Cultural Influences and Norms in Book Granny

Anyi Wang was born in 1954 and is still alive today. Her place of birth was Nanjing, China. She was born to a writer by the name of Ru Zhijuan. She attended college at the University of Iowa as part of their international writing program. She is an active member of the Chinese Association of Writers and she remains an active novelist that has written a number of screenplays and short fiction. She engages in a circuit of lectures in both China and the United States. Her credits include a rather large volume of works including The Rain Patters On, Liushi, Huanghe Gudao Ren and others. She is also a consistent and current writer for the magazine known as Childhood (Encyclopedia).

Even the lesser known facts about the author are rather intriguing. She is indeed one of the more prominent voices that exists in an era that is after the presence of Mao. Much of her fiction is based on growing up both before and during the Cultural Revolution that occurred in China. Her mother, the aforementioned Ru Zhijuan, was a famous writer herself. Her father had rather right-wing views and was commonly pilloried for having them. Wang became a cellist and joined a state-sponsored group to do the same. In 1976, when she was age nineteen, Wang egam publishing her stories. Indeed, this came after the Cultural Revolution and the fall of what was known as the "Gang of Four" (Encyclopedia).

This is not true of all of her work but a lot of what she has written has been published in English. Of course, Granny is one of those pieces and that work will be analyzed throughout the rest of this report. However, there have been other works such as Yu, sha sha sha and others that have also been translated. Baotwon is a short novel that was also brought to American audiences. One of her works caused a bit of a scandal in 1980's China. He work was deemed to be provocative to the point that some people called it "pornographic (Encyclopedia).

While reading the work Granny, there is obviously a common theme and pattern to what is said, done and experienced per the narrator in the story. It is clear that so much of her life and the people around here are driven by culture, family, place of origin, where they live and the language they speak. Even Fu Ping herself is not immune to this behavior that seems to be borne of who one knows, where they come from and so forth. There is even a revelation near the end of the story that is quite telling in terms of who Granny really is to Fu Ping. While everyone deals with cultural norms and trends in their own way, Fu Ping clearly contributed her own behaviors and patterns to the cliquish and cultural snobbery of her time and day.

Of course, behavior that is focused on race, ethnicity, language, class and so forth is nothing new. It was prevalent in the time period represented in Granny and this remains the case. The examples of this in Granny are prevalent and common. They manifest from the people around Fu Ping as well as from Fu Ping herself. As for her personally, her insistence on only working for clients along a certain street and they were natives to a certain area was telling. Also telling was the commonly method that was used to identify and flesh out who the nannies were in the area. One would think that Fu Ping would be a little different given her orphan status as a child and her eventual relocation to a woman who had lost her sons. Something that is eye-opening about that is the eye-opening connection between Granny and Fu Ping that is revealed near the end of the story. In any event, the examples cited above are just examples and mere morsels of what can generally be aside about environments like those that Fu Ping inhabited (Wang).

To buttress and supplement the argument made already, the author of this response does not use the word "snobbery" casually. Generally speaking, people do not want to feel as if they are worthless or cast aside due to their race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status or lineage. Indeed, such poor treatment of people along those lines is not a good thing in any respects. Even so, even subtle and more basic manifestations of this are not good either. Even if maltreatment and snobbery is not overt and unmistakable, it is still not a good thing and should be reacted to as such. Indeed, even if Fu Ping was not herself guilty of being an overt bigot, racist or oppressor, she manifested some behaviors and points of analysis that are less than flattering to her. This is true despite the fact that there were times and places where she herself was subjugated. Indeed, the reference to lowering her head and not making eye contact early on in the Granny piece is just one example of this. The concurrent talk about suitors and how she herself could not go to a house of said suitors on her own is another telling part of the equation. Fu Ping was clearly a combination of victim and propagator of the same cultural garbage that was prevalent. The suitor that was clearly stated to not be a laborer or anything else of the sort was also a telling part of the Granny work (Wang).

Even with that being said, there would surely be consequences if Fu Ping were to try and break out of the mold that was cast upon her as part of her life. Indeed, the author of the work herself, Ms. Anyi Wang, was herself made a pariah and labeled a "pornographer" in the 1980's, far removed from the context of what she is writing about in terms of years. Even if the years have passed since then, a lot of the cultural norms and situations that were present back then are obviously still around in many forms, even if the names, faces and cultures have changed. Just as the times have changed since then, Fu Ping herself had changed over the years as well. She notes that she was homesick at first but that this later faded as time went on. Granny herself was much the same way. This makes sense as the habits and predilections of the person who raises a child are often manifested in that same child later on as they grow older and become more mature. Granny herself had homesickness but this faded over time. In addition, the culture that was prevalent in her new accommodations and area rubbed off on her. The same thing is true of the prejudices and other issues that arise. In other words, the culture rubbed off on both of them in both good ways and bad ways. To state the obvious, cultural norms rubbing off on new residents is not abnormal. However, it is not really a good thing when it happens regarding things that are bad and less than positive. It is even worse when the people that are discarded and disregarded are some of the same (or at least similar) to the person that you once were or that you were born to, even if you did not know them. For example, if a person is treated like scum for being poor while a child should not have the audacity to do the same to the poor of later years if they themselves become rich and are able to leave poverty. Even if not overt, the very idea that people along a certain lane or road are held in a certain regard while people a block over are shunned and ignored is just silly and ignorant, to say the least (Wang).

The double-dealing ways of both Fu Ping and Granny are peculiar in light of some of the stories and "horror" that is spoken of throughout the story. Indeed, page 468 speaks about a comparison between horror movies that Fu knew of and the "horror" stories that she was told and subjected to from Granny. As one might expect, there was some degree of "filtering," a word specifically used in the text. Indeed, there was surely some form or essence of "flavoring" to the story and what was being told was perhaps not the entire or correct story. Even so, the stories and telling of the same were all absolutely "linked" to what really happened even if some of the details were nuanced and massaged in nature.

However, it is safe to say that Granny was influenced greatly by the people around her. However, she did prove that she was able to resist what they had to say. Even so, it proved that cultural norms and such were what they were. For example, when she was considering adopting a grandson, the women around her tried to talk her out of it. The people that tried to dissuade her even include the people she worked for. They would even take her to the bank to open a savings account. However, Granny was not without other influences when it came to why she did the adoption since there was a family-based motive for the move. She then speaks about how the people she could and would lend or give money to would be grateful and would not abandon her. Even if she took a circuitous route to the end, she eventually came to a conclusion that was generally acceptable yet keeping with the cultural norms of the time.

Works Cited

Encyclopedia. (2016). Wang, Anyi 1954- - Dictionary definition of Wang, Anyi 1954- - Encyclopedia.com: FREE online dictionary. encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 25 November 2016, from http://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/wang-anyi-1954

Wang, A. (2016). Granny (1st ed.). New York.