Angel Island Poem #42

I. About Angel Island

Large numbers of Chinese men first arrived in California, known in Chinese as Gold Mountain 金山 jīn shān (Mandarin; Gam Saan, Cantonese), in 1849-52 in order to make their fortunes in the Gold Rush. Many more were recruited in the 1860’s to provide the massive labor force that built the Transcontinental Railroad over the high barriers of the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains. Chinese immigrants were paid less than white workers doing the same jobs and were assigned to the most dangerius duties, such as setting off explosions to excavate tunnels. Many lost their lives. With the depression of the 1870’s, the anti-Chinese movement led by San Francisco’s Denis Kearney and his Workingman’s Party, fanned the racist hysteria that Chinese were taking jobs from Americans. This led to the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 which prohibited all Chinese immigration. By the time the Angel Island detention center was opened in 1910, Chinese could enter the United States only if they could prove that a relative was already in residence. Many prepared themselves with extensive coaching to prove their fictional relationship to residents. Detainees on Angel Island were waiting to be interviewed to ascertain the legitimacy of their credentials. Today almost 4,000,000 Americans are of Chinese origin, representing about 1.3% of the total population.

II. Poetic Style

The classical poetic style of the Angel Island poems, with their well-structured 7-character lines, rich use of figurative language and references to Chinese history, suggests that many of these immigrants were well educated. One poet wrote: There are tens of thousands of poems composed on these walls. / They are all cries of complaint and sadness. / The day I am rid of this prison and attain success, / I must remember that this chapter once existed.

III. About Quatrains

A quatrain is a four-line stanza, rhyming with various forms for example:

• ABAC or ABCB (known as unbounded or ballad quatrain), as in Samuel Taylor
  Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”

It is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three.
Now wherefore stopp’st thou me?
The Bridegroom’s doors are opened wide
And I am next of kin
The guests are met, the feast is set:
May’st hear the merry din.

• AABB (a double couplet); see A.E. Housman’s “To an Athlete Dying Young.”

The time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by.
And home we brought you shoulder-high
Today the road all runner come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home.
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.

I. About this poem

Bravely read 蛟龍 Jiāo lóng out loud in Chinese, beginning with instructor, progressing to call-and-response, and finally assigning groups to memorize lines. Chinese-literate students will be glad to correct your pronunciation!

Unlike immortal Tang Dynasty poets such as Wáng Wéi and Li Bái, prominent figures central to the literary and political dimensions of an imperial culture, who have been famous for over a thousand years, the poet who wrote 蛟龍 Jiāo lóng was an anonymous, angry immigrant detained, perhaps for years, in an immigration prison on an island in San Francisco Bay. Whatever this poet’s name, he (the poem was carved on the wall of the men’s dormitory) was well educated and aware of classical Chinese poetic tradition handed down from the great Tang.

蛟龍 Jiāo lóng is written as a quatrain of 7-character lines rhyming a-a-x-a. The first two lines use animal metaphors to make the point that great characters in an inappropriate setting may be victimized by the unworthy. In line 1, a powerful Flood Dragon caught out of water is pestered by ants. In line 2, a fierce tiger in a cage is teased by a small boy. Lines 3 and 4 abandon metaphorical thinking to meditate on the possibilities of revenge for this victimization.

蛟龍 Jiāo lóng is a familiar figure in Chinese thought, sometimes identified with a crocodile or a shark, and used figuratively to describe a person with bold ambitions or a hidden genius. Similarly, 猛虎 Mĕng hŭ  “fierce tiger” is the name of an advanced fighting form of Shaolin Kung Fu.

II. Suggested activities

Draw 蛟龍 Jiāo lóng flood dragon. Include Chinese characters from the poem in your artistic composition. Do the same for 猛虎 Mĕng hŭ  fierce tiger.

Each group is assigned one line. Find radicals for every character. Drill each other on the glossary for your line. Memorize the line aloud. Choose one character from your line to research more deeply as a group. What exactly does it represent and what can you infer about its associations? Bas as whole class: groups declaim memorized lines, students win points for groups by identifying character flash-cards shown by teacher, each group presents background talk on chosen character.

Did you ever feel like you were a victim? Safely initiate a discussion in each group about ways people may have found themselves victimized (racism, sexism, homophobia, poverty, bullying). How did you/ do you deal with it? Is revenge an option? What are the alternatives?

III. Original Poetry  

Begin your poem with an animal that is like you in some way. Write your poem “Chinese style,” with five words in each line of a four-line quatrain. Omit all connective words such as articles and prepositions. In a following session, revise your poem into standard English syntax. Which version came out better?

Write a free-form poem about something you feel is unfair.