Chinese American Writer Research Articles

The Spiritual Journey of Chinese Americans Viewed from the Cultural Connotation of The Joy Luck Club

Chinese-American writers who live in both Chinese and American cultures are the most sensitive to cultural conflict and integration. Amy Tan is one of those writers who probe deeply into the relationship between the Chinese and American cultures. The Joy Luck Club, a novel that tells stories of four Chinese mothers and their American-born daughters, has caused a great sensation inside and outside the United States and made Tan a famous writer. From the perspective of intercultural communication, Cultural conflicts between four couples of mother and daughter, between husbands and wives arising from the difference in cultural background are looked into from the angles of Chinese obedience to parents and American independence and democracy, Chinese women’s submissiveness and American women’s independence, Chinese family’s honor and American individual achievement, Chinese high-context culture and American low- context culture, Chinese superstition and American science. The causes of the conflicts are also discussed in the aspects of Chinese culture and American culture. Chinese mothers are deeply influenced by the concept of "Three Obedience and Four Virtues", "Resign oneself to Adversity", Etc. However, American daughters are born in the culture that emphasizes "Individualism, Equality, Independence and Freedom." In this thesis, it is also put forward that despite the conflicts, mutual compatibility of two cultures is unavoidable and an inescapable tendency, which reflects the development from the clash to the coexistence of the two cultures in the context of globalization.

The Inability to Mourn: Representation of Collective Psychology in the “We”-Narrative of Yiyun Li’s “Immortality”

Abstract This paper sets out to examine how the first-person plural narration form is used in diasporic Chinese American writer Yiyun Li’s short story “Immortality” to represent the collective loss of subjectivity – namely how she represents the consequences of that loss from a psychological perspective as part of her experiment in artistic innovation. It explores Li’s characterization – especially her realistic depiction of the collective narrators’ psychology under totalitarianism and how she allows their psychology to affect the form of her representation. I argue that although through the ventriloquy in English, Li has given the “we”-narrators a discursive voice to articulate their hidden thoughts and feelings – something not possible in their mother tongue, the “we”-narrators are unable to exceed their existential limitations to speak a purely personal language immune from official appropriation. Li’s story also underlines the extreme form as well as the emotional consequences of that collective loss of subjectivity, namely the “we”-community’s avoidance of mass melancholia in reaction to the tragic end of their compatriot victim of the dictatorship in order to preserve their prevailing collective ego-ideal.1

A Bibliometric Analysis of Study on Eileen Chang Using CiteSpace

In the context of literary studies undergoing development, the works of Eileen Chang, a seminal Chinese-American writer, have garnered significant scholarly attention, reflecting her profound impact on modern Chinese literature. The study analyzed publication trends, high-frequency keywords, and the scholarly network, providing insights into the research status of Eileen Chang’s works. The analysis revealed a disparity between Chinese and overseas research focuses, with Chinese scholars predominantly exploring themes such as Eileen Chang’s works, feminist consciousness, and literary figures related to her. Overseas scholars, on the other hand, exhibit a broader research scope encompassing topics like translation, modern Chinese literature, and cultural aspects. The analysis highlighted the prominent scholars in the field and their publication patterns, indicating the emergence of new scholars in recent years. Based on the findings, this study proposed suggestions for future researchers, emphasizing the importance of interdisciplinary approaches, international collaboration, comparative studies, utilization of digital humanities, and exploration of underrepresented topics.

The Shaping of the Other and the Speech of the Self—Interpretation of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan from a Imagological Perspective

Chinese American writer Lisa See’s novel Snow Flower and the Secret Fan focuses on the Yao minority in China, bringing the ancient and mysterious culture of nu shu to the world. This paper will combine the relevant theories of comparative literary imagological studies to explore Lisa See’s portrayal of the complex image of “China” as the “Other” in Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and the reasons for its creation. And then to unearth the image of “Self” reflected through the image of the “Other”, that is, Lisa See’s concern for feminism and her identification with her own identity as a Chinese American, and to further understand the relationship between the “Other” and the “Self”.

