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Home Is Where the Heart Is? : Identity and Belonging in Asian American Literature

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Home Is Where the Heart Is? : Identity and Belonging in Asian American Literature Home Is Where the Heart Is? Identity and Belonging in Asian American Literature Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung des Grades eines Doktor der Philosophie in der Fakultät für Philologie der Ruhr-Universität Bochum vorgelegt von Heike Berner Gedruckt mit der Genehmigung der Fakultät für Philologie der Ruhr-Universität Bochum Referent: Prof. Dr. David Galloway Koreferent: Prof. Dr. Gerd Stratmann Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 15. Januar 2003 Danksagungen Für die Unterstützung, die ich beim Schreiben dieser Arbeit erhalten habe, möchte ich hier stellvertretend einigen Menschen danken: Jungja und Gerd Berner, Christian Jungck, Bob und Diana Lee, Sharlyn M. Rhee, Elaine H. Kim, Steven Lee und Ruth Desmond, Yong Soon Min, Kyungmi Shin, Young Chung, Jean Shin, Rocío Davis, Josh Kavaloski und Jamie Lee, David Galloway und Gerd Stratmann und meinen Freundinnen und Freunden und Kolleginnen und Kollegen. 4 Contents I. Introduction 6 A. Identities 10 B. Mistaken Identities 15 II. Discourses on Identity in Asian America 19 A. Aiiieeeee! 19 B. The Big Aiiieeeee! 24 C. Other Points of View 25 D. 'Got Rice?' – Asian American Studies Then and Now 35 III. Identity and Belonging in Asian American Classics 43 A. "Asian American Classics" 43 1. John Okada: No-No Boy 44 a) Historical Background 44 b) Short Summary 48 c) Identity Conflict 49 d) Finding an Identity 51 2. Louis Chu: Eat a Bowl of Tea 61 a) Historical Background 62 b) Short Summary 63 c) Identity Conflict 64 d) Solution 67 3. Okada, Chu, and the Aiiieeeee!-editors: Asian American Realism 68 B. Maxine Hong Kingston: Of Women Warriors and China Men 71 1. Authenticity and Fiction 71 a) The Legend of Fa Mu Lan: About Swords and Words 75 b) Identity in The Woman Warrior: Singing to Foreign Music 79 2. "Claiming America": China Men 81 a) History and Myth 81 b) History and Fiction 82 c) Maxine's Perspective on "China Men" 84 3. Why Kingston is Different 86 4. Short Digression: Some of Kingston's Predecessors 88 IV. Contemporary Chinese and Japanese American Literature – A Few Examples 92 A. On Names: "Chang" 92 B. "Moon" - An Asian American Revenge Tale 95 C. The Asian American Male - Pangs of Love 98 D. New Realism: Fae Myenne Ng's Bone 99 E. Asian American Hoop Dreams: The Necessary Hunger 102 5 V. Korean America 104 A. Early Korean American Literature 106 B. Two Korean American Short Stories 110 1. "Faith" 110 2. "Black Korea" 112 C. Contemporary Korean American Novels 116 1. The Act of Narration in Nora Okja Keller's Comfort Woman 116 a) Historical Background 116 b) Talking About Trauma and Truth 118 c) The Concept of Belonging in Comfort Woman 132 2. Chang-rae Lee: Native Speaker 133 a) Short Summary 134 b) Where It All Starts: Childhood and Youth 135 c) Profession: Native Informant 142 d) The Ethnic Other 144 e) Language and the Native Speaker 148 f) Closing Reflections on Native Speaker 150 3. The Korean American Loner: Three Novels by Leonard Chang 150 a) The Fruit 'N Food 151 b) Dispatches from the Cold 153 c) Over the Shoulder 155 d) Shared Themes in the Works of Leonard Chang 157 4. From Literature to Art 159 D. Korean American Art 161 1. Identity and the Self: Jean Shin, Young Chung, Yong Soon Min, and Kyungmi Shin 162 a) Jean Shin 162 b) Young Chung 163 c) Yong Soon Min 166 d) Kyungmi Shin 179 2. History Present – The Role of Korean History in Contemporary Korean American Literature and Visual Arts 181 VI. Current Stereotypes 188 A. The Model Minority Myth 188 B. Sa-i-gu: The Los Angeles Riots of 1992 193 VII. Conclusion 198 VIII. Plates 202 IX. Works Cited 215 A. Primary Works 215 B. Secondary Works 218 C. Further Works Consulted 225 6 I. Introduction Asian American literature constitutes a significant and growing aspect of U.S.-American literature. In Asian American literature, identity always has been an important issue. Even though much time has passed since the nation-building era of the 1960s and 1970s, when the term "Asian American" was coined and questions of identity were passionately discussed, the topic is still relevant. Cultural nationalism and stereotyping as well as demographic, political, and historical shifts have greatly influenced and shaped the identity discourses and turned them into interesting sites of debate and contemplation on the politics of representation. The following work describes and analyzes the main tendencies in the theoretical discussion about concepts of identity and belonging in Asian America, as well as their reflection in literature. Special attention will be paid to the changing conception of identity since the 1960s. While the subject of identity in Asian American literature has been dealt with relatively often, little research has