class antagonism and turmoil between white capitalists and workers. The unwelcomed arrival of Chinese immigrants brought along their own social organizations such as the huiguan, fongs, and tongs. These types of social organizations secured areas of employment and housing for Chinese immigrants in California. This social structure that was unknown to Anglos led them to also categorize Chinese on the same level as Indians by depicting them as lustful heathens whom were out to taint innocent white women. These images were also perpetuated onto Chinese women, thus, also sexualizing them as all prostitutes.
“Her actions remind me that, even under unbearable circumstances, one can still believe in justice,” in David Henry Hwang’s foreword, in Ji-Li Jiang’s memoir Red Scarf Girl, commemorated even during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution anyone can overcome adversity (9). Ji-Li Jiang was a young teenager at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, and living through a very political time in China’s history made Ji-Li into the person she is today. Ji-Li’s intelligence, her choices, and family devotion made her into the headstrong and successful person she is today. Even when Ji-li thought she was unintelligent, others saw she was wise. There were many moments when Ji-Li was reminded she was very smart.
Even though there was an advantage of Chinese immigrant that most of them live in Chinatown, “which provided them with essential foods and services as well as jobs that relied primarily on trade with China” (chapter 4,4). A family without income could not survive. The statics shows that the unemployment rate of men was outnumbered women; therefore, the women in the family became the backbone of the family, “they often kept the family alive” (,15). The hard work of Chinese American women made their family survive. During the day, they worked hard, and during the night, they needed to take care of their family.
Similarly, David Hwang’s 10-minute play “Trying to Find Chinatown” centers on an encounter between Ronnie, a Chinese-American street musician, and Benjamin, a Caucasian tourist from Wisconsin who identifies himself as Asian-American, in the busy street of New York. In the play, “each character defines who he believes he is: Benjamin is convinced he is a Chinese American, and Ronnie sees
This places Asians in an awkward middle, where they are neither treated as a part of the minorities nor white people, and are neither perpetrators nor victims. Because of the social view of Asians, troubles within this community are less addressed and even less covered, forgetting the fact that Asian Americans are still vulnerable to political turmoil and racism. The argument of race has become too black and white, and there is minimal contemplation of what it feels like to be Asian American in today’s society, as their history has been periodically
The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston addresses prevalent topics faced in America today. How should women act? Should women be treated differently from men? In her memoir, Kingston faces many obstacles with her Chinese-American identity such as finding her voice as a young woman. In “White Tigers,” Kingston tells her own version of a popular Chinese ballad, “Fa Mu Lan,” while incorporating her own reality back into the section.
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