Identity Display and Transformation: a Socio-Cultural Analysis of Suyin Han’S Autobiography, a Many-Splendoured Thing

Identity display and transformation: A socio-cultural analysis of Suyin Han’s autobiography, A Many-Splendoured Thing

Shujing Qiao

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Sydney School of Education and Social Work Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

The University of Sydney

2020

Statement of Originality

This is to certify that to the best of my knowledge, the content of this thesis is my own work. This thesis has not been submitted for any degree or other purposes.

I certify that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work and that all the assistance received in preparing this thesis and sources have been acknowledged.

Abstract

This thesis is a qualitative study of Suyin Han’s identity display, transformation and negotiation as shown in her autobiography A Many-Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952). Informed broadly by a sociocultural perspective, the study examines three research questions: (1) What are the different layers of Han’s identity exhibited in this writing and how is each unfolded in her writing? (2) What are the factors that help contribute/ or not to the display and transformation of Han’s complex identity? (3) How is the complexity of her identity displayed in the process of Han’s writing of her autobiography?

To address these research questions, mixed methods are used to analyse Han’s writing of her autobiography including narrative analysis (De Fina, Schiffrin & Bamberg, 2006) and critical discourse analysis (Blommaert & Bulcaen, 2000). Data are categorized according to four different facets of identity emerging in her writing: Han’s ethnic identity (more of one’s cultural heritage related to their ancestry); her racial identity (more of one’s appearance differing from people of other races); her cultural identity and her professional identity. A five-principle framework (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005) is employed to interpret Han’s different identity facets: Identity is an emergent product in language interactions; an individual’s identity positioning is realized by socially positioning both themselves and others in varied contexts; identity is an indexical process in which it is linked with specific linguistic forms; identity is an intersubjective phenomenon depending on social relations with others; identity is a partial account that is in part a purposeful self-performance and in part an unaware self-disclosure.

This study is different from the prior studies of Suyin Han, and it is a detailed identity analysis of multiple identities of Han as unfolded in her autobiography. The findings provide a set of empirical evidence highlighting the dynamics and their interplay in the complex process of identity transformation and display related to the specific social and

iii cultural circumstances. The study also broadens the applicability of the sociocultural five-principle framework in analysing one person’s multiple identity layers revealed in a time continuum as set out in an autobiography. Prior to bringing together the arguments by way of drawing conclusions, limitations to the interpretation of the conclusions because of the methodology of the study are also identified.

Acknowledgements

During these years of my doctoral candidature, I must admit that I was not a very good scholar. I sincerely thank my supervisor, Prof. Huizhong Shen, who supported me in both my study and life in Sydney. Prof. Shen has been so patient with me in helping me to build the conceptualization of my thesis, encouraging me at each stage, and discussing with me the final revisions. Moreover, from the beginning of my study, I had a long period of non-adaptation locally, during which Prof. Shen cared for me whenever I suffered from physical illness and emotional anxiety. Without Shen, I don’t think I would have survived and reached this stage of my study.

I was so lucky to marry in Sydney, especially as, after my marriage I made much greater progress with my thesis. I am so grateful to my husband, Shichang Wen, for all his love and support. Feeling safe has helped me focus on my thesis writing as I am no longer thinking much about other trivial matters.

During these years I have met a lot of sensational companions. I heartily thank Dr. Chen Chen, Dr. Tiefu Zhang, Dr. Xiangyi Tao, Dr. Wenchao Tu, Chuan Gao, Yijun Zhou, who are always by my side when I need them. Their friendship always warm me, and their academic attitudes set a standard for me.

I also give my deep gratitude to Suyin Han, who wrote the autobiography A Many- Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952), the research text of my thesis. As a researcher and a fan of Han, I know unfortunately I will never have chance to meet her in person, but her insightful observation of China in the past century shed lights on my understanding of my country. Similarly as a transnational individual, by positioning Han, I also learn to how to position myself.

Of course, thousands of thanks to my parents who have been standing with me, forever. I hope I have not let you down.

Special thanks to my proof-reader, Dr. Libby Limbrick. During the unprecedented time when she was doing the proofreading of my thesis, we reminded each other “stay healthy, stay safe” every time we emailed each other. I am so moved by her beautiful language, rigorous scholarship and tenderness. She is not just an excellent proof-reader, but also a very warm friend.

Last but not least, thanks to all scholars who inspired my current study. Thank you for your work, which I have used for my references. It was not possible for me to fulfil my study without your studies.

Table of contents

Statement of Originality ...... ii Abstract ...... iii Acknowledgements ...... v Table of contents ...... vii List of Figures ...... ix Chapter 1 Introduction ...... 1 1.1 Research background ...... 1 1.2 Research purpose ...... 2 1.3 Research questions ...... 3 1.4 Conceptualization of the study ...... 4 1.5 Significance of the study ...... 5 1.6 Organization of the thesis ...... 7 Chapter 2 Literature review ...... 9 2.1 Research on the identities of diaspora individuals and groups...... 10 2.1.1 Second language learning and multilingual experience on identity ...... 10 2.1.2 Individual’s heritage language experiences and their identity ...... 13 2.1.3 Language ideologies and individual’s identity orientation ...... 17 2.1.4 Individual’s unique language features and their identity ...... 25 2.1.5 Mixed social and cultural factors and individual’s identity...... 30 2.2 Research on the identities of non-diaspora individuals and groups ...... 35 2.2.1 The impact of language policies on individual’s identity ...... 36 2.2.2 The interplay between language learning and individual’s identity development.. 38 2.2.3 Specific identity facet development related to unique contexts or personal specifics ...... 39 2.2.4 The relationships between language features and identity ...... 52 2.3 Summary of the chapter ...... 56 Chapter 3 The sociocultural theoretical framework ...... 58 3.1 Identity as a socially and culturally situated product ...... 58 3.2 The five-principle framework as the theoretical framework and the analytical tool ...... 62 3.2.1 The emergence principle ...... 62 3.2.2 The positionality principle ...... 63 3.2.3 The indexicality principle ...... 64 3.2.4 The relationality principle ...... 65 3.2.5 The partialness principle ...... 68 3.3 Summary of the chapter ...... 69 Chapter 4 Methodology ...... 70 4.1 Rationale for content analysis as the research approach ...... 70 4.2 Rationale for document analysis as a supplementary research method ...... 71 4.3 Rational for NA and CDA as the analytical techniques ...... 73 4.4 Summary of the chapter ...... 76 Chapter 5 Han’s ethnic identity displayed in A Many-Splendoured Thing...... 77 5.1 Han’s Chinese identity display as an emergent product in interaction ...... 78

vii

5.2 Han’s Chinese identity as a social positioning of herself and others ...... 99 5.3 Han’s Chinese identity as an indexical product in language interactions ...... 109 5.4 Han’s Chinese identity as an identity relation performing in language interactions ...... 133 5.5 Summary of the chapter ...... 157 Chapter 6 Han’s racial identity displayed as an indexical process displayed in her writing ...... 158 6.1 Han’s Eurasian identity indexically displayed in various contexts ...... 159 6.2 Summary of the chapter ...... 167 Chapter 7 Han’s multi-cultural identity displayed as a partial account in A Many-Splendoured Thing ...... 168 7.1 The partialness of Han’s multicultural identity displayed in her writing ...... 168 7.2 Summary of the chapter ...... 195 Chapter 8 Han’s professional identity display in varied settings ...... 197 8.1 Han’s professional identity as an emergence in interactions ...... 197 8.2 Han’s professional identity display as an indexical process in languages ...... 200 8.3 Han’s professional identity displayed as a relational product ...... 207 8.4 Summary of the chapter ...... 209 Chapter 9 Discussion ...... 210 9.1 Patterns of the facets of Han’s identity display and negotiation ...... 211 9.1.1 Patterns of the display and negotiation of Han’s ethnic identity ...... 211 9.1.2 Patterns of Han’s racial identity exhibition ...... 217 9.1.3 Patterns of Han’s cultural identity display ...... 218 9.1.4 Patterns of Han’s professional identity ...... 220 9.2 Factors impacting on Han’s display and negotiation of each identity facet ...... 220 9.3 The development of Han’s identity facets in combination ...... 226 Chapter 10 Conclusion ...... 229 References ...... 231

viii

List of Figures

Figure 1 Five socio-cultural principle framework of identity analysis ...... 62

Figure 2 Qualitative Content Analysis ...... 71

Figure 3 The interplay between Han’s each identity facet………………………………………...227

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Research background

Identity is a social psychological concept, first proposed by Freud in 1921, regarding the formation of an individual’s ego (sense of self) during the process of social and cultural interactions. Erikson (1963, 1968) gave it a more socially oriented account which theorized the tight control of a person’s ego within the social and cultural environment, while Hall (2008) argued that identity should be studied from a socio- cultural perspective. According to this line of thinking, it appears that identities are highly fluid and always in the process of being constructed and reconstructed along with the change of social and cultural contexts.

However, research on identity studies tends to focus on migration or translocation communities (e.g., Bledin, 2003; Cutler, 2008; Gu, 2011a, 2011b; Kim & Shammas, 2019; Maehler, Zabal & Hake, 2019; Tsui, 2007) or the identifiable language structures of ethnic groups of people in a multicultural society (e.g., Cashman, 2008; Chun, 2016; Schilling-Estes, 2004; Reyes, 2002). There are few systematic studies that focus on the identity display and transformation of a multicultural author through a detailed analysis of his/her autobiography. As Hyland (2012) contended, it’s a reliable method of exploring a person’s identity through his/her own narrative or storytelling because he/she selects what to say and it will be constructed.

This research traced Suyin Han’s life as shown in her autobiography, A Many- Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952), unlike many other studies, particularly her identity display as a Eurasian (Belgium and Chinese) writer through a detailed analysis of her autobiography. Written in the early 1950s, the autobiography is about the amalgamation and conflict among the west, Hong Kong and mainland China. In 1948, Suyin Han left England, where she got her doctoral degree in medicine, for Hong Kong to work as a 1

medical doctor. The autobiography depicts love, war, societies and people during the post-war period of Asia (1949-1950).

This study examined, specifically, the identity display and transformation of Han in the given socio-cultural milieu in which she wrote the autobiography. The analysis took into consideration the social and cultural contexts of Hong Kong, as well as mainland China, in which the autobiography was written, to see how Han’s identity is revealed in her autobiography.

1.2 Research purpose

The purpose of this research is manifold, although it focuses, specifically, on examining how Han’s identity display and transformation are shown in A Many-Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952). The research also looks at the socio-cultural factors which may have contributed to Han’s identity transformation, analyses the language features of this Eurasian multicultural writer, uses the analysis as a basis to develop a broader socio- cultural framework to inform research on identity studies, and enriches the literature in the field of identity study

As Hyland (2010) argued, a reliable way to analyse an individual’s identity is through his/her narrative but, to date, identity studies have been conducted mainly by direct observation or interviews of specific target person(s) or some fragmented pieces of an individual’s narrative. There have been few studies of an individual’s identity conducted through the analysis of a long, and complete, piece of their writing (which may reveal the stability, or fluidity, of identity). The current study attempts to fill the gap between the identity analysis of a writer and his/her literary works. This is the first systematic attempt, to date, to examine the identity of a writer by way of analysing a single writing he/she has produced within the broad socio-cultural context of her time.

From a socio-cultural linguistic perspective, identity is constructed, stabilised and changed by varied social settings (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Gee, 2000) and one’s identity is influenced by his/her different roles played in social interactions (McCall & Simmons, 1978). Given that the current study is to analyse Han’s identity based on her self- narrative which memorised her experiences during one specific time, the five-principle framework of identity study from a socio-cultural linguistic perspective (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005) (the framework is detailed in 3.1) is used to discuss what elements could be taken into account in a study of identity display and transformation. It focused especially on those which are identifiable through an analysis of the chosen piece of literary work, as well as key factors that may impact the process of identity display and transformation. Using the framework of five principles (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005) as a research tool, data collection and interpretation involved a large volume of textual analysis of the text.

The research purpose was also to validate the framework (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005) by way of providing evidence gathered from the analysis of Han’s autobiography in this study. By doing so, it investigated if the framework (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005) is applicable to identity studies of mixed-heritage people in similar contexts, as well as research, on cross-cultural interaction among people from different social backgrounds.

1.3 Research questions

This study is a qualitative analysis of A Many-Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952) investigating the identity display and transformation of its author from a socio-cultural perspective. The study addressed the following overarching research question:

How is Han’s identity display and transformation shown in A Many-Splendoured Thing

(Han, 1952)?

In addressing this question, a set of sub-questions were posed: 1 What are the facets of her identity exhibited in the writing? 2 How is each of Han’s identity facets represented in her writing? 3 What are the factors that helped contribute to the display and transformation of Han’s identities?

Based on the socio-cultural perspective on identity study, as previously noted, the thesis employed a five-principle framework (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005) for a detailed analysis of Han’s multiple identities as displayed in different points in time as portrayed in her autobiography from 1949 to 1950. Using the framework as an analytical tool, the research adopted content analysis (Krippendorff, 2013) as the research method. Two research methods, i. e., narrative analysis (De Fina, Schiffrin & Bamberg, 2006) and critical discourse analysis (Blommaert & Bulcaen, 2000), were employed to interpret data providing deep insights into the many facets of Han’s identity, as well as its display and transformation over one of the critical periods of her life and work, in cross-border and cross-cultural contexts, Hong Kong and mainland China. The detailed analysis yielded data showing the intricacy and complexity of her negotiation of multiple identities as they emerged or were constructed in an interactive process within the specific social contexts captured in her autobiography.

1.4 Conceptualization of the study

The study looks into how Han’s identity display and transformation were depicted in her autobiography A Many-Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952). To achieve this goal, Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory and Hall’s identity theory were adopted as the key theoretical constructs within which Han’s identity is viewed as a dynamic product of

her interactions with the social and cultural contexts rather than a static existence. It was impossible to gather interview data to provide more insights into her life (she passed away in November 2012) and, more importantly, to crosscheck and validate the findings that have emerged from the textual and content analysis. This is an unavoidable limitation of this study.

Data collection of the study was conducted by a detailed analysis of Han’s autobiography A Many-Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952) at different levels: Han’s ethnic identity, racial identity, cultural identity and professional identity, of which evidence emerged in Han’s writing and this selection aligns with the first principle (emergence principle) of the five-principle framework (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005). Han’s other writings (e.g., her autobiographies Birdless Summer, A Mortal Flower, and the preface she wrote for the Chinese language versions of her autobiographies written at her different times) were also examined to validate the current findings.

The analysis process consisted of text selection, text categorization and text interpretation based on the five-principle framework (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005). The framework was employed specifically as both the theoretical framework as well as the analytical tool for this study because each of the principles was a research perspective to examine Han’s languages which displayed her multifaceted identities. Texts were interpreted according to the two commonly used language-based approaches: narrative analysis (De Fina, Schiffrin & Bamberg, 2006), a research approach which describes how identity unfolds through an individual’s own language; and critical discourse analysis (Blommaert & Bulcaen, 2000), which takes related social and cultural contextual elements into account to interpret an individual’s identity.

1.5 Significance of the study

This study contributes to research on identity study in a number of aspects and at different levels: research method, theory building, research literature and research design.

First, it contributes to research methods. In literary studies, the analysis is often of the work itself, that is, discursively, the linguistic features, or the individuals as protagonists portrayed in the work (e.g., Chin, 1995; Chiu, 1999; Heung, 1993; Nadon, 2013; Xu, 1994). The analysis is not usually of the author of his/her works or the context within which the work is created. In identity studies, the focus is often on the social contexts and times in which the target person or group reside to formulate his/her identity (e.g., Blackledge & Pavlenko, 2001; Bosch, Segrin & Curran, 2012; Tsui, 2007). Few studies have examined the display of identities of the author by analysing specific works of the author (Ling, 1982). This study addresses this gap by investigating a particular writer and her writing, at both the micro and the macro level, as well as the contexts in which she lived and created that piece of writing.

Second, it contributes to theory building. This study is informed broadly by the socio- cultural theory (Vygotsky, 1978) which addresses the influence of social and cultural contexts on an individual’s mind as well as the fluidity of individual’s identity (Hall, 2008). It employs the five-principle framework (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005), proposed for identity analysis from a socio-cultural perspective, as the main conceptualization.

Third, it proposes a shift in the research focus by examining, in detail, a single writing of an author, which reflects their identity display and transformation. Most studies on writings by Eurasian writers tend to focus on the literary features of the work or the author (e.g., Chin, 1995; Chiu, 1999; Hamilton, 1999; Heung, 1993; Mistri, 1998; Souris, 1994; Wood, 2012; Xu, 1994), and few focus on the display and transformation of identity of the author portrayed in their writings.

Finally, it proposes a new research design. This study employs an approach to 6

investigating an author’s identity through a detailed interpretation of his/her writing. The research uses content analysis (Krippendorff, 2013) as the research approach to look into Han’s identity which is formed, and negotiated, in the interactive processes of her perceptions as reflected, or shaped, by the given social contexts and changes as depicted by this autobiography.

A comprehensive study that examines several related aspects of Han’s identity display and transformation, such as this, provides insights into the multiplicity of her identity and display. The specific writing background of the autobiography (in Hong Kong, which at that time was the Chinese colony city of the British, and during the time when the new China was just established), illustrating Han’s unique linguistic features and intercultural elements, highlight the complexity of her identity. In addition, an analysis of Han’s identity as a multicultural Eurasian, as well as her work, is “a bridge of understanding between the East and West” (Hamburg, 2013, p. 1). Through documenting her interactions with people of different backgrounds she met in Hong Kong, it has the potential to enrich the people of the new century with historical knowledge and a deeper understanding of the relationship between the west, Hong Kong and mainland China.

1.6 Organization of the thesis

This thesis comprises seven chapters. Chapter 1 outlines the research background and research purpose, proposes research questions and the integrative conceptualization of the study; it also argues for the significance of the study.

Chapter 2 is a detailed review of empirical studies of identity. The reviews were divided into two categories: those of individuals engaging in transnational activities and those of people staying in local original places. Studies in both categories are further

classified according to the research emphasis of each study.

Chapter 3 describes the methodology of the current study including the research methods and analytical techniques.

Chapter 4 gives an account of the theoretical framework of the study based on which the thesis departs from a sociocultural perspective which employs the five-principle framework as the analytical tool for the texts.

Chapter 5-8 describes the text analysis of Han’s each facet of identities: Han’s ethnic identity, racial identity, cultural identity and professional identity. Each of the four identity categories employs one or more analytical principle of the five-principle framework.

Chapter 9 discusses the findings of the study in terms of whether or not there was any evidence showing the negotiation of Han’s identities, how they were presented, and what social and cultural factors impacted Han’s identity display and changes, and the interrelationship between each identity facet.

Chapter 10 articulates the study’s knowledge contribution and implications for identity research. The limitations of the current study and future research orientations for the study of identity in similar contexts are also suggested.

Chapter 2 Literature review

In Chapter 1, the background, purpose, and the significance of this study are outlined. There are various definitions of identity, for example: Gee (2000) defined identity as “a certain kind of person in a given context” and contended that “all people have multiple identities connected not to their internal states but to their performances in society” (p. 99). The social situatedness of identity is further confirmed by other scholars such as Stryker (2007), who defined identity as “internalized role expectations attached to positions in organized sets of social relationship” (p. 1084). The relationship between an individual’s identity and his/her social engagement is elaborated by Bucholtz and Hall (2005) with identity defined as “the social positioning of self and other” (p. 586). As “identity” is closed associated with social interactions, it is not only a research target in social research fields but also a research tool for social issues.

This chapter presents a detailed review of research literature on identity; it focuses particularly on empirical studies of identity display, construction and transformation and the dynamics that led to differences in social and cultural settings. As Han describes her experiences when translocating from England to Hong Kong, from Hong Kong to her hometown Chungking and then back to Hong Kong, the studies reviewed are categorized into two broad groups according to the geographical experiences of the research subjects: diaspora individuals, who translocate to another areas, and non- diaspora, who live and stay in their birth places. According to Brubaker’s (2005) definition, “diaspora” refers to all groups and individuals who are engaged in activities dislocated from their original homelands. The literature review is structured according to the themes arising from a broad research focus on identity studies.

2.1 Research on the identities of diaspora individuals and groups

In this section, empirical studies of individual’s identity formation, display and transformation are reviewed and discussed in detail. The studies are categorized according to the themes of the research that are related to or impact on participants’ identity formation and negotiation as well as their attitudes. The research includes second language learning and bilingual experiences, heritage language experiences, language ideologies, language features and broad socio-cultural impacts.

2.1.1 Second language learning and multilingual experience on identity

Multilingual refers to speaking or using more than one language, such as English, Spanish, Chinese (Baker, 2011), and accordingly, multilingual persons are those who switch between, or simultaneously use, multiple national languages (MacSwan, 2017).

Norton (2000) analysed the autobiographical narratives of five immigrant women of different ethnicities in Canada to capture the relationship between second language learning and these individuals’ identity negotiation. The study posited that the identities of the participants were multiple and changed over time. It was found that, whereas the subjects were anxious to be integrated into the local context, they also wanted local people to be aware of their ethnic differences. Using their bilingual capability as a strategy, they sometimes spoke local language to access the local language power in their workplace, but in other contexts they challenged the power of the predominant language by speaking their ethnic language to position their identity. Identity was shown to be multiple and differed according to the contexts (Norton, 2000).

Gu (2011b) investigated the identity development of 15 mainland Chinese individuals who immigrated to Hong Kong and studied in a local secondary school. All the students were of the lowest socio-economic class; 11 were Cantonese speaking, four learnt

Cantonese after immigration, and all had lived in Hong Kong for less than three years. A semi-structured interview was conducted to gather data about their experiences in Hong Kong.

Qualitative analysis of the interviews suggested that these individuals’ identities were negotiated and developed in the new place and that factors, such as age at migration and duration of their stay in Hong Kong played a crucial role in the construction and display of their identity. The individuals’ language experiences in local social contexts also impacted their identity construction and display (Gu, 2011b). The current study also examines how the Hong Kong social and language contexts influenced Han’s identity display and change with a focus on the role of geographical location and time in identity development.

Kim (2016) investigated the identity construction and transformation of a North Korean defector living in South Korea, Young Ja; at the time she was studying in a women’s university in Seoul. Interviews focused on what Young Ja wrote about the relationship between English learning and her identity transformation. Kim (2016) reported that Young Ja’s identity transformation developed in four stages (resistance, passive acceptance, engagement, and active participation). That is she moved from refusing to transform her North Korean identity and resisting learning English, even though English learning was common in South Korea to: passively accepting learning English; willingly engaging in English learning; and finally actively participating in English learning. The study described Young Ja’s process of identity negotiation from a complete North Korean to a reunified Korean (Kim, 2016).

In this study, Kim (2016) claimed that an individual’s identity always changes within a specific context and is influenced by various social dynamics and, as identity changes over time, identity formation is developmental and process-oriented. When learning a new language, an individual’s identity changes in the process of acquiring and using the target language for communication and social interaction (Kim, 2016). The 11

relationship between language learning and identity change is a research aspect of this thesis. The process of Han’s identity negotiation, as well as her change in attitude towards the dialect of Cantonese, the dominant language for communication at social and professional levels in Hong Kong, is also examined in detail in this thesis (see Chapter 5).

Chiang (2016) examined how five international teaching assistants (ITA) negotiated their identities from being an expert on courses to being an English language learner in America. The five ITAs were Economics PhD candidates teaching a course to undergraduate students. Data consisted of tape-recorded interactions between the ITAs and their native English-speaking students during office hours and post-interviews of the students. Chiang (2016) posited that the participants’ identity negotiations were realized through personal interactions in various linguistic contexts. Both the ITAs and their students used sentence completion as a linguistic strategy to position their identities in their conversations. The ITAs used sentence completion for directive, reason-giving, instructing and explaining followed by a range of technical terms to establish their course expert and instructor identity. The students completed the ITAs’ paused utterances by providing course knowledge, which should have been provided by the ITAs, which positioned the ITAs’ identity as non-native English speakers (Chiang, 2016). The study highlighted the influence of the interactions with native speakers in identity negotiations of non-native language speakers. Similarly the identity analysis of Han, in this thesis, focuses on the language context and interaction and their relationships.

The role of being bilingual plays in the construction and display of identity of psychotherapists’ patients was examined by De Zulueta (1995). Data were collected from eight psychotherapists’ published articles based on their conversations with their bilingual patients. The study showed that if patients’ could not use two languages with the same degree of proficiency and language shifts, it led to identity transformations and, when shifting between their mother tongue and a second language, they 12

experienced degrees of emotional outburst (anxiety, fear, hesitation, etc.). When speaking their mother tongue, their memories associated with this language were activated. When these memories were about their negative and unhappy experiences, using their second language may function as a way to helped them escape from these memories. Patients tended to be more emotional when using their first language so that the change of languages led to their identity negotiation (De Zulueta, 1995).

De Zulueta (1995) identified the close relationship between language and identity, which is also a focus of this thesis. The analysis of Han’s autobiography shows that Han’s identity changed when shifting between the two languages (Chinese, her mother tongue, and English, her second language). She appeared to be more emotional after she left Hong Kong for Chungking, and more tender when she was with her family. Han’s multiple identities, and how her multilingual background influence her multicultural identities, were evident in circumstances in which Han quoted both Chinese poems and English tales in her talk with her English friend (detailed in Chapter 5).

These studies, conducted in different contexts and with different research methods, illustrate the impact of changes in either time or space on one’s identity display and transformation. These issues are the main research focus of this thesis although the space change in the current research is not at a transnational level but a regional level (Hong Kong----mainland China----Hong Kong) within one country.

2.1.2 Individual’s heritage language experiences and their identity

Heritage language refers to an ancestral language with which a speaker or a user has an ethnic link and hopes to connect, or reconnect (Wiley, 2005). A mixed-heritage person refers to one who is bilingual with parents from different language and heritage backgrounds (Shin, 2010).

Shin (2010) examined the relationship between identities of 12 multiethnic adults (aged from 24 to 35) who lived in different areas of America and their experiences of heritage languages. A heritage language is “a minority native language spoken natively by the immigrant parent” (Shin, 2010, p. 204). All of the 12 participants had one parent of an English-speaking background and another with a heritage language speaking background who had immigrated to America. The participants differed in the extent of their exposure to, and proficiency with, their heritage language. In the analysis of the autobiographical semi-structured interviews Shin identified two factors affecting the participants’ proficiency in their heritage language: their social environment and their parents’ attitudes. Those who had never been marginalized by their social communities or friends because of their bi-racial background were more positive and eager to learn their heritage language, and to explore their mixed-heritage identity. In contrast, those who had experiences of being mocked and marginalized by the local mainstream group, because of their multiethnic family, especially those who had had little contact with their heritage languages, were confused about their identity.

Shin (2010) also claimed that if heritage language speaking parents were positive about learning their heritage languages, their children more likely to be proficient in the language, and vice versa, and that their heritage language proficiency impacted on their identity construction. In the current study, exploration of Han’s identity examines how her multilingual capability affected the construction and display of her multicultural identity.

Wallace (2004) examined the mixed-heritage identities of 14 high school and college students (aged from 15 to 30) in the northern California, in USA; all participants were either first-generation or second-generation immigrants. A semi-structured interview was conducted to inquire into the students’ experiences of cultural assimilation, ethnic identity formation and negotiation across different contexts. The analysis suggested that the participants’ ethnic and racial backgrounds influenced their identity construction in the USA, and that their identities, positioned by themselves as well as others, aligned 14

more with their minority sides rather than their majority side. Wallace also argued that, within the school settings, these individuals had many opportunities to explore, construct and reconstruct their identities because they could interact with multiple ethnic peoples The findings have guided interpretation of Han’s ethnic and cultural identity display and negotiation, as they were also produced in her interactions with people of different backgrounds in mainland China and Hong Kong settings.

