Author: yinghe (Page 1 of 2)

Essay3 Page Draft

Yinghe Zhao

ENG 1121 (Prof.Scanlan)

Essay3 Page Draft

5/17/20

Life Is a Long Journey

In Ha Jin’s A Good Fall, the central characters are Ganchin, Master Zong, Cindy, and Fanku and they belong to two main camps, the good and the evil. The good is to describe people like Ganchin, Fanku, and Cindy — Ganchin follows the rules to be a good monk and doesn’t want to hurt anyone, Fanku and Cindy tries their best to help Ganchin, and in the end Cindy brings everyone to help Ganchin.  The evil is to describe people like Master Zong — He was a selfish man who wanted to be wealthy, so he refused to pay Ganchin (and the monks who used to work in his temple) salary, kept his passport and forced Ganchin to go to the airport to send him home. In the short story it shows each character’s types of ethics (especially deontology and utilitarian) for the specific things. 

In Holly E. Martin’s article “Falling Into America: The Downside of Transnational Identities in Ha Jin’s A Good Fall,” documenting the hardships of immigrant life in the United States. On the other hand, in Colm Toibin’s article “ Exiles From Themselves: Ha Jin’s characters are far both from China and from their sense of who they are,” explore the Chinese immigrants in the United State are uneasy about their new country. While the obvious ethics is deontology in Ha Jin’s “A Good Fall,” another one is utilitarian ethics. Among the five types of ethics, the reason that deontology ethics and utilitarian ethics are more valuable is because the setting and context of the story point to Chinese immigrants’ difficult life in the new country and how evil treats those good. In order to prove this, I will first explore how hard life can be for immigrants (Ganchin and Fanku’s life), and address the question of how Master Zong treats Ganchin scenes, then explore how these good helped Ganchin successfully “shake off” from the evil Master Zong in terms of our class handout Five-types-of-Ethics. Second, by using the ideas of Holly E. Martin and Colm Toibin to discuss immigrant life, new environment, and social circumstances in immigration fiction. Lastly, I will compare the different feelings for different people when they face the same new environment (immigrants and writers). 

The journey of life is so wonderful, but one journey is not yet started, another journey is started, just like the main character Ganchin in “A Good Fall.” Ganchin is a monk who works at Gaolin temple as a Kung Fu teacher. He is an illegal immigrant, lives in the temple on Main street, Flushing, speaks Chinese. Ganchin had never been paid his salary. Fanku works as a cook in a restaurant. His family are all in China. He wants green card status there. He lives in a basement near downtown Flushing. There was a small bathroom, but no kitchen, it had only a cot bed, and a narrow table with metal chairs on either side. Even if the living environment is bad, they face all kinds of difficulties in the new country, they do not want to give up, because all they want is to improve their life (to give a better life to their families in China), get a legal identity and realize their dreams. This is because for many Chinese, the United States is a dream, it represents the high material development and the high spiritual civilization. In this short story, Ganchin follows a rule and tries his best to be a good monk and a good Kung Fu teacher at Gaolin temple. But Master Zong treats Ganchin badly. Master Zong fired Ganchin and kicked him out of the temple since Ganchin’s illness was getting worse. He kept refusing to pay Ganchin’s salary. And the scene that really led to the collapse of Ganchin’s psychological defenses was, “Don’t resist,” Zong hissed. “We won’t hurt you. We’re just helping you go home, to keep you from deteriorating into a bum” (344). The Ethics that Master Zong seems to follow were utilitarianism. “Utilitarianism is the view that the morally right action is the action that produces the most good. There are many ways to spell out this general claim. One thing to note is that the theory is a form of consequentialism: the right action is understood entirely in terms of consequences produced.” Master Zong was a selfish person who did these things to Ganchin in order to get the most benefit for himself. And for his own benefit without regard for others. His behavior of hurting others for his own benefit led Ganchin to want to commit suicide. Fanku and Cindy helped Ganchin a lot in this short story. Fanku first met Ganchin at a traditional Chinese New Year party, although Fanku wasn’t really Ganchin’s friend, he still helped Ganchin. “When Ganchin asked to stay with him for a few days, Fanku welcomed him, saying he was proud to help a friend” (339). Fanku encouraged Ganchin to talk to Master Zong. He always brings some food back to Ganchin. Although he did not have enough money for his lawyer, he lent Ganchin money when Ganchin asked for it. The ethics that Fanku seems to follow were deontology. “In contemporary moral philosophy, deontology is one of those kinds of normative theories regarding which choices are morally required, forbidden, or permitted. In other words, deontology falls within the domain of moral theories or rules that guide and assess our choices of what we ought to do (deontic theories),” When Ganchin asks Fanku for help, Fanku’s choice is to help Ganchin without hesitation. Cindy invited Ganchin to live in her home because she flew abroad a lot, encouraged Ganchin to change, and brought everybody to help Ganchin at the end. The ethics that Cindy seems to follow were deontology and a little bit utilitarianism. It is because when Ganchin needs someone to help him, Cindy’s choice is to encourage him and bring the lawyers to help him suing the temple and turning Ganchin into a celebrity. It shows her choices of what she ought to do when someone needs help. Cindy seems to follow a little bit utilitarianism because she said, “Now there’ll be ways for you to avoid deportation—you can apply for political asylum, or marry a citizen or a legal resident. You know, you’ll be

