The Chinese mother's critique of Irish masculinity in "Who's Irish?"

¶ … Irish" by Gish Jen

In Gish Jen's short story, "Who's Irish?" The author delved into different issues that the Chinese woman character had contemplated as a mother to a second-generation Chinese and grandmother to an Irish-Chinese-American girl. Through the Mother's observations, Jen brought into fore the issues regarding her son-in-law, Irish-born John, and granddaughter, Sophie. However, what interested me most was her courageous, fierce, and at the same time witty remarks and declarations about John.

The story gave a refreshing look at how the Chinese Mother viewed Caucasian males, especially centering on John, whom he implied as not only lazy, but a thoroughly insecure male. Her witty remarks about John's personality and actions gave away this judgment, as Mother described him as "plain boiled food, plain boiled thinking. Even his name is plain boiled: John." Indeed, this judgment was supported by other witty recollections of John's behavior as husband and man. Under the Mother's scrutiny, readers were able to see beyond the seemingly trivial things that actually make up John's entire personality and character. For his wife, John is a "depressed" man, who needed constant assurance of his security as husband and father of the family; for the Mother, however, John is simply her vision of the typical male who depended on the women of his life for survival. When the Mother commented, "If John lived in China, he would be very happy," she meant that John is like other males that she had encountered with in patriarchal Chinese society.