Eat a Bowl of Tea is a 1961 novel by Louis Chu. It was the first Chinese American novel set in Chinese America. Because of its portrayal of the "bachelor society" in New York's Chinatown after World War II, it has become an important work in Asian American studies. It has been cited as an influence by such authors as Frank Chin and Maxine Hong Kingston. It was made into a film of the same name by Wayne Wang in 1989.
The novel focuses on four primary characters: a young married couple, Ben Loy and Mei Oi, and their fathers, Wah Gay and Lee Gong. Chu uses their stories illuminate conflicts between Chinese ideals and traditions and contemporary American society.
Read more about Eat A Bowl Of Tea: Explanation On The Novel's Title, Plot Summary, Setting and Historical Context, Point of View, Structure, Syntax and Diction, Major Themes, Literary Significance and Reception
Famous quotes containing the words eat a, eat, bowl and/or tea:
“I have done a great deal of work, as much as a man, but did not get so much pay. I used to work in the field and bind grain, keeping up with the cradler; but men doing no more, got twice as much pay.... We do as much, we eat as much, we want as much.”
—Sojourner Truth (1797–1883)
“Such was life in the Golden Gate:
Gold dusted all we drank and ate,
And I was one of the children told,
“We all must eat our peck of gold.””
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or
the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the
cistern.
Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit
shall return unto God who gave it.
Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher, all is vanity.”
—Bible: Hebrew Ecclesiastes (l. XII, 6–7)
“It has been well said that tea is suggestive of a thousand wants, from which spring the decencies and luxuries of civilization.”
—Agnes Repplier (1858–1950)