rich, but not filthy rich like a millionaire who doesn’t have to work” (349) in the short story, she may be selfish in helping Ganchin, and may want to marry Ganchin so she tells him that you can marry a citizen or a legal resident, just because she is an ABC (American Born Chinese) and an American citizen. 

In Holly E. Martin and Colm Toibin’s article, they both explore Chinese immigrants in the United States are uneasy about their new country. Many Chinese immigrants feel that when they first arrive in the United States, everything is new and everything is good. May say to the friend: here is too good! Come and have a look! But after one year is another feeling, people will know that the senator only saw the appearance of life, here life is much richer and much more complex than before. No extra money, no skills, no friends, different languages, different cultures. It was then that people realized it was not easy to integrate into the life of a new country. Ganchin is a new immigrant, he taught martial arts in China but he only speaks Chinese, so he works at a Chinese temple on Main street — a place where many new immigrants live and work, it shows “Once inhabitants of a sprawling and familiar culture, they are now confined to a few rooms, a few streets” (Toibin). At the same time, it also shows “the American type of success was not for everyone. You must learn how to sell yourself there and must change yourself to live a new life” (Martin). Ganchin wants to succeed in America, wants to pay off the money he owes in China, and let his parents live a better life than before in China. When he failed and faced the blow, Cindy encouraged him to change a new way of life, and Cindy suggests he teaches martial arts outside of the temple. But he asked Cindy back “For that I’ll have to know some English, won’t I?” (339) and says “I’m too old to change” (343). If Ganchin had followed Cindy’s suggestion, his results might have changed. The life of new Chinese immigrants in the United States is different from what they imagine. They imagine that everything is new and everything is good. But the reality is that: “hope has been crushed rather than abandoned, in which the struggle to find a place to live becomes as much a daily battle within the self as it is with society” (Toibin). Many undocumented people want to have a legal identity in the United States, even if the cost of more money is willing to, many people try again and again but not to succeed, their hopes are shattered again and again. Fanku wanted to have a green card, but when he heard some news: “A girl at Olivia Salon has spent more than eighty thousand dollars for attorney’s fees but still can’t get A green card” (340). He was afraid that he would be like the girl who works at Olivia Salon, after spending a lot of money his hope would still be crushed. And he would feel that he would want to do something illegal when he really needed money — rob someone. While he is struggling with himself, the society and money, he always remembers his responsibility: I have to send money to my wife and daughter back home as well” (340). Their lives, some of them ups and downs, some of them uneventful, but in any case, they were out-and-out foreigners, struggling, broken and remaking in a strange land, with an understanding of American society.

This isolation caused a lot of inconvenience to people. Many people lost their jobs as a result. As food prices continue to rise, more and more people cannot afford it. But there is also some good news for us. More than a month ago, many businesses decided to close down as the epidemic increased, which brought inconvenience to people when they bought things. The supermarket near my home is closed, so we can only choose express delivery, but there are requirements for express delivery — we can not buy meat for one/two pound(s) as before, the minimum requirement is 5 pounds or more. Fruits: apples, for example, will not be delivered until you buy a case. And some businesses will also cheat. But last weekend, as the situation got better, some businesses were reopening. It’s getting better at buying food. Masks, gloves and alcohol were not available in many places before, but they are now available in some places. In the end, I believe everything will get better and better. Hope everyone and their family are doing well. Stay safe.

