Bone by Fae Myenne Ng
"Bone" by Fae Myenne Ng is a poignant exploration of family dynamics and the immigrant experience, centered around the Leong family in Chinatown, San Francisco. The narrative is driven by the perspective of Leila Fu Louie, the eldest daughter, who grapples with the aftermath of her half-sister Ona's tragic suicide. Through Leila's reflections on their shared childhood and the complexities of their lives, the novel delves into themes of grief, cultural expectation, and the struggle for identity within a patriarchal framework.
Ng highlights the burdens placed on the children of immigrants, who often find themselves acting as bridges between their parents' traditional values and their own American identities. Leila’s journey reveals her efforts to honor her family's heritage while confronting the chasm between her aspirations and her parents' expectations. In contrast, her sister Nina embodies a rebellious spirit, choosing to distance herself from these familial obligations.
At its core, "Bone" does not seek to resolve the mystery of Ona's silence or death but instead focuses on the intricate layers of love, guilt, and acceptance that shape the immigrant experience. The title symbolizes endurance and highlights the lasting impact of cultural heritage. Overall, Ng’s work resonates with the universal struggles faced by second-generation immigrants, making it a significant contribution to contemporary literature addressing these themes.
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Subject Terms
Bone by Fae Myenne Ng
First published: 1993
The Work
Fae Myenne Ng’s Bone continues in a tradition of Asian American novels by women that mediate between the demands of addressing issues of gender and of ethnicity. As a woman writing from a strongly patriarchal cultural heritage, Ng has had to create new strategies in order to express the paradox of resistance to and affirmation of her cultural heritage.
Bone relates the story of the Leong family, which has recently suffered the death by suicide of the Middle Girl, Ona. Ona committed suicide by jumping from one of Chinatown’s housing projects. She left no note, and although the police reported she was “on downers,” or depressants, there was no apparent cause for the suicide. The novel is narrated by the First Girl, Leila Fu Louie, Ona’s half-sister and the eldest daughter in the Leong family. Leila’s attempts to come to terms with her sister’s death, and thereby her own life, lead her to muse about incidents from their childhood and the everyday circumstances of the present. The novel unfolds in a series of stories that move from the present into the past.
The children of immigrants have often been called upon to translate for their parents. Their ability to switch from the language of their parents to the English of their birthplace makes them the bridge between the customs of the Old World and the expectations and demands of the New. This enormous responsibility can become an overwhelming burden. Although Leila must continually face the chasm between her parents’ expectations and her own reality, her ability to build a bridge of translation is grounded in her strong need and appreciation for the family.
Her youngest sister, Nina, the End Girl, refuses to shoulder this burden of translation. Her rebellion has caused her to move to New York, far away from her parents in San Francisco’s Chinatown. She declares her independence by refusing to lie about her life in order to appease her parents. It is the self-imposed silence of Ona, however, that is at the center of the novel. Ona, the middle child, is caught in the middle; she learned too well how to keep secrets.
Ng does not seek to solve the mystery of Ona’s death in this novel. It is a mystery that is unsolvable; rather, through the narrative voice of Leila, Ng explores the languages and silences of love, grief, assimilation, avoidance, anger, guilt, and, finally, acceptance. Ng, who grew up in San Francisco, is the daughter of Chinese immigrants and in an interview explained the title of her novel: “Bone is what lasts. And I wanted to honor the quality of endurance in the immigrant spirit.”
Bone is a journey into a territory that is the common heritage of all second-generation immigrant Americans and the particular traditions of Chinese immigrants. The path to assimilation into American society is fraught with contradictions and ambivalence. Ng provides few answers; she simply reveals one family’s experience.
Bibliography
Belles Lettres. VIII, Spring, 1993, p.21.
Cheng, Lucie, et al. Linking Our Lives: Chinese American Women of Los Angeles. Los Angeles: Chinese Historical Society of Southern California, 1984. The authors discuss problems of Chinese women as they become Americanized in Southern California. The women of the Leong family, including the mother and three daughters, confront these obstacles.
Chicago Tribune. February 25, 1993, V, p.3.
Hunnewell, Susannah. “When the Old Begin to Die.” The New York Times Book Review (February 7, 1993): 9. This article describes the sweatshops where Ng grew up in Chinatown, San Francisco, California, and where many older people worked hard to give their grandchildren a better life. Ng’s novel pays tribute to the dedication of her grandparents’ generation.