Similar findings can be seen in Kanno’s (2003) longitudinal study of identity negotiation of mixed-heritage participants of Japanese and Canadian. Kanno claimed that an individual’s identity was never static but constantly changing according to where they were, whom they were with and the topic they were talking about as well as their own career trajectory and educational levels.

The impact of school settings in individuals’ identity development was also analysed by Shin (2016). The study investigated the identity development of four Korean- Canadian heritage language learners attending a middle-level Korean language class in Canada. Two had school experiences in Korea before immigrating to Canada (i.e., 1.5 generation), while the other two were born in Canada (i.e. second generation). Shin observed the four students in the classroom, interviewed them and collected their writing journals and found identity construction for the 1.5 generation and second generation students differed. While the 1.5 generation tended to maintain their Korean ethnicity even though they needed to integrate into the mainstream society of Canada, the second generation had a more unstable identity positioning with their self- positioning shifting between Korean, Canadian and Korean-Canadian (Shin, 2016).

Shin’s (2016) finding highlights the roles that educational contexts and individuals’ prior learning experiences play in identity formation and transformation. The study’s emphasis on the participants’ self-positioning of their identities informed the current study of Han’s identity, which also examines how Han’s different layers of identity are intersubjective and positioned by the interlocutors. 15

The ethnic identity development of East Asian adolescents in British Columbia, Canada was examined (Homma, Zumbo, Saewyc & Wong, 2014), through analysing the questionnaire responses of 4311 Asian Canadian students from Grade 7 to 12. Data indicated that these individuals’ ethnic identity interacted with their ethnic heritage language; the more contact with their heritage language they had, the stronger was their ethnic identity. They also reported that the status of individuals’ identity development changed according to their exposure time to the languages The adolescents with a high proficiency in their heritage language were more likely to develop a strong commitment to their ethnic identity, which in turn aroused their interest in further exploration of their ethnic identity (Homma et al., 2014).

The findings (Homma et al., 2014) highlighted the importance of long term, sustained exposure to, or multiple repetitive use of, language for identity development. In examining Han’s identity in this study, her Chinese language proficiency, relative to her English language proficiency, appears to have impacted her Chinese identity as portrayed in her writing.

An online survey of 230 Chinese-Australians was conducted to investigate the relationship between the participants’ heritage language learning of Chinese- Australians and the construction of their identity (Mu, 2016). All the participants (aged between 18 and 35) were Australian citizens or permanent residents, born in China but with different in lengths of stay in Australia, places of residence of Australia and proficiency levels of Chinese as a heritage language. Five participants were interviewed following the survey. Mu reported that the participants believed their Chinese looks and language were inseparable parts of their Chinese identity, and that their physical appearance and Chinese language learning were mutually influential. While their Chinese looks constantly reminded them to learn the Chinese language, described as an “inside-out” process, others expectation of their Chinese proficiency, because of their Chinese looks, encouraged them to learn their Chinese heritage language, described as 16

an “outside-in” process (Mu, 2016).

Mu’s (2016) findings highlight another possible factor, i. e., one’s physical appearance, that may impact his/her identity construction. The current study also examines how other people’s positioning of Han, based on her Chinese appearance had impacted Han’s identity construction and display.

The ethnic identity development of 18 Italian Americans aged between 22 and 35, during early adulthood, were examined (Alessandria, Kopacz, Goodkin, Valerio & Lappi, 2016). All participants were either second-generation or fourth-generation who completed different education degrees entirely in the USA. They were interviewed and the analysis indicated that the maintenance of the participants’ ethnic identity was influenced considerably by their ethnic culture and parental expectations. The importance of their Italian heritage identity correlated with a multitude of factors such as familial influence, the degree of their American assimilation, the frequency of interaction with Italian communities, differences across generations, heritage types (mono- or multi- ethnicity), Italian language proficiency, interactions with peers in colleges, college experience of Italian culture and the impact of the interview on them (Alessandria et al., 2016).

These studies focused either on how individuals’ ethnic identity was influenced by their attitudes towards their identity positioning, proficiency of their heritage languages or whether external factors, such as parents’ heritage language attitudes, different ethnic people’s attitude towards their heritage languages influenced their ethnic identity construction. These findings of these studies that social factors and individuals’ past experiences contribute to an individual’s identity development has informed this study’s examination of Han’s identity.

2.1.3 Language ideologies and individual’s identity orientation

Language ideologies are a set of concepts which predetermine how a specific language in a society/community is valued based on its cultural, historical or pragmatic values. Language policy is always taken account when defining language ideology because it always helps construct language ideologies (Gal, 2006; Wodak, 2012). Language policies emphasizes the political enactment of the social hegemony of a specific language (Davis, 2017; Leeman, 2018), and people’s language ideology is strongly influenced by the public political attitudes towards different languages.

Tse (2000) analysed the effect of individuals’ language ideologies on their identity formation. An in-depth investigation of the development of ethnic identity of 39 Asian Americans (from different Asian regions), aged between 11 and 67, born or raised in America, was based on data from published writings of participants including their autobiographies, fictions and journal articles.

The analysis of the data (Tse, 2000) suggested that all participants had experienced a period of ethnic identity exploration in their youth; their experiences were revealed in their narratives. It was argued that the participants’ language background and proficiency strongly influenced the construction of their identity which was related to their community belongingness. All the participants described a period when they strived to be a member of mainstream American society by developing a high level of English language fluency. Tse reported that, despite their sound bilingual capabilities, the participants showed little pride in being bilingual because of negative social attitudes towards their heritage languages. Tse also argued that individuals’ language attitudes interacted with the social status of the language, noting that regular classes of heritage languages in public schools promoted the public’s interest in heritage languages as well as their social status in the community.

This study (Tse, 2000) showed that people’s ethnic identity was closely related with their language background, and that their attitudes towards their heritage language were affected by their levels of language proficiency and their desire to maintain the heritage 18

language. Consequently, Han’s writing is examined in this study to interpret how her ethnic identity is influenced by her language background.

Language background was considered also in a study of ten linguistic minority college students’ positioning of their identities, and the discourses they used to integrate and construct their identities in Quebec City, Canada (Groff, Pilote & Vieux-Fort, 2016). The ten students had different English mother tongues and were studying in the English- language only instruction college in Quebec City. The students were interviewed regarding their experiences and identity construction in Quebec City, a city in which French is the official and dominant language.

Groff et al. (2016) found that referring to a higher status of identity was a common strategy these individuals used for their self-positioning when they felt marginalized by the local French-speaking people. The ten linguistic minority students were initially made to notice their differences within the local context, and then to construct a discourse addressing the supremacy of the English language to position their identities as superior. They continued to construct a broader discourse involving a global scale, in which the dominance of English language was linked to its “openness” and multiple choices of future careers and experiences in contrasting with the “closed-mindedness” of the French language.

Hubbard and Utsey (2015) looked into the identities of 11 Afro-Germans of mixed ethnicity living in Berlin, Germany. The participants were interviewed in terms of their racial experiences and narrative analysis was employed for the interpretation of the data. The analysis was informed by the critical race theory, which argued for a negotiation process of the construction of race in particular social contexts (Lynn & Parker, 2006), and adopted a metamodel (Root, 1999), which emphasized historical and cultural impacts on developments of individual’s multiracial identities.

The related cultural and political backgrounds of Germany were taken into account to 19

explore how these mixed racial Afro-German individuals managed to negotiate their identities in Germany, and how the German context influenced their identity display and construction (Hubbard & Utsey, 2015). The study identified three themes regarding the participants’ identity reconstruction and display: individual’s personality portrayal, influenced by their parents and their evaluation of their parents’ relationships; the relationship between individuals and society, influenced the communities individuals chose to attend; broad cultural contexts, constructed by the social and historical contexts individuals in which individuals had engaged.

Hubbard and Utsey (2015) suggested that the bi-racial identity attributed to these Afro- Germans more choices for their identity categories. They also claimed that the identity negotiation and reconstruction these Afro-Germans experienced was shared by all biracial individuals in other areas of the world since identity is a socially and culturally mediated product. This thesis, likewise, also examines how Han’s past experiences, as well as the local cultural contexts, influenced her bi-racial identity construction and display.

Kemppainen, Hilton and Rannut (2015) investigated the impact of school language instruction on the ethnic identity development of some Russian-speaking students in Estonia. The study focused on the ethnic identities with which the Russian students positioned themselves as Estonia has 30% Russian speakers and schools use Russian as the instructional language. The study collected the questionnaire completed by 186 students in different grades from eight schools (four were Russian-language schools and four were Estonia-language schools). The analysis indicated that the school instruction language impacted markedly the students’ ethnic identity construction: those who were in a Russian-language school displayed strong Russian identity, while those who were in an Estonian-language school tended to identify themselves as Estonian.

Of the other factors which contributed to these students’ ethnic identity construction, their parents’ language proficiency was the most influential. For those who had parents 20

with high proficiency in Estonian, the students tended to identify themselves as ethnic Estonian and thus felt a strong sense of belonging to Estonian dominant culture (Kemppainen et al, 2015). They also indicated that students of lower graded Estonian language schools tended to identify themselves more as ethnic Estonia than those at schools that were graded higher. In this study, a similar analysis is conducted to establish if the language of instruction in Han’s daughter’s school in Hong Kong impacted on her identity formation or changes.

Henry and Goddard (2015) examined the role that the identities of Swedish undergraduate students, who differed in ethnicity and age, played when choosing a three years’ English instructional programme in their university, and how their constructions of identity were displayed. Using a questionnaire and interview Henry and Goddard posited that the Swedish language context played a core role in the students’ choice of the programme. The promotion of English as an indispensable part of Swedish life provides a bilingual environment (Swedish and English) in which individuals construct their identities from their birth. As a result, they were hardly aware of the bicultural traits in their identities.

The analysis also suggested that, because of the social language context, the students viewed English proficiency as a prerequisite of being cosmopolitan. Each student had their own purposes to attend the programme, but they displayed an almost unified self- confidence in their global competence (Henry & Goddard, 2015). The authors argued that second language learning considerably influences an individual’s identity. Likewise, in this study, Han’s language experiences will be examined to establish how they contributed to the construction of her multicultural identity.

The identity development of two immigrant students in Germany, and their attitudes towards their studies in both the regular classroom and German as the second language classroom was analysed by Bauer, Guerrero, Hornberg & Bos, (2015) using classroom observations, interviews and samples of the students’ work. Both of the students were 21

born in Germany of different ethnicity. . Data were analysed qualitatively, informed by the poststructuralist framework of language learning (Norton, 1995). This framework views the processes of individual’s language acquisition, not only as a process of learning language, but also a process of identity reconstruction and the establishment of the relationship between the individual and the context. The authors suggested that the students’ attitudes towards their study, in both classrooms, were influenced by a range of factors: the teacher’s values and instructional skills, the students’ own language learning experiences, the broader social contexts including local social attitudes towards different languages, local language policies and their economic status. Both students showed a positive attitude towards their bilingual capability, considered a unique asset for a multilingual individual with multiple identities in their various social interactions.

In Bauer et al.’s study (2015), students identified a greater preference for the regular classroom over the German as the second language classroom. Whereas the latter classroom focused on German language and cultures, and excluded the students’ heritage languages, so that they struggled to position their identity. The regular classroom provided a more inclusive environment. In the regular classroom they were able to develop, display and better define their multiple identities because the disadvantages they felt in the German language cultural knowledge were minimised.

The findings (Bauer et al., 2015) may help explain why immigrant students are less successful academically than ethnic German students. An environment which was less tolerant language of their multiple identities led to a reduced willingness to participate in the classroom and led to their low academic achievements (Bauer et al., 2015).

Rumenapp (2016) analysed the relationship between two teachers and how they used discourse analysis to interpret the classroom transcripts and changed their understanding and positioning of the identities of their students. The two Chinese American teachers were in an urban “Chinatown” elementary school in the USA and 22

differed in their years of teaching. Data included the teachers’ notes, their students’ work and classrooms videos. The qualitative analysis showed that by using discourse analysis to interpret the interactive participation in the classroom of the students, the two teachers changed their teaching strategies as well as their positioning of and attitudes towards the students’ identities. Both teachers initially used a strict teacher- oriented style in their classroom, which led to the “shyness” and the passive acceptance by the students of their identify being English language learners. After the teachers shifted their strategy to allow for more co-participation of the students in the classroom, the teachers found that the identities of their students transformed to acting as the “co- constructors” of classroom conversations (Rumenapp, 2016). The study revealed that identity was highly dynamic and positioned by both self and others.

Endo (2016) examined how four immigrant Japanese American adolescents displayed and negotiated their identities in an urban public high school in Midwest America. This high school, of which 85% of teachers were white, on the surface embraced multiple cultures and languages, but in practice restricted students using languages other than English. All four participants immigrated to America before primary school and were highly proficient in English even though at home their first language was Japanese. The participants were observed for nearly three months. Endo’s interpretation of the collected documents suggested that the four Japanese immigrants all had experienced racial marginalization by their white peers at school even though they were highly proficient in English. They resisted the racism and displayed their Japanese identity by openly demonstrating their proud of “Made in Japan”, displayed by listening to Japanese pop music, buying Japanese products, accessorizing themselves with Japanese cartoon characters and talking in the Japanese language.

The findings suggested that the four participants ‘proficiency in both Japanese and English, played an important role in their resistance to racism and a stronger display of their Japanese identity (Endo, 2016). The study highlights the impact of language proficiency on an individual’s identity attitude; this is an aspect analysed to establish 23

how Han’s language background was related to her identity positioning in the current study.

Lawton and Foeman (2017) investigated the relationship between individuals’ racial identity attitudes and their multiracial DNA information. All of the 21 multiracial participants were living in the United States and differed in age (9-62), gender, race of parents and DNA testing results. Interviews elicited their narratives regarding their racial identity positioning before and after they completed an ancestry DNA test. The analysis of the interview data identified that four participants (aged 40+) stayed with their previous mono-racial positioning because of their long-established identity attitudes even after the DNA results showed they were genetically multiracial. Some participants showed flexibility in their identity positioning and always chose one race from the DNA to self-position according to contexts, such as topics, others’ perception of them and their parents’ expectations regardless of their DNA information. The youngest participants identified themselves as multiracial and even extra-racial beyond the existing racial categories and expressed pleasure and excitement after their DNA results were disclosed. For the youngest, their highly dynamic identity attitudes were inferred to be caused by their middle- to upper-middle-class families who had plenty of opportunities to travel and learn other cultures (Lawton & Foeman, 2017).

Lawton and Foeman‘s (2017) study included genotype information in a study of multiracial people; the findings highlighted the high fluidity and contextual sensitivity of racial identity and the impact of age on identity attitude. Similarly the current study examines how Hong Kong contexts and Han’s age affected her Eurasian identity display in her late thirties, the time she was writing A Many-Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952).

These studies examined how the local contextual language ideologies influenced the multiracial, or immigrating, individuals’ identity development. The studies are either conducted in North America (the USA and Canada) or Europe (Germany, Sweden, etc.). 24

Seldom have studies looked into how Hong Kong language ideology influenced the identity display and negotiation of a Chinese mainlander who had the English education background. The current study considers Hong Kong language context as an aspect that may have influenced Han’s ethnic identity negotiation after she began to work in Hong Kong.

2.1.4 Individual’s unique language features and their identity

Reyes (2002) investigated how five Asian American teens displayed their identities in the high school district of South Philadelphia, USA. This study examined the after- school interactions between the five Asian American teens and 27 audience participants, including teachers, advisors and administrators who were invited to comment on the teens’ video-making. The observation of these participants showed that the teens’ use of different tenses made a clear historical boundary between the teens’ past, referencing their birthplaces, and present, referencing their current residences. The pronominal uses of “your countries” connoted that the teens felt they had never belonged to America. The connector “or” made a dichotomous relationship between “your countries” and “America.” The frequently mentioned “your cultural values” and “American society” indicated that the cultures could only be acquired in their original countries. The audience participants also made comparisons between “your families, their culture” and “your culture,” which implied that after the teens migrated to America from their birth countries, they had constructed their unique culture which differed from either American culture or their family culture (Reyes, 2002).

Reyes (2002) argued that as culture and identity always emerged in talk-in-interaction, examining narratives was a reliable way of analysing identity. People’s identities emerge in their daily language interactions and cultural contacts with others, and people’s indexical languages also help construct and display their corresponding identities (Reyes, 2002). These findings provide an empirical base for the analysis of Han’s identity display and transformation through her writings, especially in how Han 25

positioned herself and the other people by using pronouns.

Golden and Lanza (2013) analysed the metaphors used by two African refugees, both medical doctors, in describing their lives in and cultural feelings towards their new residence, Norway. The identities of the two Africans were displayed through their uses of metaphor in semi-structured interviews. Analysis of the data showed that, as well as identifying their language attitudes and language proficiencies, their language features were representative of their identities. In the interviews, the two migrants equated “language” with “culture” and considered culture as “a root”, “a backpack” and “another angle” to “take”.

These showed how individuals use metaphor to link related cultures and reflects the ideological construction of their identities. (Golden & Lanza, 2013). As a medical doctor as well, the influence of her occupation on Han’s overall identity is examined, in this study, as well as how her language features were related to her professional identity.

Ling (1982) explored how languages were managed to reconstruct identities, and how social and cultural contexts influence a writer’s identity as revealed in an autobiography Crossings (Hua, 1968). Ling analysed the identity display of the author in the book in five aspects: the narrative proceeding style, ordinal positions of people in traditional Chinese families, geographical displacements, the comparative studies with the writer’s other works and her language features. The analysis of the writer’s unchronological narration showed her confusion of self-identity positioning and fragmentation of personality. The disordered narratives of her (as the name “Fourth Jane” in this book) experiences jumped back and forth between time points of her residences in France, China and America. The frequent dislocating experiences enriched Fourth Jane’s experiences of diversified languages and cultures, but, meanwhile, resulted in the confusion of her identity.

Studies (e.g., Chin; 1995; Chiu, 1999; Ho, 2008) of Crossings (Hua, 1968) based on Ling (1982) had similar findings. These studies influenced the current study, which also examines how the Chinese cultures and Han’s experiences of translocation were related to her identity features.

Cashman (2008) explored how 22 Spanish-English bilingual students constructed and negotiated their identities by using impolite languages and behaviours. All the 22 students were studying in an elementary school in Arizona, USA, but the length of their stay differ. The study drew on the five-principle framework of identity analysis (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005) which views identity from a social and cultural perspective and proposes that identity emerges through individual’s interactions. Conversation analysis was used to analyse the recorded data.

The categorization of the conversation excerpts (Cashman, 2008) was based on the five principles (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005). For the principle of emergence, the identity of Andres was emergent as an outsider because he had the shortest lengths of stay in America and he was not yet proficient in English; for the principle of positionality, the students marginalized Andres as not a member of them by using provocative ascending intonation “you?” to speak to him. As an example of the principle of indexicality, the students used threatening and insulting languages, such as “I’ll slap you” and “toothless monkey face”. Their stance-taking was that they never aligned with Andres which helped index the non-membership identity of Andres. The principle of relationality is evident in the students mocking Andres’s English proficiency and imitating his poor English pronunciation to emphasise distinction between them using native Spanish slang expressions to illegitimate Andres’s Spanish identity (Cashman, 2008).

Although Cashman (2008) did not exemplify the “principle of partialness” (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005), the study provides a comprehensive empirical analysis of identity employing the framework. The study highlighted language and identity’s inseparable relationship, and that contextual components are a strong influence in an individual’s 27

identity construction and display. The current study also uses the exemplification and justification of the five-principle framework (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005) to examine how Han’s identity was displayed and negotiated; and how it was impacted, not only by the local interactional environments but also by socio-cultural ideologies.

Damari (2010) interviewed a couple, with different ethnicities, living in Washington D.C. Damari analysed dialogues between them to see how the couple constructed their different identities through taking contrasting stances. The wife, Claire, was a Jewish American born in USA while the husband, Arad, was an Israeli who had immigrated to America three years before the study. The interactions between them focused on their disagreements, due to different cultures and religions. The analysis identified two strategies used by the couple in adopting their stances: attributing an “accreted stance” one another and attributing an “adjusted stance” to themselves. By repeating the previous speeches of each other, Claire and Arad positioned themselves in regards their different religions. Claire constructed dialogues by using subjective pronoun “I” to explicitly position herself, “I don’t believe that” to evaluate a stance object; and “you always say” to show Arad’s one frequent stance-taking accreted into his identity.

Claire also used passive sentence structures, “I was V-ed,” and emotional adjectives, such as “surprised” and “disappointed” to show her stance changes. Compared with Arad’s implicit expressions, “I feel like”, “I think”, Claire’s stance-taking acts were more explicit and direct. Both adjusted their stances between the prior and the present by these strategies. This study interpreted in detail how a speaker attributes stances to selves and others, and how these stance-takings contribute to one’s identity construction (Damari, 2010).

It is interesting to see that this study (Damari, 2010) took stance-taking as a strategy of positionality, categorized int the principle of indexicality (see Bucholtz & Hall, 2005). The analysis of Han’s identity also uses the two principles and examines how Han used languages to take her stances, aligning or misaligning with other interlocutors. 28

Alimoradian (2014) investigated the relationship between the use of vocative “mate”, considered as an authentic and typical Australian vocative, and the self-positioned ethnic identities of 101 Australians, who were not native English speakers. The participants comprised 55 male and 46 female, living in the urban areas of Melbourne, Canberra and Perth, who varied in educational levels and ethnicity. All were highly proficient in English although their length of stay in Australia differed. Data, collected from two pre-existing questionnaires, revealed that the use of vocative “mate” was closely related to the participants’ gender and ethnic orientation. The male participants, who did not strongly identify themselves with their ethnicity, were most likely to use “mate”. The analysis also indicated that the use of “mate” was considered an important sign of being Australian and suggested the longing to assimilate into Australian culture. Even though “mate” is viewed conventionally as a masculine vocative, the proportion of the female participants used “mate” in a broad range of contexts (Alimoradian, 2014).

The inseparable relationship between language and identity positioning, and between the social processes and individuals’ identity development as reported by Alimoradian, (2014) was examined in this study of Han’s identity negotiation. The focus was on how she negotiated her language attitude after she began to work in Hong Kong, even though the uses of specific languages was not.

How language features impacted the identity developments of five Chinese youths studying in different universities in London was explored by Li and Zhu (2013). The five participants differed in their birthplaces in China, past transnational experiences as well as the length of stay in London. Their language features in daily life were observed and followed by interviews regarding their language attitudes. Analysis indicated that their daily language interactions featured multiple language uses, in which they mixed different language forms to articulate their dynamic and multilingual identities. The languages and language attitudes of the participants were negotiated and socialized in

these exchanges. The process appeared to impact on their performance and the transformation of their transnational identities (Li & Zhu, 2013).

Li and Zhu’s (2013) findings highlighted the interrelationship between transnational practices, language-mixing performances and identity developments. In the analysis of Han’s multicultural identity, in this study, her language-mixing practices are also examined.

These studies examined how the language features of these individuals related to their ethnic identity display and transformation such as how they used different pronouns to position the self and other people, how they used metaphorical expressions to construct their relationships between their identities and their contexts, and how they used local language to show their acculturated identities. The current study also looks into these aspects not only to analyse Han’s ethnic identity but also to examine her professional and cultural identity.

2.1.5 Mixed social and cultural factors and individual’s identity

Pustulka (2016) explored the identity reconstruction of several Polish women after they migrated to the United Kingdom or Germany. The data were from a three-year doctoral research project. In the project, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 37 Polish migrant women (aged from 23 to 64) living in either rural or urban areas of the two countries, whose lengths of stay varied from three to 33 years. Thematic analysis and comparison between their narratives were used to examine integration of their identities as a woman, a mother, a Polish migrant, as well as the negotiation of their identities between Poland and their resident countries. Three groups of self-positioned identities emerged according to how strongly they felt aligned with their identity as a mother: Mother-Poles, Intensity Motherhood and the New Migrant Mothers.

Pustulka (2016) posited that their self-identity positioning was the result of their social 30

status, which played a more important role in the individuals’ identity construction and reconstruction than ethnicity and gender. The importance of social status of an individual to their perceived identity is another focus in the current study of Han’s identity. How her professional identity as a medical doctor, which was highly respected in the society, helped construct the other facets of her identities is examined.

Li (2015) analysed the identity negotiation of five full-time international graduate students (aged from 26 to 35) studying in a university in Shanghai, China. These students were from four countries: America, Cape Verde Island, Colombia, and Spain. The study focused on two aspects: the impact of language and culture on their identity construction and how they negotiated between their own culture and local culture. Data were collected by semi-structured interviews and email correspondence with the students.

The findings revealed that language power, rather than language proficiency, played a prominent role in constructing these individuals’ identity and sense of belonging. Owing to the hegemony of English, the two American students firmly maintained their American identity and refused to negotiate their identities in Shanghai. It was postulated that two aspects that have been considered as important for identity development, the degree of individual’s language proficiency and individuals’ multicultural knowledge, were unimportant in the identity construction and negotiation of the five students (Li, 2015). Informed by Li’s (2015) findings, the role of the language power of Cantonese in Hong Kong in Han’s identity negotiation is also a focus of this study.

Gong (2007) examined how Asian Americans and African Americans negotiated between their ethnic identities and identities when assimilated with the wider American society. The participants comprised 91 Asian Americans and 115 African Americans. All were studying in a large public university, of which 85% of the students were White American. Analysis of data from a questionnaire suggested three factors influenced these students’ identity positioning: length of stay in America, social contexts and their 31

birthplace. The American-born Asian Americans and African Americans developed a stronger bicultural identity than the foreign-born Americans, and the former also developed a stronger American national identity than the latter who were of the same ethnicity. In addition, as the data suggested that the American-born Asian Americans assimilated more with American majority group than the African Americans, and since they had integrated more into mainstream culture, they had developed higher self- esteem. The African Americans displayed a weaker identification with the American White majority than American-born Asian Americans as Black people had been suppressed and discriminated socially and politically over a long time (Gong, 2007).

These three factors, which were shown to impact the participants’ identity development and self-positioning, were considered when examining how Hong Kong and mainland China contexts influenced Han’s ethnic identity display and negotiation.

Sabatier (2008) investigated the impact of social contexts and family relationships on the construction of ethnic and national identities of 395 immigrant adolescents in areas around Paris, France. The adolescents (aged from 11 to 19), of whom 219 were female, were second-generation immigrants from five different ethnic groups. Data were collected by questionnaire and then a sample of adolescents and their parents were interviewed. This study was informed by the two-dimensional model (Roberts et al., 1999), which describes two identity developmental stages: affirmation (affirming sense of belonging) and exploration (exploring sense of belonging). Data, analysed to identify factors that influenced the construction of the students’ ethnic and national identities, revealed that family relationships played the most important role in the adolescents’ identity development. Those who interacted actively with their parents tended to develop an ethnicity affirmation, which had nothing to do with a national identity affirmation. Mothers and fathers influenced their children’s identity construction in different ways.

Sabatier (2008) proposed there was little relationship between an individual’s ethnic 32

identity and national identity developments. While perceived discrimination by the indigenous French people hindered the adolescents’ national identity affirmation, it was the least important factor as French social ideology has a favourable attitude towards multiculturalism. Immigrants who had French ethnic ancestry could more easily construct national identity affirmation. Education degrees and ethnic cultures also played crucial roles in their construction of ethnic and national identities, and making friends with individuals of the majority group contributed to their national affirmation. Han’s relationship with her mother from her childhood, and how it impacted Han’s ethnic identity construction, is a focus research in the current study.

