Gish Jen in "In the American Society" describes the various personalities in the Chang family. Her story describes how a benevolent Chinese American father resists swimming in the American society, but encourages his daughters--directly and indirectly--to swim in American Society.

Gish Jen in "In the American Society" shows the father to be a man who loves his daughters and wants them to be apart of his own "society," but in reality his "society" is "American" with a twist. Mr. Chang thinks he wants to be in his own pool, with his own rules and laws, while the rest of his family would like to stay in the "American" pool that they were about to jump into. In reality the father is sort of "walking" on water and he is also at the point where he is deciding whether to dive in the deep end or keep treading on...