A Different Perspective: How Chen Chen’s Poetry Offers Insight Into Another Life

Chen Chen’s reading of poetry from his work, When I Grow Up I want to Be a List of Further Possibilities was very intriguing and thought-provoking.  The poems he read were honest, brazen and powerful.  They are sassy in that they serve as a critique of social standards.  Chen Chen’s poems include himself as the subject and develop around the circumstances of his life.  The first few poems that he read described his life in a rather sad way.  For example, “First Slight” tells the story of his family leaving China and coming to the United States.  Although he does not remember much of the immigration, it is told through his mother’s viewpoint.  Chen Chen explained that after some time of writing, he became sick of writing sad stories and decided to change his methods of critiquing injustice.  In his poem “Eulogy for my Sadness”, he turns his sadness into angriness.  I felt that the works of Chen Chen could be related to some of the works we read in class, including “Feminist Killjoys (And Other Willful Subjects).”  Each of these works draws on unfair aspects of society and yearns for its readers to consider change.

My personal favorite poem read by Chen Chen was “I Invite My Parents to a Dinner Party.”  In this poem, Chen Chen explains how he invites his parents to dinner with his boyfriend.  They have met his boyfriend before but this is the first time they will be seeing him with the knowledge that he is dating their son.  Chen Chen’s parents are not supportive of his homosexuality.  I really like the way that this poem is told from the perspective of Chen Chen and invites the readers into his mind.  It helps readers to see the struggles that gays face and the personal adversity Chen Chen experiences in dealing with his strict, Chinese parents.  This poem reminded me of The Woman Warrior because it reflects the difficulty the speaker faces in discerning between Chinese and American ideals.

Overall, I really enjoyed the poetry reading by Chen Chen.  It undermined my understanding that poetry (and other literary works) can be used to make individuals reconsider widely and personally held beliefs through viewing society through the perspective of another.