The Fifth Chinese Daughter
“The Fifth Chinese Daughter” is the story of a Chinese-American girl’s journey from childhood to adulthood. The story, told in third person, is actually the author’s autobiography. In the book, Jade Snow grows personally as well as physically, but throughout never loses the lessons taught by her Chinese heritage traditions.
As a child, Jade Snow is subjected by random beatings by her father, along with her siblings. It is clear to Jade Snow that she has no value in the eyes of her parents (Wong 108). She is the last among many daughters, and has brothers who are the true prize of her largely-traditional, Chinese minister father (Wong 109). As the youngest, she was at the whim of her siblings in everything, and required to be just as obedient to them as she was her parents. Her father insisted on embracing some aspects of American culture while clinging to traditions of his homeland China.
Despite her academic successes from elementary school on, her parents never praised her success. While it is clear this remained hurtful even in her adulthood, she never allowed it to be an insurmountable obstacle for her success. It was made quite clear to Jade Snow she would not attend college at her parents expense because she was a girl and it would prove to be of no value to the family. Determined, she steeled herself against a world that did not understand her, and which she did not understand, and worked in an unfamiliar American world through high school in an effort to pay for college herself. Her parents allowed her to go at her own expense (Wong 109), and it was in the world of higher education where she truly began to seek out and find the incredible artist she would become (Wong 125).
It is important to understand that, while this book has recently made a comeback on high school and college reading lists, Jade Snow Wong was born in 1922 and grew up in the Chinatown neighborhood of San Francisco. During World War II she worked as a secretary in the Navy shipyards. The book, “The Fifth Chinese Daughter” was published following the war in 1950. That it is recognized in classrooms across the country more than fifty years later speaks to the writer’s success: it is clearly a book that speaks to people across cultural lines.
It is hard for American students raised in the modern culture of today to imagine a world of absolute acquiescence to parents, siblings and elders. It is equally hard to imagine the level of determination required to make one’s own way in a world where the only validation and reinforcement comes from within. “The Fifth Chinese Daughter” speaks to the determination that is not celebrated as it should be, but still exists today and surely existed in all the ages of human history. Jade Snow’s efforts to achieve reflect an ambition and determination that was not necessarily acceptable in traditional Chinese families. But she continued and persevered.
It is of particular interest the way the story is told. It is an autobiography, but the telling of the story in third person seems unusual at times. It does not seem like an autobiography and it is sometimes odd to remember that the book is not just any story; it is the author’s own personal and true story.
Some of the questions the book brought to mind were issues of crossing cultural boundaries. Is it fair to tell new citizens they must acculturate to American ways? Conversely is it fair to refuse to let your children acculturate if they want to? Obviously Jade Snow’s elders had more experience and presumably greater wisdom. The decisions elders make are based on that wisdom and are believed to be in the best interest of the younger person. But is it possible that the experience an elder makes is based on a life and a culture that might not exist in the way it did when that person was gaining those experiences?
Works Cited
Wong, Jade Snow. The Fifth Chinese Daughter. New York:Harper, 1950. Print.
