Marilyn Chin, Turtle Soup: Page 419-420

Team Leader: Nor Ramdan

For Ben Huang

You go home one evening tired from work, 

and your mother boils you turtle soup. 

Twelve hours hunched over the hearth

(who knows what else is in that cauldron).

You say, "Ma, you've poached the symbol of long life;

that turtle lived four thousand years, swam

the Wet, up the Yellow, over the Yangtze. 

Witnessed the Bronze Age, the High Tang,

grazed on splendid sericulture."

(So, she boils the life out of him.)

"All our ancestors have been fools.

Remember Uncle Wu who rode ten thousand miles

to kill a famous Manchu and ended up

with his head on a pole? Eat, child,

its liver will make you strong."

"Sometimes you're the life, sometimes the sacrifice." 

Her sobbing is inconsolable.

So, you spread that gentle napkin 

over your lap in decorous Pasadena.

Baby, some high priestess has got it wrong.

The golden decal on the green underbelly

says "Made in Hong Kong."

Is there nothing left but the shell

and humanity's strange inscriptions,

the songs, the rites, the oracles?

Exploration of the Text

1. Notice the author's choice of the word 'cauldron' in the line 4. What images or connections does this word evoke? Why might the author have chose 'cauldron' rather than 'pot'?

The word cauldron means a large kettle or boiler. By using the word cauldron, the poet try to symbolises it to the mother. The author chose cauldron rather than pot is to show that the mother is a witch-like characters (who cooked a turtle, a Chinese symbolism for longevity) 

2. Chin refers to 'the Wei', 'the Yellow' and 'the Yangzte'. Why does she reference these rivers in China? Why not include the Nile, the Amazon or the Missisipi?

She refers to rivers in China to show where she came from.

3. What is the tone of this poem?

The tone for this poem is anger. 

Ideas for Writing

'Sometimes you are the life, sometimes the sacrifice'. Write about this quote within the context of immigrant family. Why might a family gain or lose by moving to a new land?

Within the context of immigrant family, this quote means that the fate of immigrant is unpredictable. You can live life normally or you can be sacrificed. Living outside from your country, you either can live life normal or you can be bullied by prejudice's people. By moving, a family might gain experience and lose culture. Person who travelled meet new people who practised different cultures and religions. With that he could gain many experiences rather than person who stayed at home. On negative side, he could lose his own culture as his culture (on food, cloths or tradition) cannot be practised in the new place he live. For example, if a Malay living in London, he cannot wear baju melayu or baju kurung (Malay's traditional cloths). Except if there is special occasions like Hari Raya Aidil Fitri or such. Other example is that, if we look at from the religion angle (related to the culture), Muslim only ate slaughtered halal animals. It is hard for them to find a slaughtered halal animals in London. As a result, his identity is slowly to disappear.