Negative Positive
Title: The problem I had with this novel is that...
Review: ...it makes up stories about Asian culture. For instance, Tan describes how a women's worth is measured by the "loudness of her husband's belch." Where in Chinese history or Chinese literature or Chinese culture do you have Chinese men measuring the worth of women by how well they feed them? Speaking of food, Tan describes a story about a duck that wants to be a swan [this is obviously the Ugly Duckling influence (a Western influence)]. Chinese people eat ducks. If you go around San Fran Chinatown and look through some of the restaurants, you'll notice cooked ducks on display for food. Swans signify romantic love because the Chinese admire how they mate for life. Sure, the novel is good (structurally) and it does help feminist causes and such, but why do it in spite of my culture? To me, it's not fair.
Is the review positive or negative? 