Gish jen

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• Born in 1955
• Parents immigrated in the 1940s
• Changed name in high school
• Lived in Scarsdale, NY

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• Lillian Gish
• "First Lady of American Cinema"
• Silent Film

"In a recent essay of hers included in “Why We Write,” she explains that, under the new guise of Gish, she was freed. . .from the cultural strictures placed on Lillian, a dutifully “nice Chinese girl.” Other things. . .too, including her neat — too neat — Catholic school handwriting."

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• Studied English at Harvard 
• Stanford Graduate School of Business
• University of Iowa M.F.A

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• Typical American (1991)
• Mona in the Promised Land (1996)
• "Who's Irish?" (1999)
• The Love Wife (2004)
• World and Town (2010)

Historical context (1968)

• Cold War, Vietnam War, post-WWII, Six-day War
• "New Jews" = Ethnic Other
• Shortly after desegregation (Jim Crow 1876-1965)
• Civil Rights Movement protests 
• Black Panthers, Howard University, Orangeville 

Themes

• Womanhood  
• Identity Bending and Ethnicity (Middle Class)
• Authenticity
• Education vs. Authentic Experience
• "New Jews" ––  Minority

How can this be? Mona was the first one in her entire grade to get
her period. Plus she surmises by the population problems of the Far
East that she is appropriately equipped. But she doesn't look like, say,
Barbara. If her friend is a developed nation, Mona is, sure enough, the
third world. Barbara's is the body Mona is still waiting to grow into:
Her breasts, for example, are veritable colonies of herself, with a
distinct tendency toward independence. (75)