Belanger and Verkuyten (2010) examined the identity negotiations of the second generation young adult Chinese immigrants in Canada and the Netherlands and their perceptions towards acculturation. 150 Chinese Dutch and 90 Chinese Canadians completed a questionnaire regarding their ethnic and national identity positioning. A qualitative semi-structured interview was conducted after the quantitative data collection from the questionnaire. The data interpretation was informed by the discourse model (Gee, 2005), which argues for a relationship between one’s multiple identities and their cultures and contexts. Analysis showed that these Chinese immigrants in Canada and the Netherlands had different perceptions of the relationship between their self-positioned national identity and their assimilation into the local culture. Those who in Canada tended to consider acculturation (assimilation into the mainstream culture) only as a concept since Canada is a conventional immigration country that welcomes diverse ethnicities. In contrast, those in the Netherlands were more likely to link acculturation and their national identity self-positioning closely because of the acculturation policy.

The analysis also indicates the influences of social dynamics on the participants’ double-identity self-positioning, such as the background of their ancestry, their physical appearance, and their early interactions with both Chinese and White Canadian/Dutch individuals (Belanger & Verkuyten, 2010). Both socio-cultural factors and family 33

background are taken into account when analysing the influences Han’s identity display and changes in the current study.

The identity development of four groups (British-born Chinese, Hong Kong Chinese, Mainland Chinese and White Scottish) of children living in one area of Scotland were examined by Dai, Williams & McGregor (2016). The participants comprised 373 Chinese who were born in different areas and 91 local Scottish young people aged between eight and 14. A questionnaire elicited their self-perceptions of their social identities, which were grouped into three categories: individual-self, collective-self and relational-self. Analysis of the questionnaire data indicated that all four groups of children viewed individual-self as the most important aspect of their social identities. However, the White Scottish children were shown to be more individualistic than the children of the three Chinese ethnic groups who identified more with their collectivism. The findings also indicated that the children of Chinese ethnicity became aware of their individualism as they grew up, whereas White Scottish children showed no change in their individual-identity with age (Dai et al., 2016).

Dai et al.’s (2016) analysis highlighted the influence of cultural context changes on an individual’s identity transformation. How Han transformed her ethnic identity after arriving in Hong Kong and how she displayed multiple cultural identities in varied interactions, is similarly analysed in the current study.

Tran (2016) looked into the influence of demographic and social backgrounds on the formation of an American identity of Asian Americans. 3511 Asian American adults of different ethnicities were interviewed by telephone in terms of their self-perceived “Americanness”. The largest ethnic groups were Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Japanese and Korean. Data were qualitatively analysed taking account of the relationship between their demographic backgrounds, social networks, understanding of the social status of their ethnicity, home property and the degree of their satisfaction of life in American. Analysis of the data showed, the process of forming an American identity 34

for these Asian Americans was influenced by complex of factors. Different ethnic groups showed different degrees of their “Americanness,” which were associated with their differing perceptions of the importance of their demographic statuses (age, gender, religion, birthplace, education, salary status, length of stay in America, citizenship status and working status), social activities (ethnic/racial friendships and interpersonal relationship within their communities), and home ownership in American (Tran, 2016).

Tran’s study (2016) involved a large number of participants to compare the different degrees of the “Americanness” by examining the unique ethnic cultures of the different groups. The study of Han’s identity not only examines how local contexts helped her identity positioning and transformation but also how her Chinese family influenced her Chinese identity formation.

These studies examined how an individual’s identity positioning was related to their social class, local language power, their birthplace, length of stay in the adoption countries and their family attachment. The studies were conducted either with different ethnic groups in one social context or with the identity choices and positioning of individuals with the same ethnic origins in different social contexts. The findings highlighted the importance not only of the local context (such as local language power) but also of early experiences (such as family relationships) to one’s identity development. These are issues which are considered for Han’s identity analysis.

2.2 Research on the identities of non-diaspora individuals and groups

In this section, empirical studies on identity display, transformation and development of individuals and groups who are not engaged in translocation activities are reviewed. The studies are categorized according to different themes and the research focus: the impact of language policies on individual’s identity, the interplay between language

learning and individual’s identity development, the development of facets of the individual’s identity related to unique contexts or personal specifics and the relationships between language features and identity.

2.2.1 The impact of language policies on individual’s identity

Lai (2011) examined the cultural identity of four secondary students in Hong Kong. Although most of these students were born in Hong Kong, some of them were born in mainland China but had grown up in Hong Kong. Using questionnaires and interviews, students’ views of Cantonese, English and Mandarin were examined. Lai collected 1265 students’ questionnaires from 36 schools, followed by interviews with 48 students. The research was conducted in 2009, the 12th year after the resumption of the Chinese government’s ruling of Hong Kong. All the students had a highly unified positive attitude towards Cantonese (the local language variety) and English (the colonizer’s language) because of their emotional ties with these two languages, as well as their pragmatic value. In contrast, they showed a negative attitude towards Mandarin as they seldom had contact with it. Furthermore, unpleasant news about mainland China made the students lack the sense of pride to position themselves as “Chinese” rather than “Hongkongers” or “Hong Kong Chinese”.

Lai (2011) identified the impact of language policy on people’s identity formation and transformation and different languages categorized people into their distinctive identity groups. In the current study, the language policy of Hong Kong is also analysed as having a possible influence on Han’s ethnic identity negotiation in Hong Kong.

Tsui (2007) examined how the local language policy constructed and reconstructed the local identity of Hong Kong during colonial and post-colonial eras. The study analysed documents regarding the British government’s language policies implemented in Hong Kong from 1898, when Hong Kong became the British colony. Tsui (2007) suggested that the language policies during colonial time featured a process of “desinicization”, 36

which meant to diminish or totally cut the social, cultural and political relationships between Hong Kong and China. The local identity of Hong Kong had been constructed as a consolidated Hong Kong identity rather than Chinese identity. As such, the local citizens’ attitudes towards China as well, as mainland Chinese people, were negative. During the postcolonial time after 1997, the language policies issued by Chinese government featured the obligatory acquisition of Mandarin, and the local Hong Kong identity became a complex Chinese Hong Kong identity.

Tsui (2007) identified the importance of the examining social and cultural contexts for identity analysis. It showed that individuals’ identity was highly fluid and always in the progress of changing triggered by social and cultural events. The Hong Kong social language policy which contributed to Han’s identity reconstruction and portrays in Hong Kong is analysed in this study.

Gao (2012) investigated the influence of the local language ideology on individuals’ identity in another Chinese bilingual (Mandarin and Cantonese) city, Guangzhou. The online discourses of Chinese netizens’ discussions on “Protecting Cantonese Movement” were collected as the research data. The study analysed 378 posts which were collected from 2260 messages from three resources: YouTube video, a South Daily online forum and a Guangzhou TV website. These online discussions, written in simplified Chinese, Cantonese or English, showed the local language ideology influenced individuals’ identity greatly. Each individual had a sense of belonging to one particular language, and individuals’ identity was, to a great extent, influenced by the language they used. Guangzhou citizens showed a negative attitude towards Mandarin because they had already constructed their sense of belonging to Cantonese. They felt proud of their language because of its aesthetic, historical and pragmatic values; Cantonese was an indispensable part of their identity. Faced with moving from Cantonese to Mandarin, they refused to be assimilated with Mandarin speaking people, which also revealed their negative attitude towards identity transformation.

These studies examined how local language policies played a crucial role in shaping and influencing the identity positioning and negotiation of local people. The three studies were conducted in Cantonese speaking cities (Hong Kong and Guangzhou) after the language context changed because of the promotion of Mandarin. Language policy was shown to have a considerable influence on individuals’ identity positioning. The current study of Han’s ethnic identity also considers Hong Kong language policy and ideology an influencing f factor.

2.2.2 The interplay between language learning and individual’s identity development

Wei (2016) analysed the relationship between Chinese university students and their English learning on their identity. The 1196 undergraduate students (aged from 18 to 22), studying in key universities of Beijing, the capital city of China, differed in their majors and the length of time they had been learning English. Comparison of data from a questionnaire investigated the attitudes of the students towards English, how they viewed different varieties of English, and how they constructed their identities related to English. The analysis indicated that the students were open-minded in learning English because of its pragmatic value in Chinese society and its international influence, but they were reluctant to view English as the lingua franca for their lives. The students viewed British English and American English, rather than Australian or Singapore English, as the most prestigious; they also attempted to learn British and American cultures. Most students positioned their identity with the English language as a learner but not a user, and thus they seldom had a sense of belonging to English. Those who had more experience of different varieties of English were more likely to view English as a part of their identity rather than a communicative tool

Wei’s (2016) findings highlighted the relationship between individuals’ language learning and identity construction. The current study also considers how Han’s ethnic identity was negotiated by letting her daughter learn Cantonese. 38

Klapwijk and Walt (2016) examined 201 South African university students’ attitudes and identity position towards the status of English. The students were recruited from two universities and differed in whether Afrikaans or isiXhosa was their most usually used language. A questionnaire investigated how the students perceived English learning, how they identified with their most usually used language, and what language they would choose, if possible, as the language of instruction in universities. The data analysis drew on the concept of linguistic capital (Bourdieu, 1986), which argues for an authority and power of one specific language. Klapwijk and Walt (2016) asserted that the global linguistic power of English made the students consider English learning as more important than the frequently used Afrikaans or isiXhosa. Due to the historical background of South Africa, however, Afrikaans contains important cultural meanings for the students as it was the language promoted during the period of apartheid. While the students viewed English as only a tool, they positioned their identity as aligning with either Afrikaans or isiXhosa.

Klapwijk and Walt (2016) pointed out that the linguistic power of English was its functional value, and that the linguistic meaning of Afrikaans or isiXhosa was a matter of culture. In the current study, the Hong Kong language background influenced Hong Kong people’s language attitude is considered in analyzing Han’s ethnic identity transformation in Hong Kong.

Both of these studies examined the relationship between individuals’ foreign language learning in school settings and their identity development. It was shown that learning a foreign language in their local environment made them view the foreign language they learnt as a tool but not an identity option. The current study also examines how Han’s English education impacted her identity positioning.

2.2.3 Specific identity facet development related to unique contexts or personal specifics 39

In a longitudinal study of identity changes of middle-aged individuals in Finland, 172 ethnic Finnish citizens (aged from 27 to 50), whose first language was Finnish, were interviewed in regards their identity formation process in five major domains: religious beliefs, political identity, career, intimate relationships and lifestyle (Fadjukoff, Pulkkinen & Kokko, 2016). The development of identity development at the ages of 27, 36, 42 and 50 was analysed. Marcia’s Four-Identity-Status framework (1966) was used to analyse the data. The interpretation showed that the stages of their identity development changed in the five domains with age. There was a tendency for both male and the female participants to progress to the achievement status in each of the five domains as time passed, although the female participants arrived at the achievement stage before age 50, much earlier than the male. The male participants were prone to stay in a diffusion status at all ages. At the age 42, all participants’ political identity changed dramatically due to the economic context change; at age 50, they began to rethink the possibilities of their lives as they no longer had to spend much time on their children; and the females at any age arrived at their identity achievement in religion, intimate relationships and lifestyle, a factor attributed to Finnish culture (Fadjukoff et al., 2016).

Fadjukoff et al. (2016) described the role of history, gender, economy and culture on identity development and changes in individuals’ different ages. The notion of identity development being recursive, not linear, according to Marcia’s framework (Marcia,

1966), is similar to the socio-cultural approach adopted in this thesis. The influence of Han’s age at which she was writing A Many-Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952) on her identity display is examined in the current study.

The identity development of Swedish young adults was examined by looking into their romantic relationships at their ages of 25 and 29 (Wängqvist, Carlsson, Lee & Frisé, 2016). The participants (63 females and 61 males) lived in different parts of Gothenburg, Sweden and were interviewed regarding their attitudes and expectations towards their 40

romantic relationships. The qualitative analysis was informed by Erikson’s psychological development theory (1968), which argues that a stable identity must be constructed before one commenced an intimate relationship with others, and Marcia’s Four-Identity-Status framework (Marcia, 1966). The findings identified no obvious differences in the individuals’ identity status and attitudes towards romantic relationships between their ages of 25 and 29. It was shown that a romantic relationship was very important in their lives, in accordance with the social culture. Differences in identity status between the male and the female participants, apparent at age of 25, became less distinctive when they were 29.

Wängqvist et al. (2016) also indicated that the individuals’ overall identity development was influenced by the importance of some specific identity domains, which are constructed by their experiences in the domain, such as romantic relationships. Wängqvist et al. suggested that the impact of the Swedish social context also impacts on individuals’ attitudes towards romantic relationships and marriage. As a liberal country, which highly respects human rights, marriage was considered by most of the participants as a pragmatic decision, rather than an obligation (Wängqvist et al., 2016). These findings highlighted the importance of analysing how Han’s age may have played a role in her identity display and transformation, as evident in her writing.

Cakir (2014) examined the relationships between six aspects of identity development status and mental happiness of Turkish young adults. The 301 participants (aged from 19 to 25) were studying in different faculties in one university in Ankara, Turkey. All (55.5% female) were in the middle class socially and economically. The study also employed Marcia’s Four-Identity-Status framework (Marcia, 1966) for the data interpretation. Analysis of the data showed the female participants outnumbered the males in identity achievement status; the females also excelled in aspects of self- development, maintaining interpersonal relationships and their life pursuits. The participants who reached their identity achievement status also appeared to be positive towards all of the six aspects in mental happiness. In contrast, those who stayed in a 41

status of foreclosure and diffusion showed negative achievement in all the six aspects. The moratorium status appeared to positively influence the participants’ self-growth (Cakir, 2014).

These findings differed, in some respects, to the two studies reviewed above (i.e., Fadjukoff, et al., 2016; Wängqvist, et al., 2016); the differences might have been caused by different social ideological contexts and research subjects. The findings suggest that identity development is a process impacted by a range of dynamics, factors, incidences and critical moments in personal lives or societies. These studies inform the analysis of the interplay between the Hong Kong social dynamics and Han’s identity display and changes in this study.

The relationships between individuals’ identity developments, ages and events occurred during their transition from adolescence to adulthood and identity statuses and culture of 172 Trinidadian individuals were examined (Arneaud, Alea & Espinet, 2016). The participants (aged from 11 to 84) differed in ethnicity and religion. Interview and questionnaire were conducted. Data were analysed drawing on the four-stage model of identity development (Marcia, 1966) and the derived five-status model (Crocetti et al., 2008), which adds a status of “searching moratorium” to highlight the status during which individuals repetitively reconsider and compare between already constructed identities and other potential identity choices. The findings (Arneaud et al., 2016) indicated that in Trinidad, more middle-aged participants reached their identity achievement status than adolescence and early adulthood participants, who were prone to stay in a diffusion and moratorium status. Those who were unemployed tended to continue exploring their identity; in Trinidadian culture being employed is considered as an important sign of transiting from adolescent to adulthood.

In addition, events such as being married and becoming parents accelerated individual’s transition to identity achievement status as, in the culture and under the economic circumstances of Trinidad, marriage and parenthood are crucial indexes of 42

responsibility and high economic status. The individuals who conformed to Trinidadian cultural values were more likely to arrive at their identity achievement status (Arneaud et al., 2016).

Arneaud et al. (2016) posited that these individuals’ identity development were closely related to their age, the relevant social-cultural context and their own economic status. The examination of the impact of the relationship between an individual’s identity development and personal and social factors informed the current analysis of Han’s identity performance.

The relationship between identity development and their outlook for the future was the focus of a longitudinally study with 232 Japanese university students studying in a teacher training university in Osaka, Japan (Shirai, Nakamura & Katsuma, 2016). A questionnaire was used to investigate their identity status during the transition from late adolescence to young adulthood (ages 24, 27, 30). Data analysis was informed by the three-dimensional model (Bosma & Kunnen, 2001) of identity development, which simplified Marcia’s four-stage framework (1966) by categorizing personal identity development into three phases: commitment (firm identity choices), crisis (identity choices being swayed), and exploration (active contemplation between identity choices). The findings (Shirai et al., 2016) reported that the participants showed a few changes in either commitment or crisis status at the three ages but, as time passed, they appeared to probe less and less into their identities. The analysis also identified that the participants’ beliefs did not change over time. For those who set goals and made efforts to achieve their goals, during the process of pursuing their goals, these participants experienced more in their identity exploration and thus got closer to their identity commitment. At the three ages, participants seldom reported an identity crisis; Shirai et al. (2016) suggested that may be because an identity crisis was hard for individuals to recognize. If an individual experienced a crisis they would likely react to it, maybe by firmly making an identity choice or by exploring their identity.

Shirai, et al. (2016) provided a good account of the relationship between individuals’ identity development and ages. The current study of Han’s identity not only examines how her age influenced her identity display but also take into accounts of the social and historical background which impacted on Han’s identity exhibition and change.

The interrelationship between individuals’ community engagement during adolescence, and their identity as they developed into young adulthood, was analysed using data from a previous longitudinal study (Hasford, Abbott, Alisat, Pancer & Pratt, 2017). Participants were 72 English-speaking white people living in Canada, with different demographic backgrounds, aged 17, 26 and 32. The participants aged at 26 and 32 were to tell a story about a community activity that took place when they were 17. Content analysis, informed by Marcia’s (1966) four-dimension framework, was employed to interpret the narratives and the correlation with their subsequent identity development.

Hasford et al. (2017) claimed that the styles of the participants’ community involvement (very active, less active and non-active) constructed in their age 17 were consistent with those displayed in their ages 26 and 32. Those who were more pro-social tended to use an elaborated and positive style to report their stories and displayed a more achieved identity. These findings provided empirical evidence on the relationship between an individual’s age, narrative and identity development status that informed the interpretation of Han’s identity display.

Likewise, Sokol, Conroy and Weingartner (2017) examined the relationship between different levels of people’s “continuous identity”, which refers to the stable status of an individual’s identity, and his/her memory recall as shown by their narratives. The participants were 146 adults, who were living in America but differed in age, gender, race, education level, marital status, and working experience took part in a survey. They were invited to report their perception of the consistency of their past and present selves as well as their present and expected future selves. Memory recall tests were then conducted to establish their memory retrieval ability and any patterns in their 44

continuous identity. The data showed that those who had the highest continuity of selves had the best memory retrieval capability and used the least quick partial information recall. This outcome was interpreted as people who were good at memory retrieval might have stronger ability to remember, process and interpret information, and people who seldom relied on quick, but partial, memory recall were more likely to enjoy the process of problem-solving and understanding the world. These two traits contributed to an individual’s high continuity in identity development from the past to the present as well as into the predicted future (Sokol et al., 2017).

Sokol et al. (2017) posited that individuals’ identity stability was positively related to their ability to recall their experiences in detail, but the study seldom examined how different background (age, race, education status, etc.) impact on the participants’ characteristic formation, and hence different levels of identity stability. The current study also analyses the stability of Han’s ethnic and professional identities as shown in her autobiographical writing.

Solomontos-Kountouri and Hurry (2008) compared 1038 Greek Cypriot adolescents’ (aged from 16 to 19) overall identity as well as facets of their identities such as political, career and religious, and how specific contexts influence the development of these facets of identity. The large research sample (449 males and 589 females) were recruited from 15 secondary schools in five provinces. The schools differed in their types of education (state technical, state and private), and the participants were in different majors and of different socio-economic status. Participants completed a questionnaire in the last year of secondary education. Analysis of the questionnaire data indicated little correlation between the students’ overall identity and each facet of identity. Nearly all the students’ political and religious identities were steadily constructed compared with American and other European adolescents due, possibly, to the tense socio-cultural context of Cypriot. Politics and religion in the Cypriot context also played a role in the development of a mature career identity of the students. Solomontos-Kountouri and Hurry (2008) also suggested that different types of schools influenced the students’ 45

development of religious identity status. The students of state schools, who received more religious education, reached the achievement on their religious identity. Their career identity was influenced mostly by their social and economic class; students of the upper class had greater social resources and familial financial support to support the selection and development of their future careers, which, therefore, made them stay in a moratorium status for a longer period.

Social and cultural contexts were also considered as having impacted the students’ three facets of identities: the national policy of two years’ conscription for young men contributed to their political identity achievement but postponed their career identity achievement; and the social expectation of maintaining religious conventions towards women meant they achieved their religious identity (Solomontos-Kountouri & Hurry, 2008). In this thesis, Han’s overall identity development is also treated as a collection of her different identity facets and the different facets are examined through analysing the related social and cultural backgrounds and events.

Thomas and Axmitia (2014) investigated the development of the social class identity of 160 emerging adults (aged 18 to 25) in America, and the factors which contributed to their social class identity construction. All participants were students of a state university in California, but differed in grades, ethnicity and socioeconomic class (measured by their parents’ education and career statuses). Data, analysis and interpretation, from a survey and interviews, was informed by social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979), which contends that an individual’s identity is negotiated in comparison with others. Interpretation was also informed by the concept of “centrality” (Rosenberg, 1979), which proposes that individuals tend to choose their most prestigious identity facet to socially define their identities. Thomas and Axmitia (2014) reported that social status identity played a more important part than ethnic and gender identities in the students’ overall identity construction. The university context, which brought different students together, made these students realize their differences with others and then begin to compare themselves with their peers in social and economic 46

respects.

In constructing their class identities, the social promotion of “American Dream”, which believes that hard study and work could promote individual’s social class, played an important role. The students, born in an upper class family, were sensitive to their social status as they needed to struggle between what they had already benefited from their class and the social inequality suffered by their peers, while the students of working and lower classes tended to dismiss their class because of their faith in “American Dream” (Thomas & Axmitia, 2014).

These findings (Thomas & Axmitia, 2014) helped explained how social ideologies influence individual’s identity positioning and development. In the current study, the Han’s social class, determined by her professional identity, is compared with people of other professions. How their different social classes influenced Han’s identity construction is analysed.

Pope, Hall and Tobin (2014) explored the role identity display and construction of eight head coaches in Canada. The coaches (aged from 22 to 61) had different coaching experience, from five years to 35 years, and of coaching at levels from club-level to national-level athletes or teams. An interview investigated what, for them, it meant to be a coach and how important the coach identity was to them. The findings showed that the participants’ role identity was negotiated through interpersonal interactions within the context of coaching. The eight coaches constructed their coach identity through their own expectations as well as from their athletes and by imitating other coaches. Through their coaching experiences, they constructed their own meanings, and feelings of importance, of being a coach. Their feelings towards this role also impacted on how important being a coach was to their overall identity (Pope et al., 2014).

These findings (Pope et al., 2014) suggest that an individual’s identity was constructed through their participation in social interactions. In the current thesis, not only the 47

interpersonal influence in Han’s professional identity display is interpreted but the specific events related to Han’s role identity as a medical doctor is also examined.

Anthis (2014) analysed the relationship between each ego strength and the occupational identity of 239 undergraduate students in America. The students (aged from 18 to 24) had different ethnicities and 84% of them were female. The study was based on the ego strengths framework (Erikson, 1985), which proposes eight merits emerging in an individual’s identity development at different stages to rescue their identity crisis: hope, will, purpose, competence, fidelity, love, care and wisdom. The participants were surveyed regarding how these ego strengths influenced their occupational identity and which merits were the most influential. It was found that, among the eight ego strength merits, females and males differed remarkably in fidelity, which meant that during adolescence, females tended to reach the achievement in their identity more than males. Whereas males were more active in exploring and comparing a wide ranges of possible careers than females, they were less likely to contemplate the meaning of, and their compatibility with, some specific careers. For both male and female participants, the stronger the ego strength merits they had constructed, the clearer were their plans for future careers; and the more likely the male was to narrow down the range of choices for future careers.

Anthis (2014) also indicated that the five ego strength merits constructed before adulthood (hope, will, purpose, competence, and fidelity), especially fidelity, which was constructed during adolescence, played important roles in an individual’s future identity construction. Individuals who developed strong ego strength merits before adulthood were more capable in their future identity formation and negotiation, and also more capable, in the future, of constructing the remaining three ego strength merits: love, care and wisdom (Anthis, 2014).

Anthis (2014) highlighted the importance of the examining of how Han’s experiences during her adolescence influenced her identity displayed in A Many-Splendoured Thing 48

(Han, 1952), which is written during her adulthood.

Watanabe and Uchiyama (2015) investigated how Japanese married women integrated their overall identity, and identities displayed in specific contexts (home, leisure activities, own parents’ home, husband’s parents’ home, workplace, volunteer places, classes, and religious places) as well as the features of these women’s identities. This study focused on which identity facets these women considered as important to themselves, and what differences were between women with, and without, children. A questionnaire was conducted on 181 married women, of whom 80 did not have children while 101 had; eleven were working in companies of a similar scale. The findings showed that both the women having, and not having, children similarly most strongly identified themselves with their home and work, and that this identity positioning was a result of their own sense of responsibility towards the two contexts. Women without children showed a higher level of consciousness (although the difference was not striking) towards their identities in specific contexts than those with children, as the latter had to spend more time on home and work. Women with children saw less importance of their identities of specific contexts than those who without children; women without children put more emphasis on their capability of maintaining close relationships with others.

Both the women having, and not having, children chose to arrange their identities hierarchically according to the importance of these identities of them. Multiple identities of these women were important to their entire identity development (Watanabe & Uchiyama, 2015). The findings highlight the impact of context changes and dynamics on individual’s identity negotiation. The analysis of Han’s identity not only takes Han’s occupational identity as a research category but also looks into how this identity facet helped constructed her entire identity.

Bang (2013) explored the interaction between the identity status and the wisdom development of 198 African American college students, aged from 18 to 25, in different 49

majors. Analysis of a questionnaire completed by the students drew on three theoretical frameworks: Erikson’s ego-identity development framework (1968), which argues for a positive relationship between individual’s achieved ego-identity and their wisdom development in their future; Ardelt’s Three-Dimensional Wisdom Scale (2003), which proposes cognitive, reflective and affective facets of individual’s wisdom development; and Marcia’s (1966) four identity development statuses. Analysis suggested that social ideologies had a great impact on these individuals’ identity development. The male students were prone to stay in diffusion status than the females since there were higher expectations for females with their academic achievements based on their culture. Age was also reported to relate positively to the students’ reflective and affective dimensions of wisdom which represented, respectively, their self-awareness and compassion to others.

Bang (2013) reported no correlation between the individuals’ ego-identity achievement status and wisdom development. These findings identify the influence of culture and gender differences on an individual’s identity development as previously posited by Bulter (1999). In the current study, Han’s professional identity display was examined to ascertain influence of the social cultures of both Hong Kong and mainland China.

Sauntson (2016) examined how a group of students used particular languages to construct their LGB identities at schools. The participants consisted of eight LGB young students (aged from 16 to 22) studying in secondary schools and colleges in the UK. They were interviewed about their school experiences and attitudes towards multiple sexualities in school contexts. The tactics of intersubjectivity framework (Bucholtz & Hall, 2004, 2005) was drawn on for the data analysis. Within this framework, it is argued argues that identity emerges in the process of individual’s language contacts, and factors such as interlocutors within the context, as well as language and social power relationships are also taken into account. Data were interpreted according to how the three pairs of the framework (Bucholtz & Hall, 2004, 2005) worked on the students’ identity construction. 50

For the first pair, “adequation” was used by them to construct their similarity with other LGB individuals, such as “been through the same thing”, and “distinction” was used to depict negative attitudes towards their sexual orientation from heterosexual individuals, such as “they treated me a lot different” (Sauntson, 2016). For the second pair, “authentication” was used by the teacher who authenticated the student’s gay identity, such as “you are who you are”, and used by students to described their experiences at schools in which their LGB identities were not authenticated. “Denaturalization” was used by the students to pretend to be heterosexual, such as “I like that boy in the magazine” (Sauntson, 2016).

For the last pair, “authorization” was used by the students to express their imaginary recognition of their sexual orientation, such as “it would have been nice”. “Illegitimation” was used by teachers who illegitimated the students’ sexuality, such as “asked to leave the school”, and used by their heterosexual peers to bully them, such as “you poof”, and neglect them, such as “didn’t deal with”. The findings showed that identity was relational and constructed between interpersonal interactions (Sauntson, 2016).

