After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town

Well after realizing I initially blogged on the wrong story today, here goes my second blog in one day, woohoo!

So this blog is about the story, After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town, by Ha Jin. The story follows suit to many of our recent readings, talking about relationships between people and the clashing of cultures. This story does a particularly humorous job of intersecting American and Chinese cultures that ends up creating a very entertaining story.

One of the first things I noticed was how the boss, an American man, took to being lazy when things became successful. "At first Mr. Shapiro worked hard, often staying around until we closed at ten-thirty. But as the business was flourishing, he hung back more and stayed in his office for hours on end, reading newspapers and sometimes chewing on a skinny sausage wrapped in cellophane" (page 190). This, to me, showed the stereotypical American dream. Make money, get rich, and be lazy. This is so against the stereotypical Chinese culture of keeping your nose to the grindstone to get success.

Particularly funny to me was how they hosted a wedding banquet at the restaurant. A couple had decided to marry, and "wanted something exotic for their wedding dinner, so he picked Cowboy Chicken" (page 199). The thought of someone having an "exotic" dinner at someplace like a Kentucky Fried Chicken was very funny for me, and certainly showed differences in culture.

Another more serious matter involved the relationships between men and women. In America, romance and relationships can be wild and sporadic, while in Chinese culture they seem much more orderly. This is certainly shown by the boss when he "grasped her wrist and called her "Honey" (page 206). To the Chinese folks, this seemed like a grand offense worthy of the police, but in America it would be more of just a creepy situation.

The whole issue of wastefulness is also tackled in the story. Americans are shown in the story, and I would say it's definitely true, to bed incredibly wasteful. When they could be giving the leftover chicken away, Peter was taking it out and burning it in the dirt. They make claims later that it will eventually lead to less waste, but that is all just ridiculousness.

Finally, I thought the last part was particularly funny. When the boss took the workers' note as them threatening to bomb the fast food joint, it exemplified what the story was all about: 2 different cultures having troubles getting along and having trouble understanding each other.