1. Identify and briefly define important words, terms, concepts, or characters.
Tang Ao: a Chinaman who is looking for the Gold Mountain. However, he is trapped in the Land of Women and forced to change his sexual identity.
The women: females as guarders, servants, and all other sort of characters in the Land of Women.
Gold Mountain: symbolic represents America.
2. Summarize the main idea, theme, action, or event of the reading, and quotations that best captures the overall feeling or mood of the reading.
“On Discovery” is a legend about a chainman; Tang Ao came upon a Land of Women instead of his original signed destination, Gold Mountain. He was locked in a woman’s room and his wrists and ankles were shackled. Those women transformed him into a female gradually by piercing his ears, binding his feet, feeding him women’s food, and applying facial cosmetics on him. Once his sexual identity changed completely, he was displayed in the Queen’s court. Everyone felt “she” was attractive, especially “her” tiny feet.
Theme
-Women suffered physical and spiritually by bounding feet into small size. Therefore, they seemed to be weak and had to dependent on men. Women lost their freedom and mistreated by old female tradition.
-It metaphorically compares earlier Chinese immigrants as Tang Ao who was forced to do all kinds of hard works in America. They suffered discrimination and oppression in order to survive in the Gold Mountain.
Quotes
“The less you struggle, the less it’s hurt” one said..
“What are you doing?” he said, “sewing your lips together,” she joked..
3. Formulate a question for discussion.
When the woman joked that she would sew Tang Ao’s lips by the needle, does she just poke fun on him and wanted to distract him from fear, or has other meaning beyond this statement?
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5 comments:
I think she meant that she will prevent him from speaking, similar to the way women of China are encourage not to speak, to be seen not heard.
Sewing one's lips shut with a needle doesn't sound funny, even as a joke, but I am not accumstomed with Chinese culture, it is hard to tell exactly what the mood or feeling behind it was. Maybe she thinks he talks too much as a man, or she did it in order to solve her stress by expressing violence. Also she simply may place more value in a man who listens more than he talks.
-Kristen
I think this is not a joke, maybe she wants him to get feared. As he has already talked to much, so the woman just wants him to stop for talking. However, she cannot tell him directly. So she just says she will do that.
I think that she wants him to be quiet and although she is saying that as a joke, she is also trying to induce fear in him.
I do not believe that "sewing your lips together" was meant as a joke. When I read this part, I got a mental image of a person with an evil laughter -- similar to the Joker (in Batman) laughing.
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