Heela Yaacoobi
Professor Orta
English-123-2028
11 May 2017
Reading Response 5
Since the election of Donald Trump as the president of the United States, people around
the globe have started to arrange walkouts, protests, and lectures on social issues that plague the
world today. Some successful examples of these assemblies include the Womens March, the
protest against the inauguration, and the May Day protests. These protests have sparked healthy
conversations and debates of the current social issues. However, if the social issue you are
interested in and want to bring attention to peaked over half a century ago, it is much harder to
stage a protest or organize a walk out. In Steer Towards Rock, the author, Fae Myenne Ng, uses
an aspect of realism, social critique, through the story of Jacks Paper Son journey to address the
social and political conditions that Chinese immigrants faced after the Chinese Exclusion Act of
1882. Her novel, as a whole, brings attention to the treatment and living conditions of Chinese
immigrants in San Francisco during the 1950s, and therefore functions in a similar way as a
protest or rally would. Moreover, Ngs novel addresses a part of history that is usually erased or
brushed over. Personally, I have not studied about the Chinese Exclusion Act in depth, and the
first time I heard about the Paper Sons program was when it was brought up in class this
semester. I was unaware of how much the Bay Area and the United States itself was impacted by
the Paper Sons program, It was determined that if every man who came forward was a citizen of
the US, each Chinese woman in San Francisco would have to have given birth to 800 boys
(Yee). By inventing this fictional story based on true events, Fae Myenne Ng used realism to
The novel opens up with the story of Jack Moons paper son experience. We are
immediately delved into a serious-toned recap of how Moon came to America and the process
that he had undergo to get there, "The Father brought the Szeto name and entered California as
the legal son of a gold miner...Who can say if he intended to send for his barren first wife, but
with the money he sent home I was bought into the family" (3). This quote subtly critiques
Americas laws banning Chinese immigrants and shows the paths that Chinese immigrants had to
take in order to seek a better life in America. After the railroads were built with the help of
Chinese labor, the United States basically wanted to send them back and erase their labor
contribution from the books. If we look at photos portraying the finished railroads, we see white
men dominating the photo, with a rare occurrence of a Chinese man in the background or on the
side. With this specific quote and story being on the first page, it seems like a lot of emotionally-
heavy material for the author to pile up on the reader. Nevertheless, this is crucial in translating
Ngs theme of critiquing Chinese and American culture. She does a good job of melding the two
cultures together to represent the actions and feelings that Moon probably had when trying to
assimilate in America, while at the same time being chained to a Chinese Paper Father. Yi-Tung
Szeto was the man I called Father but that was only my mouth in obedience. I was registered as
his son in the American courts and blessed As His Blood Born before the Ancestral Gods (7).
This quote helped to highlight the similarities that America and China held in regards to Jack
Moons true identities. Both lands were ignorant towards his social and economic struggles.
A woman in the same social and economic position as her partner will almost always end
up facing more hardships. Ilin, Jacks Paper Wife, came to America to a new husband who did
not love her; nevertheless, she had to bare him a child. She was faced with a whole new set of
obstacles that paper wives face after arriving to the new land. In Ilins case, she not only had to
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take her daughters needs in mind, but she also had to look out for the man who did not love her.
"Will I? A new plant becomes naturalized to a new land. Maybe my daughter hopes
naturalization will give me the safety to set root. Maybe my naturalization can give her a
sanctuary in trusting that her father will not be deported (190). Ng was adding another layer to
her social critique by telling Ilins side of the story, which added a sort of feminist aspect to the
portion of the novel that she narrated. The author also uses this quote to critique the United
States standing on illegal immigration. These thoughts can be seen as parallels to the thoughts
Ng uses the realist aspect of social critique to highlight the theme of the struggles that
Chinese immigrants have to face in America after the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Chinese
immigrants had to literally sell their bodies in order to seek a better life in America due to the
racist ideologies that were birthed after Chinese labor was exploited in the building of our
countrys railroad system. Because this subject is one that is often passed over in our history
books, Ng uses the story of Jack Moon and his paper wife Ilin to bring these issues to light in a
realist lense.
Works Cited
Ng, Fae Myenne. Steer Toward Rock . New York , NY , Hyperion, 2008.
Yee, Byron. Paper Son . FAQs - Paper Son, www.paperson.com/faqs.htm. Accessed 18 May
2017.