Sauntson (2016) used the tactics of intersubjectivity framework (Bucholtz & Hall, 2004, 2005) to analyse how the participants used language to display their identities, and testified to the usability of the framework. This framework, informed by the five- principle framework (Bucholtz & Hall’s, 2005), was valuable for the current study to examine Han’s identity display and negotiation through her languages.

The relationship between individual’s identity and their spiritual experiences in Australian workplaces was investigated by Crossman (2016). The research involved 40 individuals in professional or manager positions, who differed in ages and professions, in three Australian states. They were interviewed in terms of whether they had spiritual beliefs, whether they brought their spirituality into their works and whether the 51

spirituality aligned with that of their workplace philosophies. The findings revealed that these individuals’ personal spiritual identities were influenced, not only by their personal experiences and interpersonal relationships, but also by culturally shared notions. The spiritual identities of them as displayed in their workplace were highly fluid because of changes of individuals and contexts.

Crossman (2016) also indicated that alignment between personal spiritual identities of the participants and that of their workplaces made them feel comfortable and happy. Misalignment caused them to feel unsafe and to conceal their real spiritual identities in order to be accepted, or to tentatively display their spiritual identities to identify individuals of the same beliefs.

These findings shed light on the analysis of Han’s identities displayed and negotiated with interlocutors in different contexts and how the alignment/misalignment between Han and others influenced Han’s identity displays and changes.

These studies, all focusing on how the development of some specific identity facets of an individual, or a group of participants, were influenced by unique social contexts or personal specifics, identified that an individual’s identity status could change over time, and the dynamics of their identity were the outcome of change in the social and cultural contexts over different periods. The current study of Han’s identity also takes this perspective into account to look into how Han’s professional identity was displayed, and reinforced, by her local contexts as presented in her writing.

2.2.4 The relationships between language features and identity

Mcentee-Atalianis (2013) analysed the speeches delivered by two consecutive Secretary Generals of IMO (International Maritime Organization) as to how they indexed longstanding and changing identities by taking stances and using metaphors. The data included 15 speeches delivered by Mr. William O’Neil and 11 speeches 52

delivered by Mr. Efthimious Mitropoulos. The selected speeches were delivered to similar audiences (people who were interested in maritime issues) and in similar contexts (maritime conferences, universities, etc.).

As the study reports that the two Secretary Generals’ speeches featured six metaphors: journey, maritime, theatre, war-sport, animals-vermin, and human. Each metaphor was related to their identity presentation in varied ways. The metaphor “life is a journey” was used to position IMO’s political traces and work. The two Secretary Generals both evaluated positively the efficiency of IMO’s work as “full-speed”. Their different attitudes and frankness towards the practices of IMO were: O’Neil evaluated the IMO’s work as partly negative by describing it as a “ferry boat journey” with some people who “embark” and some who “disembark”; Mitropoulos evaluated the IMO’s work positively as “full-speed” in “decelerating global warming and associate climate change” (Mcentee-Atalianis, 2013).

Mitropoulos emphasized the importance of IMO’s work by describing it could “slow down the climate change”, while O’Neil used “lead” several times of to attribute the positive value to IMO’s work. The two Secretary Generals had their own regularly repeated uses of metaphors, which reflected their stances. Both also focused on “maritime” issues and used maritime terms, such as “tentacles” and “ripples” to define the essence of IMO’s work (Mcentee-Atalianis, 2013). The different uses of “family” reflected their varied stances: O’Neil used “linkage” to define IMO’s status as an industrial partner and paralleled with ship owners and companies, while Mitropoulos positioned IMO as a leader in the political “family” of shipping industry (Mcentee- Atalianis, 2013).

The two Secretary Generals also used metaphors regarding “theatre”: O’Neil proposed several “roles” that were “played” by different entities including IMO, while Mitropoulos continued to confirm “IMO played an important part” in global industries. The pair of words, “war-sport”, also appeared in their speeches to indicate their moral 53

stances: O’Neil used “target/goals” to refer to his ambition towards the quality of IMO’s work, while Mitropoulos used “fight” several times to show his negative evaluation of “piracy and robbery” and “climate change” (Mcentee-Atalianis, 2013). In addition, the two Secretary Generals used terms within the range of “animals-vermin” and “human” to implicate their positioning of IMO and other factors in global industry (Mcentee- Atalianis, 2013).

Specifically, this study (Mcentee-Atalianis, 2013) drew on the framework of tactics of subjectivity (Bucholtz & Hall, 2004) to analyse how the two Secretary Generals of IMO used metaphorical representations to position and evaluate objects. Whereas both of them frequently used the technical terms related to maritime issues, by which their maritime organization role identities were presented, the two Secretary Generals of IMO differed in their attitudes towards the work of IMO, by which their different characteristics were displayed. The repetition of their specific stances, related to their roles in IMO, was attributed to their exhibition different identities. In this study, Mcentee-Atalianis (2013) highlighted the influence of one’s profession on identity display, which is also examined in Han’s identity display in this thesis.

Johnstone (2007) analysed the role of stance-taking in presenting an individual’s local identity by interpreting a conversation between two Pittsburgh residents, one was born in Pittsburgh while the other immigrated to Pittsburgh after childhood. They used different ways of taking epistemic stances, defined as a speaker’s degrees of certainty or uncertainty on his/her attitude, to claim their competence in Pittsburghese language and authentication of Pittsburgh identity. One showed her competence in local dialect, while the other provided relevant documentation to authenticate her local identity. The negotiation processes of these two local Pittsburghers’ identity were also examined. For those without high proficiency in local dialects, they might at first distance themselves from local dialect speakers, and then by evaluating their stances and positioning themselves and others; they began to modify and adjust their stances by changing their attitudes towards local dialects as well as people who speak the dialect. 54

Johnstone (2007) indicated that consistent stance-takings could contribute to individual’s self-positioning and identity construction, and that one’s specific linguistic features, with reference to his/her corresponding socio-cultural contexts, could be displayed by stance-taking. Speaking dialects or not could be seen as an index of local identity (Johnstone, 2007). Language choice is also considered in this study of Han’s ethnic identity negotiation in her translocation between mainland China and Hong Kong.

Hyland (2010) examined the academic identities of two distinguished applied linguists, Debbie Cameron and John Swales, by comparing their frequently used languages in their published writings on applied linguistics. The study analysed a corpus including Cameron’s 21 journal articles published during 20 years of 125, 000 words, and Swales’ 14 journal articles published during 18 years of 342, 000 words. By the comparison of the keywords used frequently by the two linguists, their different identities and writing features emerged. Analysis of data showed that identity was a product which individuals consciously produce in interactions with contexts. Both the linguists constructed and portrayed their identities by their frequently used languages, which revealed their own consistent writing features. It was also disclosed that people tended to have consistent identities in the same context; it was implied that a reliable way to explore an individual’s identity is through his/her narratives or writings (Hyland, 2010). As the study of Han’s identity is based on her writings, and not only her professional identity, her other identity facets presented in her writings are examined.

Gu (2015) compared the language practices and the linguistic identities of both mainland Chinese students and Hong Kong local students in a multilingual university. The participants consisted of 16 freshmen (eight mainland Chinese and eight Hong Kong locals) and 18 seniors (nine mainland Chinese and nine Hong Kong locals). They were interviewed to self-report their language experiences, attitudes and ideologies. Qualitative analysis of the data found that the participants of both mainland China and 55

Hong Kong negotiated their language attitudes and ideologies after years of study in the multilingual university setting. The freshmen participants from mainland China transformed their monolingual ideology focused on standard English or Cantonese, as they considered the hybrid use of the two languages by their Hong Kong peers as “impure”, to embrace the language-shifting practices. The Hong Kong freshmen participants changed from refusing to learn and speak Putonghua, as they saw incorporating Putonghua into their language practices as detrimental to their Hong Kong identity, to actively learning more languages. Through acquiring diversified languages they endowed themselves with a wider vision and trans-boundary career opportunities. Thus, both groups of participants acquired multilingual and multicultural identities (Gu, 2015).

The role a multilingual society plays in individual’s identity production, performance and transformation, advocated by Gu (2015), has influenced the current study to examine how Han’s identities were performed, and transformed, in Hong Kong, a Chinese city with a multicultural flavour.

2.3 Summary of the chapter

In this chapter, empirical studies of identity display and construction are reviewed and discussed. These studies are categorized into two broad streams based on whether the research participants have been translocated from the original birth place or not, in other words: the diaspora and the non-diaspora.

With the studies of the identities of the diaspora, the review examines them from the perspective of their different research emphases: how their second language learning and bilingual experiences impact on their identity formation and negotiation (e.g., Norton, 2000; Gu, 2011), the role their heritage languages played in their identity

development in their new places (e.g., Shin, 2010; Kanno, 2003), how the local language ideologies impacted in their identity display and change (e.g., Endo, 2016; Lawton & Foeman, 2017), the language features related to their identity display (e.g., Alimoradian, 2014; Li & Zhu, 2013); and how their perceived social status influenced their identity expression (e.g., Pustulka, 2016; Tran, 2016).

The studies of the non-diaspora individuals’ identities are examined according to a range of research themes. These are: how regional or national language policies influenced the construction and portrayal of the individuals’ identities (e.g., Tsui, 2007; Gao, 2012), how their language learning interacted with their identity development (e.g., Wei, 2016; Klapwijk & Walt, 2016), how particular identity facets were influenced by contextual factors or personal specifics (e.g., Fadjukoff, Pulkkinen & Kokko, 2016; Crossman, 2016) and what language features are evident in individuals’ identities and displayed with reference to different settings (Hyland, 2010; Gu, 2015).

These studies focus either on how language experiences impact identity formation and display, or how different facets of identity are shaped or changed by varied social contexts. However, there is hardly a study that used a socio-cultural framework to interpret one’s identity facets through his/her whole piece of long autobiography. The findings of these studies provide the starting for this thesis to investigate how Han’s social interactions and language experiences, which influenced her identity display and transformation, are revealed in her autobiography through a thorough analysis of Han’s different identity facets in a large number of texts including not only the current whole piece of this autobiography, but also Han’s other pieces of narrative.

Chapter 3 The sociocultural theoretical framework

In the previous chapter the literature reviewed, including the studies on analysing identities, provided insights for an analysis of Han’s identity, from a socio-cultural perspective, as portrayed in her autobiography, A Many-Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952,). This chapter describes the theoretical framework for the analysis of Han’s identity display and transformation from the perspective of the relationship between identity and its social and cultural contexts using a socio-cultural framework.

3.1 Identity as a socially and culturally situated product

Stryker (1968) was perhaps one of the earliest scholars to propose an identity theory to recognize a link between an individual’s identity and their social role in a given setting. Within the framework, identity is seen as having diverse facets of the self which related to different roles played in communities (Stryker & Burke, 2000); that is one’s identity is influenced by roles played in social interactions (McCall & Simmons, 1978). A definition of identity, which explicitly addresses the “role” aspect of identity, was proposed as “internalized role expectations attached to positions in organized sets of social relationship” (Stryker, 2007, p. 1084). This definition implicitly endorses the interrelationship between identity and social engagement.

Compared with the identity theory, which implicitly proposed a link between external social context and internalized identity of persons, Tajfel’s (1974) social identity theory stated explicitly that an individual’s social identity was a part of their personal identity; social identity is constructed by individual’s interaction and emotional ties with the society. Tajfel maintained that an individual’s social identity was his/her identification and sense of belonging with a specific social group (Tajfei, 1972). Social identity was

later defined as a “part of an individual's self-concept that came from knowledge of his/her membership in a social group, together with emotional significance attached to it” (Duszak, 2002, p. 2).

The social situatedness of identity was elaborated further by Lave and Wenger (1991) who contended that identity always related to its situation and changed according to different situational communities. The two scholars also proposed several categories of identity according to the social focus of identity, for example: collective, individual, national, racial, ethnic, and gendered. In spite of these categories of identity, Fitzgerald (1993) argued that the focus and research target of identity was always on individuals; an individual’s identity reflects the value and ideology of the relevant social community.

Considering that identity has different layers, which develop in varied social conditions, Martin and Nakayama (1997) argued that identity is a dialectical construct ---- it is not only fixed but also fluid, and not only individual but also contextual. As Mey (1993) contended, context is a dynamic concept which is to be understood as the surroundings in which discourses occurs. Social and cultural context make sense of linguistic expressions of people’s interactions and facilitate individuals’ effective communication.

Martin and Nakayama (1997) proposed three layers of identity in different contexts: personal, sociocultural and critical. From a personal perspective, identity is constructed partially by one’s unchangeable traits such as skin colour, gender, etc.; from a sociocultural perspective, identity is developed in one’s social interactions with groups and cultural engagements of different communities; from a critical perspective, identity is further constructed by broader contextual factors including histories, politics and economic status.

Similar to Martin and Nakayama’s conceptualization of identity from three perspectives, Gee (1998; 2000) argued that identity should be viewed as a product emerging through individuals’ social participation; he proposed four perspectives to view identity as 59

“being recognized as a certain kind of person in a given context” (Gee, 2000, p. 99), which implies individual’s identity should be viewed as multifaceted according to varied social and cultural contexts.

According to Gee (2000), the four perspectives are: Nature-identity, which refers to the identity constructed by one’s biological nature and cannot be changed or negotiated by society; institution-identity, which addresses a position in institutions and authorized by social powers; discourse-identity, which puts the perspective on an individual’s personal traits as recognized by other interlocutors in their interactions; affinity-identity, which emphasizes an affiliation with some specific unauthorized groups in which individuals share distinctive experiences and social practices. The four perspectives are interrelated and sustain each other because each perspective emphasizes different contexts and backgrounds in which identities are constructed.

The relationship between identity and discourse was emphasized by Hall (2002), who defined identity as “relational and reflexive, as produced through multiple forms and forces of discourse in relation to distinctive forms of power, and as performed as individuals negotiate multiple identifications across contexts of situated practice” (2002, p. 14). The context-sensitivity of identity was further elaborated by Bucholtz and Hall (2004), who they argued that identity should be viewed as a concept which is produced between individuals’ interpersonal negotiation of ideologies and activities.

As Bucholtz and Hall (2004) posited, identity is emergent in people’s language interactions and is a highly contextually regulated product of interpersonal relationships which forms socially and culturally. It is performed rather than unintentionally emerging. The proposed term “intersubjectivity” highlights bi-directional relationships of sociocultural processes: the subject orients the sociocultural processes and is also affected by sociocultural processes. Bucholtz and Hall (2004) also argued that identity is relational, in that it is attributed by others as well as by oneself.

The interdependent relationship between identity and sociocultural context is further elaborated by Norris (2007) who proposed the term “identity element”. Norris viewed identity as a dynamic process and always being produced rather than a static existence. Later Norris (2011) conceptualized a multimodal (inter)action framework, which takes three elements of “social-time-place” into account in which identity is a production co- produced in interactions between one particular social participant and other social participants, in an historical time and a cultural environment.

Hyland also (2012) argued that identity must be seen as a co-product of an individual’s self-definition, as well as others’ identification of them, and that identity analysis could be carried out from this perspective.

Burke and Stets (2009) proposed a theory of role identity to emphasize the importance of each specific identity as a social role within an individual’s overall identity. They described role identity as a collection of an individual’s personal identities and his/her social identities: each individual has specific roles attributed by the society or cultural community, and people construct and behave according to the social and cultural expectations for this role. Individual’s performances and feelings about this role impact on the meaning and importance of this role to their identity.

Over time, the social nature of identity has been portrayed by different authors at different points in time, although a specific analytic tool has not been available. However, Bucholtz and Hall’s (2005) revised work appears to provide a helpful framework to enable a detailed analysis of Han’s identity display and transformation to be revealed in her writing.

3.2 The five-principle framework as the theoretical framework and the analytical tool

As stated previously, this study is primarily informed by socio-cultural theory that addresses the effect of an individual’s social interactions and cultural engagements on his/her identity (Vygotsky, 1978, 1997). Based on this conceptualization, identity is highly fluid and always being constructed and reconstructed in social interactions (Hall, 2008). The present study employs the five-principle framework (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005) of identity analysis which sees identity as a product of language interactions. This framework uses a socio-cultural linguistic perspective to identity studies, defining identity as “the social positioning of self and other” (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005, p. 586).

The five principles: the emergence principle, the positionality principle, the indexicality principle, the relationality principle and the partialness principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005), are parallel. Bucholtz and Hall, in this framework, contend that language always interacts with culture and society and that identity is a linguistic phenomenon. The relationship of identity and the five principles is illustrated by Figure 2.

The emergence principle

The positionality principle

Identity Study The indexicality principle

The relationality principle

The partialness principle

Figure 1 five socio-cultural principle framework of identity analysis adapted from Bucholtz &

Hall (2005)

3.2.1 The emergence principle

The emergence principle suggests that identity is seen as an individual’s internal state which is emergent in the social world through language and discourse (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005). Identity is seen as a product that is context-specific and emergent in social interaction (Antaki, 1998; Bucholtz & Hall, 2005).

Bucholtz and Hall (2005) used examples of two different groups of speakers to interpret how individuals’ identities emerged: one was an Indian transgender individual who alternated between feminine and masculine languages according to the different contexts, and the other was a group of Korean American males who used African American Vernacular English to show they were against racism, and to align themselves with other coloured people in America. Both groups of individuals used specific language features which were considered inconsistent with their socially ascribed identities; these identities became evident as they emerged in interactions in the specific contexts.

3.2.2 The positionality principle

The positionality principle concerns contexts in which more diversified and specific facets of identity are captured (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005). From the social point of view, Aronsson (1998) contends that identity is the contingent positioning of people relative to each other. Apart from the macro-level demographic categories of identity (age, gender, ethnic, racial, etc.), outlined by the emergence principle, identities are also evident through negotiation with local cultures, participation in temporary roles, and attitudes and orientations in interactions with others (Davies & Harre, 1990).

Bucholtz and Hall (2005) used two examples to show how individuals positioned their identities. Both examples were the interviews with individuals who had the same age, gender and ethnicity, but positioned their own characteristics differently by using different linguistic features to imply their youthfulness, nerdiness or trendiness. In positioning their identities, they referred not only to their demographic categories but 63

also used different language styles according to the socially developed groups with which they were involved. By using different linguistic features in their social participation, they evaluated and compared themselves with others. Bucholtz and Hall recommended having a multifaceted perspective to understand identity.

3.2.3 The indexicality principle

The indexicality principle deals with how languages are utilised to build specific identity positions (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005). An index, according to Bucholtz and Hall (2005, p. 594), is “a linguistic form that depends on the interactional context for its meaning”, and so the indexicality principle accounts for an association between linguistic form and its contextual meaning (Ochs, 1992). In other words, a language index gains its linguistic meaning within the interactional context (Silverstein, 1976, 1996).

One of the most important things for people is using words (Du Bois, 2007), and an individual’s linguistic form represents its corresponding identity positioning. This representation is realized by an individual’s cultural attitudes and values which are formed and developed in their daily language interactions.

There are four indexical processes (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005) through which identity relations are constructed in social interaction: (a) the explicit referential labels of social identity categories; (b) the indirect and inferential positioning of both self and other’s identities; (c) stance-taking which refers to evaluation, finding emotional ties with others and cognitively positioning the self and other in language interactions; and (d) the macro-level of language and dialect systems associated with identities of individuals and groups.

For the process of the indirect and inferential positioning of both self and other’s

identities, two examples were employed by Bucholtz and Hall (2005) for explanation: neutral or non-sexually oriented languages were used by homosexual individuals in order to conceal their identities to those who do not identify with them. In contrast, specific linguistic structures may be used by specific people, for example, gay men and lesbians may use “gaydar” as used in interactions between themselves (see Liang, 1999, for more details, as cited by Bucholtz & Hall, 2005).

Bucholtz and Hall (2005) exemplified stance-taking by describing how individual’s identities were constructed in their language interactions through stance-taking. For example, a married couple may interact using evaluative language and so position their identity relations by repeatedly taking a specific stance. For example, the one who always asked questions was taking the stance as a “problematizer”, while another who always answered the questions took the stance as a “problematize” (see Ochs & Taylor, 1995, for more details, as cited by Bucholtz & Hall, 2005).

An example of using specific dialects, a conversation between a Tongan salesperson and customer was viewed as a result of social globalization because most of the talk was carried out in English but not the local Tongan language. The salesperson used the English language, especially certain New Zealand pronunciation, and took a stance as a professional seller to index her trendy identity (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005).

3.2.4 The relationality principle

According to the relationality principle identity is constructed within social relationships; it gains its social meaning through reference to the identities of other individuals (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005). The relational process is described as: “identities are intersubjectively constructed through several, often overlapping, complementary relations, including similarity/difference, genuineness/artifice, and authority/delegitimacy” (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005, p. 598).

Bucholtz and Hall (2004) identify six concepts that comprise three related pairs: adequation and distinction, authentication and denaturalization, and authorization and illegitimation; the three pairs are summarised as “tactics of intersubjectivity” (p. 493), emphasising an intersubjective negotiating nature rather than an independent emergent quality of identity construction and display. It was argued that although the six concepts were separated and categorized into three pairs, they were not totally independent from each other; more than two concepts could work together depending on the contexts. Bucholtz (2003) suggests that even though the three pairs are constructed as polarized terms, people can choose to position themselves, as well as others, at any point between the two poles to construct and define their own identities.

The framework of tactics of intersubjectivity was proposed, specifically, for the analysis of gender and sexual identities. Prior studies used this framework including the examination of the relationship between second language learning and gender (Langman, 2004), language interaction between majority society and linguistic minority individual (Cashman, 2008), the relationship between lesbian’s language and identity (Jones, 2012, 2014), and sexual minority identity construction and negotiation (Sauntson, 2016). a. adequation and distinction Adequation refers to languages used by a speaker to address or ask for a sense of similarity between themselves and others, while distinction refers to languages used by a speaker to construct the differences between themselves and others. Both of the processes are realized by suppressing the differences/similarities (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005). That is, this identity relation pair provides a process of intentionally erasing one part and highlighting another. To align oneself with a specific community or group of people, and construct one’s identity, one may choose to perform as many features as possible of this community or group, and vice versa.

Critical discourse analysis of the language used in a speech delivered by President George Bush to gain support from American people to carry out the attack to Iraq provides an example of using adequation as a persuasive strategy; Bush adequated Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein with danger and threat. Distinction is exemplified by the Tongan seller who purposefully used a New Zealand accent to differentiate and distance herself from the identity of a low-class Tongan (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005). b. authentication and denaturalization According to Bucholtz and Hall (2005), authentication describes the language a speaker uses to emphasize the authenticity of their identities, while denaturalization is realized by a speaker using language to report the unrealness or disputability of their identities. This pair of terms address the realness and falseness of one’s identity. Authentication describes a dynamic process in which identities are emergent in interactions. By attributing a historical value and evidence of realness to a term or linguistic use, a specific identity is authenticated. By intentionally using a linguistic feature which conventionally should not be used by a particular individual, identity may be denaturalized.

To illustrate the process of authentication, Bucholtz & Hall (2005), employed an Icelander’s narrative about a local legend, in which, the narrator traced back the historical background of the legend to authenticate his narration. The close relationship between him and the legend was explained to authenticate his identity as a legitimate teller. In regard to denaturalization, analysis of conversation between two Dominican American teenagers and one Asian American was employed. In the conversation, the two Dominican Americans alternated their languages between Spanish and English, purposefully, to denaturalize their identity of being black within a language, not a skin colour, framework. c. authorization and illegitimation As Bucholtz and Hall (2005) argued, authorization describe a speaker’s speech acts that 67

imply an authoritative and powerful recognition of one’s identities by certain institutions, while illegitimation accounts for a speaker’s speech acts that refer to authoritative and powerful marginalization or neglect of one’s identities by certain institutions. This pair involves power relations: authorization is publicly and legally endowing one with social and cultural identities, and illegitimation is discontinuing or cancelling one’s specific identity. The three pairs of intersubjectivity tactics can function together to illustrate people’s identity relations in their discourse.

Authorization was exemplified in the speech delivered by President George Bush to the nation to gain public support for attacking Iraq. Bush authoritatively positioned himself as the representative of the American people by using the plural pronoun “we” and “our country.” An illustration of the mechanism of denaturalization, is evident in an analysis of the conversation between several Korean students cited earlier. By mocking the Americanized pronunciation of one of them and emphasizing the Korean English ideologies realized by the Koreanized pronunciation of English, it was implied that the student’s Americanized Korean identity was illegitimate ((Bucholtz & Hall, 2005).

3.2.5 The partialness principle

The last principle is the partialness principle. This principle argues that the relational property of identity determines its partialness (Visweswaran, 1994) and it suggests identity construction has partial features. Identity: is not only contextual but also ideological; in part intentional and in part unconscious; in part an outcome of others’ cognations and positions; and in part an outcome of interactional processes (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005). Part of identity is purposefully portrayed, part is articulated without awareness, part is negotiated in interaction, part is positioned by others’ perspectives and part is an outcome of the influence of institutional powers.

As Scollon (1997) argued, identity is co-produced by both the specific social participant and other social participants in their interactions; it is produced partially by the social 68

actor’s claims and partially by other social actors’ imputations. Norris (2011) asserted that “in interaction, identity becomes clearly phenomenological, but at the same time, the social actor producing the identity element(s) does not necessarily experience their own identity production as phenomenological” (p. 52).

According to Norris (2011), “the same social actors also exhibit some kind of national identity and some types of social identity – and often all at the very same time” (p. 34). Norris illustrated the process of how identity is (co)produced by specific social participants unconsciously and consciously: first, a specific social participant performs an identity unconsciously; second, others respond to this identity by interpreting and assigning meaning to the identity; third, the social actor consciously denies or negotiates this identity.

This study uses this socio-cultural framework by which the identity features are divided into categories based on the five principles and are interpreted by the principles. Each principle contributes to the whole framework and is also used as an analytical perspective because each is a different level of identity display.

3.3 Summary of the chapter

This chapter outlines the theoretical conceptualization of identity as a socially and culturally situated product rather than a fixed and unchanging personal trait, and as a phenomenon which emerges in people’s language interactions. The theoretical framework is employed as the analytical tool which interprets identity from five different layers.

Chapter 4 Methodology

Informed by the studies conducted in different contexts, which are reviewed in Chapter 2, and the socio-cultural analytical framework of identity analysis, the methodology for this study takes multiple factors into account: Han’s writing is the only source of data, the study is grounded on Han’s languages in her writing, Han is Eurasian and multicultural, Han was working in Hong Kong when she wrote her autobiography, and so the contexts of her autobiographical writing of this were Hong Kong and mainland China.

The study employs content analysis ((Krippendorff, 2013) as the research approach to interpret the writing in Han’s autobiography, including her self-narratives, her conversations with others and related social and cultural influences. Document analysis (Bowen, 2009) is used as a supplementary research method, as well as text analytical techniques, such as narrative analysis (NA) (De Fina, Schiffrin & Bamberg (2006) and critical discourse analysis (CDA) (Blommaert & Bulcaen, 2000).

4.1 Rationale for content analysis as the research approach

As the research is based on texts the research on Han’s identity, as portrayed in A Many- Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952), employs qualitative content analysis (Krippendorff, 2013). Content analysis, as Krippendorff suggested, is a research approach for making qualitative and trustworthy inferences by analysing texts while considering the relevant contexts. In other words, content analysis is a context-sensitive research method which requires researchers and analysts to be constantly aware of the context when collecting, selecting and interpreting texts. Due to its context-sensitivity, content analysis acknowledges that even historical data, and texts, can be read and analysed by contemporary readers and analysts from their own perspectives. Content analysis puts 70

the focus on interrelationships between texts and contexts. The current research examines how Han’s identity is portrayed and transformed by various related social contexts in her writing.

