Upon beginning After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town, I thought it was going to be a fairly shallow story, simply about an American-based fried chicken restaurant established in China. However, about half way through the story, it is very apparent that the underlying themes are about the differences in government between China and American (Socialism vs. Capitalism) and standing up for one's beliefs. I was a tad confused by the inference that China is Socialist in the story because I have always thought that China was run by Communism. In addition to these elements, I also noticed that all of Ha Jin's short stories thus far, have been related to marriage or relationships in some sense at least in one part of the story. In The Bridegroom this theme is very obvious and in After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town, this element is incorporated by Ha Jin's adding of the catering for the wedding party.
My overall impression of After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town, is that of the few connections that I did make with the story, they were very strong connections. One of my first strong connections was on page 202, "When the feast was over, both Mr. Shapiro and Peter were excited, their faces flushed." This quote made me think further into the visualization of their flushed faces because of many reasons. First, I found this flushing of their faces to almost be a symbolic connection between their two cultures because asians typically get red-faced when they are drinking alcohol, but white Americans typically do not--even though Mr. Shapiro is not asian, his faced is flushed too, which draws a connection between their two characters because of their happiness for the booming of their business. My second conclusion drawn from this imagery was that the two could be rosy cheeked not just from the excitement of the situation or from the alcohol, but also possibly from having been put on the spot in front of all of the wedding party. No matter your race, one usually becomes flushed or hot-faced when they are made the center of attention--this draws another connection between Mr. Shapiro and Peter.
The second quote that instilled an interesting thought in me was also on page 202, "I figured my stomach wasn't used to American food yet. I had eaten fries and biscuits everyday, but had never taken in ice cream, cheesecake, red wine, and champagne. Without doubt my stomach couldn't digest so much rich stuff all at once." The reason this made me think was that I never really realized that all of our cultures foods truly are extremely different and our stomachs have all become adapt to our culture's particular food. I put myself in their situation and pictured eating Chinese food every day of every meal and almost got sick at the thought! It is strange to think that American food is a delicacy to them, when I would never be able to handle eating that much fried chicken on a daily basis. Similarly, us Americans view going out to eat at a nice Chinese or Mexican or Italian restaurant as a delicacy.
My third deep thought while reading After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town, was during my understanding that the story is strongly about socialism and capitalism. On page 218, "The author praised our policy on leftovers and believe it would reduce waste eventually. He said we Chinese should adopt the American way of running business." It never occurred to me that Americans even ran our businesses down to a Capitalistic way, different of many other countries. It also never dawned on me that we wasted so much food--although I understand the principle that passing these leftover to the homeless or hungry could be unsanitary, the massive waste of extra food that occurs in America is truly depressing. America's disposal of leftover food supports our Capitalistic way of living because within Capitalism, Darwin's Theory of evolution is supported--survival of the fittest takes place and those who can afford to eat will get food, those who can't will not. This waste of food all relates back to the fact that within Capitalism, everyone cannot actually be equal.
Lastly, I had a small connection toward the end of the story with the three employees are about to go on strike at Cowboy Chicken on page 222, "When the day was at last over, we met briefly at a street corner. We were confused, but all agreed to wait and see. Feilan sighed and said, 'I feel like we're in a tug-of-war.'" I related the Feilan's feelings because my friend group has recently gone through the same sort of disagreement issue. Because we have all had difficulty agreeing on a location to live for our junior year, within our group of four, the same sort of tug-of-war dilemma has occurred. Because two of us want to live in one complex and the other two want to live in another, we have also had the same sort of secret meetings plotting about how to convince the other two to want to live where we prefer to live--the same thing that the characters are doing in After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town.
Vocabulary I was unfamiliar with:
Eunuch: a man who has been castrated
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