Crazy Melon and Chinese Apple: The Poems of Frances Chung

by Frances Chung, Walter Lew (Compilation)

Two previously unpublished collections by an important Chinese American poet depict daily life inside New York's Chinatown and across the Chinese diaspora during the 1960s and 70s

Frances Chung's poetry stands alone as the most perceptive, aesthetically accomplished, and compassionate depiction of a supposedly impenetrable community during the late 1960s and 70s. Written "For the Chinatown People" and imprinted with Chung's own ink seal, Crazy Melon is collects brief poems and prose vignettes set in New York's Chinatown and Lower East Side. Chung incorporates Spanish and Chinese into her English in deft evocations of these neighborhoods' streets, fantasies, commerce, and toil. The title of her second collection, Chinese Apple, translates the Chinese word for there she offers "small crimson bites" of new themes and cityscapes ― delightfully understated eroticism, tributes to other poets, impressions of other Chinese diasporic communities during her travels in Central America and Asia. Its new formal experiments show that Chung's poetic prowess continued to deepen before her early death.

Publication of these two works will finally allow Chung's growing circle of admirers to experience the full range of her skills and sensibility, and will draw many others into that circle. Her poems are an inimitable synthesis of American urban vernacular and imagery, various East Asian and Spanish-language poetics, and a concern for ethnic and feminist cultural and political survival-in-writing that was so vital to American poets around the time that Chung first began to compose. Her always fresh perspective on the worlds around her smoothly shifts through multiple lenses, making wonderful use of her "power to dream in four languages."

Genres: Poetry

189 pages, Paperback

First published December 18, 2000

Reviews

[Sasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

some short favourites moving forward
as I struggle to reconnect with my body & community

--

the magician growing bean sprouts
making baby soft breaking beancurd
listening to the tinkle of sugar
in chrysanthemum tea
we tasted the roast pork buns
looking for the right one

--

If it is true that you are what you
eat then I am many souls, many flavors
and essences. Ginger root, salty balls,
beancurd, salted fish, mushrooms of
immortality, winter melon, western
melon . . . Drinking tea is drinking
nature itself. Leaves, twigs and the
discovery of a field of chrysanthemums
in a teapot.

[Ying · Rating 4 out of 5]

frances chung's heart is one i know
all kinds of wild shivers
___________________________

"Yo vivo en el barrio chino
de Nueva York... I live in
New York's Chinatown. Some
call it a ghetto, some call
it a slum, some call it home.
Little Italy or Northern
Chinatown, to my mind, the
boundaries have become fluid.
I have two Chinatown moods.
Times when Chinatown is a
terrible place to live in.
Times when Chinatown is the
only place to live..."

[S P · Rating 5 out of 5]

bread #2
black voices hit the air
men shooting red craps
surprise pee
falling in a fountain
impeach nixon banner
jazz flute flying from
archie shepp's fire escape
a prostitute's window (17)

oh lucky me
I am of some use
I am of some inspiration
to the two men
across the lunchcounter
I remind them of the
last Chinese restaurant
they took their family to
did you know that
Chinese food was delicious? (22)

they want me to settle down
when I have not yet lived
mother talking to me in songs
of shopping bags and movie star calendars
given for free at the grocery store
(she wants a grandson)
with hopes of mooncakes dragon bracelets
and ginger soup
they want me to settle down
with the nice young man from Brooklyn
with the car and college degree
but every cockroach that runs across
my mind
whispers that I haven't seen Peking (44)

I call her the tea lady (to myself) because I only see her taking care of the teacups in the association. She seems imported. (67)

En busca del barrio chino de Lima...
Many centuries ago, the British came with their ships
loaded with Chinese people. They were traded as slaves
to the Peruvians in exchange for gold. The Chinese
brought with them their knowledge of rice and rice is
now eaten everyday in Peru. El barrio chino is larger
than that of San Francisco, Boston, Amsterdam or New York.
In the Chinatown, an arch is erected which seems to be in
the way of the vendors and people in the marketplace.
There are old lean Chinese men with young looks on their
faces. There is a beautiful mixture of races. Many
Peruvians have black hair and slanted eyes. The babies
have round faces. The Chinese intermarry with the Indians,
but the Japanese do not. Peruvian women, faces baked by
the sun like the hot food they are selling give milk from
their breast to babies, smiling and telling the baby to
drink. Chinese pastry shops, coffee shops, chicken
markets, imported Japanese photograph albums and rice
bowls. The few signs in Chinese are elementary and
simplified. The people speak Cantonese. When they
speak Spanish, they appear to be strangers. Chinese
restaurants called 'chifas.' Chinese vegetables, bean
sprouts, tamales wrapped in dark green leaves bound
with string. The Incan names—Chimu, Chancay,
Chan-Chan, Chunga...Chan Chung. (78)

Double Ten (10/10 day)
early morning
the Sunday sound of an accordian
a conversation with two Ukranian women
about calling the plumber
taking baths in our kitchens
you like the green stone around my neck
later on the Bowery
black man strutting along
singing a Chinatown ballad
as I sing one of Billie's songs
in your kitchen warmer than mine
the strong smell of black mushrooms (102)

celebration
bravo for wondrous circumstance
born here yet breathing the air of another place
with the blood of independent silkwomen in my veins
different textures roll off my tongue
no telling what I might say

with the palm reader telling of
a past life in the Sudan
the coming of a favorite grandson
more worlds become possible

holding the power to dream in four langauges
I enjoy being the exception to the rule
celebrate the one Asian American in the crowd (111)

[Lexie Lucas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crazy Melon follows the poet's thoughts and ideas about living in Chinatown in the 60s, subjects include sexual harassment and racism but also include factory work, cultural influences like her mom, and her daily life
Chinese Apple follows themes about Chinese roots and has an overall positive theme

While I enjoyed Crazy Melon and thought it was tied together really well, I loved the Chinese apple section. Both are stylistically appealing, with strong imagery, and have themes that are well thought out and flow nicely.

Good for beginner poetry readers as well as people used to reading poetry :)

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moving poems and short prose pieces that paint an evocative picture of New York City in the 60s and 70s.

[Ronnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

"mango did not know what she wanted..."

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

My review at the Poetry Foundation Harriet blog:

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harri...