Interpretation A Narrative that Answers the Research Questions, supported by Textual Evidence (Examples) from Texts and Consulted Literature Answers

Research pose new Questions

Construction of Others’Contexts (Re)Articulation from Literature and Own Experiences

Texts

Figure 2 Qualitative Content Analysis (Krippendorff, 2013, p. 90)

The process of content analysis, as described in Figure 1, requires researchers and analysts to set research questions guided by the selected texts. Research questions are answered by (re)articulating and interpreting specific texts. During the process, the construction of contexts of others, informed by the selected research texts and supplementary documents, as well as researchers and analysts’ own experience. It may generate new research questions which initiate new research processes.

4.2 Rationale for document analysis as a supplementary research method

Supplementary documents are important to conducting content analysis. Because the author, Suyin Han, was born in 1912 and passed away in Switzerland in November 2012, and A Many-Splendoured Thing, written in 1952, the analysis of Han’s identity revealed in this autobiography relies largely on her writing. Contemporaries, familiar to Han, who may have been interviewed and talked about her life, were unavailable, Data for analysis in this study, thus, were from texts only and not interviews.

As Scott (1990) argued, written texts produced by either individuals or a group of people during their everyday lives can be referred to as documents. Documents include all forms of printed and electronic material, such as books, diaries, letters, newspapers, journal articles, reports, and transcripts of interviews (Bowen, 2009). Document analysis is not only a quantitative procedure for reviewing or evaluating documents (Bowen, 2009), but also a qualitative research method for examining phenomena, interpreting features and generating meanings (Corbin & Strauss, 2008).

Document analysis is often used as a research method to supplement other qualitative research methods such as direct observations, interviews, questionnaires and fieldwork (Mogalakwe, 2006). In some cases it can be used as the only research method, especially for historical and cross-cultural studies as documents may be the only viable sources (Bowen, 2009). Analysis of documents provided insights into A Many- Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952), as a historical autobiography, through providing contextual stories and facts.

Document analysis can also generate research questions. As proposed by Payne and Payne (2004), the intended purpose of documents are usually neither to be used for research, nor made specifically for research; they are naturally occurring writings that record interactions between their authors and the social world at that time. Documents may disclose changes and developments and can help researchers evaluate findings. In this way, document analysis makes the analysis of a writer’s identity display in his/her writings reasonable as authors often unintentionally reveal their identity and attitudes in their own works.

Bamberg and Georgakopoulou (2008) rationalised identity analysis using documents based on Labov’s (1972) conceptualization of using narratives as an analytical technique to interpret individuals’ past experiences and events. Autobiographies can be employed as a field to examine the authors’ past stories and in the ways authors’ position 72

and make meanings of themselves in relation with these stories. By taking into consideration the time and location in which authors wrote the documents, their identity can also be evident in the form of making sense of his/herself.

Through applying document analysis as a supplementary research method to the current study, Han’s other writings are also analysed to add further layers of data. Other factors, thus, could be considered as to how they contributed to a portrayal of Han’s identity and transformation as depicted in A Many-Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952)

4.3 Rational for NA and CDA as the analytical techniques

As the study is an analysis of identity based solely on texts, the analytical techniques are bound to be language-based. In the past twenty years, the field of identity research has become largely one of individuals’ storytelling in various contexts (Brockmeier & Carbaugh, 2001; Daiute & Lightfoot, 2004), as is this analysis of Han’s A Many- Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952). The current research draws on the two traditional language-based analytical techniques: narrative analysis (NA) (De Fina, Schiffrin & Bamberg (2006) and critical discourse analysis (CDA) (Blommaert & Bulcaen, 2000), to analyse how the language of Han’s autobiography reveals and interprets her identity display and transformation in her writing.

It is suggested that autobiography is the most common form of narrative (Schegloff, 1997) in which people tell stories and share their personal and social experiences (Jameson, 1981; Bruner, 1991). De Fina, Schiffrin and Bamberg (2006) contend that narrative analysis views individual’s identity as his/her performance through the narratives constructing a socially negotiated self in different communities, which can be explained and given meanings beyond the immediate context.

From this point of view, one’s narrative is an arena in which identity development and display are exhibited (Frisén & Wängqvist, 2011). Alisat and Pratt (2012) argued that examining an individual’s narrative is a way to explore his/her own meaning-making of their experiences which usually cannot be accessed via survey or questionnaire.

As the current study analyses languages from a socio-cultural perspective, related social and cultural contextual factors are taken into account in interpreting Han’s identity. critical discourse analysis, which interprets texts from a socio-political perspective (van Dijk, 1995), is also employed as well as narrative analysis, which departs from the narrative. It proposes that, on the methodological level, text analysis should be conducted with regard to the context (Fairclough, 2003; Wodak, 2001); it broadens the analysis of texts to include the relevant social, historical and cultural context (Blommaert & Bulcaen, 2000; Fairclough, 2010, 2015).

The analysis of the language in this autobiography helps identify Han’s linguistic cues in close interpersonal encounters. This reveals in Han’s interactions with her interlocutors, her attitudes and perceptions of the local context or the world. The analysis also helps identify key factors that impact the nature and pattern of the interpersonal encounters.

As this study looks at Han’s identity exhibition and transformation in A Many- Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952) from a socio-cultural perspective, the analytical techniques include aspects of the approaches described above. On one level, it is an identity study that emphasises how the exhibition and transformation of identity were influenced through interactions with cultural, institutional and historical contexts; on another level, as this analysis of identity is based on an autobiography, the focus is on how the socio-culturally influenced exhibition and transformation of identity is evident in the language of the autobiography.

To examine Han’s identity display and transformation in A Many-Splendoured Thing 74

(Han, 1952), the narrative analysis addresses Han’s writings including her own self- narrative and her interactions with different interlocutors, while critical discourse analysis emphasises the impact of social and cultural contexts on Han’s identity. These analytical approaches examine the dialogical language features of the texts (Han’s language features and preference of language choices) at the micro level and interpret these linguistic features with reference to the contextual backgrounds at the macro level.

The text extracts are selected according to the salience of Han’s the different identity facets which emerged in her writings. As observed, Han’s ethnic identity is the most frequently emergent identity facet, followed by her professional identity, racial identity and cultural identity. This responds to the first research question: What are the facets of Han’s identity exhibited in her writing?

The five-principle framework is employed for data categorisation and interpretation: Only one principle out of the five based on the different focus of each principle is selected and then used for the analysis of one text extract.

For example, the emergence principle is used for “my salary is paid at the local Chinese rate since I am a Chinese (Han, 1952, p. 18)” because this line shows the strong emergence property of Han’s Chinese identity, whereas the positionality principle is selected for “But I’m a widow, and in China, you know, we are not supposed to get married again (Han, 1952, 9. 24)” because, in this extract, Han obviously displayed positioning of herself as a Chinese. Each text extract is matched with one principle and then interpreted with the consideration of both language and the related social and historical settings as drawn on the research methods and findings of the studies reviewed in Chapter 2. Through this approach the last two research questions can be answered: How is each of Han’s identity facets represented in her writing; What are the factors that helped contribute to the display and transformation of Han’s identities?

4.4 Summary of the chapter

This chapter outlines the methodology used for the current study largely based on Han’s autobiography A Many-Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952), with Han’s other writings used as supplementary documents for analysis. Data are collected from A Many-Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952) according to different research themes based on facets of Han’s identity: ethnic, racial, professional and cultural. Content analysis as the research approach puts the focus on the relationship between texts and related contexts. Document analysis is employed as a supplementary research method to examine Han’s other writings. The analysis draws on two language-based analytical techniques: narrative analysis and critical discourse analysis to interpret Han’s writing in relation to contexts.

The research approach, research method, analytical techniques together with the five- principle framework are well integrated to produce a solid ground for text selection, categorisation and analysis which can provide validity to the current study. Furthermore, the researcher, like Han, as ethnically Chinese, and currently living and studying in Australia for six years, has experienced identity negotiation because of transnational activities, interactions with people of different background and context changes. The experiences and the identity of the researcher, therefore, also contributes to an understanding and interpretation of Han’s identity.

Chapter 5 Han’s ethnic identity displayed in A Many-Splendoured

Thing

As the previous chapter states, the analysis of Han’s identity displayed in A Many Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952) employs the five-principle framework (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005). It is argued (e.g., Giddens, 1991; Rampton, 1999) that identity is always formed, and displayed, in continual interactions between individuals. Considering that identity is highly fluid and dynamic, and has multiple layers and facets (Coupland, 2001; Mendoza-Denton, 2002), the following four chapters analyse respectively the four frequently emergent themes in A Many-Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952): Han’s ethnic identity, racial identity, cultural identity and professional identity. In This chapter, the focus is on Han’s ethnic identity analysis.

The analysis in this chapter focuses on Han’s Han’s ethnic identity which is differentiated from her racial identity and her cultural identity (the latter two identitiy facets are respectively analysed in the following two chapters which are treated as distinct identity categories). Although individuals’ racial or ethnic identity categorization tends to be subjective, and dynamic, according to the context (Portes & Rumbaut, 2001; Deaux, 2018), the analysis tries to categorize the different layers of Han’s identity based on both her own self-labelling and others’ positioning of her as shown in A Many-Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952).

Ethnic identity is of a social concept (Tajfel & Turner, 1986; Waters, 1990) with an individual’s attachment generally to an original, or a specific culture (Yinger, 1985). Ethnic identify is a long-lasting and basic facet of self which is a sense of belonging, with emotional ties and associated values, to a specific ethnic group belonging (Keefe, 1992). If people identify each other as having the same ethnicity, they tend to have a

common origin, beliefs and values (Phinney, 1990) as well as a specific language (Mu, 2015; Noels, 2014). According to this concept, if one is born in China and has Chinese parents whose native language is Chinese, he/she is ethnically labelled as Chinese even though he/she has the same physical traits as a Japanese or a Korean.

Han, in A Many-Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952), self-labelled as an ethnic Chinese. So in this section, the focus is on how Han displayed her ethnic identity in A Many- Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952). As this writing is autobiographical and there are two changes of location (Hong Kong – Chungking – Hong Kong), the analysis will follow the timeline of Han’s narrative. Four of the Bucholtz and Hall’s (2005) five principles: the emergence, the positionality, the indexicality and the relationality principles, are employed to interpret how Han exhibited her “Chineseness” in various contexts.

5.1 Han’s Chinese identity display as an emergent product in interaction

Han’s ethnic identity as Chinese can be seen as an evolving product rather than a pre- existing reality in her interactions with different people. A number of factors appear to have caused Han’s “Chineseness” to emerge: translocation between Hong Kong and mainland China, changes of interlocutors and cultural contrasts between Han and foreigners.

In Extract 1, Han described the confusion encountered in her first month of the arrival at Hong Kong between her salary, based on her Chinese nationality, and the standard living expense in a European Guest House. Han’s Chinese identity emerged in her sense of anger over the unfair treatment, and that the different salary packages implied being Chinese had lower social status.

Extract 1 I am not a missionary, yet I am staying at Church Guest House, a favour and a concession to the 78

Medical Service which employs me. However, my salary is paid at the local Chinese rate since I am a Chinese, but I am living at the Guest House on a European standard. (Han, 1952, p. 18, Part 1: Onset, 1: Exodus from China)

In this narrative, Han’s Chinese identity emerges in her self-description “I am a Chinese” and her salary rate set for Chinese. The emergence of Han’s Chinese ethnicity is observed as a result of her transnational activity. Even though Hong Kong was a city of China, it was still the colony of England in 1949, the year in which Han arrived at Hong Kong. During the British colonization, western missionaries went to Hong Kong for work from England. Han was accommodated as the guest of the church, which was built for the western missionaries to live in, and accordingly paid for her living on a European standard.

Otele and Rim’s (2011) suggestion that policies can generate discrimination towards some communities, and that injustice can shape an individual’s identity relevant to the contexts appeared to be Han’s experience. As the emergence principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005) posited that identity is constituted in social contacts, it seems that the salary policy in Hong Kong, in which the standards applied to western people and local Chinese differed, was unfair to Chinese people and contributed to the emergence of Han’s ethnic identity. Han’s experience of the contrast between her Chinese identity and the Hong Kong local salary standard was a challenge for most transnational individuals. Similarly, as described by Brown and Brown (2013), international individuals studying in England, engaged in transnational practices, tend to experience conflict between their ethnic identities and the new, and unfamiliar, contextual cultures.

Han’s Chineseness is also observed in her exchanges with western people she met in Hong Kong. In the first four months after Han arrived at Hong Kong, she lived in the Church Guest House with missionaries from England and America. Han’s Chinese identity was evident in her positive attitude towards Mary Fairfield, a missionary who lived in the church guest house, when Mary showed her faith in China and Chinese people. 79

Extract 2 Her [Mary Fairfield’s] face is beautiful with serenity, and as I look at her I am a little awed, because I never thought that she was beautiful at all. ‘Well,’ she says in the New England drawl that used to irritate me, and which now has dignity and resonance for me, ‘I think we’ll stick it till we’re thrown out. Perhaps we’ll understand what it’s all about when we back to China. I only feel at home there, and I think, yes, I believe that we must have faith in the Chinese people.’ (Han, 1952, p. 31, Part 1: Onset, 3: Rich Man Poor Man)

Han positively and emotionally evaluated Mary Fairfield’s appearance as “beautiful with serenity”, which was in contrast with her prior impression as “I never thought that she was beautiful at all”. Han’s previous and current attitudes towards Mary’s “New England drawl”, also changed from “used to irritate me” to “now has dignity and resonance for me” suggesting Han had an attitudinal change towards Mary Fairfield.

Mary Fairfield indicated her emotional ties with China, in her comment, “I only feel at home there”, and her positive attitude towards Chinese people, in “we must have faith in the Chinese people”. It can be inferred that Han’s self-positioned identity as Chinese made her feel emotionally close to Mary Fairfield who demonstrated her faith in China and Chinese people. Through an alignment of Han and Mary’s attitude towards China, Han’s Chinese identity emerged.

Han also had interactions with other western people as well as the missionaries. Extract 3 is an exchange between Han and her friend Anne Richards after Anne asked Han how was her party. They talked about Han’s encounter with Mark, the English man who fell in love with Han later.

Extract 3 ‘Very nice. I met a reporter and he has written to ask me to dinner next Wednesday, which is my half-day off. I don’t feel I should go.’ [said Han] ‘What’s his name?’ asked Anne. I scanned the letter. ‘Mark Elliott,’ I said. ‘Oh, I know him,’ said Anne, ‘he’s nice. He’s a foreign correspondent, you mustn’t call him a reporter, although I don’t suppose he’d really mind. Why don’t you want to go?’ ‘Well, I’m Chinese, and he’s English. In China, it’s not the done thing for a girl to go out with 80

a foreigner. I mean, for a good family girl.’ [said Han] (Han, 1952, p. 37, Part 1: Onset, 5: The Mind’s Conjunction)

In Han’s interaction with Anne, who was an American correspondent working in Hong Kong for several years, Han’s identity as Chinese emerged when Anne corrected Han’s English language misuse: She used the term “reporter” to describe Mark’s occupation, which identified Han as non-native; Anne corrected her with the accurate term “foreign correspondent.” In this interaction, Han’s Chinese identity emerged in Anne’s comment, which also suggested Anne had a higher level of professional status in using the English language.

As Park (2007) pointed out, when a non-native speaker was in conversation with a native speaker, the identity difference between them was realized by the native speaker’s assessment of the non-native speaker’s English language proficiency. As the emergence principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005) shows, the easiest way to observe an emergence of an identity is when a speaker uses a language which is not normally recognized as his/her official language. Similar to the identity positioning of the international language teaching assistants analysed by Chiang (2016) (detailed in Chapter 2), in the exchange with Anne, Han’s ethnic identity as a Chinese was apparent in Anne’s correction of her inappropriate use of English language.

Han’s Chineseness emerged further in her hesitation to go with Mark for dinner in “I don’t feel I should go”. Han further explained that going out with a foreign man was inappropriate because she is “Chinese”, but Mark is “English” and “in China, it’s not the done thing for a girl to go out with a foreigner”. Han positioned herself as a good Chinese woman and going out with Mark, a man who racially and ethnically different from her, did not conform to the standard of being “a good family girl” in China.

A contextual change led to Han expressing her identity as a traditional Chinese. Han would be unlikely to discuss whether to go out with a foreigner in China with any

traditional Chinese people because the social and cultural expectations for women was already established. As argued by Zheng (2014), Chinese have a long history of positioning foreigners as “others,” with women dating with foreigners considered to be erotic (Nagel, 2003) and challenging of the long-established Oriental patriarchy (Farrer,

2012). Accordingly, no one would ask Han “why don’t you want to go”, as Anne did, because the answer was obvious enough for Han to make her decision in China. In contrast, in the Hong Kong context, there were people who did not understand why a woman should not date a foreign man, especially when the man is “nice” as Anne commented about Mark.

The cultural context of Hong Kong, with its double standards in treating westerners and local people and ethnic Chinese people, caused Han’s Chinese identity to emerge in her interaction with Anne, who was from a different cultural background to Han. Hong

Kong’s diverse society and inclusiveness meant that Han’s hesitation to date a foreign man was not understood by Anne. In accordance with the emergence principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005), one’s identity can emerge as a result of earlier constructed ideologies and not just local interactions. As Agha (2007) suggested, the identity display of individuals who engage in transnational activities is not only related to local contexts but also individuals’ values and commitments constructed by past experience.

In other words, the contrast between the social culture of Hong Kong, in which Han was currently residing, and Han’s traditional Chinese cultural notion, caused Han’s identity as a Chinese to emerge to make sense of her hesitation to go out with Mark. Extract 4 shows Han’s Chinese identity to emerge further in her attempt to categorise Mark according to his relationship with China, and her gradually developing alignment with Mark because of their similar attachment to China.

Extract 4 ‘Have you been to China too? For me there are three species of human beings: Chinese, non- Chinese who have been to China, and others.’ [said Han] So Mark started telling me about himself. He told me first about his trip to Sinkiang, and his 82

visit to the Tun Huang caves and the Crescent Moon Lake, and eating water melon there. He had hitch-hiked from Peking, going on the local buses, carrying his bedding like any other Chinese traveller. We had more pink gins and another Martini, and he talked and talked. Suddenly I too was talking. We moved to the table, and, fork describing arabesques on the table cloth, I explained to him the structure of Chinese words, and spoke of song poems. (Han, 1952, p. 38, Part 1: Onset, 5: The Mind’s Conjunction)

Extract 4 describes Han’s first date with Mark. At the beginning of the conversation, Han’s Chinese identity is evident in her categorization of human beings based on their different relationships with China. Han tried to categorize Mark by asking him whether he had been to China, and Mark responded positively by describing his association with China. Mark talked about his journeys in China, elaborating his recollection of Chinese places, such as his “trip to Sinkiang”, his “visit to the Tun Huang caves and the Crescent Moon Lake” where he experienced “eating water melon”, his hitch-hiking from Peking and use of local transport. Because of his experiences “like any other Chinese traveller”, it appeared that Han began to establish a closeness with Mark. The good communicative atmosphere established between Han and Mark is apparent in their sharing of “more pink gins” and “another Martini”.

There was evidence of Han’s Chinese identity in “suddenly I too was talking” through which Han showed her agreement with Mark in their affiliation to China. After listening to lots of stories of Mark in China, Han began to take the position of “Chinese literary expert” who taught Mark “the structure of Chinese words” and “spoke of song poems”. As the emergence principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005) contends, one’s identity becomes apparent in interpersonal interactions, and Han’s Chinese identity emerged in the exchange with Mark in her initial categorization of human beings based on their relationship to China, her positioning of Mark as closely related with China and her attitude towards Mark as friendly after listening to Mark’s abundant experiences in China.

In other words, because Mark portrayed himself as “non-Chinese who have been to China” but not “others”, Han constructed a “sameness” with him. The sameness, in turn, 83

caused Han’s Chinese identity to emerge. It is argued that categorizing people by their different nationalities, and then representing and positively valuing their nationality is a way for an individual to claim his/her identity (McGarty, Bliuc, Thomas, & Bongiorno, 2009). In the exchange with Mark, Han displayed her Chinese identity through categorizing people according to their relationship with China.

Cameron (2004) proposed that three factors contribute to individual’s representation of social identity: the cognition of being a member in a group, the positive evaluation of this membership and emotional ties with other members in this group. Han’s categorization of people, and her perceived closeness to Mark due to his experiences in China, exemplify the three factors and also help her Chinese identity expressed.

Han’s Chinese identity also emerged in her exchange with Adeline, the English wife of the renowned English tradesman Humphrey Palmer-Jones who had been doing business in Hong Kong for several years. Extract 5 is the exchange took place between Han and Adeline. Han’s Chinese identity emerged in her firm determination to go back to China to work for Chinese people.

Extract 5 ‘You’ll be staying here of course. Private practice is of great service to the community. Very great service.’ [said Adline] ‘I was thinking of going back to China.’ [said Han] The shadow was now definitely puce. ‘But all the nicest people are getting out of China,’ she said stiffly. ‘You young ones get so carried away by ideals. Are you in favour of the Reds?’ ‘No, I’m not political minded. But it’s my country, and it needs all its doctors….’ [said Han] (Han, 1952, p. 67, Part 1: Onset, 11: Treasure Hunt)

Han’s Chinese identity emerged in the display of her determination to go back to China. In the beginning, Adeline outlined the bright prospect of Han’s occupation as a “very great service” in Hong Kong, and took for granted that Han would “of course” stay in Hong Kong. In the different perspectives between Han and Adeline, Han’s Chinese identity emerged. Han’s reaction to Adeline, exhibiting her determination in “going

back to China”, her use of “going back” shows Han positioning her identity as Chinese with her homeland China. Adeline showed her dissatisfaction with Han since Adeline positioned Han as one of “the nicest people” who should be “getting out of China”.

Han’s Chinese identity further emerged in her negation of Adeline’s presupposition that she was “carried away by ideals” or “in favour of the Reds”. Han emphasized that getting back to China was not because of any other reasons but just her commitment to China. As one of “its doctors” of China, Han’s felt responsible to go back and contribute to her country. Choi (2010) similarly reported that she always emphasized her ethnic Korean identity in her transnational activities. Han highlighted the importance of her ethnic identity in her transnational engagements especially when other people associated her with her privileged professional identity.

When an individual chooses to perform their ethnic identity and avoids to show other facets of their identity, it suggests that the ethnicity is the most salient identity facet to this person (Ting-Toomey et al., 2000). Han’s ethnic identity, evident in her commitment to China was in contrast to her lack of concern about the political climate of China, and how it might impact her future life in China. In Extract 6, Han’s Chinese identity is shown in her description of her past relationship with the Chinese Kuomintang party in her exchange with two colleagues of her ex-husband, a former Kuomintang officer.

Extract 6 And as I turned round I nearly collided with two men. We looked at each other’s faces. They were familiar to me. ‘Ah,’ they said, ‘you are…’ and called me by my married name, and then I knew them. Two Kuomintang officials, known in Chungking long ago, many, many years ago, when I myself was the young bride of a promising Kuomintang officer; when we believed in what we fought for, and the world was very simple. And here we were, all three, out of the past. (Han, 1952, p. 85, Part 1: Onset, 14: Macao Weed-end)

Han’s Chinese identity emerged in her unexpected encounter with two past Chinese Kuomintang officers who “were familiar to” her. “My married name” and “the young

bride of a promising Kuomintang officer” disclosed that Han was married to a man who was affiliated to Kuomintang, a political party of China. The description “long ago, many, many years ago” and the past tense used in “when we believed” as well as “the world was” pictured an earlier feature of Han’s identity as being associated with Chinese Kuomintang. Han’s identity related with Kuomintang and Han’s positioning of her relationship with Chinese Kuomintang party as “out of the past”, displayed the Chinese identity of Han.

Han’s past days in China and her identity associated with China emerged in Hong Kong, when Han and the two prior Kuomintang officials met. Han’s use of past tense and expressions of past times were similar to those by two individuals who reconstructed and confirmed their identity through social exchanges as reported by Schilling-Estes (2004).

McSpadden and Moussa (1993) also argued that an individual’s identity can be negotiated through not only their adolescence but also adulthood because of the occurrence of specific events in their lives. It was the Hong Kong social context in which Han met, and fell in love with, Mark. The next piece of dialogue took place between Mark and Han. In their interaction, Han’s Chinese identity is displayed by her immediate awareness and her interpretation of the Chineseness in Mark’s speech.

Extract 7 ‘Oh, dear one, I’ve dreamed, so often I have dreamed of your head next to mine, sharing the same pillow,’ said he [Mark]. ‘You’ve cribbed that from a Chinese poem, and I don’t use a pillow,’ I replied. (Han, 1952, p. 89, Part 1: Onset, 14: Macao Weed-end)

Han’s Chinese identity was exhibited by her astute awareness of the Chinese poem Mark used in his language. Mark expressed his love to Han by describing the picture in his dream of “sharing the same pillow” with Han. It is evident that Han instinctively linked the content of Mark’s dream with Chinese literature and directly pointed out that the dream Mark depicted was “cribbed” from “a Chinese poem”. In ancient Chinese

culture, the image of “sharing the same pillow” by a man and a woman represented a couple’s precious love. Some classic literature works use this image as a conceptual metaphor, such as the idioms “同床共枕 (pinyin: tong chuang gong zhen; English translation: lying on the same bed, using the same pillow)” and “百世修来同船渡，千世修来共枕眠 (pinyin: bai shi xiu lai tong chuan du, qian shi xiu lai gong zhen mian; English translation: a hundred years’ of effort brings about the luck of riding on the same boat, a thousand years’ effort brings about the luck of sleeping on the same pillow).”

As Li and Wu (2009) proposed that multilingual individuals always make “translanguaging” practices which means using all their available language resources to articulate their world and communicate with others. As identity emerges in special language interactions, as the emergence principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005) argues, Han’s immediate and instinctive awareness of the association between the content of Mark’s dream in English language and the conventional Chinese literature in Chinese language revealed Han’s Chinese identity.

A similar Chinese cultural element can be observed in other exchanges between Han and Mark. For example, Extract 8 is a dialogue took place between Han and Mark after Mark doubted about whether Han was insightful, Han’s Chinese identity emerged when her reply was observed by Mark as expressing a classic Chinese philosophy.

Extract 8 ‘A person with awareness can know many things without having to incur them. Not to go out of the house is to know the world of men…I know you are wonderful.’ [said Han] ‘Taoist,’ said Mark. (Han, 1952, p. 90, Part 1: Onset, 14: Macao Weed-end)

The Chinese Taoist philosophy shown in Han’s reply disclosed her Chinese identity. After Mark teased Han of her lack of experience, Han countered by arguing for the unnecessary relationship between “a person with awareness” and “many things” “having to incur them”, and an acceptable relationship between “not to go out of the

house” and “to know the world of men”. Mark pointed out that Han’s philosophy was completely in accord with being “Taoist”, which is one of the most ancient and classical Chinese philosophy streams. The essential concept of Taoism is “道(dào)” that refers to the nature and substance of everything existing in the universe. The core ideology of Taoism is “ 无 (wu) 为 (wei)” which advocates following the original patterns of everything without taking any action deliberately to influence the patterns. Han’s Chinese identity emerged in the display of her Chinese ideology and Mark’s interpretation of Han’s speech.

Mark also pointed out that the Chineseness of Han was more evident after Han went back to China to be together with her family. Extract 9 is Han’s response to Mark after he indicated that although Han had multiple identities, her Chinese identity would be more significant than all her other identities. Mark knew Han would look at him from an entirely Chinese point of view in Chungking and think again whether they should maintain their relationship.