The Thematic Characteristics of First and Second Generation Chinese American Writers: Based on the Analysis of The Bonesetters Daughter, Crazy Rich Asians, Everything You Never Told Me, and A Thousand Years of Good Prayers

Novels created by Chinese American writers are expected to reveal certain situations in Chinese American immigrant families. Family conflicts can be combined with more social problems, such as racial discrimination, gender discrimination, political suppression, and the discussion of ancestry and familyhood. First and second-generation Chinese American writers have different perspectives and techniques to blend family conflict with social problems, but their works also have features in common. The paper compares Crazy Rich Asians, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, The Bonesetters Daughter, and Everything You Never Told Me to analyze their plots, characters, and the backgrounds of their authors, respectively, to conclude these Chinese American writers techniques similar, or variable, and the causes to such differences. In general, the writing methods of Chinese American writers and their techniques are closely related to their educational experience and cultural background. Different degrees of relation with Oriental culture and moral values lead to various points of view expressed in stories. A lack of knowledge of Asian traditions may lead to misinterpretation of certain behaviors, but this might also prompt writers to introduce the better part of Asian traditions. As writers often get inspiration from surrounding people and events, settings, plots, and characters can also be seen to reflect the writers cultural and educational backgrounds.

Imagined community: Chinatown narrative in Fae Myenne Ng’s Bone and Steer Toward Rock

ABSTRACT Drawing upon theories of space, postcolonialism, and studies of community, this article evaluates the multifaceted role of Chinatown within American society. As a heterotopic space and symbol that carries the collective memory of diasporic Chinese traditional culture, Chinatown’s cultural and geographical connotations also allude to the Chinese pursuit of dreams and endurance in a foreign land. The article examines Chinese American writer Fae Myenne Ng’s Bone (1994) and Steer Toward Rock (2008) as evidence of Chinatown’s tangible and psychological basis for the Chinese American community, and their testimony to the othering and isolation of Chinese immigrants. The precarious foundation and gradual disintegration of this community, propelled by escalating internal conflicts, Chinese immigrants’ identity anxiety, and their yearning for departure from Chinatown, is also discussed. Finally, the article considers the prospects of constructing a combinatorial community through hybridity and negotiations, fostering a renewed sense of hybrid identity in this in-between space.

«Что в имени тебе моем?»: функции антропонимов в китайско-американском транскультурном художественном тексте

The article deals with the problem of anthroponyms as a means of creativity in transcultural literature. The analyzed material was taken from “The Bonesetter’s Daughter” novel written by a contemporary Chinese American writer Amy Tan. The author of the article comes to a conclusion that anthroponyms can be a very effective and bright means of creativity, a kind of intersection of cultures, reflecting an author’s individuality. The norms and traditions of such different languages and cultures are so tightly interwoven and create an absolutely new transcultural narration. In this connection it is absolutely impossible to consider anthroponyms just a mere means of nomination, lacking any cultural connotation and value for the reader. Thus, anthroponyms create not only the nominative function but also the aesthetic function as well as the function of ethnic coloring.

Spatial and Narrative Escape in Fae Myenne Ng’s Bone

Bone is the impressive first novel written by Fae Myenne Ng, a first-generation Chinese American woman writer. Under the guidance of Gaston Bachelard’s and M. M. Bakhtin’s theories of space and Gérard Genette’s theories of narrative discourse, this paper probes into the narrative space and time in Ng’s Bone, trying to detect the protagonist’s escape consciousness revealed in the form of spatial and narrative escape. Leila’s individual escape, which derives from the family tragedy under the exploitation and expulsion of racial minorities in America, is, in fact, the epitome of every anxious Chinese American’s impulse to run away.

A Comparative Analysis of the Novel and the Film of the Joy Luck Club from the Perspective of Postcolonial Feminism

The Chinese American female writer Amy Tan published the autobiographical novel The Joy Luck Club in 1989. After four years, the story was adapted into a film of the same name, written by Amy Tan and directed by Chinese American Wayne Wang. Afterward, Chinese and foreign scholars studied from the perspectives of feminism, Chinese identity, Chinese and Western cultural conflict and the mother-daughter relationship. In China, few scholars combine the theories of post-colonialism and feminism to study the original work and film adaptation of The Joy Luck Club. The research finds that although the film successfully restores the main plot and retains the spirit core of the novel, it also has the following problems: strong orientalist overtones, de-emphasizing female narrative voices, and ignoring Asian marginalization. Through a close reading of the novel and a deep interpretation of the film, this article makes a comparative study of the two from the perspective of Spivak's postcolonial feminist theory and explores the deficiencies after the film adaptation. It is found that these deficiencies occur because the director is influenced by postcolonial cultural background and traditional patriarchy. He falsifies the women's right to discourse in the third world, making them unable to speak for themselves independently.

