Category Archives: Gish Jen

Profile of Tiger Writing by Gish Jen

Posted on December 12, 2013 by Earl Mays

Gish Jen’s Tiger Writing is an interesting biography of her family. It chronicles her family seeming from the dawn of time, coving a couple thousand years. The story is not the fiction Jen is known for, but contains all of her literary talents in the story delivery.

 Jen tells the story in first person. This is the way she captured the reader’s attention bringing then into her family; their culture and taking the reader back to her mother country of China. . She also gives the reader the perspective of what it is like to be an immigrant in the United States and what it means to be a second, third, fourth, etc., generation immigrant in America. Jen uses this as a strategy to bring in a deeper discussion of her family stories over the course of time.

 Jen narrates the story, but tells detailed stories of her ancestors, parents, and the origin of her family name. This technique keeps the writing fresh and entertaining for the reader as they progress through the story.

 The story is accompanied by visuals of the images such as the set up if the traditional Chinese home and of her family members. These images give a more concrete image of what Jen describes in her writing. If the story was presented without the images, the story itself could stand alone given Jen’s gift of providing a detailed description.

 The story further shows a great deal of information has been gathered over time. The historical information adds a sense of awe allowing the reader to ponder what it would be like to trace their family as far back as Jen has been able to do  This is reminiscent of stories like Roots by Alex Haley. At one point in the story, Jen compares her ancestors’ stories to that of stories told by African Americans. The elements she mentions that are the same are there themes of overcoming struggle and of the chosen one.

 This analogy gives more credit to Jen as a writer showing her depth of knowledge about literature, history, and humanity in general. Her choice to include this information makes the story more relatable to a reader of a different ethnic background.

 If I had a chance to ask Jen a few questions, I would ask what inspired her to choose the literary elements included in the story to tell her family story. I am also curious to know how long it took her to realize she wanted to turn the stories into a novel. Since the story takes the reader back to China, I am would want to know if at any point did she travel to China to gain more inspiration, sources and visuals to include. The writing process is another area of interest to me. What was it like? How long did it take? Did you find yourself on edge about what to include or did it come easily? Will the story have a sequel or is everything that was needed to be said, said in this piece.

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Gish Jen Profile

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Rebecca Ungarino

A small Chinese woman took the stage on the sixth floor of the Baruch College library building after several faculty members introduced themselves and the college’s Harman Writer-In-Residence Program. The woman had thick shoulder-length black hair and a face so alive, so animated, without a spot of makeup.

Author Gish Jen was so enlivened and so charmingly awake for her conversation at the Harman Writer-In-Residence semi-annual event this Tuesday night. Once a semester, the designated Harman Writer-In-Resident is featured at a conversational event, the public is invited, and the writer can choose to speak about their work, their life, and then answer questions from the audience. Gish Jen chose to feature a slideshow during a talk about her latest novel (and first non-fiction novel) called Tiger Writing about the rich and winding history of her family in China.

As I have not had her as a professor but had read excerpts of her writing both fiction and non-fiction, I wasn’t sure what kind of speaker she was going to be. She absolutely blew me away. To a student’s question she was asked about the Chinese culture and what it had been like when she visited, Jen replied with gumption, including, “We don’t need anymore misinformation in this world, honestly.”

A theme that seemed to develop in some of her replies during the Q and A portion of the evening was that of a literature-less childhood. It was the story of a poor Chinese immigrant family who couldn’t afford books for the children. Of her childhood, Jen said, “I grew up in New York! I knew more Yiddish than I did Chinese!”

We learned that Jen dropped out of Stanford’s business school and pursued creative writing at the prestigious Iowa Writing Workshop at the University of Iowa.

Jen’s demeanor was proud, but not too proud, laughing so humbly and warmly that it felt as if we were all out to dinner with her, and we were all her guests. Dressed in a dark velvet blouse that draped over her arms, Jen’s graceful motions and course of speaking were without flaw. She reminded me of a woman wading through water and silk with her hands, the rest of us in the room simply gasping for air around her figure.

Gish Jen spoke about her writing process, which she essentially described as haphazard and without order. She described a beautiful ideal situation for her writing to flourish: in a cabin in Vermont, alone, not to leave for hours at a time, or until her writing for the day is done.

As people began trickling out during the Q and A session, Jen remained patient and answered thoughtfully to the queries asked. To each question, she began her reply with, “Very good question,” with such sincerity that nobody seemed to notice the repetition.

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