Extract 9 ‘That I shall do; I want to see you from there; see what you are like. For we must live together, the Chinese me and the English you as well as all the other us.’ [said Han] (Han, 1952, p. 100, Part 2: Progress, 1: Return to Chungking)

This response showed Han’s Chinese identity by her confirmation of “the Chinese me.” Mark pointed out that in spite of a multitude of identities, the Chinese ethnic “you” would emerge to be the most significant one which could “dominate” “all the other yous” after Han went back to Chungking. The translocation from Hong Kong to Chungking, a city in the province of Szechuan of mainland China, in which Han’s family was located, was supposed by Mark as the source of Han’s Chinese identity. The use of “purely Chinese eyes” disclosed the presumed impact of Chungking on Han’s Chinese identity. The high salience of Han’s Chineseness was to determine the future relationship between Han and Mark as indicated by “whether to keep me or not”.

Han agrees with Mark in confirming her position “from there”. Both Mark’s “from over there” and Han’s “from there” referred to mainland China, where Han’s family was and Han dreamed of going back to work and live. Han self-positioned as “Chinese me” with Mark as “English you” which identified their difference in ethnic identity. Although Han indicated that she and Mark had other identities pushing them to live together, her Chinese ethnic identity was ranked in first place followed by “all the other” aspects of Han’s identity.

As indicated by Myers-Scotton (1993), switching between different languages is a crucial way for multiethnic individuals to articulate their different ethnicities. Gal (1988) also suggested that language shifting is employed strategically by individuals to display their identities as well as their identification with multiple ethnic groups. The high salience of Han’s Chineseness was partly due, probably, to Han’s language shift from English to Chinese when she went back to China. In the next extract, Han describes her reunion with her family member in Chungking and, as Mark predicted, Han’s Chinese identity was more obvious after Han was picked up by her brother.

Extract 10 And as we crunched to a stop the well-remembered face of Fifth Brother, unchanged save for a more strongly modelled nose, now appeared at the absent window of our vehicle. ‘Third Sister,’ he called. ‘Oh, Fifth Brother,’ I said, delighted, ‘but you have not changed, and it is eight years.’ (Han, 1952, p. 102, Part 2: Progress, 1: Return to Chungking)

Han’s Chinese identity can be seen in her strong commitment to her Chinese family as demonstrated by Han’s relationship with her Chinese family as “Third Sister” and “Fifth Brother”. The emotional expressions “well-remembered” and “unchanged,” the comparative description of “a more strongly modelled nose” which indicates her familiarity with her Fifth Brother’s appearance as well as being “delighted” emphasis Han’s deep affiliation with, and emotional ties to, her family. As suggested by Shek (1996), the emphasis on ordinal positions of family members in a family, instead of the exact name of each of them, is a unique Chinese familial culture. As such, the Chinese

culture-specific vocatives, “Fifth Brother” and “Third Sister”, stressing their relational ordinal positions in the big family instead of the full names of each other, contribute to the depiction of Han’s Chinese identity.

As the emergence principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005) posits, one’s translocation activities can cause his/her identity to emerge. As such, the influence of a return to Chungking on Han’s expression of Chinese identity is also observed in her dialogue with her Fifth Brother. In Extract 11, The Fifth Brother positioned Han’s identity as a doctor now, who had graduated from England, and also mentioned his own wandering in Burma, during the past few years. After the Fifth Brother expressed his delight of meeting Han in their own home again, Han displayed her Chineseness by quoting a famous Chinese poem which is shown in the next extract.

Extract 11 I replied with a quotation from a Chinese poem: ‘How often have I raised my head and gazed on the moon, lowered my gaze and thought of my home.’ Fifth Brother smiled, showing the perfect family teeth of which we are all inordinately proud. ‘You have not changed either,’ he said. (Han, 1952, p. 103, Part 2: Progress, 1: Return to Chungking)

The Fifth Brother mentioned Han’s experiences in England during which her occupation changed to become a doctor. Han responded by quoting two lines of the famous Chinese poet, Bai Li. The original Chinese is “举头望明月，低头思故乡 (pinyin: ju tou wang ming yue, di tou si gu xiang；English translation: I raise my eyes to the moon, bow my head and think of home)” which is often used by overseas people who miss home very much. Han’s act of quoting famous scholars or literary figures in history is consistent with a claim by Peng and Nisbett (1999) that Chinese people show more respect to literary classics, as well as folk quotes, than western people and frequently quote lines of classics and historical figures in their daily language.

The use of this frequently-used Chinese poem enhanced Han’s Chinese identity despite

the eight years of study in England. Although these experiences added more layers to Han’s identity, “none of these” had changed her identity as a Chinese. Han then showed her genetic link to her Chinese family by describing the Fifth Brother’s teeth as “perfect family teeth” of which both of them, as the members of this family, “are all inordinately proud”. Han’s expression of her attachment to her Chinese family made the Fifth Brother comment that Han was “not changed” in her Chinese identity. Han’s Chinese identity was further exhibited by revealing her pleasure and agreement with her Fifth Brother’s comment on her, as Extract 12 shows.

Extract 12 ‘No,’ I said, very pleased, ‘I have not changed. England has not changed me.’ England, and medicine, and a career and the many decisions which had seemed to drive me away, none of these things had changed me. Everything that was the immediate present, only this morning acknowledged as the moment now, appeared of a past more remote than the past of eight years ago in Chungking. I gazed at the river, the impassive tranquil greatness dividing China into north and south. Had I ever left it? It wound and turned and twisted like the life of man, and I quoted these lines from Li Ho Chu: Ask my lord, how much sorrow can one hold? Just as much as the great river in full spring flood, flowing eastwards.

‘For,’ I told Fifth Brother, ‘in Europe each river flows to the sea, but in China rivers flow eastwards. And perhaps there is meaning in that, and perhaps there is not. But anyhow, I am back.’ (Han, 1952, p. 103, Part 2: Progress, 1: Return to Chungking)

The strongly emotive words, and the quotation of Chinese poems, reinforced Han’s Chinese identity. Han used “very pleased” to show that she emotionally agreed, and was satisfied with, her fifth brother’s comment. Han confirmed the unchanged Chineseness of herself by stating that the experiences of going abroad to study medicine, becoming a doctor and any other turning points during these years did not transform her identity as a Chinese.

In contrast, Han’s feeling towards what took place in the morning in Hong Kong “appeared of a past more remote”, while her days in Chungking eight years ago was like “the immediate present”. Han enhanced her sense of belonging to China by asking

herself “had I ever left it” when gazing at the Yangtze River, the longest river in China, and passed through Chungking. The relocation to Chungking after eight years and Han’s familiarity with everything in her home city helps to make Han’s Chinese identity apparent.

When Han was gazing at the Yangtze River after she went back to Chungking, her sense of her Chinese identity re-emerged in “had I ever left it?”. Han’s Chinese identity was also evident as she quoted the lines of Li Ho Chu, also known as Yu Li, the last Lord of Southern Tang Dynasty and the representative poets in Chinese history. The original Chinese is “问君能有几多愁，恰似一江春水向东流（pinyin：wen jun neng yo ji duo chou ， qia si yi jiang chun shui xiang dong liu; English translation: how can worry about, like a spring river flows eastward）,” which is often quoted by Chinese people to depict their endless sorrow.

Han compared her homesickness to “full spring flood” in the line and noted a similarity between “the great river” and the Yangtze River in their flowing direction as “eastwards”. In the lines quoted, the concept of “river flows eastwards” is a typical Chinese image reflected in a multitude of literature and films and television programs, like: “一江春水向东流,” “大江东去，” “大河向东流，” of which the Chinese meaning is “(the) river(s) flow(s) eastwards.”

The concept of “river flows eastwards” was used to make a comparison between European rivers and Chinese rivers by Han: rivers in Europe flow divergently to the sea around the European continent, while in China all rivers flow similarly to the east. Han compared the various movements of the flowing rivers to “the life of a man”, implying that the “meaning in that” refers to the different life trajectories of European and Chinese people, and their closely related culture. For example, European people tend to travel around as far as they can with few ties to home, while Chinese people are always home-oriented no matter how far they have travelled away. Han’s Chineseness, as evident in “I am back”, exemplifies Han’s sense of belonging to China. 92

Studies (e.g., Ali & Sonn, 2010; Chow, 2007) claimed that individuals appear to feel a greater sense of belonging when they interact with people of the same racial and ethnic identities. In her interaction with Fifth Brother, Han’s sense of belong to her Chinese family was portrayed in her language, emotionally, such as “not changed”, “none of them” and “very pleased”. The quotation of the classic Chinese Song poem, and Han’s figurative analogy of her emotions of herself and Li Ho Chu, illustrate Han’s Chinese identity. Han’s identity as Chinese was also confirmed by her Third Uncle after they reunited which is shown in Extract 13.

Extract 13 I said: ‘The years have rolled away smoothly. You have not changed.’ Uncle replied: ‘Your face is fuller and calmer. Some of The Family thought you would be extremely foreign after so many years in England. But I said you would not. You have not changed.’ (Han, 1952, p. 107, Part 2: Progress, 2: My Sister Suchen)

Han commented on her Third Uncle as unchanged. According to the third uncle, “some of The Family” presumed that Han would have been “extremely foreign”, internally or externally, having been influenced by her eight years of living in England and with English education. The third uncle’s comment negates the influence her experiences on Han’s Chineseness, evaluating Han as “not changed”. As reported by several studies (e.g., Inguglia & Musso, 2015; Schwartz, Unger, Zamboanga & Szapocznik, 2010), the stronger an individual’s ethnic identity, the less likely is assimilation into local cultures when they migrate to other countries. Han’s third uncle’s comment on her as “unchanged” confirms Han’s Chinese identity.

After the short stay with her family in Chungking, Han’s family presented her with presents for her intended marriage with Mark before she went back to Hong Kong. Han description each of the presents, and the Han’s Chinese identity is shown in Extract 14.

Extract 14 And so, when I left, among the many presents, they gave me satin quilt covers, which are always 93

given to brides for their marriage bed. One was imperial purple with two rows of green and silver butterflies and peonies, and one was red and gold with dragons and phoenixes, and one deep blue with pines and plum blossom and bamboo. For a marriage bed. And a bolt of heavy white silk for a man’s underwear, and a man’s fan, and two boxes of Szechuan cigars for a man, and a heavy jade seal for a man, and tea, and bamboo scrolls…. (Han, 1952, p. 132, Part 2: Progress, 5: Moment in Chungking)

Han’s family gave her a multitude of marriage presents, each of them representing Chinese wedding conventions. “Satin quilt covers” had the premier texture and were the commonest gifts for wedding nights. “Imperial purple” conventionally symbolised the wish for good luck and wealthy life. “Imperial” represents the longing for a fortune as all ancient Chinese imperial families had peerless treasures, and “purple” has long been an auspicious colour in Chinese fairy tales.

The colour “green” is a figure of permanence and “silver” anticipates modest luxury. “Butterflies” symbolise eternal love originating from the Chinese legendary love tragedy “Butterfly Lovers” between Shanbo Liang and Yingtai Zhu. “Peonies”, the Chinese name of which is 牡丹((mu dan), is the national flower of China meaning as “the flower of rich and honour” or “the king of flowers”.

The colour “red” is the most ordinary colour used to express happiness in all kinds of joyous occasions, and “gold” is always used to show nobleness. “Dragon and phoenixes” respectively represent male and female of the highest social status. The colour “deep blue” is a symbol of dignity. “Pines and plum blossom and bamboo” represent foreverness, chasteness, and toughness, and “heavy white silk”, “fan”, “Szechuan cigars”, “jade seal”, “tea” and “bamboo scrolls” are all specialty products of China.

The listing of these presents with their particular colours, which were for the most important event in Han’s lifetime, represented the Chineseness of Han’s family as well as Han’s Chinese identity. As argued by Lee (2002), rooted in Chinese Five Elements (Chinese: 五行; pinyin: wu xing), China’s culture significantly influenced by colours. The interpretation of the Chinese cultural meanings related to each colour can also be 94

seen in Kommonen’s analysis of Chinese colour culture (2011).

After Han went back to Hong Kong, she talked with Mark about other people not being able to comprehend why they married. As Extract 15 shows, Han’s Chinese identity emerged in her analysis of both Chinese and English people’s positioning of their different ethnic identities.

Extract 15 ‘I bet, though, that if you write anything in favour of New China people in London clubs will frown over there paper and say: “Is that chap going Red?” And some will whisper: “It’s his wife you know, it’s her influence…” And if I say anything good about England (for I learnt freedom of speech there), they will say: “She is corrupted in her thoughts by that British imperialist newspaperman”.’ [said Han] (Han, 1952, p. 137, Part 2: Progress, 6: Hongkong Profiles)

Han’s Chinese identity emerged in her assertiveness about the conservative ethnic identities applied by the West both to her and Mark. If they were married, whenever Mark positively evaluated China, he would be cynically commented by his London compatriots as “going Red” under the influence of “his wife” (that was going to be Han). If whenever Han, who was positioned as a genuine Chinese, published some speech to address the merits of England, she would be likewise treated by the same English group of people as “corrupted”. Despite Han’s English educational background, English people tended to attribute Han’s positive attitude towards England to the influence of her husband, Mark, who was “the British imperialist newspaperman”.

In other words, both Mark and Han would not meet other people’s social expectation of them based on the ethnic identities ascribed by ethnic serotypes. As indicated in the emergence principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005), the easiest way to recognize a person’s identity emergence is when he/she uses a language which does not normally fit with his/her social or ethnic group. Likewise, the expected ethnic positioning of Han as a Chinese, who should not say anything good about England, assumed Han’s Chinese identity was influenced by Mark. It is evident that Han’s ethnic Chinese identity display was a result of her internalization of other’s perception of her. As argued by Agha (2007),

individual’s self-conception is “lying beneath the vagaries of others’ perceptions” (p. 233).

The exchange between Han and Mark showed Han’s pessimistic attitude towards the future between her and Mark because of others’ fixed perception of their different social identities. As a Chinese, Han went to a temple in Hong Kong to beg for a good future for her and Mark. In Extract 16. Han’s Chinese identity emerges in her description of what she did for auspiciousness in a traditional Chinese way.

Extract 16 On red paper spangled with gold, good luck paper, with a brush and Chinese ink I wrote a spell to bind Mark Elliott to me. I went to the temple in Hollywood Street in the twilight of an evening; in the pewter incense holders I burnt incense sticks to the peaceful gilded figures canopied in crimson satin, seated above the altar. I threw the half-moon clappers on the ground three times and then five times; I shook the joss sticks in their cylinders and those that fell out were favourable to me. (Han, 1952, p. 184, Part 2: Progress, 8: Mark)

Han’s Chinese identity is shown by her use of traditional Chinese ways to pray for the good fortune for her and Mark. The colours “red” and “gold” represents fortune and luckiness and are commonly used in combination for every kind of Chinese festivals, like the most important ones, Chinese Lunar New Year and Chinese Mid-autumn Day. “A brush” and “Chinese ink” are two most classic Chinese stationeries for ancient people to do calligraphy and the two elements of “Four Treasures of Chinese Study (Brush, Ink, Paper and Ink stone)”. “A spell” is often used by Chinese people to write down their wishes to be known and made to come true by Buddha.

Going to “the temple” and then “burnt incense sticks” “in the pewter incense holders” portrayed vividly how ordinary Chinese people used to pray for the help from Buddha. Each temple in China features a sculpture or an image of Buddha who is “canopied in crimson satin” and “seated above the altar”. When people encounter difficulties, or need to make hard choices, and during nationwide festivals, like Chinese Lunar New Year or

Mid-autumn Day, they go to these temples, kneel and kowtow in front of Buddha and burn some incense sticks so as to get the shelter and assistance from Buddha.

In addition, throwing “clappers”, and shaking “the joss sticks in their cylinders”, to see “those that fell out were favourable to me” are conventionally used by Chinese females for a divinatory purpose. This behaviour is not only common in Chinese temples but also in some places of divination in urban areas of China. As Snyder and Cantor (1998) suggested, individuals’ ethnic behaviours are crucial representations of their ethnic identities and play an important role in confirming and promoting their sense of belonging to their ethnicity.

In this narrative, Han’s identity as a traditional Chinese emerged by praying for the good luck through common Chinese behaviours including going to the temple, showing belief in Chinese sacred figures and acting in the traditional Chinese manner to beg for good fortune. Han’s dilemma over her relationship with Mark can also be observed in their interactions when they were talking about the possible hardships they might encounter if they married. Extract 17 shows Han’s response after Mark expressed his firm determination to marry Han. Han’s Chinese identity emerged in the display of her concern about the Chinese social norms if she married Mark.

Extract 17 ‘Mark, in China…’ [said Han] ‘Even in China we can be together. Of course there will be bad times, but not for ever. If we are married no one will hurt you, in your own country, or anywhere. I shall look after you. I want to. I want to take care of you, do you understand?’ [said Mark] He was sombre with repressed fury. I was tired, bewildered, happy, wanting to believe. It would be wonderful to be in China and married to Mark. (Han, 1952, p. 219, Part 2: Progress, 12: The Squirrel Cage)

Han’s Chinese identity emerged in her concern about the social climate “in China” after Mark strongly expressed his determination to marry Han. While Mark did not put any restriction on where they would living, it was Han who presumed China would be their

destination. It appears that Han’s Chinese identification conflicted with her relationship with Mark, and this conflict made her feel annoyed.

Han’s negative attitude towards the future between her and Mark is similar to an observation of Samnani, Boekhorst and Harrison (2012), that transnational individuals usually feel uncomfortable in a new social context where their long-established ethnic cultural norms are drastically different with that of the new context. Han’s love with Mark would not be appropriate in China setting, in which Han planned to work and live. The discomfort, in turn, disclosed Han’s ethnic identity as associated with China.

Mark’s recognition of the “bad times” caused the emergence of Han’s Chinese identity. It was her Chinese identity that could bring hardship to her life in China if she married a foreigner. Mark then promised and comforted Han that he would stay with and take care of Han even in China. Han showed her satisfaction with Mark’s attitude as “happy” and once again displayed her attachment to China in “it would be wonderful to be in China and married to Mark”.

In the exchange with Mark, Han’s Chineseness was exhibited through positioning China as the prerequisite of her marriage with Mark as well as her expectation to go back to China. It was Mark and Han’s difference in ethnicity, that is the conflict between their love and their different ethnicities reinforced Han’s identity as Chinese. Han also talked about her emotional attachment to Mark with Ernest Watts, the English governor of Hong Kong. In Extract 18, Han’s Chineseness was evident in her behaviour of straightforwardly talking about her privacy with Watts, which was considered by her as “Chinese”.

Extract 18 The impassive, inscrutable, reserved Oriental is another myth. There is no people less reticent, more eager to discuss their physical ailments and their mental interiors, than the Chinese. In China one always knows everything about everyone else; where, at a certain stage, Europeans withhold part of the facts, draw a modest veil upon further events, the Chinese carry on, undismayed and

unfaltering. There are no unmentionables in China. So I now said [to Ernest Watts]: ‘I love Mark Elliott.’ (Han, 1952, p. 225, Part 2: Progress, 13: Starting Points)

Han’s Chineseness emerged in her familiarity with Chinese as “no unmentionables in China” and her own openness about her personal issues in accordance with Chinese culture. Han expressed her perception of Oriental people as never being “impassive, inscrutable” or “reserved”. The semantic use of a comparative sentence structure “no less…more…than…” helps Han assertively demonstrate her knowledge of Chinese people as the least “reticent” and the most “eager” to talk about not only their physiological sicknesses but also their psychological problems.

Han continued to compare the Chinese and European cultures in more detail. Han’s Chinese identity was portrayed by her very self-confident and knowledgeable stance towards Chinese culture, such as “always knows everything about everyone else” and “no unmentionables in China”. In contrast, a more reserved and unauthoritative stance towards European culture was taken as shown by “at a certain stage” to display her comprehension of European culture. At the end, Han directly disclosed her private sentiment by the simple statement “I love Mark Elliott”. The behaviour of frankly talking about “mental interiors” showed that Han identified with the Chinese cultural conventions. Han’s Chinese identity emerged through comparison of the two different cultures. The examples discussed in this section show that the emergence of Han’s Chinese identity is in agreement with the principle of emergence (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005).

5.2 Han’s Chinese identity as a social positioning of herself and others

Apart from the emergence property of Han’s Chinese identity shown in her writing, her direct positioning and others’ positioning of the ethnic identity of her as Chinese, can

be observed through her exchanges with varied interlocutors. In the following extract, Han displayed her Chinese identity by positioning Chinese and western cultures differently and showing her respect of Confucius.

Extract 19 I had always thought of missionaries as ‘superior persons’ in the Confucian sense. I had felt that their fund of goodness, benevolence and knowledge must be greater than the average person’s. It was with relief that I found they were just ordinary people. (Han, 1952, p. 20, Part 1: Onset, 2: The Kingdom of God)

Han’s identity as Chinese was positioned by her use of a Chinese concept “superior persons”, which is originally represented by Confucius and conventionally used by Chinese people in contemporary times to refer to individuals who are more righteous and altruistic than the average person. Consistent with the positionality principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005), identity can be a display of an ideology constructed beyond current local contexts. As such, Han’s use of this concept displayed her knowledge of

Chinese culture and her continuing use of Confucianism as the reference standard to make comparisons with other countries’ cultures, reveal her Chinese identity.

Han revised her previous cognitive positioning of the missionaries, who she had “always thought” to be “superior persons” because their merits “must be greater than the average person’s”, and positioned them, rationally, as “just ordinary people” after she began to live with them. This admission disclosed Han’s unfamiliarity with, and her cognitive mistake towards, western missionaries; her different degrees of familiarity with the Chinese and the western culture, thus, helped positioned Han’s Chinese identity.

Han’s attachment with Chinese classic culture can be observed further in her emotional expression “with relief”. To Han, China’s Confucius was the top master in the world, so Han felt relieved to discover that no other people, including western missionaries, could compare with Confucius in both knowledge and merits. As argued by Ashmore, Deaux and McLaughlin-Volpe (2004), an attachment or a commitment to an ethnic

100

group is an important part of one’s ethnic identity. Han’s highly positive positioning of Confucius, the cultural icon of Chinese, also contributed to a demonstration of her Chinese identity.

Similar to her early constructed position of Confucius, Han’s long-established commitment to the Chinese Communist Party also exhibited her Chinese identity. In the exchange between Han and Mark, in their first encounter, Mark pointed out that Han’s seemed to be very sure that the Communists would be the rulers the new China. In Extract 20, Han revealed her alignment with the Communist Party by positioning the political status of the communists in China positively.

Extract 20 ‘Of course. There is no other way. This release of energy was inevitable. The people are for the communists, but because the Kuomintang is so hopeless and corrupt. This is going to be one of the world’s biggest and most bloodless revolutions.’ [said Han] (Han, 1952, p. 35, Part 1: Onset, 4: Gay Encounter)

The topic was contrived by Mark to elicit Han’s attitude towards the communists. Han confirmed her support of, and predicted a win by, the communists in China using assertive and absolute expressions “of course”, “there is no other way” and “inevitable” Han also positioned the communists as welcomed by “the people”, which constructed the contrast between the Communist and the Kuomintang who is “so hopeless and corrupt”.

By positioning the status and the future of the communists in China, Han showed her unshakeable optimism for the revolution in China brought about by the communists, which would be “one of the world’s biggest and most bloodless”. Han’s Chinese identity was shown by her positioning of the favourable relationship between the communists and Chinese people as well as her optimistic attitude towards the win of the communists in China.

101

Han was also determined to go back to China because she believed that the communists would bring a prosperous future to the new China. Extract 21 is Han’s exchange with Maya Wong, a colleague of Han’s when they were previously in Peking twenty years ago, and who recently migrated to Hong Kong to make money. Maya asked Han when she would go back to China, and Han replied, by the end of the year. Han displayed her Chinese identity by positioning China as her and her daughter’s country and showing her hope that her daughter would be a pure Chinese.

Extract 21 ‘I don’t want her [Han’s daughter] to be a White Chinese, without a country,’ I say. ‘Nothing holds me to Hongkong. Everything pulls me back to China, even my daughter.’ (Han, 1952, p. 49, Part 1: Onset, 7: Shanghailand)

Han’s Chinese identity was shown by referring to their situation in Hong Kong as “without a country”. Han displayed her concern of her daughter who might be “without a country” if she stayed in Hong Kong and positioned Hong Kong as having “nothing” that held her. In contrast, China was positioned as “everything” that pulled Han and her daughter back. In Han’s view, “White Chinese” was not authentic Chinese and Hong Kong was not the right place for her and her daughter, the pure Chinese, to stay. Han’s decision to go back to China and her expectation of her daughter to be entirely Chinese disclosed her sense of belonging to China.

Brekhus (2003) argued that every individual has multiple identity facets and one always chooses some identity to perform in one context while shifting to another identity in another situation. When Han’s plan to go back to China was challenged by her friend, Han demonstrated the salience of her ethnic Chinese identity by emphasizing simultaneously her determination to work in China as well as her concern about the influence of the Hong Kong social context in her daughter’s Chinese pureness.

Han also showed her decisiveness to work in China in her exchange with an English agricultural expert she encountered in Hong Kong. The agricultural expert for years

102

previously had been a missionary working in China; he asked Han what she was going to do in the next stage. Extract 22 is Han’s response that displayed clearly her attachment with China.

Extract 22 ‘Go to China, do medicine… because I am a Chinese.’ [said Han] (Han, 1952, p. 24, Part 1: Onset, 2: The Kingdom of God)

Han positioned her Chinese identity by stating “go to China” and “I am a Chinese”. Han once again emphasized that the reason for why she decided to go to China was just because she was Chinese. Han also mentioned her plan “do medicine” after she went back to China, in agreement with the positionality principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005) which argue for a possible simultaneous display of multiple identity facets in a single interaction; in Extract 22 it is observed that Han’s mentioning of “do medicine” also helped strengthened her Chinese positioning by showing her well-considered and well- organized career plan if she could go back to China in the future.

The conversation with the agricultural expert continued and the topic was shifted to Han’s emotional status. The agricultural expert reminded Han not to fall in love, or get married, if she was going to stay in Hong Kong for more time. Han indicated her full engagement with her career without having a relationship, or marriage, because she had already experienced marriage. The agricultural expert expressed his incomprehension in Han’s negative attitude towards marriage because Han was still young. Han’s response in Extract 23 and once again shows her Chinese identity through her positioning herself as a Chinese widow.

Extract 23 ‘But I’m a widow, and in China, you know, we are not supposed to get married again.’ [said Han] (Han, 1952, p. 24, Part 1: Onset, 2: The Kingdom of God)

In stating that she was “a widow”, and that there were cultural norms in China applied of not allowing a widow “to get married again” regardless of whether they were still 103

young, Han was positioning her Chinese identity.

In this interaction with the English agricultural expert, the Chinese facet of Han’s identity was still salient even though she was living in Hong Kong; it appears that the Hong Kong social climate had not influenced Han’s ethnic identity positioning. Rumbaut (2008), argued that if an individual’s ethnic identity is very strong, it is less likely for them to assimilate into local cultures after they move to another country. As argued by the positionality principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005), a local identity positioning display may be the display of an identity formed in earlier time. It is obvious that Han’s Chineseness was still strong; it was not swayed by the local culture, even though she was living with English missionaries in Hong Kong.

The strength of Han’s Chinese identity also appeared in her interaction with Mark, her English love, in Extract 24 as she expressed her pessimism about the marriage between her and Mark because of her Chinese identity.

Extract 24 ‘I don’t think somehow I can be married to you and work in China. And then, you must realize that I am not English. I shall never be a European in my feelings. So I may not be satisfactory to you. It might hurt your career, marrying me.’ [said Han] (Han, 1952, p. 92, Part 1: Onset, 15: The Proposal)

The self-positioned Chineseness of Han was displayed by her doubt about the possibility of being “married to you” and her “work in China”. Han explained her attitude by positioning herself as ethnically “not English” and who “shall never be a European” racially. Han pointed out the possible risk if Mark married her, in “it might hurt your career”. Han and Mark were differently positioned by others in terms of their ethnicity, and Han’s self-positioned Chinese identity as “might not be satisfactory” to Mark.

