In the play And the Soul Shall Dance, Yamauchi provides an overview of the life of Japanese-immigrants in the United States. The author presents the conflict between the American and Japanese cultures as the immigrants long for their home country. The characters struggle to assimilate into the American culture as they encounter different practices. They have to adjust to the new location filled with tension, which makes it challenging to integrate (Yamauchi, 1977). The play depicts the differences between the immigrant’s culture and the alien culture they experience in America. However, they continue to apply cultural practices such as having a family bath, which each Japanese person has. When Masako’s family bath burns down, they are forced to use Mr. Oka’s because the family lived in poverty and could not afford to construct another one.
Additionally, other cultural traits practiced in the home country are depicted by Mrs. Oka, who performs a Japanese dance while picking flowers. In that case, dancing allows Mrs. Oka to escape America’s uncomfortable life to gain comfort from practicing her culture (Yamauchi, 1977). The significance of family and communism as cultural traits practiced in Japan is observed between the two immigrant families. They both strive to maintain contact despite the apparent differences between Masako’s and Mr. Oka’s family. The cultural orientation in Japan advocates for togetherness and the same is maintained abroad as the families strive to assimilate into the American culture.
The traits of Japanese and American culture have little in common, making the immigrants experience challenges integrating and assimilating in the foreign land. First, there is the language barrier and a different school system that Kiyoko-san has to get used to once she starts studying in America. The Japanese immigrants were also denied land ownership in America and had to move from one farm to another due to the harsh economic conditions (Sulaiman, 2014). The American system supports individualism, which complicates the assimilation of Japanese families in the country. However, Mr. Oka decided to work hard and help her daughter adapt to the American system. The families are forced to stay in the U.S. because the economic situation in Japan is worse. In that case, migration to America was a necessity to acquire material property and wealth. However, they face a different reality in a foreign country as they could not own possession. More so, the immigrants feel the urge to maintain their cultural identity, which they have to sacrifice to gain material benefits. In essence, securing Japanese identity becomes challenging in America due to the different cultural perspectives advanced in the country.
Immigrants in the US undergo a significant cultural identity crisis associated with nationality and language. Although the Oka’s and Murata’s migrated to America with a hope to return to their countries wealthy, the unfavorable conditions in the country shatter this dream. The immigrants have to realize that assimilating to the dominant society is not a choice if they want to co-exist peacefully. Although the parents have difficulty integrating into the American culture, their children find it easier, as observed in Kiyoko, by overcoming the language barrier a few months after joining the school in the US (Sulaiman, 2014). The Japanese have to endure racial discrimination in a foreign country that denies them the opportunity of owning land. Immigrants have to abandon their cultural heritage and identity and accept being Americanized to survive in the country. Furthermore, being distant from their homeland makes the Japanese families long to go back and experience the abundance of cultural heritage. The cultural alienation from western culture makes life in America extremely challenging for Japanese immigrants.
Two Kinds
Amy Tan’s Two Kinds provides an overview of the struggles Chinese immigrant mothers faced in American society. The story depicts a hopeful mother and a defiant daughter who refuses to adhere to the parents’ patriarchal-like system. Being born in America, the daughter has constructed her identity as an American, while the mother sees her from a Chinese immigrant’s perspective.
The cultural clash of identities between the mother and the daughter in Two Kinds depicts the conflict from generational identity and influence from the dominant American culture. It is possible to tell the kind of life the mother led in old China because of her patriarchal beliefs that do not allow children to choose their path. In most Chinese families, parents decide their child’s educational and career path from early life. In the same regard, the mother forces her daughter to become a genius pianist without considering what interests the young girl (Zhao, 2016). The mentality held by the mother betrays her as a Chinese woman, who was obedient and submissive to societal pressures. This ideology makes her hard on her daughter because she refuses to obey the parent and instead chooses to focus on her path.
The mother had hoped that her daughter would become a successful woman who experienced freedom, owned property, and lived the American dream. She worked hard cleaning houses to give her daughter formal education that would guarantee her success. However, despite the high hopes, the realities of living in America were harsh due to racial discrimination against the Chinese immigrants. The mother expected her daughter to be dutiful, obedient, submissive, and successful in order to have a good job and be competitive in the new world. However, the daughter believed that she did not have to become her mother’s ‘slave’ and do everything she required (Tan, 1998). In that way, her daughter’s Americanism led to defiance towards the pre-meditated lifestyle carved by the parents. In the end, she was disappointed many times as the daughter failed to conform to her wishes, and her hopes for the American dream were destroyed.
The primary conflict between the mother and the daughter relates to cultural identity, where the daughter is an Americanized individual, while the mother is a Chinese immigrant. The character does not submit to her mother’s efforts to create a pre-meditated American-Chinese woman. The cultural features of the mother and the challenges she experienced in China forces her to impose tests that test her daughter’s resilience (Zhao, 2016). Another conflict pertains to the inability to excel in education as the mother had hoped. She strives to make her daughter chase the American dream, a perception Chinese immigrants had while sailing from their native country. However, the daughter fails to conform to the expectations of a Chinese woman, who is humble and submissive. The mother believes that her daughter is bright despite having limited ability to succeed as a prodigy. She perceives the multiple possibilities for her daughter if she worked hard, but the latter was not interested as she only wanted to be herself.
To sum up, the realities of immigrants in the US are represented by And the Soul Shall Dance and Two Kinds, depicting the challenges of chasing the American dream in a culturally different environment. The Japanese families strive to achieve cultural assimilation as they have no other choice than to submit to the dominant American society. On the other hand, Chinese families have high expectations about their children excelling in America, although achieving this success is challenging. Therefore, the conflict of cultural identity in both works defines the challenges these immigrants experience while keeping up with the fast-paced American lifestyle.
References
Sulaiman, N. F. (2014). Cultural identity at the liminal spaces: A study of Wakako Yamauchi’s and the soul shall dance. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, 22(4), 1101-1114.
Tan, A. (1998). The joy luck club. London: Vintage Books.
Yamauchi, W. (1977). And the Soul Shall Dance. Theatre Communications Group.
Zhao, Y. (2016). The new role of contemporary immigrants. In 4th international conference on management science, education technology, arts, social science and economics 2016. Atlantis Press.