“Steinbeck's Chinese servant in East of Eden” (Publication, 1993)
Year
1993
Text
Hayashi, Tetsumaro. Steinbeck's Chinese servant in East of Eden. In : Sino-American relations ; vol. 19, no 2 (1993). (SteJ4)
Type
Publication
Mentioned People (1)
Steinbeck, John
(Salinas, Calif. 1902-1968 New York) : Schriftsteller, Dramatiker, Journalist, Nobelpreisträger
Subjects
Literature : Occident : United States of America
/
References / Sources
Chronology Entries (1)
| # | Year | Text | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1932-1969 |
Steinbeck, John. Works. 1932 Steinbeck, John. The pastures of heaven : a novel. (New York, N.Y. : Viking Press, 1932). When the house and the garden were completed, Helen Van Deventer and Hilda, a Chinese cook and a Filipino house-boy drove up Christmas Canyon. "We must have a funeral", he said. "Did I ever tell you about the Chinese funeral I went to, about the colored paper they trhow in the air, and the little fat roast pigs on the grave ?" 1935 Steinbeck, John. Tortilla flat. (New York, N.Y. : Covici-Friede ; Viking Press, 1935). [Enthält] : Chin Kee, the proprietor of a squid-packing plant. "He was very rich, he bought eggs to throw at a Chinaman. And one of those eggs missed the Chinaman and hit a policeman." 1938 Steinbeck, John. The long valley. (New York, N.Y. : Viking Press, 1938). http://sits.sjsu.edu/curriculum-resources/the-long-valley/plot-synopsis/. Alex joins the silent crowd after the fact and the narrator tells him about the pregnancy. Johnny Bear comes forward for more whiskey and tempts the men by breaking into a "sing-song nasal language that sounded like Chinese. […] And then another voice, slow, hesitant, repeating the words without the nasal quality". Alex springs forward and punches Johnny Bear who defends himself by bear-hugging Alex. Fat Carl has to knock Johnny Bear out to get him to release Alex. When the scuffle is over, Alex reveals to the narrator that second voice imitating the Chinese was Miss Amy implying that the deceased woman was impregnated by one of her Chinese workmen. 1939 Steinbeck, John. The grapes of wrath. (New York, N.Y. : Viking Press, 1939). Chap. 19. "Now farming became industry, and the owners followed Rome, although they did not know it. They imported slaves, although they did not call them slaves : Chinese, Japanese, Mexicans, Filipinos." 1945 Steinbeck, John. Cannery row. (New York, N.Y. : Viking Press, 1945). "Cannery Row in Monterey in California… Then from the town pour Wops and Chinamen and Polaks, men and women in trousers and rubber coats and oilcloth aprons… Lee Chong's grocery, while not a model of neatness, was a miracle of supply. It was small and crowded but within its single room a man could find everything he needed or wanted to live and to be happy – clothes, food, both fresh and canned, liquor, tobacco fishing equipment, machinery, boats, cordage, caps, pork chops… Lee was round-faced and courteous. He spoke a stately English without ever using the letter R… His nice brown eyes were turned inward on a calm and eternal Chinese sorrow… The grocery opened at dawn and did not close until the last wandering vagrant dime had been spent or retired for the night. Not that Lee Chong was avaricious. He wasn't, but if one wanted to spend money, he was available. No one is really sure whether Lee ever receives any of the money he is owed or if his wealth consisted entirely of unpaid debts, but he lives comfortably and does legitimate business in the Row… Lee Chong is more than a Chinese grocer. He must be. Perhaps he is evil balanced and held suspended by good – an Asiatic planet held to its orbit by the pull of Lao Tze and held away from Lao Tze by the centrifugality of abacus and cash register – Lee Chong suspended, spinnin, whirling among groceries and ghosts. A hard man with a can of beans – a soft man with the bones of his grandfather. For Lee Chong dug into the grave on China Point and found the yellow bones, the skull with gray ropy hair still sticking to it…" The second Oriental character in the novel : "Down the hill, past the Palace Flophouse, down the chicken walk and through the vacant lot came an old Chinaman. He wore an ancient flat straw hat, blue jeans, both coat and trousers, and heavy shoes of which one sole was loose so that it slapped the ground when he walked. In his hand he carried a covered wicker basket. His face was lean and brown and corded as jerky and his old eyes were brosn, even the whites were brown and deep set so that they looked out of holes. He came by just at dusk and crossed the street and went through the opening between Western Biological and the Hediondo Cannery. Then he crossed the little beach and disappeared among the piles and steel posts which support the piers. No one saw him again until dawn." Sekundärliteratur Colleen Lye : The Asiatic personifcation is doubled by a myserious 'old Chinaman ' who is sighted only at dusk or at dawn. Making his appearance exactly when "the street is silent of progress and business", Since no one knows where he comes from exactly and where he goes, the 'old Chinaman ' is evocative of Lee Chong