Mark then negated Han’s presumption of her influence in his future and showed his

104

pride in showing off Han to all his friends. Mark also encouraged Han to be an individual who was not determined only by her ethnicity. Extract 25 is Han’s response to Mark in which she positions herself as Chinese.

Extract 25 I was cross. ‘You think you can show me off to your friends as your Chinese scoop, yes?’ [said Han] (Han, 1952, p. 92, Part 1: Onset, 15: The Proposal)

Han ironically interpreted Mark’s attitude towards their relationship by positioning herself as Mark’s “Chinese scoop”. Han’s reaction was sensitive and angry; it displayed her positioning of herself and Mark as different. As contended by the positionality principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005), one’s identity display can both be formed previously and shaped locally. Because of Han’s strong identification as Chinese, which was constructed before the local interaction, Mark’s words “show off” made her interpret Mark’s current positioning of her as taking a foreigner’s point of view that his love affair with a foreign woman, and she was an object to display to his friends. In other words, it was the ethnic difference between Han and Mark made Han sensitive to Mark’s words which provoked her display of her Chinese identity.

Mark then explained, and admitted, that he was proud of his relationship with Han. Extract 26 is the exchange between Han and Mark and Han’s Chinese identity was positioned by herself and Mark.

Extract 26 Mark grinned: ‘I know that in your eyes, my dear, I am only a foreigner and a reporter. What a superiority complex you Chinese have. Worse than we have. Yes, I would like to show you off.’ So what could I say but: ‘Well, I can’t promise anything But if you think we can be together in China, and work, then I will marry you.’ (Han, 1952, p. 92, Part 1: Onset, 15: The Proposal)

Mark positioned himself as “a foreigner” while Han was referred to as “you Chinese” which identified Han’s Chinese identity explicitly. In his response to Han, Mark once again refuted Han’s interpretation of his words and expressed his understanding to her.

105

While Mark accepted Han’s positioning of him as “a foreigner”, he used the adverb “only” to display his humbleness and modesty as an insignificant foreign reporter working in Hong Kong.

Mark also confirmed the ethnicity difference between him and Han by positioning Han as “you Chinese” and attributed Han’s critical interpretation of his speech to having “superiority complex” that “Chinese have”. As contended by Phinney, Cantu and Kurtz (1997) and Umana-Taylor and Shin (2007), if one has an achieved ethnic identity, it could be easy for them to feel proud and happy to be a member of this ethnic group. Han’s Chinese identity was evidenced by her obvious pride to be Chinese; her determination to “work” “in China” further reinforced Han’s Chinese identity.

Han’s attachment to China can also be detected in her another exchange with Mark and her Chinese identity portrayed by positioning her relationship with Chinese people. Extract 27 is Han’s response to Mark after Mark asked Han about her future plans if she went back to China.

Extract 27 ‘I’ll go to China and stick to my medicine. They are my people, and what does it matter to me that they may be blue, red, or dark green? For, like all Chinese, I am spellbound by my country.’ [said Han] (Han, 1952, p. 136, Part 2: Progress, 6: Hongkong Profiles)

Han’s Chinese identity was shown in her positioning of Chinese people as “my people” and China as “my country”. Han displayed her plan, “stick to my medicine”, after she went back to China. The close relationship between her profession as a doctor and her unshakeable determination to go to China indicated her pride as a doctor and her strong desire to contribute her expertise to China. Han positioned Chinese people as her people, and herself as obliged to take care of Chinese people. Han aligned herself with “all Chinese” and expressed her emotional ties with China by describing herself as “spellbound by my country”. Han’s Chinese identity was also displayed by her determination to contribute her professional skills and knowledge that she had acquired

106

in her doctoral studies to Chinese people after she came back to her country, China.

The Chinese identity display of Han is also observed in her assertive response to an unfriendly foreigner. As Extract 28 shows, in the exchange between Han and Myrtleton V. Bradman, an American editor of a Hong Kong local newspaper, Han exhibited her Chinese identity by showing her cultural identification with China and her commitment to the Communist Party, the ruling party of the newly established China.

Extract 28 ‘Well, well, Chuchinchow,’ was his [Myrtleton] greeting when he came to me, and I became pale with rage. For Chu Chin Chow, Chinaman, and requests to be taken to an opium den, are trigger words with the Chinese, who have emotional reaction to words just as Westerners do. ‘Tell me,’ he said, ‘when are you guys going to do something about your country, eh?... ‘You mean the People’s government,’ I said a little stiffly. ‘It was set up in Peking on the first, just a week ago. A lot of people may not want to be liberated from it.’ (Han, 1952, p. 147, Part 2: Progress, 6: Hongkong Profiles)

Han’s Chinese identity is evident in her anger towards the westerner’s insult to Chinese. Chu Chin Chow is a famous musical comedy written and directed in 1916 by the Australian actor, writer, and director, Oscar Asche. In this comedy, Chu Chin Chow is the name of a wealthy Chinese merchant who is murdered; a robber chieftain then disguises himself as the Chinese merchant to attend an extravagant banquet and robs the host. Both “Chu Chin Chow” and “Chinaman” were derogatory labels for Chinese people used by some westerners. A further provocation was “requests to be taken to an opium den” as it reminded Chinese people of a disgraceful and painful time in their history.

Myrtleton insulted and irritated Han by greeting her as Chuchinchow. Han revealed her Chinese identity by her reaction as “pale with rage” towards the label “Chu Chin Chou.” Han’s antipathy to Myrtleton’s association of her with such a distorted character, as well as her emotional pain in regard to Chinese opium history disclosed Han’s ‘Chineseness’.

107

Myrtleton then explicitly positioned Han as Chinese by referring to China as “your country” when asking her what she planned to do as a Chinese citizen. Han then responded aggressively, to use her own words “a little stiffly”, and expressed her faith in the Chinese government set up by the Communist Party in Peking, the capital city of China, by stating that Chinese people “may not want to be liberated from it”. As suggested by Mossakowski (2003) and Lee (2005), the stronger an individual’s ethnic identity, the more likely they will fight against the discrimination by people of another race or ethnicity; their reaction to the insult is a common way of protecting their own pride in their ethnicity. Han’s self-positioning as supportive of the new Chinese government and her response to Myrtleton’s insulting comments is further evidence of her Chinese identity.

The strength of Han’s Chinese identity was also displayed when seeing off her younger sister, Suchen, to America. Extract 29 is Han’s narrative after Suchen persuaded her to go to America; this is expressed through positioning of herself, her daughter and her ex-husband as having “long deep roots” in China.

Extract 29

‘I want to be comfortable, and I want for Baby the best there is in the world. America is wonderful, Suyin. You ought to come to America…Think of Mei, you daughter. Her future, her security, and yours.’ [said Suchen] But I could not go away. I could not think of going from this land where Mei’s father, and I, and Mei, had our long deep roots. I could not think of her as a ‘White Chinese’, uprooted, alien in a strange land, heart turned for ever towards the country left behind. We would not go away until we were pushed out altogether. (Han, 1952, p. 223, Part 2: Progress, 13: Starting Points)

Han’s Chinese identity is observed in her “I could not go away”. After Suchen had expressed her determination to live in America, Han showed her disagreement explicitly by declaring “I could not go away”. Han referred to China as the land in which her, her ex-husband and her daughter Mei’s “long deep roots” were laid. By contrast, America was positioned by Han as “a strange land” and a place could make her daughter Mei feel “uprooted” and “alien”. 108

If Mei lived in America instead of China, Han would position her as “a white Chinese” but not a pure Chinese. Han’s deep Chinese complex is further observed in her positioning of China as “the country”. Even if she left this country and lived in any other place, her heart would always “turn towards” China. To Han, the only way to separate her from China was by being pushed out of the country. In this narrative, Han’s Chinese identity was exhibited in her positioning of China, her affiliation and that of her family to China and her alienation to other countries. The extracts analysed in this section show how Han positioned her identity as Chinese, as posited by the positionality principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005).

5.3 Han’s Chinese identity as an indexical product in language interactions

Han’s Chinese identity was also expressed by her indexical languages used in varied contexts. In this section, the analysis looks into how Han’s Chinese identity was indexed by implication, presupposition and the stance-taking as well as her personal or the specific dialects that were part of her language.

Han’s ethnic identity as Chinese was evident by her taking a stance in an exchange with Mabel Chow, the receptionist of Church Guest House, who was a Hong Kong local. On the second day after Han’s arrival at the Church Guest House, Han had her first exchange with Mabel, who was sitting in the hall, instructing people who had just arrived in Hong Kong and could not speak Cantonese. Extract 30 is Han’s interaction after Mabel had asked Han not to speak Chinese.

Extract 30 ‘Of course I do.’ I look down upon Mabel, four foot nine, who already has six children, and whose seventh is very evidently in the offing under her tight Chinese gown. ‘I don’t speak Cantonese dialect, because I come from the North.’ ‘Ah, Shanghai,’ she says. 109

‘No, not Shanghai. Shanghai is not North China to me. I am from Peking.’ [said Han] (Han, 1952, p. 18, Part 1: Onset, 1: Exodus from China)

In the interaction between Han and Mabel, Han’s Chinese identity was co-constructed by the different stances taken by them to talk about their dialects. Han’s ethnic identity was challenged by Mabel when talking about language and dialects. As Johnstone (2007) argues, one way for people to take a stance on their identity is talking about a local dialect; it is a common way to claim identity in social participation by communicating in a local dialect because as the conversation flows they have chances to take a stance.

At the beginning of the dialogue, Mabel took a stance by “you don’t speak Chinese” to express her personal negative attitude towards people who speak Mandarin Chinese in Hong Kong, including Han. Han replied with a declarative stance “of course I do” to explicitly show her pride in speaking Chinese and that she took Chinese-speaking for granted. Paciocco (2018) reported that Chinese immigrants in Italy indexed their Chinese identity by speaking Mandarin with their Italian-schooled Chinese peers who were highly proficient in Italian. Similarly, speaking Chinese in Hong Kong with local dialect speaking people was a way Han demonstrated her Chinese identity.

Creese and Blackledge (2010) contend that individuals’ self-positioned identity is closely associated with sense of belonging to one language group. Han displayed her Chinese identity by showing her pride in speaking Chinese even in Hong Kong, in which Chinese was not the official language.

Han continued to take the stance “I don’t speak Cantonese dialect, because I come from the North” to juxtapose her identification with “the North” as well as “Chinese” and her lack of alignment with “Cantonese dialect”. By using epistemic stance marks “of course” and “because” she positioned “Cantonese” as only a “dialect” in comparison with her ethnic language “Chinese”, and expressed her feeling of superiority and pride

110

in her Chinese language. As Liebkind (2006) argued, an individual’s identification with their ethnicity is related negatively to their adaptation to another new cultural context. In her exchange with Mabel, the local Hong Kong citizen, Han’s negative attitude to using local language helps displayed her Chinese ethnic identity.

The difference in geographical knowledge between Han and Mabel also contributes to Han’s stance-taking. By stating that “Shanghai is not North to me” and “I am from Peking”, Han demonstrated that like every native Chinese person, she knew the geographical boundary between China North and South; thus implicitly indexing her Chinese identity. As stance-taking is a way of producing identity, according to the indexicality principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005), by constantly taking the stance of being knowledgeable about Chinese geographical concepts and expressing, emotionally, pride in speaking Chinese, Han’s Chinese identity was displayed.

After Mabel insisted that Cantonese was the only language for communication in Hong Kong, Han’s attitude towards her language had been negotiated which is shown in Extract 31.

Extract 31 ‘For us Cantonese,’ says Mabel, ‘all North is Shanghai. And here Cantonese is Chinese. We don’t speak Northern language. So you don’t speak Chinese.’ After these elucidations we become friends, and soon Mabel knows of my financial troubles. She helps. … Mei, my daughter aged nine, goes to a Chinese school, starts to forget her English, and to learn Cantonese. (Han, 1952, p. 19, Part 1: Onset, 1: Exodus from China)

Han’s Chinese identity is observed to change in letting let her daughter study Cantonese, the Hong Kong local language. Mabel continued showing a lack of clarity about Chinese geography by saying “for us Cantonese all North is Shanghai”, “here Cantonese is Chinese” and “we don’t speak Northern language” as well as taking an imperative stance that “you don’t speak Chinese”, to express her negative attitude

111

towards the Chinese language. She considered Cantonese as the only language appropriate for the local context and, based on this language ideology, she asked Han to change from Chinese to Cantonese. As Chen and Bond (2007) contended, language use can be a major index to differentiate people of varied ethnic groups. Mabel’s problematizing of Han’s language as inappropriate for local use also reinforced Han’s Chinese identity.

Mabel’s strong negative attitude towards Han’s Chinese language and her repeated stance-taking as a local who commanded Han to change the language she used influenced Han to negotiate her identity: Han’s language change in attitude is evident when she sends her daughter to learn Cantonese in order to integrate properly in the social context. As claimed by the indexicality principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005) and Kroskrity (2004), individuals’ use of languages is an indexical process of articulating their identities which is associated with specific language groups.

As Berry (1997, 2009, 2017) proposed, the more contacts individuals have with the immediate contexts in their transnational activities, the more likely they are to negotiate their identity to adapt to the local society. An individual’s identity is reproduced continuously through the exchange with others as well as the environmental aspects (Kirschner & Martin, 2010).

Ochs and Taylor (1995) in their study of the identity construction of a European American couple in their family interactions propose that in an interaction there can be a “problematizer” and a “problematizee”. In the interaction with Mabel, Han could be initially assigned the interactional stance as the “problematizee” in contrast with Mabel who acted as the “problematizer”. Initially Han took the stance as an authentic Chinese because, in her language ideology, only Mandarin was the Chinese language. Han’s language ideology changed after she was challenged by Mabel, the local Cantonese, who argued that Cantonese was Chinese local language. After the interaction, the relationship between Han and Mabel changed to be friends and Mabel took a stance as 112

one who helped Han financially.

As proposed by Blommaert (2007), in any multilingual society, languages have an invisible hierarchy and that people judge others position in the society according to their language use. In this study, Han negotiated her Chinese identity, originally represented by taking Mandarin-speaking for granted in Hong Kong, and began to see Cantonese as also “Chinese”, and so sent her daughter to learn Cantonese.

It appears that Han’s identity negotiation was an outcome of the change of the context and the influence of her new friend, Mabel, who knew Hong Kong. Han’s identity negotiation was similar to that of immigrant students, who interacted closely with local Americans in order to be “legitimate enough” as locals in the U.S., as suggested Kim and Shammas (2019). In sending her daughter to learn the local language was indicative of Han’s identity transformation. In Extract 32, Han’s narrative describes her first impression of Mark Elliott; her ethnic identity was indicated by the “foreigners” stance she ascribed to Mark.

Extract 32 His [Mark’s] smile was leisurely, disarmed, not the earnest, rather painstaking grimace which some foreigners inflict on themselves. It was what we call an opening-the-heart smile. (Han, 1952, p. 35, Part 1: Onset, 4: Gay Encounter)

Han used positive adjectives “leisurely”, “disarmed”, and “opening-the-heart”, which indicated her emotional stance in regard to her first impression of Mark’s smile. Han compared this smile with “some foreigners” who “inflict on themselves” to have “the earnest” and “rather painstaking grimace” smiles. Although the evaluation and comparison show that Han positioned Mark as a foreigner, whom she usually judged as ethnically different, the favourable stance remarks Han used to describe Mark show she positioned him not as stereotypically as those she had met before. In her first impression of Mark, Han implicitly took her stance as ethnically distinct from Mark, but emotionally as approachable.

113

Mark began his talk with Han by mentioning that he believed Han and he had a mutual friend named Peter Dixon. Han showed her interest in talking about Peter and then Mark told Han that Peter was then with the Indonesians. Extract 33 is the dialogue between Han and Mark in which Han’s ethnic identity as Chinese was displayed by taking a stance aligned with the Chinese.

Extract 33 ‘He [Peter] thinks they [the Indonesians] will never grow up, in spite of his efforts. I stayed ten days in his house in Bangkok on my way to Hongkong, and he took me round, and I discovered how much he loathed the Chinese.’ [said Han] ‘That’s because he loves the Malays, the Siamese, the Indonesians, and does not feel entirely sympathetic towards your vital, go-ahead race. You crowd out the easy-going peoples of South-east Asia.’ [said Mark] ‘Peter is so English in his desire to rush around doing good to the weak and the down-trodden. It’s a kind of sport with your countrymen. But he doesn’t know why the Chinese have to get ahead.’ [said Han] (Han, 1952, p. 35, Part 1: Onset, 4: Gay Encounter)

Han’s Chinese identity was exhibited by her stance of being knowledgeable about the Chinese. After Han established her first impression of Mark, Mark initiated a dialogue by talking about a mutual friend of theirs. The topic appeared to enhance Han’s impression of Mark as she took an affective stance, “pleased”, to express her delight and interest in the topic. In response to Mark, Han continued this topic and asked after their friend, Peter.

The discussion of Peter’s favourable attitude towards Indonesian and antagonistic attitude towards Chinese led to Han and Mark taking different stances. Whereas Mark described Chinese as a “vital, go-ahead race”, and used “your race” and “your people” to position Han as aligned with Chinese people, his stance was aligned with neither Han nor Chinese people and commented that Southeast Asians were “easy-going” who had been “crowd(ed) out” by Chinese. These different emotional evaluations of Chinese and Southeast Asian led to Mark displaying a stance as a foreigner. In Han’s view, Peter was “so English”, so he ought to align with Mark, as he represented “your countrymen”.

114

Han and Mark, in taking different stances, positioning each other as “you”, “your people” and “your countryman”, revealed that they aligned with different ethnic communities. In accordance with the indexicality principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005), which argues that accumulated stance-taking can contribute to confirm one’s identity positioning, Han’s stance taking as constantly aligning with Chinese people disclosed her Chinese identity.

Mark and Han’s different understandings of Chinese people triggered a tension in their ongoing conversation. Extract 34 shows Han’s displeasure with Mark’s comment on Chinese people; her Chinese identity is apparent in her emotional stance aligned with Chinese people.

Extract 34 ‘I should imagine it’s congenital with your people,’ said Mark. ‘Built and then conditioned that way. Grinding poverty at home: and from abroad the endless remitting of comparatively large sums for the support of extensive family trees in the mother country.’ ‘You should not condemn this.’ [said Han] (Han, 1952, p. 35, Part 1: Onset, 4: Gay Encounter)

Han showed her Chinese identity by trying to stop Mark talking about Chinese people cynically. The misalignment Han and Mark in their attitudes towards Chinese appears to have influenced the pleasant mood constructed between them when talking about their mutual friend. Stone and Thompson (2014) argued that a conversational mood and individuals’ stance takings are interrelated. The dialectical relationship between speakers’ and the way people take stances determines the mood they will construct in a specific context; with the contextual mood playing a crucial role in the stances individuals choose to take in ongoing interactions.

The unpleasant mood between Han and Mark was reinforced by Mark’s use of “your people” once again, and intensified by the misalignment between himself and Chinese people, as well as Mark’s derogatory description of Chinese people’s lifestyle as earning money “from abroad” and “remitting of comparatively large sums” to “the mother

115

country”. Han showed her displeasure of Mark’s speech by assertively suggesting Mark not “condemn this”. The use of a strong modal auxiliary “should” in tandem with the strongly emotive verb “condemn” show that Han firmly took an affective stance aligning with Chinese people.

In this extract, Han’s identity as Chinese was displayed in the interaction by both herself and her interlocutor Mark. The dialogue was constructed by Mark initially on the topic of their mutual friend. As Damari (2010) argued, “constructing dialogue” is a strategy that helps individuals take a consolidated stance. In order to ascribe a particular stance to a target individual, a speaker usually constructs a dialogue in a specific context by involving the speeches the target individual has delivered in the past. In the process of accrediting a specific stance to an individual, the individual becomes labelled with this stance and then internalises it as his/her identity. As the dialogue between Han and Mark progressed, Han’s identity as a Chinese is unchanged and her stance is aligned with Chinese people.

After the first conversation with Mark, Han received the invitation from Mark for dinner. In the exchange between Han and her old friend Anne, an American reporter who had worked in Hong Kong for several years, Han showed her hesitation in accepting Mark’s invitation. Extract 35 is Han and Anne’s conversation after Anne asked Han why she did not think she should go out for dinner with Mark; Han’s Chinese identity is evident and mediated in her interaction with Anne.

Extract 35 ‘Well, I’m Chinese, and he’s English. In China, it’s not the done thing for a girl to go out with a foreigner. I mean, for a good family girl.’ [said Han] ‘Don’t be silly,’ said Anne, ‘this is Hongkong, you know, not Chungking. Times have marched on. It’ll do you good to go out with a man, for a change.’ [said Anne] Wednesday came, and he [Mark] was outside the Hospital, waiting near a small green Morris. (Han, 1952, p. 37, Part 1: Onset, 5: The Mind’s Conjunction)

Han explained why she was reluctant to go out with Mark by taking the stance as

116

“Chinese” which was not aligned with Mark who was “English”. Han in constructing an indexical relationship between her ethnic stance, as a Chinese, and her appropriate behaviour as “a good family girl” in China, felt that, as it was not “the done thing for a girl”, she should not “go out with a foreigner”. As the indexicality principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005) contends, identity occurs in interpersonal interactions by directly mentioning specific identity categories. Han’s Chinese identity was displayed by her direct categorization of herself as Chinese which is different from Mark.

After Han took the stance as a traditional Chinese girl, Anne evaluated Han as “silly” and reminded her of her current residency in Hong Kong, suggesting that she should not retain the ideologies associated with China. Anne suggested, directly, that Han “go out with a man” “for a change”. From Anne’s perspective, Han should change, not only because of the times which “have marched on”, but also Han’s residential context of Hong Kong. It is obvious that Anne’s interpretation of the Hong Kong context caused Han to review her identity as a Chinese family girl, which resulted in her acceptance of Mark’s invitation on Wednesday.

Han’s Chinese identity can be observed in her interaction with her old friend Nora Hung, who came from Shanghai. Extract 36 took place after Han asked Nora directly, taking a stance as Chinese, about her periodic urticarial sickness.

Extract 36 ‘How are you, Nora?’ I ask, ‘and how is your urticaria?’ For we are Chinese, and acknowledge the necessary flaw in our constitution, that snag of imperfection which makes and keeps us human. Instead of having our physical and mental liabilities harped on behind our backs, we discuss them without vapid discretion with our friends. Nora has allergy, the fashionable disease. (Han, 1952, p. 46, Part 1: Onset, 7: Shanghailand)

In this excerpt, Han labels herself as “Chinese” and as aligned with Nora, her friend from Shanghai, a city of mainland China, by using the first person plural pronoun “we are”. The topic of Nora’s urticarial helps construct an indexical relationship between Han’s Chinese identity and her direct naming of Nora’s disease as urticaria. The 117

relationship between Han’s behaviour and the traditional Chinese culture is noted; both Han and Nora “acknowledge the necessary flaw” they have as Chinese, and Han claims it is their Chinese culture that makes them directly talk about the diseases “without vapid discretion”.

As Chinese, they saw “the necessary flaw” as their nature which “makes and keeps us human”, a philosophy, rooted in Chinese traditional culture, which originates from Doctrine of the Mean (中庸) , the title of one of the Four Books of Confucian philosophy. The essential idea of Doctrine of the Mean is to cultivate oneself by embracing everything in nature, keeping balance and harmony of state of mind without being inclined to either side (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctrine_of_the_Mean). Han displayed her Chinese identity by taking a knowledgeable stance of central Chinese philosophy; she showing that her thoughts and behaviours, have been influenced by Doctrine of the Mean.

Han aligned with the Chinese culture that is broadminded, embracing open discussion of personal “imperfection”, unlike other cultures which gossip and make judgments of others’ mental or physical illness “behind our backs”. Han’s Chinese identity was evident in use of indexical processes, taking a knowledgeable stance on Chinese traditional culture and aligning with her Chinese friends, but not with other cultures.

A different stance taking between Han and foreign people also indexed Han’s Chinese identity. In Extract 37 an exchange takes place between Han and Adeline, the wife of the renowned English tradesman Humphrey Palmer-Jones. After Han expressed her plan to go back to China for work, her identity as Chinese was exhibited in the contrasting attitudes towards China and by stance takings of Han and Adeline.

Extract 37 ‘But it’s my country, and it needs all its doctors….’ [said Han] ‘Of course,’ said Adeline, pursuing her own thoughts. ‘My husband has to deal with them, you know. It’s such a responsibility, but trade must go on. We’ve got to stick it. Somehow I can’t help 118

feeling, though, that twenty-five years ago we’d have coped more efficiently with this sort of thing; sent some gunboats up river and restored peace and order. We’ve always protected Trade, everywhere.’ (Han, 1952, p. 67, Part 1: Onset, 11: Treasure Hunt)

Han’s direct labelling China as “my country” disclosed Han’s Chinese identity. The different stances of Han and Adeline regarding China were evident. Han positioned China as her country as she was one of “its doctors” who was obliged to contribute to its development. Han took this affective stance in her relationship with China, her emotional ties making her feel that she had to return to China and serve as a doctor. Whereas, to Adeline, as English and the wife of a man doing business in Hong Kong, China was “them”. Adeline said China needed them to “deal with” issues, and that “trade” meant they had no other option but to have contact with Chinese for the commercial purposes. In comparing their current trading environment with that of the past, Adeline showed her dissatisfaction with the current climate in which they were unable to send “some gunboats” to China to restore the “peace and order” for trade.

According to the indexicality principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005), expressing attitudes is a way of displaying identity. The different attitudes of Han and Adeline to China were clear: Han was committed to China because China was her country, while to Adeline, China was only a place for their business. It is obvious that Adeline’s cold-blooded attitude towards Chinese people irritated Han and Han’s attachment to Chinese is observed in Extract 38.

Extract 38 I felt a little heat floating up my neck beneath my Chinese collar (many Chinese feel a little warm when Europeans talk glibly of sending their gunboats up Chinese rivers), but was saved from a reply by Adeline leaving me with surprising agility. (Han, 1952, p. 67, Part 1: Onset, 11: Treasure Hunt)

Han took the stance of aligning with “many Chinese”, and was irritated by Adeline’s speech, as shown by the “floating up” “heat” coming from her “Chinese collar”. Adeline’s attitude towards Chinese, which is shown to be pragmatic, unfeeling and

119

cold-blooded, and contrasting with Han’s intense emotion for China, her country. Whereas, the history of being invaded barbarically by European countries, including England, was a most unhappy memory for most Chinese people, was talked about by Adeline, as a European, with pride.

Han aligned with “many Chinese” who were supposed to have the same negative feeling when Europeans talked about their history in a disrespectful manner. In addition, the sarcastic uses of “stiffly”, “glibly”, and “surprising agility” to describe Adeline help showed Han’s disapproval of Adeline. Han’s stance as emotionally attached to China, rejecting Adeline help, reinforces that Han’s identity is Chinese.

Han’s negative attitude towards the English can also be observed in her exchange with other English people. Extract 39 is Han’s interaction with Diana Kilton, talking about Ernest Watts a controversial government officer of Hong Kong at that time. Before Watts returned to Hong Kong, he had been, for a time, concealing himself in another country, thus provoking some discussion and controversy in Hong Kong society. From the rumours she heard from local people, Han supposed that Watts must be a stimulating person. In Extract 39, Han’s description of Diana Kilton, suggests that she does not align her identity with the English.