been done on the many facets of its development, even though this development is important for understanding the various works and their reception. Yet, neither do I intend to reduce the works at hand to the subject of identity and belonging, nor do I wish to isolate them from the rest of the literature of the United States. Rather, I believe that a thorough understanding of these issues and the debates surrounding them will help make these works accessible in many different ways and thus open up new contextualizations. My argument is advanced in seven chapters. Chapter I gives a brief overview of various theories concerning the influence of culture on identity formation. Culture and history are the main factors for the construction of collective and personal identities. They serve as points of departure for how one perceives others and how one sees oneself. In cultural contexts, stereotypes and misconceptions are created, and in culture they can be deconstructed again. 7 Chapter II will show the development of identity discourses in Asian American literature, from the cultural nationalism of the late 1960s/early 1970s to the current ideas of de-nationalization. In the third chapter, I will discuss several literary works representative of different conceptions of Asian American identity. John Okada's No-No Boy (1957) and Louis Chu's Eat a Bowl of Tea (1961) will be analyzed as reflections of an early concept of Asian American identity in literature.1 Maxine Hong Kingston's novels The Woman Warrior (1976) and China Men (1980), as well as some of Kingston's thematic predecessors, are then treated as works advocating newer ideas about Asian American identity and writing.2 This is followed by a short excursion into contemporary Chinese and Japanese American writing in the fifth chapter. Finally, in the last two chapters, the reflection of identity and belonging in recent Korean American writing and art will be evaluated. The cultural output of Korean Americans has increased enormously in the past ten years. Since Korean Americans are – compared to Chinese and Japanese Americans – a relatively young Asian American group, their works have not gained as much attention as those of the latter groups. In my chapter on Korean American literature and art, I will show the specific features of Korean American cultural productions, including their rootedness in the Asian American tradition. Naturally, this survey of identity and belonging in Asian American literature cannot be exhaustive, and the works chosen delineate but a very small fraction of the material available. I have entirely left out the exciting realm of Filipino/a American literature. Due to the colonization of the Philippines by the Spanish and later the Americans, and because of the special relationship between the United States and the Philippines as a result of its occupation, Filipino/a American literature is extremely interesting, touching upon topics such as identity and belonging, but also 1 John Okada, No-No Boy (1957. Seattle: U of Washington P, 1995). Louis Chu, Eat a Bowl of Tea (1961. Seattle: U of Washington P, 1979). 2 Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts (1976. London: Picador, 1981). Maxine Hong Kingston, China Men (1980. New York: Vintage, 1989). 8 postcolonialist issues.3 Similarly, South Asian and Vietnamese American works could certainly be valuable to look at in this context. I have excluded these, however, in order not to exceed the dimensions of this work.4 Other concessions I have had to make include limiting the focus to prose narratives, even though many excellent poetry and dramatic works written by Asian Americans have been published. I also left out such highly interesting topics as Asian American art and cinema (except for a digression into Korean American art).5 I furthermore will not discuss in detail literature written before the late 1950s, even though Asian American literature arose as early as the mid-nineteenth century. In these works, however, the United States are often entirely absent. They are written by authors who consider themselves exclusively Asian. As "ambassadors of goodwill" they attempt to explain their culture or the culture of their ancestors to a white audience. Some of them do not engage their American experiences at all and solely write about their home countries.6 One of the few pre-1950s writers who explicitly deals with the subject of identity is Sui Sin Far (Edith Eaton). She, therefore, needs to be mentioned here at least briefly. Sui Sin Far (1867-1914) was half-Chinese and half-English and lived in the United States and Canada. Being partly white and partly Asian, she encountered many difficulties in her life. She nevertheless appreciated both of her backgrounds and, in spite of all the problems, never tried to deny either 3 A good overview of Filipino American literature and its peculiarity due to Filipino (American) history can be found in N.V.M.
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