The Universality of Myth
At the heart of this story is a recontextualizing of the great American folk hero tale of Paul Bunyan and his big blue ox, Babe. Paul Bunyan is, of course, one of the most distinctly American of mythic figures; a gigantic lumberjack inherently native to the northern tier of American states. While this story takes place in the same general region and time period which gave birth to Bunyan, it has been appropriated by a young daughter of Chinese immigrants named Mei into a story about Auntie Po and her big blue water buffalo, Pei Pei. The details of the myth have changed significantly, but the message has remained essentially the same, staking the claim that myth is a universal form of literature with the power and facility to easily escape the bonds of nationalism.
America’s Anti-Immigration Cycle
American history has been constructed upon a never-ending cycle of anti-immigration sentiment and policymaking. With the notable exception of England, just about every other country in the world has been victimized at one point or another by government-sponsored prejudice in the form of legislation aimed at limiting, curtailing, or outright obstruction immigration into the country from other places in the world. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was just one of the handful of legislative actions undertaken over the decades to exert oppression authority and control over Chinese laborers coming to America. In this book, the consequence of the passage of the act is that Chinese workers are forced out of their jobs at the Sierra Nevada logging camp.
Food and History
Food is usually thought of as an external component to the evolutionary change brought about through the march of history. It is simply a component of survival that exists as a necessity apart from the transformational events marking the passage of time which result in consequential changes to society. In realty, food has long been a very specific and often catalytic aspect of historical alteration. This story shines a spotlight on how food can play such a significant role in literally changing the course of historical progress. In response to the loss of Chinese workers at the mill, the quality and conditions of food prepared for the loggers spirals downward. The fortunes of the Chinese laborers is transformed directly as a result of a superior ability to produce food not just in mass quantities, but also in individual quality.