Yinghe Zhao

ENG 1121 (Prof.Scanlan)

Essay 3 First page

5/10/20

                                                                          Life Is a Long Journey

In Ha Jin’s A Good Fall, the central characters are Ganchin, Master Zong, Cindy, and Fanku and they belong to two main camps, the good and the evil. The good is to describe people like Ganchin, Fanku, and Cindy — Ganchin follows the rules to be a good monk and doesn’t want to hurt anyone, Fanku and Cindy tries their best to help Ganchin, and in the end Cindy brings everyone to help Ganchin.  The evil is to describe people like Master Zong — He was a selfish man who wanted to be wealthy, so he refused to pay Ganchin (and the monks who used to work in his temple) salary, kept his passport and forced Ganchin to go to the airport to send him home. In the short story it shows each character’s types of ethics for the specific things. At the same time, it also shows that the journey of life is so wonderful, one journey is not yet started, another journey is started, just like the main character Ganchin in this short story.

In Holly E. Martin’s article “Falling Into America: The Downside of Transnational Identities in Ha Jin’s A Good Fall”, documenting the hardships of immigrant life in the United States, especially on main street. On the other hand, Kera Bolonik writes in “Next Stop, Main Street; Ha Jin’s new stories go where the new immigrants do: Flushing’s Chinatown”, shows the rich source of writing material for writers (Main Street, NY). While Martin’s article satisfies readers’ attention to the life of the immigrants and types of ethics, Bolonik focuses on the writers, and this better shows that the new environment has different feelings for different people. In order to prove this, I will first explore how hard life can be for immigrants, and how these good (Fanku and Cindy) helped Ganchin successfully “shake off” from the evil Master Zong, and then each character’s types of ethics. Lastly, I will compare the different feelings for different people when they face the new environment (immigrants and writers). 

 

(355 words)

Research Prospectus

Yinghe Zhao

ENG 1121

Pros. Scanlan

5/3/20

Research Prospectus

  1. “A Good Fall” by Ha Jin. I like this story because this story talks about the hardship of life for immigrants in the United States. Immigrants work hard in the U.S. in order to have a better life than before. One of the main points I like about this story is that when Ganchin got into trouble — Master Zong fired him, forced him to go back to China, and paid him nothing, some people helped him and encouraged him (Cindy, Fanku, the restaurant, and the two lawyers). The reader can see friendship through these things.
  2. This short story is talking about a monk — Ganchin who worked in Gaolin temple, teaching Kung fu class. But he was fired by Master Zong who is in charge of the temple. After being fired, he had no money to support himself and did not want to go back without anything. Master Zong kept his passport and forced him back to China. When Master Zong repeatedly refused to pay him, Ganchhin’s illness got worse, and he lost hope for life, he wanted to commit suicide. But this did not happen, and he received help and encouragement from friends and strangers.
  3. & 4. “A Good Fall” by Ha Jin talks about labor rights and living wages. The type of ethics were global. Ganchin (the main character in this short story) was a monk and Kung fu teacher at Gaolin temple, he follows a rule to be good monk and doesn’t want to hurt anyone, live in Fanku’s place, escaping from the airport, and want to commit suicide. Ethics that Ganchin seems to follow were deontology, virtue, and global. Master Zong is in charge of Gaolin temple. He was a selfish man who wanted to be wealthy, so he refused to pay Ganchin (and the monks who used to work in his temple) salary, kept his passport and forced Ganchin to go to the airport to send him home. The Ethics that Master Zong seems to follow were utilitarian. Cindy is a friend of Ganchin, Ganchin was her teacher of martial arts when she was in Tianjin, China. She invited Ganchin to live in her home because she flew abroad a lot, and brought everybody to help Ganchin at the end. Ethics that Cindy seems to follow were virtue and utilitarian. Fanku first met Ganchin at a traditional Chinese New Year party. Fanku helps Ganchin by keeping him in his place, lending him money, and bringing him food every day. Ethics that Fanku seems to follow were deontology and utilitarian.

 

(434 words)

Cooking New Dishes

One of the creative or learning methods that helped me during this time was to cook something I hadn’t cooked before. Cooking – the taste of the food is not the most important thing to me, it’s the enjoyment of the cooking process. Recently, I became interested in sichuan cuisine after watching the program “a bite of China”. Mapo tofu is a szechuan dish that I often eat. I tried two sichuan dishes I had never eaten before, spicy chicken and boiled beef (Poached Sliced Beef in Hot Chili Oil). The two main ingredients are dried chilies and sichuan peppercorns. The ingredients are the whole chicken, peppercorns and dried chilies, scallions, salt, chicken essence, cooking wine, cooking oil, ginger, garlic, and sesame oil (I like the smell of sesame oil, so I will add a little sesame oil when cooking). I’m going to use the Hot Pot condiments to cook boiled beef, and I’m going to add bean sprouts, lettuce.  I’m going to cook it with peppercorns, bean paste, soy sauce, and ginger. I think sesame oil is essential because I like the smell and taste of sesame oil. Sprinkle with chili powder and drizzle with hot oil while serving. If you’re interested in these two dishes you can try.