An Exploration of Ha Jin’s Cultural and Literal Capital Reflected in Waiting

Ha Jin is one of the most important contemporary Chinese-American writers in American literary circles. His diaporic identity, on one hand, offers him the priority to observe and retrospect the two cultures. On the other hand, it makes his composition imprinted with strong features: unique narrative mode and skillful design, through which he exposes thoroughly human nature and probes into the intricacies of the heart.This essay intends to analyze how Ha Jin’s cultural and literary capital has enhanced the theme of the novel Waiting. He is especially good at depicting everyday details in simple English with a Chinese flavor. By these detailed descriptions, he gives us insight into the lives of Kong Lin and Manna Wu which are mechanistic and dehumanizing. We can also see how an individual’s fate is determined by everyday life from everyday details of the characters in the novel.

MAXINE HONG KINGSTON’S THE WOMAN WARRIOR: SPEAKING FOR SILENCED

The present research paper discusses Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior. Kingston being a Chinese American writer touches upon the predicaments of silenced women and her selected novel advocates for these silenced characters. The study investigates that where doe lie silence of chines-American immigrant and secondly silence of Chinese women in traditional Chinese society. Although there is the taboo “not tell” but Kingston manages to break the silence. She re-writes with the help of her experience and imaginative power and articulates the voiceless thoughts. The most important form of voice is speaking. In this respect Kingston herself realizes the importance of articulation from her own experience, besides “no name woman” she presents those characters who are capable to express their thoughts by articulation and among them brave orchid represents the strongest voice as her name itself suggests. This qualitative study implies feministic model of Madson and content analysis content technique and interprets data accordingly. Keywords: Silence, femininity, marginalization, Chinese, American

MAXINE HONG KINGSTON’S THE WOMAN WARRIOR: SPEAKING FOR SILENCED

The present research paper discusses Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior. Kingston being a Chinese American writer touches upon the predicaments of silenced women and her selected novel advocates for these silenced characters. The study investigates that where doe lie silence of chines-American immigrant and secondly silence of Chinese women in traditional Chinese society. Although there is the taboo “not tell” but Kingston manages to break the silence. She re-writes with the help of her experience and imaginative power and articulates the voiceless thoughts. The most important form of voice is speaking. In this respect Kingston herself realizes the importance of articulation from her own experience, besides “no name woman” she presents those characters who are capable to express their thoughts by articulation and among them brave orchid represents the strongest voice as her name itself suggests. This qualitative study implies feministic model of Madson and content analysis content technique and interprets data accordingly. Keywords: Silence, femininity, marginalization, Chinese, American

Light-Years

Research Article| May 01 2023 Light-Years Grace Q. Song Grace Q. Song Grace Q. Song is a Chinese American writer residing in New York City. Her poetry and fiction have been published or are forthcoming in the Boiler, the Journal, the Offing, the Cincinnati Review, SmokeLong Quarterly, Potomac Review, Hobart, and elsewhere. Previous works have been selected for inclusion in Best of the Net, Best Small Fictions, and Best Microfiction. She is the winner of the 11th Annual Gigantic Sequins Poetry Contest, selected by Vi Khi Nao, and she studies English at Columbia University. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google the minnesota review (2023) 2023 (100): 48. https://doi.org/10.1215/00265667-10320898 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Permissions Search Site Citation Grace Q. Song; Light-Years. the minnesota review 1 May 2023; 2023 (100): 48. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/00265667-10320898 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search Books & JournalsAll Journalsthe minnesota review Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. © 2023 Grace Q. Song2023 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

