Connection

Deb, I think you are right when you say that my ENG 379 class has a lot of connections to our class.

When we were watching Margaret Cho's stand up comedy on YouTube the other day, it made me think of a short story that I read in my ENG 379 class called "Who's Irish" by Gish Jen.  Margaret Cho pokes fun at stereotypes that American people hold about Asian-Americans but in "Who's Irish" the narrator and her daughter are Chinese and her daughter, Natalie marries a man who is Irish.  The story is in the mother's point of view and she address many of the stereotypes that she as a Chinese woman holds towards people who are not Chinese, particularly people who are Irish.  She is not pleased that her daughter married an Irish man and together had a mixed child, named Sophie.  The narrator does not agree with her grand-daughter's wild behavior and says it is because her parents do not spank her.  When the narrator watches her grand-daughter she decides to spank her because she spanked her daughter who is well behaved because spanking was accepted in the Chinese culture and it is not in the "American" culture.  

I think this was an interesting story from the perspective of an Asian-American about stereotypes and cultural beliefs that she holds towards people who are not from the Asian decent.  Margaret Cho's stand up comedy reminded me of this story so I thought I would share this with you if anyone is interested in reading the very short story.