“A Good Fall” by Ha Jin

Yinghe Zhao

ENG 1121 

Prof. Scanlan

4/26/20

Journal 6

“A Good Fall” by Ha Jin

The characters that appear in this short story are Ganchin (main character), Master Zong, Cindy, Fanku, uncle, and the two lawyers (Amy Lok and Jon Mah). Character: The main character changed his mind (think he is useless since his illness is becoming worse and worse, master fires him and pay him nothing, he wants to suicide after that.) and his lifes. “I can’t let you have your papers if you stay on illegally. From now on you’re on your own, and you must move out tomorrow. I don’t care where you go.” And “We don’t owe you anything.” Master Zong said in the short story. Setting: The description of the place where fanku lived symbolizes the living environment of individual immigrants. Plot structure: The beginning of the story: Ganchin teaches Kung Fu class in Gaolin temple, but he couldn’t teach Kung Fu class as well as before because he was sick for a few weeks. Middle: Master Zong fires him and pays him nothing. “From now on you’re on your own, and you must move out tomorrow. I don’t care where you go.” And “We’ve provided lodging and board for you. This is New York, where everything is expensive. As a matter of fact, we paid you a lot more  than fifteen hundred a month.” Master said in the short story. End: Suing the temple. Now because of his fame, Ganchin will avoid deportation, be granted asylum, and perhaps marry a citizen. He will be rich. Point of view (narrator): The short story uses third person narration, for example: Ganchin. Themes and symbols and metaphors: The theme of this short story is good vs. evil. Good – Ganchin; Evil – Master Zong. Ganchin is working hard in the Gaolin temple to try to have better lives. Master Zong and Ganchin’s contract said that Master Zong will pay him fifteen hundred dollars a month, but he hasn’t paid him a cent and fired him, asking him to move out of Gaolin temple.

 

word count: 346)

Virtual Coffeehouse

One problem recently occurred is our pets (two turtles and some goldfish) don’t have enough food. It is because we forgot to buy them new feed before the store closed. Now there are only half a box of fish food and turtle feed left. Considering the lack of food, now they eat half as much feed as they used to. One day, we tried to feed the fish some vegetables, and the results were surprising – they ate them. After that, we feed them fish food one day, and feed vegetables the other day. Similarly, we also tried to feed fruit and vegetables to the turtles and got the same results as the goldfish. We are all happy that the matter has been settled. I feel satisfied every time I hear the sound of the goldfish biting vegetables. Every time I take a banana bear the turtles, they will take the initiative to climb over to eat. 

Final Draft Explication

Yinghe Zhao

ENG 1121

Prof. Scanlan

April 19, 20 

 Explication of Two lines of Poetry from “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost

In the poem, “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, what people are likely to face when they stand on the edge of a choice because life is full of choices, the choices we make determine the course of our lives. The choices we make have an impact on our future. If we make the wrong choices, we will regret it, but we can’t go back. So we have to choose wisely. The two lines towards the beginning of the poem: “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” & “And sorry I could not travel both.” It seems to me that these two lines are the core of the poem and have a unique meaning. These two lines, especially representing the poem terms of symbolize, consonance, imagery, denotation, and connotation. While many people understand this poem to mean that people’s decisions matter, I think it actually about life is full of choices (whether it is the big choices or the small choices) and all the choices are different.

In the first line, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood.” The poet uses one detail in the first line of this poem — “yellow wood.” And made it the symbol of the entire forest (symbolize). The use of a feature to define wood suggests one of the basic idea/theme of the poem: there is a decision to be made and a life will be changed. Consonance is found in the d’s of “roads” “diverged” and “wood.” Using imagery, imagery is used to make the reader feel things through the five senses.The poet uses the sense of sight such as yellow wood, that helps the reader actually perceive what they are reading. The yellow wood suggests that the poem is set in fall. In the fall, the leaves of all the plants turn bright yellow. Acknowledging this “road” can reveal both denotation and connotation for the lines I selected. The denotation of this word is a wide way leading from one place to another; especially one with a specially prepared surface which vehicles can use. The connotation of this word symbolize the journey of life, a road forking off into two paths symbolize a choice. And the word “yellow wood” also can reveal both denotation and connotation. The denotation of this word is any of a number of trees which have yellowish timber or yield a yellow dye. The connotation means the yellow wood also evokes a fleeting sensation; One season will soon give way to another. This means that one choice/decision you make today will soon be replaced by your next choice/decision. 

