Eat a bowl of tea

After observing the film, "Eat a bowl of tea", it became very apparent the direct relation between many of the scenes in the movie and the text in Takaki's novel. For instance, on many occasions were there men shown as the dominant gender of Chinese immigrants and citizens in America, therefore leaving Mei Oi(the wife of Ben Loy) an outcast as she was recognized as one of the only Chinese women present in the country throughout the film. This is a great example of what Takaki described as "Most Chinese men were trapped in a womanless world" on page 125 of his book "Strangers from a different shore". In addition, Takaki continues to glorify the absence of women in America at this time by addressing the ongoing struggles of Chinamen as they longed for families and had to resort to other means of comfort and release through brothels and opium parlors (pg.127). This common pattern for Chinese men was also shown multiple times in the film when both Ben Loy and Wah Gay encounter prostitutes as well as a vast line of other Chinese men in the opening scene. It is also evident to note that because Chinese women were so hard to come by, men would often battle over women or try to associate with husbands wives on an intimate level much like Ah Song had done with Mei Oi.

An endless list of related events from the film to Takaki's novel can be made, however another prominent relation was of the immigration station port in San Francisco. This being the place that immigrants moving to America for Laborious jobs would land first, just like Ben Loy and his wife had done when bringing her to the new country for the first time. In addition to this comparison comes the reliability of Chinatowns in North America for financial security and living quarters. Towards the very end of the film, Ben Loy mentions his potential journey to San Francisco in hopes of picking up a job working for a radio station. This implies he is resorting to Chinatown for a chance to regain stability after losing his steady job as a restaurant manager, which was very common for many Chinamen throughout the early to mid 1900s as it was the only promising option for a sustainable life. In the Takaki novel Ng Poon Chew, the editor of Chung Sai Yat Po, stated that "A Chinaman cannot secure a residence outside of Chinatown, in San Francisco, no matter how much he may offer for it"(pg.246). Thus it goes to show the tremendous struggle for Chinese to find diverse job opportunities in the early 1900s and ones that would pay reasonable wages. Although Ben Loy in the film is in search of a job later into the 1900s, his options were still limited and Chinatown was considered.

On top of the many comparisons with Takaki, "Eat a bowl of tea" can also be related to the Critical Race Theory: "The Dominant society will always racialize different groups at different times". When the film portrays the shortage of women on the mainland of America, it is understood that women had been denied certain immigration rights unless directly tied by marriage to a citizen of the U.S. for means of preventing overpopulation or establishing Chinese families. This effort by the dominant society to stop the Chinese from entering America is a prime example of racial discrimination at the present time for fear that they would begin to take over the working class and bring too many foreign accustoms to the United States. Luckily, for Ben Loy, he was one of the first to legally overpower this strategic barrier and brought his Chinese wife to America as a means of creating a new generation. His marriage was more important than one might think as it signified the new beginning to the end of the Chinese exclusion act of 1882, and was depended on by his father, as well as the many Chinese living in America.