Summary-Synthesis Response #2

Summary-Synthesis Response #2

Summary:

LuMing Mao’s book, Reading Chinese Fortune Cookie, The Making of Chinese American Rhetoric, Mao discusses how Chinese American rhetoric was formed, and the implications that this rhetoric creates. Mao discusses the paradox that directly effects the Chinese American rhetoric. He describes this paradox by saying that “we now live in this increasingly interconnected and interdependent world… On the other hand, skepticism and resistance toward integration and uniformity abound” (Mao, 1). Throughout the reading, Mao reflects back on this paradox as he tries to showcase the Chinese American rhetoric, recognizing that it is impossible to have both an interconnected world that directly effects discourse and the want for cultural uniqueness and independence. Mao argues that Chinese American Rhetoric is a hybrid between these two sides of the paradox and that rejecting this term “would be almost like fighting a losing battle, given the fact that we are all implicated in each other’s lives” (Mao, 26). Mao suggests that we should dig deeper into this form of hybridity and use it as a way to see all of the facets of the Chinese American Rhetoric.

 

Synthesis:

David Levy looks at how the Internet has allowed the world to become more interconnected. In chapter six of Scrolling Forward, Making Sense in the Digital Age, Levy states that technology, such as the Internet, “allows us to stay in touch with friends, partners, children, and colleagues at a distance” (Levy, 102). Mao would agree that the Internet has this power and would attribute it to the world being increasingly more connected. This also accounts for half of the paradox that Mao describes in his book. With the Internet and the sense of connection that it brings, it is impossible to have rhetoric – such as that of the Chinese American rhetoric – that is also completely stand-alone. With the influence of the Internet, all things are able to be connected.

Levy also dives into the history of how the internet began to allow for the digital representation of documents in the chapter of Scrolling Forward titled “A Bit of Digital History.” In this, he states that “Nelson and Douglas Englebart are considered to be the fathers of computer-based hypertext, the ability to link fragments of text together via computer, allowing the reader to follow a link from one piece of text to another” (Levy, 149). The use of hypertext clearly shows the Internet’s ability to connect strings of information together, even expanding beyond a single document. This feeds into what Mao was stating in his writings. He attributes the increase of interconnectivity largely to the Internet itself. The Internet can be a complication for those who wish for the Chinese American rhetoric to be solely independent, as it can easily be used to connect ideas and discourse.

In Charles Bazerman’s chapter of What Writing Does and How It Does It – Chapter 4 “Intertextuality: How Texts Rely on Other Texts,” he explains intertextuality and all of the ways which it can appear in a text. Bazerman defines intertextuality as “the explicit and implicit relations that a text or utterance has to prior, contemporary and potential future texts” (Bazerman, 86). Intertextuality does not occur only in written texts, but in spoken ones as well. Because of this, Mao would argue that there is a level of intertextuality that exists within the Chinese American rhetoric. This also ties into the first half of the paradox that Mao mentions at the very beginning of his book, as these instances of intertextuality clearly show that we are living in an interconnected world.

Chapter eight of What Writing Does and How It Does It looks at the interactions between text and talk. Authors Leander and Prior state that “writing is often initiated and planned in talk, that readers often talk through texts they are reading with others (sometimes reading all or part of a text aloud), that reader’s responses to writers’ in-progress texts often involve talk, and that many texts (such as scripts for plays and movies, speeches, advertisements, and religious rituals) are written to be spoken” (Leander & Prior, 201). In short, it is difficult, and at times impossible, to separate talk from texts. With this in mind, Mao would argue that the Chinese American rhetoric that he examines in his book is not just limited to either talk or text but is clearly present in both forms.

Finally, chapter five of What Writing Does and How It Does It – written by Marcia Z. Buell – looks at the practice of code-switching and second language writing. Towards the end of the chapter, Buell states that “interpretive, intertextual, and ethnographic approaches can work together to enrich an understanding of codes and code-switching in written texts. Code-switching has proved to be a rich framework for research in speaking, and it holds equal potential as a means of analyzing writing” (Buell, 117-118). Mao would be very likely to agree with the usefulness of code-switching, especially when it comes to examining code-switching in the spoken word. Mao would also likely be interested in further examining the practice of code-switching within the Chinese American rhetoric.

 

Questions:

1. How would Mao compare the history of the Chinese American rhetoric to that of the African American rhetoric?
2. How would Mao describe the change in Chinese American rhetoric after the Internet became more prevalent? Is there even a drastic change?

(Word Count: 892)

 

Citations:

Bazerman, Charles. “Intertextuality: How Texts Rely on Other Texts.” Bazerman, Charles and Paul Prior. What Writing Does and How It Does It. Routledge, 2009.

Buell, Marcia Z. “Code-Switching and Multiple Language Writing: How Multiple Codes Are Combined in a Text.” Bazerman, Charles and Paul Prior. What Writing Does and How It Does It. Routledge, 2009.

Leander, Kevin and Paul Prior. “Speaking and Writing: How Talk and Text Interact in Situated Practices.” Bazerman, Charles and Paul Prior. What Writing Does and How It Does It. Routledge, 2009.

Levy, David M. Scrolling Forward. New York: Arcade, 2016.

Mao, LuMing. Reading Chinese Fortune Cookie, the Making of Chinese American Rhetoric. 2006.