Ghost by Cathy Song
"Ghost" by Cathy Song is a poem that explores themes of racial identity and cultural dynamics within the diverse landscape of Hawaiian society. The work reflects on the historical usage of the term "ghost" among Chinese communities to describe individuals of other races, particularly white people, often viewed as oppressive. The speaker, an Asian-American schoolteacher, identifies as a "yellow ghost," highlighting her feelings of invisibility and lack of authority in a predominantly white educational setting. However, she seeks to redefine power through cultural exchange and education rather than through racial hierarchies.
In the second part of the poem, the speaker grapples with her mother's perceptions of race, specifically the term "bok gwai" (white ghost), and challenges the narrow lens through which her mother views racial dynamics. The daughter's relationship with a white man serves as a catalyst for breaking down these barriers, hinting at the possibility of reconciliation and mutual understanding across racial lines. Overall, "Ghost" not only examines personal and existential connections between the daughter and her mother amid the backdrop of cultural complexities but also advocates for a more inclusive and nuanced approach to identity that transcends historical grievances.
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Ghost by Cathy Song
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 2001 (collected in The Land of Bliss, 2001)
Type of work: Poem
The Work
“Ghost” appears in The Land of Bliss as a critical reflection on the issue of racial difference in the multiethnic context of Hawaiian society, where, in 2000, Asians, Pacific Islanders, and native Hawaiians made up about 51 percent of the population and white people were a 24 percent minority. To understand this poem, it is useful to consider the fact that, historically, “ghost” (gwai) was a term often used among the Chinese to refer to people of other races (typically white Caucasians) perceived to be oppressive or repulsive. Although an epithet suggesting repugnance and contempt, “ghost” also signifies a sense of helpless subjugation, as racism against Asians had been rampant historically. Typical of the younger generation, the poet does not endorse the sentiments underlying the epithet.
In the first part of the poem, the speaker, a schoolteacher of Asian descent, refers to herself as a “yellow ghost” who flutters “like a moth/ invisible to these/ children of soldiers.” Despite this invisibility and potential lack of authority and recognition, the speaker acknowledges that she occupies a position of power. However, rather than perpetuating the pattern of domination, the speaker attempts to restructure the interracial self-other relationship in nonconfrontational terms, offering to share with her pupils “a jeweled seeded fruit,/ a poem I pare and peel/ that has no flesh,” a poem that “tastes like nothing/ they want to eat.” Song, who has been involved in the Poets in Schools program, thus raises questions about the meaning of the prevalent epithet. The color of power can be white, and it can also be yellow, but, more important, it needs to be vested not in the form of racial hierarchies but rather, as the poet seems to suggest, in culture and education.
In the second part of the poem, the speaker challenges her mother’s offhanded use of the term bok gwai (white ghost). The daughter does see the mother’s point about white privilege, but she questions the mother’s categorical myopia: “Bok gwai, white ghost,/ she chose to call them./ By choosing, she chose/ not to see/ them/ as she so surely saw/ she was not seen.” Fortunately, this is a vicious circle that the daughter is able to short-circuit when she starts dating a white man. The mother recoils at his “odor/ of a meat eater,” but eventually she is pleased enough with him to invite him back—thus paving way for the daughter’s interracial romance and, perhaps metaphorically speaking, the construction of a sustainable relationship for people from different cultures and ethnicities.
“Ghost” is hence a poem that bridges racial gaps on personal terms. In the context of the main action of the collection—the deteriorating health of the mother, and how that dying process intimately leaves a deep impact on the feelings, memories, and anxieties of the daughter—“Ghost” also bridges existential gaps between the two women. The mother might have accepted the daughter’s choice of a “round eye,” but it appears as if it is the daughter who grants the terms of reconciliation: The mother will be remembered and honored, but her flaws stay on the record even as she is immortalized in the land of bliss created by the daughter’s poetry.
Bibliography
Chang, Juliana. “Reading Asian American Poetry.” MELUS 21, no. 1 (Spring, 1996): 81-98.
Chun, Gary. “Poet Sings of Journey of Life.” Honolulu Star-Bulletin, January 11, 2002.
Cobb, Nora Okja. “Artistic and Cultural Mothering in the Poetics of Cathy Song.” In New Visions in Asian American Studies: Diversity, Community, Power, edited by Franklin Ng et al. Pullman: Washington State University Press, 1994.
Fujita-Sato, Gayle K. “’Third World’ as Place and Paradigm in Cathy Song’s Picture Bride.” MELUS 15, no. 1 (Spring, 1988): 49-72.
Hugo, Richard. Foreword to Picture Bride, by Cathy Song. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1983.
Lim, Shirley. Review of Picture Bride, by Cathy Song. MELUS 10, no. 3 (Fall, 1983): 95-99.
Song, Cathy. “Cathy’s Song: Interview with Cathy Song.” Interview by David Choo. Honolulu Weekly 4 (June 15, 1994): 6-8.
Song, Cathy, and Juliet S. Kono. Introduction to Sister Stew: Fiction and Poetry by Women. Honolulu: Bamboo Ridge Press, 1991.
Sumida, Stephen. And the View from the Shore: Literary Traditions of Hawaii. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1991.
Wallace, Patricia. “Divided Loyalties: Literal and Literary in the Poetry of Lorna Dee Cervantes, Cathy Song, and Rita Dove.” MELUS 18, no. 3 (Fall, 1993): 3-19.
Zhou, Xiaojing. “Intercultural Strategies in Asian American Poetry.” In Re-placing America: Conversations and Contestations, edited by Ruth Hsu et al. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2000.