<진링의 13소녀>의 영화와 소설의 시점 비교 연구

This paper compares Jin Ling Shi San Chai, a novel written by the Chinese American writer Yan Geling, and its film adaptation, The Flowers of War, directed by Zhang Yimou, to reveal the internal and external characteristics of each work by looking at the differences of point of view between them, which arose from the process of adaptation. Although there are not many studies on Yan Geling in Korea, there are over 100 studies by Chinese scholars on the novel and film adaptation of Jin Ling Shi San Chai, so many that it is difficult to list them all. This paper attempts to identify the characteristics of the novel by using the theory of narrative to show how the novel embodies its theme. It also investigates how the film embodies the theme of the story to reveal the characteristics of director Zhang Yimou. This study focuses on the fact that Jin Ling Shi San Chai is composed of a first-person observer perspective, narrated by the nephew of the protagonist, Meng Su-Juan. By narrating the story from the nephew’s first-person observer perspective, the author achieves intersubjectivity and freely goes back and forth the realms of subjectivity and objectivity. In this paper, it is analyzed that the intersubjectivity is realized through the point of view shots and voice-over narrations in the film.

『엠. 나비』에 나타난 오리엔탈리즘의 환상과 재구성

David Henry Hwang, a Chinese American writer active in the late 20th century, worked with an interest in Asian-American race issues. One of the important aspects raised by Asian American writers of the time, including Hwang, was to challenge the ‘typicality’ of Asians, which had been created and sustained by western media such as literature, movies, and theater during the 19th and 20th centuries.
 Published in 1988, M. Butterfly is based on a true story that is both shocking and moving about the clash of east and west cultures. Hwang wrote this work after reading an article in The New York Times on May 11, 1986 about a spy crime involving a French diplomat. This article was about Bernard Boursicot, a former French diplomat in Beijing who was sentenced for stealing French state secrets to the Chinese government, and Shi Pei-Pu, an actor of the Beijing Opera Company. Interesting about this article was that Shi was a male actor who played a female role professionally, and the diplomat Boursicot claimed that he had no idea that he was a spy or not a woman, even though he had been in love with Shi for 20 years. After reading the article, Hwang concludes that Boursicot must have fallen in love with a typical type of fantasy, not with an individual.
 Through this assumption, Hwang connects a westerner who is in the illusion of ‘Butterfly’ with Giacomo Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly(1914) and creates M. Butterfly. This drama begins with a scene in which the main character, Rene Gallimard, recalls his love for Song Liling, a Chinese Beijing opera actor, in a French prison. Song, a spy, instills his presence to Gallimard as a fantastic and typical image of an Asian woman in order to achieve his political purpose. In the end, Gallimard ends his life by learning the truth that his lover was a spy and even a man.
 This drama dismantles each thick layer of imperialist cultural and sexual bias. Furthermore it appeals to have a sincere relationship with each other for mutual welfare on an equal basis shared by everyone as a human being. This paper will examine the author's work of rewriting, focusing on the psychology of Gallimard.

Tranquilizing Forgivable Feuds between Frank Chin and Maxine Hong Kingston to Establish the Group Identities of Chinese Americans

In the midst of seeking for the true cultural identification of entire Chinese Americans, imaginative discrepancies cropped up in the actual aesthetic and artistic production of Chinese American literature due to the inconsistent insistence of the cultural stances exemplified in the aesthetic and artistic articulation of the true cultural values and cultural virtues in the diverse and distinctive production of Chinese American literary works. Among those discrepancies between either two of various Chinese American writers, those between Frank Chin and Maxine Hong Kingston has stirred a great sensation in the forum of Chinese American literature because of the persistence of the former in positive protection of the masculinity of Chinese American men and the ongoing insistence of the latter on the negative promotion of it from the perspective of feminism without knowing in a very clear fashion that their inconsistence led to the strong feud between them and the harm it has done to the establishment of the cultural identity of Chinese Americans. Indebted to the insights carried in the group identities proposed by Henry Tajfel and John Turner (1979), this article will make a rational comparison between what they have sticked to in a respective fashion and come up with the point that the feud between them are forgivable and forgettable as what they have done is very valuable for the improvement of the true social, cultural, and, ethnic identities of Chinese Americans who are composed of both Chinese American men and Chinese American women to deal with the great danger into which all Chinese Americans have been thrown into due to the excessive popularization of the social, cultural, and, ethnic discrimination of the entire ethnic group of Chinese Americans in Chinese American community.

