The Americanization of Li Ming

                …can I accurately write such a story?
                “It doesn’t exist, America,” a character in Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer said, “it’s a name you give to an abstract idea.” An abstract idea—but how do I “show” (and not tell) an abstract idea?
                How would Americanization be quantified? What elements must her character have to illustrate her Americanness? Eating a hot dog at the Grand Canyon? But wieners are international, and more to the point German. Celebrating the Fourth of July? Eating a hot dog and attending a Fourth of July fireworks display that is put on by the local Rotarians – would that, along with her wearing an Uncle Sam red, white, and blue stove-pipe hat, be American? No. She can’t imitate Uncle Sam in any way. Uncle Sam oppressed (revise to continuous present tense) Africans, Native Americans, and most important to Li Ming, the Chinese and Vietnamese. (Which is she? Which would be better for her character? The Chinese have been in America for well past two centuries, but the Vietnam War stands out in peoples’ minds. And that is [or was] always good for readers’ sympathy).
                Li Ming holds a foot-long hot dog (the length must be greater than average to exhibit the American exceptionalism that she now must embrace) in her right hand while holding her American citizenship paper in the left hand. Or should the objects in the hands be reversed? The left, after all, is equated with evil and wrong, and the story should [not] present America in a negative light.
                "Li Ming, do not trade the Buddha for Jesus."
                (Her mother is alive or dead? Dead definitely. As a ghost she can appear to Li Ming and this realistic story can turn into magical realist fable).
                "I still wear the golden charm you gave me, Mother, before you placed me on the smuggler's junk. But I do not show the charm in America. I wear it hidden under the store bought blouses I wear. The sisters who taught me English at the school never saw it. They made me pray to Jesus, but in my heart I still pray to Buddha and to you, Mother. Don’t worry, Mother. In my citizenship class I learned that America was founded with the guarantee of religious freedom."
                "But does that include freedom for you?"
                "My teacher says for all. And the pledge to the flag he teach us says 'and justice and freedom for all.'"
                "Who is 'all,' Li Ming?"
                "I am part of 'all.' I am part of America. And since you are a part of me, Mother, you are part of America."
                "I am Vietnamese, Li Ming. And you are too. Never forget..."
                "Mother, I have become Americanized."

Hardy Jones' fiction and nonfiction has appeared in over twenty journals.  He has been awarded two grants, and his novel Every Bitter Thing is forthcoming from Black Lawrence Press in May 2010. He teaches English at Cameron University.

SHELFLIFEMAGAZINE : issue #009