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Marilyn
Chin
Poet and tale writer
Nationality/Ethnicity: Chinese
Author: Sonny-Ryan Jung
Date: December 5, 1998
Biographical details:
Born:
1955 Hong Kong raised in Portland Oregon
Education:
University of Massachusetts, holds a B.A.
in Chinese Literature
M.F.A. from the University of Iowa
Awards:
Mary Roberts Rinehart Award, 1983: grant
from National Endowment for the Arts, 1984-85:
fellow of MacDowell Colony, Djerassi Foundation,
Centrum and Virginia Center for the Creative
Arts; Stegner fellow at Stanford University,
1984-85.
Analysis:
Writer Fred-Wei Houn in his article "Revolutionary
Asian American Art" describes how Asian
American aesthetics reflect Asian American
issues and has an impact to others. Houn
describes Asian American aesthetics in the
following way:
Asian American artistic
innovation will come from embracing and
the broad tradition of Asian American
culture in a creative leap in response
to the actual leap in the level of struggle
of the people. (Eths210,reader 37)
Asian American poet Marilyn Chin demonstrates
what Houn's ideal in his article. Chin has
an artistic innovation in writing about
the struggles of Asian in trying to fit
into the American society. She writes about
the many stereotypes that the public has
towards Asian Americans an how Asians learn
to handle these situations. Besides struggling
with assimilation in American culture, Chin
brings traditional Chinese culture as well,
she adds a mixture of both cultures and
describe the struggle that both of them
in adapting to each other. Chin uses
an abundant of symbols an images in her
poetry which is more powerful than writing
the obvious, yet her images are not too
far off that the average read could not
understand. Her poetry and writing is easy
to read and has a tremendous impact on the
reader. She is creative in getting
out her main points and according to Houn,
"a leap of struggle of the people".
An example of some of Chin poetry taken
from her poem "A Chinaman's Chance":
If you were a Chinese
born in America, who would you believe,
Plato who said what Socrates said
Or Confucius in his bawdy way: "so
a male child is born to you I am happy,
very very happy."
The railroad killed your great-grandfather.
His arms here, his legs there...
How can we remake ourselves in his image?
(Wang& Zhao.36)
The are many of images found in Chins poetry,
in this last passage one may se that Chin
is using both cultures in this poem American
and Chinese, this is symbol between the
two cultures show the struggle between each
other. This poem shows the struggle in how
Asian immigrants try to fit into American
society.
Writers L. Ling-chi Wang and Henry Yiheng
Zhao express their ideals towards Marilyn
Chin as a
A poet, certainly,
has her work cut out for her. She may
spend days contemplating on the next sentence,
or on the next image, or on something
as abstract or ambitious as an idea. For
the Chinese American poet, she may dwell
on the problems of her bi-cultural identity,
on assimilation, on political and global
questions...etc...
(Wang&Zhao.30)
Writings By Marilyn
Chin:
*(Translator) Gozo Yoshimasu, Devil's Wind:
A Thousand Steps or More, Oakland University
Press, 1980.
* Writing From the World, University of
Iowa Press, 1985
* Dwarf of Bamboo (poems), Greenfield Review
Press, 1987
* Chinese American Poetry: An Anthology,
University of Washington Press, 1991.
References:
L. Ling-chi Wang and Henry Yiheng Zhao.
Chinese American Poetry: An Anthology. University
of Washington Press, 1991.
Fred Houn "Revolutionary Asian American
Art," ETHS 210 Course Reader, Fall
1998
Marilyn Chin, Dwarf Bamboo, Greenfield Review
Press, 1987
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