“For most of my childhood and adolescence, my mother was my antagonist,” Ling Ma writes in her 2018 science fiction novel “Severance.” The plot of which uses the main character Candace’s fraught relationship with her mother as the reason behind some of her ongoing troubles, like continuing on at a dead-end career that has left her disappointed and making questionable personal decisions.
There is a micro trend in Asian American literature where immigrant mothers are the source of trauma. “The Joy Luck Club” by Amy Tan, one of the cornerstones of Asian American pop culture and literature, may have predicted this inclination for some Asian-authored media to antagonize mothers and showcase complex mother-child relationships in 1989, and this trope is still in effect today. While there is nothing wrong with narratives showing the unexpectedly flawed sides of mothers, why are these still popular today in some narratives?
Writer and musician Michelle Zauner’s “Crying in H Mart” explores a traumatic mother-daughter relationship and their reconnection when Zauner’s mother is diagnosed with cancer. Poet Ocean Vuong’s “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” recounts the speaker’s memories of growing up gay while raised by a mother dealing with her own PTSD. Largely interpreted as autofiction (but so much more than just that), Vuong’s work explores what it is like to take the blame for your mother’s trauma as well as for her to cause your own. While both of these works are important in showcasing how complicated familial relationships can be, pinning the blame on Asian immigrant mothers alone demonizes them in the context of Asian America.
As representations in Asian America grow in number and variety, there is more room to critique how we, in our multiple roles, are represented. We no longer have to be satisfied with being seen and heard as one-dimensional. Today, there are media where Asian immigrant mothers are not solely blamed and stories…
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