A Post-Humanist Study of Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life and Others

Under this context of post-industrial era, science fiction, a literary genre derived from Gothic novels, has captured the crisis faced by the current humanity. Taking imagination as a tool and future science and technology as focus, Sci-fi has become a specific kind of literary critique for the current society. Ted Chiang, one of the most renowned and awards-winning contemporary Chinese-American writers, has shone on the field of science fiction, and Stories of your life and others, a science fiction novella collection, is one of Chiang’s most significant works. Stories of Your Life and Others explores the evolution of human nature, and recreates the eternal problems of the relationship between science and human itself/human society under the background of the multidimensional post-human space. From the perspective of post humanism theory, this paper attempt to explore the technical aesthetics, philosophical thinking and humanistic care in Chiang’s work, and to clear the path in terms of the relationship between human and technology, human and the universe, so as to picture the blueprint of future living environment of human beings, predict the common destiny of mankind in the future, provide a paradigm for the practice of science and technology in the post-human era and the discussion of post-modern science and technology ethics.

A ‘partial’ Orientalist

Abstract Lin Yutang 林语堂 (1895–1976) was a Chinese American writer based in the USA who produced thirty English works interpreting Chinese philosophy to a western audience between 1936 and 1966. Lin’s critics often accuse him of succumbing to colonial power dynamics between China and the west. Famous Chinese Short Stories: Retold by Lin Yutang (FCSS), published by the John Day Company in 1952, is a particularly revealing case in point. FCSS contains twenty tales selected from ancient Chinese culture, edited, and rewritten in English using western storytelling techniques. In response to critiques of Lin’s works including FCSS as being Orientalist, I re-examine the intricate process of Lin’s rewriting to reveal a more complex stance vis-à-vis Orientalism, characterizing his cultural position as that of a ‘partial’ Orientalist. This term implies that Lin recognizes the potential of Chinese tradition to provide an alternative modernity.

Steadfast Pursuit of Motherhood in Amy Tan's The Valley of Amazement- A Critical Perspective


 
 
 
 Amy Tan, a celebrated Chinese American writer, in her fictional endeavors articulates the mother-daughter relationship in particular and the socio-cultural, genderinequalitiesandplightofwomeningeneral.HerfictionalworkTheValley of Amazement touches upon familial relationships both in the Eastern and Western worlds besides focusing on contemporary societal and political crises that affect the lives of the individuals. The novel glorifies the struggle of a woman the overcoming impediments in accomplishing womanhood and fulfill her duties as a caring daughter, an affectionate wife and a responsible mother. Personally, as a daughter, she too suffers from the trauma caused by deprivation of emotional support from her mother.
 The present paper entitled Steadfast Pursuit of Motherhood in Amy Tan's fiction The Valley of Amazement – A Critical Perspective explores the quest of a woman in fulfillingherobligationsasadaughterandasamother.Furthermore,itdeals with the fortitude of a woman in confronting the upheavals of life and her craving to barter true love.
 
 
 

Analysis of the Theme of "Escape" in Bone from the Perspective of Narrative Time

Chinese American writer Fae Myenne Ng’s debut novel, Bone, adopts a unique narrative style to embody a Chinese American family’s choice of “escape” from Chinatown in mental or physical way. This paper studies the theme of “escape” from the perspective of Genette’s narrative time, and analyzes how the designed narrative structure reflects the theme of “escape”. On narrative order, the author constructs the story through the inverted memory of the character Leila, creating a sense from distance to proximity that bespeaks the theme of “escape”. On narrative duration, the author uses the skills of summary, scene, and pause to present different forms of “escapes” of the two generations of Chinese Americans; on narrative frequency, the author focuses on repeating the death of Ona, which is the epitome of the whole family’s “escape”. By organizing such narrative structure, the pain and bewilderment of Chinese American “escapes” from Chinatown are reinforced.