Literary Significance and Reception
When the novel was first published in 1961, reviews denounced it, deeming the content offensive and the language "tasteless and raw" (2). Chu's work was ignored for a decade and finally rediscovered in the 1970s. It is now considered a primary work in Asian American literature, and Louis Chu has been praised repeatedly for creating an honest portrayal of Chinese American culture. Due to its influence and popularity, the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre in New York City produced the novel for the stage and Wayne Wang directed a film version in 1989.
Read more about this topic: Eat A Bowl Of Tea
Famous quotes containing the words literary, significance and/or reception:
“The literary wiseacres prognosticate in many languages, as they have throughout so many centuries, setting the stage for new haut monde in letters and making up the public’s mind.”
—Fannie Hurst (1889–1968)
“The hypothesis I wish to advance is that ... the language of morality is in ... grave disorder.... What we possess, if this is true, are the fragments of a conceptual scheme, parts of which now lack those contexts from which their significance derived. We possess indeed simulacra of morality, we continue to use many of the key expressions. But we have—very largely if not entirely—lost our comprehension, both theoretical and practical, of morality.”
—Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre (b. 1929)
“I gave a speech in Omaha. After the speech I went to a reception elsewhere in town. A sweet old lady came up to me, put her gloved hand in mine, and said, “I hear you spoke here tonight.” “Oh, it was nothing,” I replied modestly. “Yes,” the little old lady nodded, “that’s what I heard.””
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)