In The Woman from New York, Jinli is practically shunned from her community, work, parents-in-law, and even her own daughter when she returns from New York. To me, it was fascinating to read about what other cultures think about the United States. People in Jinli’s community expected everyone in New York to be millionaires and live flashy lives, but were disappointed when Jinli explained that there were few millionaires and many people lived in poverty on the streets of New York. One of my favorite quotes from the story comes from page 171 and reads, “it was rumored that in America banknotes were as abundant as tree leaves.” This is amusing to me because my parents used to tell me as a child that money didn’t grow on trees. It’s interesting, but not surprising, that a communist state has this view about the capitalist United States. When Jinli tried to get her teaching position back, they claimed that she was no longer suitable for teaching because of her lifestyle in New York and that they couldn’t trust her after living in the United States. Another thing that really stood out to me was when Jinli found out which professor had been talking poorly about her and ruined her reputation. She claimed that she would sue this professor and make her pay, but this puzzled the other Chinese citizens. “Why would she think of ‘pay’ as a solution?” In China, people don’t seek money when they are offended, but instead it is a matter of protecting their family name and honor. Quite different philosophies between the cultures.
Living in the United States, I was fortunate enough to pick which university I wanted to attend, granted that I was accepted. After that, I was able to declare my own major in hopes of pursuing a career that interested me. Until reading An Official Reply, I didn’t realize that some people didn’t have the freedom of picking what they wished to study. In a communist state, a lot of things are assigned to its citizens – housing, a job, their salary, and evidentially their education. In the story, the narrator applied to study philosophy or Chinese literature, but instead was assigned to study English. Disappointed with his assignment and progress, he started missing classes until his professor reassured him of his future possibilities with an English education. Honestly, I don’t fault the narrator for not being dedicated or excited about his assignment. The United States Declaration of Independence declares that its citizens have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We have the freedom to choose what we study, where we live, what we do for a living, and even how many children we have, opportunities that some people aren’t as lucky to have. This then brings me to the salt and iron debate, where one group argues “never should material profit appear as a motive of government”, but the other group points out that government must make profits to pay for things, such as national security. It brings to light that nothing “free” is free. In class I mentioned Canada’s healthcare system that provides “free” healthcare to its citizens. As we discussed, however, the government must raise funds for this and at least one group of people are going to be displeased with the source of funding.