Yin Chin Analysis

The Ripple Effect of Ignorance - Yin Chin

Maracle chooses to display the ripple effect of racism by shedding light on the unjust treatment of the First Nations and Chinese people by writing a story of a First Nation who grew up in a mixed neighborhood that is flooded with prejudice and stereotypes. Maracle further challenges the recurring stereotypes of societal views of minority groups by addressing them through the speaker’s point of view. While sounding like a stereotypical Chinese name or word, the title “Yin Chin” stems from the related sounding word Injun, a way to describe a stereotypical First Nations man or woman who is a “savage warrior” (Churchill 1998). The word dates back to the early settlement of English colonists as a way

The poem mentions a flower, one that is “unsweetened by rain, untarnished by simpering, uncuckolded by men” (Maracle 156), pointing out to the reader that the flower is tenacious regardless of the situation that it is placed in. Maracle intentionally chooses a flower to represent the Chinese, as oftentimes a flower is symbolizes “strength and courageousness” (Koehn 1952) in chinese culture, revealing the respect that Maracle has for the Chinese. A discriminatory act upon the Chinese was the racial segregation into Chinatown during the time of the gold rush and the building of the railroad. Overtime, the segregation caused many Chinese to be silenced, fearing for their lives. Maracle chooses to dedicate the poem to Sky Lee and Jim Wong-Chu to show gratitude for the developments they have made towards encouraging the Chinese community to speak out against

In Knoph’s “Sharing our Story with All Canadians”, Knoph emphasizes the effects of propaganda on the First Nation by describing the “colonizing gaze to depict Aboriginal culture to be inferior” (Knoph 89), showing that the aboriginals were brainwashed to believe they had to adapt to the newfound culture. The narrator speaks of the uniform brainwashing of minority groups in order to appeal to western culture; “in the face of a crass white world we has erased so much of ourselves and sketched so many cartoons characters of white people over-top the emptiness inside” (Maracle 158), revealing that the heritage of the older generations will soon be completely forgotten. Maracle chose to implement the idea of brainwashing into the story to place emphasis on the importance of carrying on traditions to remember the roots instead of becoming a one indifferent