The next line, “And sorry I could not travel both.” The speaker only can choose one way at a time, telling himself that he will take the other another day. “Travel” can reveal both denotation and connotation for the lines I selected. The denotation of “travel” means to make a journey, typically of some length or aboard. The connotation is which road to take? The speaker wants to take both, but the speaker only can choose one because this is physically impossible.  And the word “both” also can reveal both denotation and connotation. The denotation of “both” means used to refer to two people or things, regarded and identified together. The connotation is the choices/decisions. Before taking the path, the speaker always wanted to know how it was. Was it suitable for him/her or not. It always happens in our life when we have choices.

When two lines combine, it tells the reader the theme in this poem is life is full of choices, when faced with a choice, you can only make one choice, you cannot choose both. Each choice is not the same, the choice may bring you some positive or may bring you some negative. Once you make a choice you have to take the consequences.

(word count 667)

Yinghe’s Reflection

These days provide us with a chance to spend more time with our families to chat and get together. Usually because everyone needs to work and go to school, so there is less chance to get together. In the past week, something bad happened in my family, which affected the family’s mood and other aspects. So in order to “heal”ourselves means to divert attention. In the evening, we decided to play poker cards to relax and relieve tension. Because people tend to be sentimental and think more at night. After a few days of observation, I could feel that my family would be more relaxed and smiling during the poker game. 

Many people say that when you are un a bad mood, eating sweets will make you happy. So my younger sister and I decided to make a three-flavored melaleuca layer cake (and invited my family to participate in the process of making it). Although sweet food can’t really relieve us from the negative emotions caused by the occurrence of that bad thing, we still enjoy the process of making the melaleuca layer cake. Hope everyone and their family are doing well and stay safe.

Explication Draft

Yinghe Zhao

ENG 1121

Prof. Scanlan

April 13, 20 

  Explication of Two lines of Poetry from “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost

In the poem, “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, what people are likely to face when they stand on the edge of a choice because life is full of choices, the choices we make determine the course of our lives. The choices we make have an impact on our future. If we make the wrong choices, we will regret it, but we can’t go back. So we have to choose wisely. The two lines towards the beginning of the poem: “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” & “And sorry I could not travel both.” It seems to me that these two lines are the core of the poem and have a unique meaning. These two lines, especially representing the poem terms of symbolize, consonance, imagery, denotation, and connotation. While many people understand this poem to mean that people’s decisions matter, I think it actually about life is full of choices (whether it is the big choices or the small choices) and all the choices are different.

In the first line, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood.” The poet uses one detail in the first line of this poem — “yellow wood.” And made it the symbol of the entire forest (symbolize). The use of a feature to define wood suggests one of the basic idea/theme of the poem: there is a decision to be made and a life will be changed. Consonance is found in the d’s of “roads” and “wood.” Using imagery, imagery is used to make the reader feel things through the five senses.The poet uses the sense of sight such as yellow wood, that helps the reader actually perceive what they are reading. The yellow wood suggests that the poem is set in fall. In the fall, the leaves of all the plants turn bright yellow. Acknowledging this “road” can reveal both denotation and connotation for the lines I selected. The denotation of this word is a wide way leading from one place to another; especially one with a specially prepared surface which vehicles can use. The connotation of this word symbolize the journey of life, a road forking off into two paths symbolize a choice. And the word “yellow wood” also can reveal both denotation and connotation at the same line I selected. The denotation of this word is any of a number of trees which have yellowish timber or yield a yellow dye. The connotation of this word is the yellow wood also evokes a fleeting sensation; One season will soon give way to another. This means that one choice/decision you make today will soon be replaced by your next choice/decision. 

The next line, “And sorry I could not travel both.” The speaker only can choose one way at a time, telling himself that he will take the other another day. Acknowledging this “travel” can reveal both denotation and connotation for the lines I selected. The denotation of this word is to make a journey, typically of some length or aboard. The connotation of this word is which road to take? The speaker wants to take both, but this is physically impossible. And the word “both” also can reveal both denotation and connotation at the same line I selected. The denotation of this word is used to refer to two people or things, regarded and identified together. The connotation of this word is the choices/decisions.

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