himself, who would go "secretly to San Francisco" whenever there was a "price on his head until the trouble blew over". In this intensely local setting, San Francisco exists as much outside the coordinates of the familiar world as the land across the western sea to which Lee Chong sends his granfather's bones. On the one hand, the lifeworld of the Chinese in California is as mysteriously rendered as ever, but, on the other hand, no more so than the wondrous animal world. The mysteriy of Oriental domicile and the "larger whole" whose nature "we could begin to feel but not its size" are aligned. In characterization, the 'old Chinaman' strikes a distinct contrast to Lee Chong. One is pointedly old while the other seemingly unmarked by age ; one is a solitary creature while the other exists in a network of community. The purposeless presence of the 'old Chinaman' thematizes obsolescence, in contrast to Lee Chong's social functionality. 1947 Steinbeck, John. The wayward bus. (New York, N.Y. : Viking Press, 1947). "The Chinese in the dark coat went directly to the back seat, took off his coat, and laid the Times and Newsweek in his lap… It looked like the two Hindus were holding hands. The Chinese had both Time [sic] and Newsweek open on his lap and he was comparing stories. His head swung from one magazine to the other and a puzzled wrinkle marked his nose between his brows… The Chinese was staring up in the air, trying to work up in his mind some discrepancy in the stories he had been reading." "I thought maybe I'd be a missionary like Spencer Tracy and go to China and cure them of all those diseases. You ever been to China ? No, said Mildred. She was fascinated by his thinking." 1947 Steinbeck, John. The pearl. (New York, N.Y. : Viking Press, 1947). Liang Shu-fang : John Steinbeck was intrigued by things Chinese. He is familiar not only with Chinese people but also with Chinese philosophy, especially Dao de jing by Laozi. In The pearl are several precise parallels between the two works. Central precepts of Taoismu such as non-achtion, the relativity of good and evil, and meekness. 1952 Steinbeck, John. East of Eden. (New York, N.Y. : Viking Press, 1952). http://142.23.40.13/big/english/novels/EastOfEden.pdf. Steinbeck about the Chinese cook Lee : "His face was lean and pleasant, his forehead broad, firm, and sensitive, and his lips curled in a perpetual smile. His long black glossy braided queue, tied at the bottom with a narrow piece of black silk, hung over his shoulder and moved rhythmically against his chest. When he did violent work, he curled his queue on top of his head. He wore narrow cotton trousers, black heelless slippers, and a frogged Chinese smock. Whenever he could, he hid his hands in his sleeves as though he were afraid for them, as most Chinese did in that day." Samuel : "I've read quite a lot about China… I've never been able to figure why you people still talk pidgin…For instance, you wear the queue. I've read that it is a badge of slavery imposed by conquest by the Manchus on the Southern Chinese." Lee : I don't know where being a servant came into disrepute. It is the refuge of a philosopher, the food of the lazy, and, properly carried out, it is a position of power, even of love… A good servant has absolute security, not because of his master's kindness, but because of habit and indolence…. But a good servant, and I am an excellent one, can completely control his master, tell him what to think, how to act, whom to marry, when to divorce, reduce him to terror as a discipline, or distribute happiness to him, and finally be mentioned in his will." Lee : "Since I've come here I find myself thinking of Chinese fairy tales my father told me. We Chinese have a well-developed demonology." "The boys sat solemnly and looked about, stared at Samuel's beard and searched for Lee. The strange thing about them was their clothing, for the boys were dressed in the straight trousers and the frogged and braided jackets of the Chinese. On was in turquoise blue and the other in a faded rose ping, and the grogs and braid were black. On ther heads sat round black silken hats, each with a bright red button on its flat top." "Do you have Chinese ghosts ?" Samuel asked. "Millions", said Lee. "We have more ghosts than anything else. I guess nothing in China ever dies. It's very crowded. Anyway, that's the feeling I got when I was there." "There's something changed about you, Lee. What is it ?" "It's my queue, Mr. Hamilton. I've cut off my queue. We all did. Haven't you heard ? The Dowager Empress is gone. China is free. The Manchus are not overlords and we do not wear queues. It was a proclamation of the new government. There's not a queue left anywhere." Lee : "Confucius tells men how they should live to have good and successful lives." Lee : "I want to open a bookstore in Chinatown in San Francisco. I would live in the back, and my days would be full of discussions and arguments. I would like to have in stock some of those dragon-carved blocks of ink from the dynasty of Sung. The boxes are worm-bored, and that ink is made from fir smoke and a glue that comes only from