The Emergence of Asian American Literature as an Academic Field

Abstract

This chapter talks about three texts which establish the social and literary heterogeneity within the contested terrains of Chinatown and its literature. The two best-known Chinese American depictions of San Francisco's Chinatown from the 1950s are Jade Snow Wong's memoir Fifth Chinese Daughter and C. Y. Lee's novel The Flower Drum Song. Along with C. Y. Lee, Wong was one of a group of ethnic writers and artists whose efforts to promote America's influence abroad were valued, so long as they asserted and embodied the presence of opportunity for minorities. Lee's nuanced treatment of food, dialects, space and Chinese politics marks Chinatown and its representations as contested terrain. Hsi-Tseng Tsiang is arguably the first Chinese American novelist to publish in English. Poet, novelist, playwright, actor and activist, Tsiang combined formal experimentation and strategic appropriation from both Chinese and English literature with a lifelong commitment to left-wing activism. Tsiang's novel, And China Has Hands, indicates American capitalism and Japanese imperialism.