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Comparing Chess with all the layers of difficulties Meimei deals with the reality she lives under the society around her, it was interesting getting to know about Chinese immigrants that had come to San Francisco as early as 1838, but largely in 1850 for the same reason many Americans were flocking to California - the 1849 Gold Rush. The Chinese immigrants were mainly lower-class farmers who left home because of economic and political troubles in China, most intended to work hard.
Living together in communities and neighbourhoods, they, like all immigrants, maintained their culture. However, while many Americans looked down on all immigrants, the Chinese were considered racially as well as culturally inferior. Most Americans believed that the Chinese were too different to ever assimilate successfully into American culture. This view was expressed and reinforced by the stereotypic images of Chinese immigrants recorded in the media of the time.

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Something I found that stood out when researching the Chinese vs. American was our views of social structure. In China they abide by a hierarchy and everyone accepts that. They understand their class and were they sit on that scale, while in America, though we have hierarchy as well, isn't as structured. Americans seem to fight against having a lower, middle and higher class.

The thing I enjoy about Amy Tan's "Rules of the Games" was how the main character was able to connect her life to a game of chess. I enjoy the character's passion in learning something new and determination to become better and better. She started off small with winning against her brothers and moved on to playing in the park, until finally she was winning prizes and getting bigger titles for herself.

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Around 1880 some Chinese people came as contract laborers to the United States, many of which were young males who left there family back in China. Only the wealthy were able to bring their wives and children. So population slowly decreased until 1950-60 where it started to increase once again. One thing I can understand from studying the history of this and its relation to the rule of the game was generally only males were working and providing for their families, culturally women stayed home and looked after their children, etc. This is similar to how Meimei was initially treated as a female wanting to play chess, exploring outside, etc. In the story females were looked as below males in their status in society and their capability of being successful and doing tasks. This wasn't necessarily only in Chinese culture but also a little bit in american culture as well.

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One thing that I found interesting about Amy Tan's story "Rules of the Game" was how Meimei gained a really good understanding of the rules of chess. In the story, Meimei looks up all the bigger words in a dictionary while she reads all the chess rules. She borrows books from the Chinatown library and studies the power that each chess piece contains. she  learns the secrets found within the balck and white squares. After mastering the rules of chess Meimei wins against every opponent she versus from different nationalities and genders giving her success in becoming a proficient in the sport of chess.

In Chinese culture chess is seen as a skill to cultivate one's moral character by introspection and is very good for the body and mind. Lots of people in China are very enthusiastic about chess because it helps people develop their intelligence and inspire their thinking. Chess is a very important invention of Chinese people making chess a treasure of Chinese culture.

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Through my research I found it interesting that when many Chinese immigrants went to America, the young male peasants were recruited to extract metals and minerals, construct a railroad system, reclaim swamplands other labour intensive contract work.

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One thing I found interesting about the story was the title and what it stood for. I liked how Amy Tan was able to relate her life to chess. I found it very interesting how she said her mom taught her an invisible strength. The relationship between the two was very interesting because her mom keeps being hard on her in order for her to improve and she doesn't see it like this. In Chinese culture the children are usually quiet, timid and are not supposed to confront and speak up; however, Meimei does this and she ran off. I enjoyed reading this because in my own culture children are taught to be respectful to their elders and never speak up, and when a child does so, the parents aren't very happy about it and get upset.

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"The Rules Of The Games"

One thing I found interesting in the story was when Waverly said this,
"A little knowledge withheld is a great

advantage one should store for future" I sort of have an idea of what she meant by saying that, but for a nine year old to say and understand that, she is years beyond her own!!

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Something interesting I found in Rules of the Game is that herb shop near Meimei’s play area was significant subject in regard to the role of Chinese hospitals in the community. The herb shop owner Li Dole had remedies that bested the doctors such as curing “a woman dying of an ancestral curse” (Tan). Li Dole is not a certificated doctor but in his community he was considered the best.

A good book about Chinese-American culture is From China to Canada: A History of the Chinese Communities in Canada. In this source the information that was significant to Rules of the Game was “a Catholic mission gave support to the Chinese hospital in 1946, though by 1962 it was condemned” (Wickberg, 237). So Li Dole could possible have had the opportunity to work in hospital like one the catholic mission gave support to in Montreal.

This source also talks about some racial stereotypes for Chinese-Canadians such as, “they were a threat to the moral well-being and physical health of the white Canadian public” (Wickberg, 269). I wonder if the public felt ‘threatened’ and that was why the Montreal hospital only lasted two decades or why Li Dole’s remedies only stayed in Chinatown.

APA

Wickberg, E. (Eds.). (1982). From China to Canada: A History of the Chinese Communities in Canada. Toronto, ON: McClelland and Stewart Limited.

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In Amy Tan's story "Rules of the Game", there is a moment at the end of the story where Meimei speaks out against her mother because she is proudly flaunting her daughter as they walk. Meimei speaks up about how she finds it embarrassing, and her mother does not handle it well, resulting in the tension rising between them, and causing Meimei to run off.

In Chinese culture, a family is tight knit, and children are taught to be polite, shy, quiet and humble, with conformity being encourage and outbursts being seriously discouraged. Meimei's outburst at the end of the story brings shame and loss to the family, leaving her feeling alone by the end of the story.

""We not concerning this girl. This girl not have concern for us." Nobody looked at me. Bone chopsticks clinked against the inside of bowls being emptied into hungry mouths."

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Chinas Town By Jasmine Manji

In the story “The Rules of the Game” By Amy Tan there is the struggle between mother and daughter. The mother is hard on the daughter because she wants her to be her very best.

Now, new research suggests Chinese mothers are more psychologically controlling than European-American mothers in part because their feelings of self-worth are tied to their children's performance.

https://www.livescience.com/29184-why-chinese-tiger-moms-are-controlling.html

The Chinese tradition considers children as investments.

The daughter, Meimei, resists her mother’s urge to control her and is strong with her American root way of life. She wants her mother to back off and let her play chess without constantly watching over her, where as the mother keeps to the Chinese tradition and watches over her daughter pushing her to do better. Here is an example of this from the story:

“My mother placed my first trophy next to a new plastic chess set that the neighborhood Tao society had given me. As she wiped each piece with a soft cloth she said, “Next time win more, lose less.”