"GENTLEMEN, IS THIS REAL AMERIKEY?": MARGINALIZATION AND RACISM IN YUNG WING, SUI SIN FAR AND YONE NOGUCHI

Authors : Gamze Kati Gümüş

Pages : 111-126

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Publication Date : 2023-10-21

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :Yogé Noguchi’s disillusioned character Morning Glory barely sets her foot on American soil as she exclaims "Gentlemen, is this real Amerikey?” (35). When she looks around her in great confusion to devour in the country she has dreamed of for so long, she cannot hide the first frustration of the immigrant upon arrival. Her "Meriken dream” becomes a "complete failure” (Noguchi, 35). Indeed, even though the heaven of opportunities promised the American Dream to immigrants, it did not protect them from the engrained racism in American society and the marginalization that accompanied it. Asian immigrants came in great numbers from mid- to late-nineteenth century due to the California Gold Rush, and they faced an immediate backlash by white Americans. The experiences of exclusion and racism also appear in fictional and non-fictional works of the period. This paper focuses on Yung Wing’s My Life in China and America (1909), Sui Sin Far’s (Edith Maud Eaton) Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of an Euroasian (1910), and Yogé Noguchi’s The American Diary of a Japanese Girl (1901). In the three works that are analyzed in this paper, the Chinese American and Japanese American characters suggest that acceptance by Americans into the society work on a conundrum of inclusion vs. marginalization.
Keywords : Asyalı Amerikalı, Yung Wing, Sui Sin Far, Yone Noguchi, Ötekileştirme, Beyazlık