“What

means
switch”
Rayane Oudghiri & Adam Adnani
Short story show (creative summary)
Conext composition

&

Context OF RECEPTION
 Background

● Gish Jen (an Asian- American) grew up in a strongly cultured

Asian house.
● As a kid, Jen was shy and reserved, but also spoke to others
comfortably and could be outgoing
● She had always struggled with finding a job and finding out
what she wanted to do with her life
○ But she knew writing was her passion
● Many of her stories include an environment with Chinese,
American and Jewish cultures.
 Background (Continued)

● She has written many different novels which follow the same
theme
○ Family, identity, and community
● Popular piece of work that have the same themes and similar
message from Jen
○ “Typical American”
● Her well-known story Mona in the Promised Land, grew from
“What Means Switch”
 AUthor’s Inspiration

● Jen mirrors her life through her stories/novels.

Meaning the setting and experiences are similar
to what she went through growing up.
○ Makes her stories much more symbolic
● She was always concerned with fitting in and
feeling like she belonged as a child.
● Uses her experiences to defy common
Asian/Asian-American sterotypes
 AUthor’s Inspiration (continued)

● Many of her novels are based on

Asian-Americans trying to break the leash and
limitations society has on them.
● In a way, she also tries to teach foreigners that
nobody can receive a warm welcome when they
move to America
○ Everything is not what it seems
● She also tries to reconstruct and change the
way a foreigner views America
Critical essay quote
 ”
“Waverly's apparently Chinese creativity for chess presciently
anticipates, of course, the modern stereotype of the Asian math
genius and compute whiz whose racial inheritance consists of not
only a nearly superhuman capacity for the tedious labor of
calculation but also an analogously inhuman appetite for play. But
while Tan may indeed be playing with various aspects of the model
minority stereotype. It is her staging of those stereotypes as
simultaneously racial and ludic troped that make The Joy Luck Club
additionally relevant as Asian American Text”

— TARA FIckle
(American Rules and Chinese Faces: The Games of Amy Tan's "The Joy Luck Club")
Thanks for listening and
participating!

Feel free to ask any questions!

 WORks cited
Fickle, Tara. “American Rules and Chinese Faces: The Games of Amy Tan's ‘The Joy Luck Club.’” MELUS, vol. 39, no. 3, 2014, pp.

68–88., www.jstor.org/stable/24569861. Accessed 2 Oct. 2020.

Consol, Published by Marisa. “What Means Switch Book by Gish Jen Summary.” Majestic Grades, 29 Dec. 2019,

www.majesticgrades.com/what-means-switch/.

“Gish Jen.” Obo, www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199827251/obo-9780199827251-0129.xml.

Lee, Don. “About Gish Jen.” Ploughshares, vol. 26, no. 2/3, 2000, pp. 217–222. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40352824. Accessed 2

Oct. 2020.

“Gish Jen Biography.” American, Ralph, Chinese, and Mona - JRank Articles,

biography.jrank.org/pages/4465/Jen-Gish.html#:~:text=Born: Lillian Jen, c.,of Massachusetts, 1990-91.