wild asses' skin. When you paint with that ink it may physically be black but it suggests to your eye and persuades your seeing that it is all the colors in the world." Lee : "I'll have to tell you first that when you built the railroads in the West the terrible work of grading and laying ties and spiking the rails was done by many thousands of Chinese. They were cheap, they worked hard, and if they died no one had to worry. They were recruited largely from Canton, for the Cantonese art short and strong and durable, and also they are not quarrelsome…. You must know that a Chinese must pay all of his debts on or before our New Year's day. He starts every year clean. If he does not, he loses face ; but not only that – his family loses face. There are no excuses… The herds of men went like animals into the black hold of a ship, there to stay until they reached San Francisco six weeks later. And you can imagine what those holes were like. The merchandise had to be delivered in some kind of working condition so it was not mistreated. And my people have learned through the ages to live close together, to keep clean and fed under intolerable conditions." "Lee, musing through her talk, thought of the round smooth faces of the Cantonese, his own breed. Even thin they were moon-faced. Lee should have liked that kind best since beauty must be somewhat like ourselves, but he didn't. When he thought of Chinese beauty the iron predatory faces of the Manchus came to his mind, arrogant and unyielding faces of a people who had authority by unquestioned inheritance." (S. 161-162, 165, 189, 261, 263, 294, 304, 332-333, 356-357, 495) Sekundärliteratur Hayashi Tetsumaro : Steinbeck employs Lee, Adam Trask's Chinese servant, to play a number of roles of thematic importance. Lee proves to be an indispensable, active, supporting character in a Cain-Abel drama. He always plays his role under a disguise, while remaining socially 'ignored' or 'invisible' or 'non-existent' to most of the unsuspecting, undiscerning Caucasian characters. Steinbeck portrays Lee as a stereotypical servant and a stranger in America. Belonging to no society, to no organization or group, Lee represents more objectivity, freedom, transcendence, and independence than any other character. Although a humble servant, Lee also serves throughout the fiction as a wise, compassionate counselor to his master, his master's sons, and some of his close friends. Being a racial minority, Lee is free from suspicion, involvement, and jealousy. As a Chinese servant, who has experienced every social rejection in the past, Lee, in isolation, can still transcend many obsession and conflicts that imprison and blind mankind. He is a servant who is in charge of everybody and everything. He serves as Steinbeck's exponent of the Old Testament theme, the Chinese servant proves to be an articulate, persuasive preacher. In Lee, the author creates the novel's dramatic and moral center, to which every character is linked and around which every action sevolves. Lee, whose heart is afire by the Old Testament's pivotal message, 'timshel', "moves from one role to the other with theatrical effectiveness". Lee represents Steinbeck's universal, prophetic, moral vision – the vision of both the East and the West and the author's synthesis of both Cain and Abel. 1961 Steinbeck, John. The winter of our discontent. (New York, N.Y. : Viking Press, 1961). http://litrus.net/book/read/305?p=23. "When the ships came back from a year or two out as far as the Antarctic or the China Sea, they would be loaded with oil and very rich." "But they would have touched at foreign ports and picked up things as well as ideas. That's why you see so many Chinese things in the houses on Porlock Street." "I guess there wasn't a weed or a leaf or a flower that wasn't made into some kind of tea. Now there are only two, India and China, and not much China." "There were bits of the chinoiserie the old captains brought from the Orient after they had stripped the China area of sperm whales, bits and pieces, ebony and ivory, laughing and serious gods, Buddhas, serene and dirty, carved flowers in rose quartz and soapstone and some jade—yes, some good jade—and thin cups, translucent and lovely." "The polished stone was not slick to the touch but slightly tacky like flesh, and it was always warm to the touch. You could see into it and yet not through it. I guess some old seaman of my blood had brought it back from China." 1969 Steinbeck, John. Journal of a novel : the East of Eden letters. (New York, N.Y. : Viking Press, 1969). I have known so many of them [Chinese]. Remarkable people the California Chinese… Now you are going to like Lee. He is a philosopher. And also he is a kind and thoughtful man. And beyond all this he is going to go in the book because I need him. The book needs his eye and his criticism which is more detached than mine. |
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Cited by (1)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2000- | Asien-Orient-Institut Universität Zürich | Organisation / AOI |
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