Kim, Elaine H., with Janice Otani. With Silk Wings: Asian American Women at Work. San Francisco: Asian Women United of California, 1983. Kim lists problems of Chinese and other Asian American women on the job market. Particularly relevant to Ng’s novel are the depictions of women in a sweatshop such as the one in which Mah Leong works.
Knoll, Tricia. Becoming Americans: Asian Sojourners, Immigrants, and Refugees in the Western United States. Portland, Oreg.: Coast to Coast Books, 1982. Knoll describes the problems and circumstances of numerous Asian immigrant groups throughout the Western United States, including the Chinese in San Francisco.
Library Journal. CXVIII, January, 1993, p.166.
Lim, Shirley Geok-lin. “Assaying the Gold: Or, Contesting the Ground of Asian American Literature.” New Literary History 24, no. 1 (Winter, 1993): 147-165. Traces the image of “the dream of the gold mountain”—from the early twentieth century writings at Angel Island, the immigrant’s port-of-entry, to contemporary authors’ preoccupations with paradoxes of promise and imprisonment, assimilation, and ethnic identification. Lim’s analysis does not include Ng’s work, but her discussion of mainstream Asian American authors who have reached success by mediating between non-Asian American readers and their own ethnic identities, includes much that would also pertain to a study of Bone.
Lim, shirley Geok-lin. “Feminist and Ethnic Literary Theories in Asian American Literature.” Feminist Studies 19, no. 3 (Fall, 1993): 571-595. Although this essay was written before the publication of Ng’s novel, it delineates feminist issues in writings by Asian American women that help to illuminate similar issues in Bone. Lim focuses on how the literature reflects the oppositional demands of ethnic and gender identity. Claims that Asian American women have had to invent new plots, in which patriarchal power is diminished by the disempowerment of the father-figure, in order to reclaim their “mother/other” origin.
Los Angeles Times. January 14, 1993, p. ES.
Miller, Heather Ross. “America the Big Lie, the Quintessential.” Southern Review 29, no. 2 (April, 1993): 420-430. A review of five books of fiction, including Bone. Miller focuses on how the American Dream is supposed to be achieved by the adherence to a strong work ethic. Although these authors reveal the corruption of the innocent that such a belief engenders, their fictions recall a history of suffering transformed into life and hope.
Ms. III, May, 1993, p.75.
The New York Times Book Review. XCVIII, February 7, 1993, p.7.
The New Yorker. LXVIII, February 8, 1993, p.113.
Ng, Fae Myenne. “False Gold: My Father’s American Journey.” New Republic 209 (July 19, 1993): 12-13. Ng discusses her father’s immigration to America. He was of the generation that took the sacrificial role to venture forth, and now at the end of this life he is bitter and believes that he has had no luck. Although she does not draw direct parallels between her father and the character of Leon Leong in Bone, they share similar antecedents—both are “paper sons” and both have been disappointed in their “Golden Venture” to the Beautiful Country.
Publishers Weekly. CCXXXIX, November 9, 1992, p.71.
Stephenson, Heather. “Out of the Kitchen and Traveling On: New Fiction by Asian Women.” New England Review 16, no. 1 (Winter, 1994): 169-176. In this comparison of Banana Yoshimoto’s Kitchen, Duong Thu Hong’s Paradise of the Blind, and Fae Myenne Ng’s Bone, Stephenson discusses how each author uses the language of food, kitchens, and ritual offerings to integrate family histories into current lives.
Suh, Mary. “Fae Myenne Ng: Sparse Words, Rich Images.” Review of Bone, by Fae Myenne Ng. Ms. 3 (June, 1993): 75. Suh’s review of Ng’s novel focuses on the insider’s account of life in Chinatown, the family life of Chinese immigrants, and the immigrant’s story. Provides an excellent perspective of the cultural background of Ng’s book.
Tannenbaum, Amy. “Getting to the Marrow.” New York 26, no. 4 (January 25, 1993): 26. A brief profile of and interview with Fae Myenne Ng in which she describes her childhood in San Francisco when she helped her mother in a sewing sweatshop. She sees herself as a traveler, an itinerant who, like the oldtimers, makes a home wherever she is.
Tsai, Shih-shan Henry. The Chinese Experience in America. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986. Tsai gives a broad outline, replete with numerous details, about problems of cultural assimilation of the Chinese in America. The book is recent enough to take up problems of present-day first-and second-generation Chinese immigrants.
The Washington Post Book World. XXIII, January 10, 1993, p.8.
Women’s Review of Books. X, May, 1993, p.27.