The Active Chase to Fish Cheeks Reading

In "The Chase", Annie Dillard shows us the importance of putting everything you've got into anything you try to accomplish. Through her elaborate chase, she reveals that she, Mikey, and even the adult enjoy the run. At the very end, the adult has an almost pleased, elated aura about him, and commences with his "You stupid kids..." speech as a formality. She compares this chase to the race of life, and how we must put conviction and true heart into it. Her ultimate purpose is to show that although the ending is enjoyable, the true adventure lies in the chase, in the run, in the fact that you put in 100%. At the end of every track meet, we may or may not win trophies, but the journey to that point in itself is incredible, with the friendships made and  life lessons learned.

On another hand, we read about Amy Tan, an American-Chinese, and her experiences during Christmas in "Fish Cheeks". As an angst-y teenage girl set on pleasing her American crush, Robert, the whole of the narrative is written from the American perspective. She describes her favorite foods as being disgusting and unappealing because she doesn't think that Robert would enjoy them. This is understandable (though not in that way); I would feel a little sick if I were to bring "Red cooked pigs-feet" to school and eat them with relish in front of my horrified table-mates. She all but faints when her father burps and encourages the minister to do so too. In the end, Amy's mother comforts her with a miniskirt, and after Amy has grown up and become wiser in the ways of the world, she understands her mother's true intent. I think that as an Asian-American girl, these cultural differences become more defined in the teens. You want to please others and identify with the "group", so when your parents do Asian things, you feel embarrassed and lash out at your parents and blame everything: your culture and the fact that your parents don't have perfect English. As you age, you begin to realize that it doesn't matter what others think, it's what makes you happy. {I feel ashamed for being so mean to my parents now and I have apologized to them numerous times for being such a dishonorable daughter.} You mellow out, become less self-conscious, and identify with both the American and Chinese aspects of yourself with no bad feelings, and in fact, it's even exciting to learn a little more about both sides. {It was only last year that I finally mustered up the courage to ask an Anglo-Saxon American what they really eat everyday, other than the hamburgers, pizza, pasta, and steak I think they eat.} You think "I do what I want. They can take me or they can leave me, but I won't change or feel bad for who I am." 

--Maybe one of these days I will bring pigs-feet to school and stand in the middle of the cafeteria screaming into the microphone, "I like eating pigs-feet Chinese style and there is nothing you can do about it! Call me strange, call it disgusting, but I will still eat pigs-feet!"--

I would end on a short anecdote regarding the Chinese experience, especially on Chinese New Year's Day (Happy Year of the Snake, by the way! And the picture to the left is actually two people in a lion costume.) Maybe I could recount a tale of sitting down to a table laden with noodles, dumplings, rice cakes, oranges, squirrel fishes and more. But, I ate American last night because my parents didn't feel like cooking, so unfortunately, nothing here.

I can only hope that my Mom and Dad make up for this by making some serious eats tonight.