Extract 39 Diana was immensely valuable to me, for she kept me informed on average English public opinion. She conceals a keen brain behind a typically English appearance, a perennially virginal face, a good game of tennis, the right clothes and conformist platitudes every time she opens her mouth in public. ‘Stimulating?’ said Diana. ‘He’s a frightful crank. Nobody wants to know him.’ ‘But you’ve never seen him, Diana.’ [said Han] ‘But I’ve been told such things. I’d hate to meet him.’ [said Diana] (Han, 1952, p. 57, Part 1: Onset, 9: The Goldfish)

Han’s Chinese identity was shown in her attitude towards Watts, which was different from that of Diana Kilton, her English friend for six years. Han’s comment on Diana as “immensely valuable” showed that her relationship with Diana was pragmatic rather 120

than emotional. Han positioned Diana as a stereotypical Englishwoman who could keep her up to date with “average English public opinion”. By categorizing the ethnic identity of Diana as aligning with English, Han positioned herself as ethnically different from English.

Han used a number of sarcastic expressions to describe the ways in which Diana represented typical English people, such as “conceals a keen brain”, “perennially virginal face”, “right clothes” and “conformist platitudes”. The incongruous linking of Diana’s “conformist” appearance and “keen brain” indicated Han’s evaluation of a typical English person. Han and Diana expressed different attitudes to Watts: Diana’s negative evaluated Watts negatively as “a frightful crank”, taking the stance of representative of the public by using the absolute pronoun “nobody” to accentuate her attitude; Han accused Diana of a strong bias towards Watts by pointing out that “you’ve never seen him”. Diana, however, persisted by emphasizing her knowledgeable stance as having “been told such things” about Watts and her strongly emotional stance as “hate” to meet Watts.

In this excerpt, Han categorized Diana Kilton as typically English and the exchange between Han and Diana helped disclose Han’s attitudes towards English as negative. In Han’s description, the identity of English was associated indexically with Diana Kilton’s appearance and words. By positioning typical English people and commenting on English people negatively, Han positioned herself as different.

In her interaction with Mark, as in her interaction with Diana, Han used different pronouns to indicate her own and Mark’s stances. Extract 40 is Han’s response to Mark after he used the word “love” (Han, 1952, p. 77) to position his feeling for Han. Han’s comments further identified her Chinese identity by contrasting attitudes towards “love” in China and the west.

Extract 40 121

‘You [Mark] English people call everything love,’ I replied. ‘You say “fall in love” so easily, so easily. In China we say we love with, or towards, or upwards. What I hold for you now I do not dignify by the name of love. Love is so…immense.’ (Han, 1952, p. 77, Part 1: Onset, 12: The Nets of Fate)

Han assigned Mark with the words “you English” while she took her own stance using the first person pronoun “we” “in China” to show her identity as affiliated to China. Han then pointed out the different attitudes of Chinese and English towards love. Using the negatively evaluative expression “so easily” twice helped exhibit Han’s disapproving attitude towards the way English people express love. Chinese people, she claimed, saw love as a venerable thing, which should be uplifted “towards” or “upwards”, and used a more humble manner to express love.

Han showed her alignment with Chinese by denying that her feeling towards Mark was love since this feeling was not enough to be the “immense” love in the Chinese meaning. Han displayed her Chinese identity by arguing that the Chinese and English had different attitudes to love and that she, aligning with Chinese, had a reserved attitude towards love influenced by the Chinese culture.

As well as taking a stance of being ethnically different from English people, Han took a stance as knowledgeable of Chinese history and geography. In Extract 41, Han’s Chinese identity was exhibited by her knowledgeable stance as she described Yangchow, a famous tourism city in Jiangsu Province of China.

Extract 41 ‘You [Maya Wong] must be a Yangchow lady,’ I used to tease her. Yangchow people are lovely, with small bones, fine features, large eyes fringed with long lashes and tall noses. Marco Polo was a magistrate of Yangchow many centuries ago, and so we tease people with aquiline features as coming from Yangchow. (Han, 1952, p. 84, Part 1: Onset, 14: Macao Weed-end)

Han’s Chinese identity was displayed by her familiarity with Yangchow city and people. Han complimented her friend Maya Wong, who came to Hong Kong from Shanghai, by positioning her as “a Yangchow lady” which illustrates the indexicality principle 122

(Bucholtz & Hall, 2005); it shows that knowledge of specific points in an interaction can make individual’s identity emerge. Han took a knowledgeable stance in confidently making this comment about Maya, using the modality “must be”. Han used descriptive expressions, such as “lovely”, “small bones”, “fine features”, “large eyes with long lashes” and “tall noses”, to describe the stereotypical image of “a Yangchow lady” who had all features of a traditional Chinese beauty.

Han also explained why Chinese people link “aquiline features” of Yangchow people and Marco Polo with reference to the history of Yangchow, demonstrating her knowledge of the history of this Chinese city. Han’s Chinese identity was displayed through her familiarity with the appearance of a Yangchow lady as well as the history of Yangchow.

Han’s attachment to China can also be observed in her anticipation of a conflict between her personal emotions and her dream of working in China. In Extract 42, Han display her Chinese identity in predicting a conflict between her future plan to go back to China and Mark’s proposal to her.

Extract 42 ‘How can I marry you and go to China?’ I replied. ‘But I want to go to China, too. In fact, as soon as the Nationalist government has finished crumbling. Other correspondents seem to think that the Nationalists will be able to hold the south. It is my guess that they will not hold anything. Then we shall establish relations with the new government. Trade can’t be at a standstill for ever, and everyone in the business world here is in favour of trade relations. Then I shall go to Peking for my newspaper. I don’t really want to go anywhere else.’ [said Mark] I was shaken. It sounded so easy. (Han, 1952, p. 91, Part 1: Onset, 15: The Proposal)

Han’s Chinese identity is evident as she states firmly her plan to “go to China”. After Mark proposed to Han, she responded immediately by expressing her concern of the conflict between her plan “go to China” and marrying Mark. It shows that Han evaluated their identities as ethnically different: Han always positioned herself as belonging to China while Mark was English and may not be able to live with her in 123

China.

Mark claimed he “want(ed) to go to China, too” aligning with Han further reinforcing his alignment with Han by predicting the future political climate in China, as one in which the Nationalists “will not hold anything”, a view that was not held by “other correspondents”. He further expressed his alignment with Han by elaborating his plan to “establish relations with the new government” in China and “go to Peking”.

Han used “shaken” to show the strength of the change from initial negative attitude towards marrying with Mark. It appears to be due to two aspects: first, Han felt Mark was aligned in regard their future plans to go to China; second, Mark’s positive prediction of the future political climate of China and his willingness to establish his career in the new China. Han’s evaluation of Mark’s response as making their marriage and future life in China “sounded so easy” was indicative of the strength of Han’s ethnic identity as Chinese. Han would only consider a marriage with a foreigner if it did not impede her plan to go back to China.

In Extract 43, Han displayed her Chinese identity, as well as her deep attachment to China, through her commitment to her Chinese family after receiving a letter from her younger sister Suchen from Chungking.

Extract 43 Then she [Suchen] wrote about our Chinese family’s many unkindnesses to her. I received a frantic note saying that she was coming to Hongkong, and that I must put her up and find her a job; she added accusations against Our Family which irritated me a good deal. (Han, 1952, p. 98, Part 2: Progress, 1: Return to Chungking)

Han’s anger towards Suchen’s accusation against their Chinese family further showed Han’s Chinese identity. The “unkindnesses” Suchen received from their Chinese family drove her to write to Han. Han negative response to Suchen’s letter as “frantic” and showed her angry and “irritated” “a good deal” to Suchen’s “accusations” against the

124

family Han’s attitude towards Suchen’s disrespect for their family indicates the respect for her Chinese family. Specific linguistic forms, in accordance with the indexicality principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005), can produce identity. As such, the capitalization of the first letters of “Our Family” showed how important her family was to Han, thus indexically displaying her Chinese identity.

Han’s alignment with China is also apparent after Han went back to Chungking to see what had happened to Suchen and her family. In Extract 44, Han compares the cultures of Europe and China in how they deal with difficult and emotional experiences, furthering highlighting Han’s Chinese identity.

Extract 44 But it is also true that we can laugh at the same things a little later, and at ourselves for grieving; for we have not the convention of privacy and the hide-bound silence that Europeans have. (Han, 1952, p. 104, Part 2: Progress, 1: Return to Chungking)

Han’s stance in using first plural pronouns “we” and “ourselves”, aligns her with Chinese that is those who conventionally treat the painful memories open-heartedly by laughing. This is contrasted with European people, who have “the convention of privacy and hide-bound silence”. Han’s stance taking identifies her Chineseness.

After Han went back to Chungking, the first thing she did was to see her younger sister Suchen. Extract 45 describes Han’s mental activity while waiting to see her younger sister, Suchen. Han’s Chineseness is apparent in her negative attitude towards Suchen, her alignment with her family and her explicit labelling of herself as “all Chinese”.

Extract 45 All the servants talked. My sister had lost the family face for them, going and living by herself in a foreign house, her own family only twenty-five yards up the street. I swallowed hard. It was a big loss of face. I felt their shame as my own, and I was angry and hardened my heart against her. For at the moment I was all Chinese, thoroughly old-fashioned, and conventional to the marrow. (Han, 1952, p. 110, Part 2: Progress, 2: My Sister Suchen)

125

Han’s Chinese identity can be seen in her clear stance as being “all Chinese”. Han judged her younger sister Suchen negatively as she “lost the family face” because she moved out of the family and was “living by herself in a foreign house”, located close to the family. The repetition of her criticism of Suchen as causing “a big loss of face” showed Han’s strong anger towards Suchen. The emotional expression that she “felt their shame as my own” indicated that Han’s stance was to align with the family.

Han was influenced significantly by her family who adhered the Chinese cultural expectation that each individual, especially female members in the same family, should not move out of the family before they marry. The indexical relationship between Han’s anger and the influence of the Chinese “face” culture, which refers to Chinese people’s worry about the effect of criticism of their domestic affairs made Han directly labelled herself as “was all Chinese”. As shown in Extract 46, while she was waiting for Suchen, Han’s imagined alignment between Mark and Han’s her Third Uncle illustrated Han’s Chinse identity exhibited . Extract 46 I stood, gradually peaceful, filled with tenderness, in a dream of taking Mark to Third Uncle, smiling to see how solemnly they bowed to each other, and agreed with each other, or rather with what Third Uncle would say; and climbing Mount Omei with Mark; and visiting all the restaurants I knew. (Han, 1952, p. 110, Part 2: Progress, 2: My Sister Suchen)

The affective descriptions “peaceful” and “tenderness” suggested Han’s emotional attachment to Mark. The “dream” about the scene in which Mark and Han’s Third Uncle “bowed to each other” and “agreed with each other” confirmed Han’s alignment with both Mark, who represented her love, and her Third Uncle, who represented her Chinese family.

The meeting with the agreement between Mark and her Third Uncle in Han’s dream, which made Han “smiling to see”, demonstrated Han’s commitment to her Chinese family and her wish to integrate Mark into her Chinese family. Han’s words such as

126

“taking Mark to Third Uncle” and “with what Third Uncle would say” suggest that Han considered her Chinese family as more important than Mark. The desire to climb “Mount Omei”, one of the Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains of China in Szechuan Province, and visit “all the restaurants” she knew, together with Mark, also indexically identified the salience of Han’s Chinese identity.

Suchen had expressed her intention to leave China for the USA. Extract 47 is Han’s narration which conveys her faith as a Chinese. Han took the stance as a genuine Chinese by stating firmly her determination to stay in China, no matter what happened.

Extract 47 I belonged. My roots were here. If I chose personal salvation, freedom of the individual spirit away from here, fleeing to a safer, gentler world, I would slowly wither and die, for here I was rooted. No matter how far away I strayed, I would come back. I would always be coming back. I could not help it. (Han, 1952, p. 120, Part 2: Progress, 3: Acedia)

Han showed her unwavering determination to come back to China by using declarative statements, each of which is preceded by the first person pronoun “I” or “my”. Han took the stance of belonging to China stating that her “roots” were in China. She aligned with the Chinese people, rather than choosing “personal salvation, freedom of the individual spirit”, to rationalise her decision to stay in China.

Han was not aligned with that relatively “safer” and “gentler world”; she presumed that she “would slowly wither and die” in that seemingly better world, once again positioning China as where she “was rooted.” As the indexicality principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005) contends, taking a specific stance is an indexical process of generating identity. In the current context, the repeated declarative expressions “I would come back” and “always be coming back” further indicated the strength of Han’s Chinese identity.

Han not only repeatedly reinforced her Chineseness, but also it was also confirmed by others. In Extract 48, Han’s Chinese identity is apparent in her old friend Ying and

127

Han’s third uncle comments about related to a Chinese cultural standard.

Extract 48 ‘You are indeed lucky. So many children in the family, and all virtuous. Look at Third Daughter (that was I), widowed for years, and yet not thinking of marriage. A virtuous and chaste widow, a wonderful thing indeed in this lax modern age.’ [said Ying] Uncle threw me a keen look. He replied: ‘Headstrong and bad-tempered. But she knows her limits.’ Ying turned to me. ‘An example to all of us. You were a model wife, now a model widow. You bring great honour to The Family.’ (Han, 1952, p. 128, Part 2: Progress, 5: Moment in Chungking)

The image of a “model” Chinese woman confirmed their view of Han’s Chinese identity. Ying began the conversation by commenting to Third Uncle that he was “indeed lucky” since his children were “all virtuous”. Ying used a positive tone to emphasise that Han was “virtuous”, because her marital status was a widow and she was “yet not thinking of marriage”. Ying evaluated Han as commendably “virtuous and chaste” and “a wonderful thing”.

Third Uncle responded by evaluating Han was “headstrong and bad-tempered” but knew what she should do, and not do as well, which showed implicit agreement with Ying. Ying continued to praise Han as “an example to all of us”, “a model wife” and “a model widow”. Because Han had not married after becoming a widow, she did successfully “bring great honour to The Family”. Ying and Third Uncle’s evaluation of Han, in line with the indexicality principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005), suggests that the display of an evaluative orientation, a way of showing identity, displayed Han’s Chinese identity.

In this exchange, the Chineseness of Han was endorsed by Ying and Third Uncle’s positive evaluation of her. Han was viewed as “virtuous and chaste” because she had strictly conformed to Chinese tradition that women were supposed to marry with only one man in their lifetime, no matter whether they were divorced or widowed, as shown in Guarde-Paz’s (2017) interpretation of some female characters in ancient Chinese

128

fictions. Han met the socio-cultural expectations, and so was considered as a model Chinese widow, who set a high standard for all Chinese women, which indirectly enhanced Han’s Chinese identity.

As Olinger’s (2011) study indicated, an individual’s identity develops with others collaboratively through the stance they take in their interactions. Han’s Chineseness was not only formed by herself but also the outcome of the comments of Ying and Third Uncle about her. Apart from the interactions with her family and good friends, Han’s exchanges with Mark also revealed Han’s Chinese identity. Extract 49 is Han’s response to Mark’s questioning about the marital status of Chinese widows. By taking a stance as knowledgeable of Chinese culture and society, and correcting Mark’s understanding of Chinese marital status, Han’s Chineseness was exhibited.

Extract 49 ‘Widows have been remarrying, “unvirtuous” ones; and divorce by mutual consent we’ve had for years. But we, like your people, are more bound by custom than by law, and old customs die hard.’ [said Han] (Han, 1952, p. 134, Part 2: Progress, 6: Hongkong Profiles)

Mark brought up the topic of the newly issued Marriage Constitution developed by the new Chinese government which allowed women to remarry. He indicate his supportive of this news as it endorsed the plan for Han and him to marry. The authoritative Constitution was relevant to Han, as it countered the possible shame Han may have brought to her Chinese family because of her remarriage, and showed that Mark’s acknowledged Han as an authentic Chinese.

Han articulated her Chinese identity by taking a knowledgeable stance when talking about remarriage in Chinese history, enriching the discussion by elaborating Chinese cultural contexts. She noted that not only widows had remarried but for many years there also had been “divorce by mutual consent”. Han categorized herself-as Chinese by the using the first plural pronoun “we” in contrast with Mark who was aligned with “your people”. Han’s Chinese identity was also displayed in her negotiation with Mark

129

when discussing his predicted impact of the Chinese new Marriage Constitution on Han as well as of their categorization of Han as Chinese.

Han’s self-categorization as Chinese can also be observed in the description of ancient Chinese patriarchal culture. In Extract 50, Han took a knowledgeable stance when talking with her foreigner friend, when they were together celebrating the Chinese Mid- Autumn Festival, about how Chinese peasants protected their sons in ancient times.

Extract 50 ‘When the Chinese peasant has a son,’ I said, speaking for Mark to hear, but addressing myself to Dr. Goh, ‘he dresses him in girl’s clothes, and gives him a girl’s name, because he is afraid that the jealous god may take him away. When the crop in his field is bountiful, he stands in the ditch and shakes his head, and cries aloud: “Bad rice, bad rice.” He does this to propitiate the gods, and to deceive them. And this memory must be with me still, for I too am frightened of the supernatural powers, and dare not believe my luck.’ (Han, 1952, p. 169, Part 2: Progress, 7: The Moon Feast)

Han explained to Dr. Goh and Mark how Chinese cultures developed in China. In her illustration, Han took a cognitive stance by giving an example of Chinese patriarchal culture. In this example, to protect his son from being taken away by “the jealous god”, typical Chinese peasant conventionally disguised the son as the daughter, in different aspects. She also described how the peasant cried to the gods for his bad harvest in case his good crops were taken away by the god. In telling this story, illustrating how Chinese peasants protected their sons, Han showed herself knowledgeable of Chinese boy-preferred culture, aligning herself with the peasant in believing in “the supernatural powers”.

As Morek (2014, 2015) pointed out, in family talk and peer talk, explanations take place frequently in which individuals’ take a knowledgeable stance to index their identities. By demonstrating her knowledge about Chinese cultures and aligning with the traditional Chinese peasant, Han showed her Chineseness.

Han continued to show her Chinese identity by taking a Chinese stance and positioned

130

herself directly as Chinese which is shown in Extract 51.

Extract 51 I turned my back on Mark, refusing to look, refusing the knowledge of him, so that the evil gods, the jealous ones, would not guess that he was the most precious among them, and would turn their wrath elsewhere, and forget him. And this I did, not in pretence, but with my deepest self, for at that moment I was a Chinese peasant, knowing devils and gods, incantation and sacrifice, with fear knowing I must ward off the threat which was on Mark. (Han, 1952, p. 169, Part 2: Progress, 7: The Moon Feast)

After describing traditional Chinese culture in ancient times, Han took the similar action to the Chinese peasant to protect Mark. In case Mark was envied, and thus hurt, by “the evil gods”, Han deliberately turned her back on Mark, “refusing to look” and “refusing the knowledge of him”, to show the evil gods that Mark was not “the most precious among them”. Han displayed her caring attitude towards Mark by confirming all her actions in relation to Mark were “not in pretence” but with her “deepest self”.

The means Han protected Mark, similar to the Chinese peasant, demonstrating her alignment with Chinese. She then labelled herself- as “a Chinese peasant” who acknowledged and believed in ancient Chinese superstition.

Han’s Chinese identity of was also evident in the interactional stances taken by Mark, as a wishful Chinese, and Han’s stance as Chinese. Extract 52 is the exchange between Han and Mark after he told Han that they could not marry because Mark planned to leave Hong Kong for Singapore for work. In this interaction both of them used the subjunctive mood in their communication which revealed the identity conflict between them.

Extract 52 ‘I wish I were Chinese, and a technician. We could go to China and we would be together, always.’ [said Mark] ‘If you were Chinese, I could be your concubine. But we’d have to stay in Hongkong, because concubines are allowed only in your British colonies, Hongkong, Singapore; not in China now.’ [said Han] (Han, 1952, p. 187, Part 2: Progress, 8: Mark) 131

Han’s Chinese identity was apparent in her wish that Mark was Chinese, ethnically same as her. Mark employed the subjunctive mood “I wish I were” to express his wish to align with Han in Chineseness. The imaginary stance taken as a Chinese by Mark, which could facilitate the future relationship between them, identified the lack of alignment in their ethnicities. Han, in response, used a similar subjunctive mood “if you were” to confirm the impossibility of Mark’s stance as a Chinese. Both Mark and Han’s use of subjunctive mood to express their wishes for alignment in their ethnicity confirmed Han’s Chinese identity as being different from Mark, and which impeded their relationship.

Han also took the stance of being ethnically different from Mark by using the second person pronoun “your British” to align Mark with being British. In contrast with Mark’s assertion of China as a place where “we would be together, always”, Han took a stance as showing that she was acquainted with Chinese social policy which disallowed Chinese men from marrying with more than one woman.

As Johnstone (2010) and Bassiouney (2012) argued, stance taking is a process that is directly relevant to the performance of individuals’ identity and that any individual employs their language resources to self-position their own identities as well as position others differently. In the interaction, Han’s Chinese identity was displayed by her stance taken as neither aligning with Mark in ethnicity nor familiarity with Chinese policy updates. In this section, the analysed texts illustrate how Han indexically displayed her Chinese identity by taking stances, evaluating, labelling, categorising and using specific languages as described by the indexicality principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005).

132

5.4 Han’s Chinese identity as an identity relation performing in language interactions

As well as through interactions in various contexts positioning herself and others as different or the same, and indexically in the ongoing exchanges with different interlocutors, Han’s Chinese identity was expressed in identity relations between herself and others. In this section, Han’s Chinese identity is analysed through the lens of her construction of intersubjective relationships in her interactions with others. This includes authenticating herself as ethnically as Chinese while negating others’ Chineseness, constructing her ethnic identity as the same as, or different from, others and authorising the Chineseness of herself while denying the legitimacy of others’ Chinese identity.

The authentication of Han’s Chinese identity is observed in her interaction with Mabel Chow, the receptionist of Church Guest House where Han was living after arrived in Hong Kong. In Extract 53, Han’s identity as Chinese is shown in the exchange between her and Mabel Chow, a Hong Kong local.

Extract 53 ‘You don’t speak Chinese,’ she informs me on the second day after my arrival at the Guest House. ‘Of course I do.’ I look down upon Mabel, four foot nine, who already has six children, and whose seventh is very evidently in the offing under her tight Chinese gown. ‘I don’t speak Cantonese dialect, because I come from the North.’ (Han, 1952, p. 18, Part 1: Onset, 1: Exodus from China)

By speaking Chinese, Han’s Chinese identity was authenticated. Han, who was born and grew up in mainland China, had been denaturalized of her local Hong Kong identity by Mabel by asking her not to speak Chinese because of Han’s Chinese language use. Mabel’s request implied that if Han stopped speaking Chinese and used Cantonese, a variety of Chinese used as Hong Kong local official language, her identity would no longer be treated as problematic in the local context. Han authenticated her Chinese 133

identity by replying “of course I do” and confirmed this by positioning herself as “come from the North”. According to the relation pair “authentication / denaturalization” in relationality principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005), the authentication of one’s identity is through various forms of the verification of his/her identity. In the current context, Han’s Chineseness was verified by her language.

The denaturalization of Han’s local identity occurred at the same time by Han’s statement “I don’t speak Cantonese dialect”. As suggested by some studies (e.g., Kang, 2006; Naumann, Benet-Martínez, & Espinoza, 2017), the stronger individuals’ ethnic identity, the less likely their assimilation into the local cultures when they immigrate to another cultural context. Han’s firm decision not to speak the local dialect expressed her Chinese identity. The authentication of Han’s Chinese identity was further shown in Extract 54.

Extract 54 ‘Ah, Shanghai,’ she says. ‘No, not Shanghai. Shanghai is not North China to me. I am from Peking.’ [said Han] ‘For us Cantonese,’ says Mabel, ‘all North is Shanghai. And here Cantonese is Chinese. We don’t speak Northern language. So you don’t speak Chinese.’ (Han, 1952, p. 18, Part 1: Onset, 1: Exodus from China)

The denaturalization of Han’s local identity was reinforced by Mabel explicitly positioning Han’s homeland as “Shanghai”, which Han referred to as “the North”. Han responded to Mabel’s positioning of her by arguing that geographically, “Shanghai is not North China to me”. Han continued to authenticate her Chinese identity by clearly claiming that “I am from Peking” which displayed her clear and accurate geographical knowledge of China.

Mabel appeared to be not concerned whether Han was from Peking or Shanghai, and which areas or parts was the genuine China, and continued to reject Han’s local identity by reclaiming her notion of Chinese language as “here Cantonese is Chinese”. Mabel reminded Han of her problematic identity in the local context by once again firmly 134

commanding Han, “so you don’t speak Chinese”.

In the interaction, Han claimed to authenticate her Chinese identity by speaking the Chinese language while Mabel denaturalized Han’s local identity by problematizing her Chinese language. By asking Han to stop speaking the non-local language, Mabel authenticated her own local Hong Kong identity in contrast to Han’s denaturalized local identity. In Mabel’s view, it appears that only Hong Kong identity was the appropriate identity for the local context and the authentication of identity could only be fulfilled by speaking Cantonese. Han’s Chinese identity was expressed by both Mabel’s denaturalization and the self’s authentication.

In the relationality process between Han and Mabel, the strategy, employed by Mabel, a requirement for Han to speak only Cantonese, is “monoglot ideology”. As Silverstein (1996) and Blommaert (2005) proposed, monoglot standardization is a language ideology which features the supremacy of one single language in one specific context with expectations of purity and standardization of this language. The monoglot ideology emphasizes the “only” of one specific language. It authorizes one particular language and illegitimates other languages.

In the dialogue, Mabel gave herself the authority to deny the legitimacy of Han’s language by identifying herself with all other Hong Kong locals as “us Cantonese”; because “here Cantonese is Chinese” and “we don’t speak Northern language”, and so “you don’t speak Chinese”. As the relationality principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005) contends, different identity relation positioning can take place in one single interaction. In this interaction, Han’s Chinese identity was displayed by the construction of her relation with Mabel: authentication / denaturalization, and authorization / illegitimation.

Han’s seems to adapt her language ideology after her first interaction with Mabel. As Extract 55 shows, after Han and Mabel became friends, Han began to send her daughter to learn Cantonese so that she would assimilate better into the local language context. 135

Extract 55 After these elucidations we become friends, and soon Mabel knows of my financial troubles. She helps. … Mei, my daughter aged nine, goes to a Chinese school, starts to forget her English, and to learn Cantonese. (Han, 1952, p. 18, Part 1: Onset, 1: Exodus from China)

The rejection by Mabel, of Han’s language caused Han to change her language ideology, and she started sending her daughter Mei “to learn Cantonese” in a “Chinese school”. After the interaction with Mabel, who stated that “here Cantonese is Chinese”, expressing a local monoglot ideology, Han began to realize that speaking Cantonese for communication was a prerequisite to living in Hong Kong; that is Cantonese language proficiency represented one’s local identity. In addition, the relationship between Han and Mabel is shown to have changed, they had “become friends” and Mabel “helps” Han with her “financial troubles”. Han’s attitude towards Mabel, who represented Hong Kong locals, was transformed, contributing to Han’s willingness to learn the local language.

The chapter “Exodus from China” (the title of the first chapter of A Many-Splendoured

Thing, Han, 1952) describes different kinds of people’s migration to Hong Kong, which helped construct the distinction between Hong Kong and China. As indicated by Hall (2008), identity is the product of the exchange between individuals’ differences, and this difference emerged contributed to the rejection of Han’s identity as local because she was “from Peking”. Although she had made an effort to use Chinese to communicate, she failed.

In a study of transnational individuals in China, Dong (2017) showed that for those whose language is devalued, there can be limited opportunities to participate in a range of social events within their new context. Similarly, in the monoglot climate of Hong Kong, the pressure to assimilate into local context and the Hong Kong local people’s friendliness towards Han led to her renegotiation of identity. As contended by 136

Pennycook (2003), rather than people’s identity determining the language they use, it is the varied languages that people choose to use which help them exhibit their identities in different social interactions. The change in Han’s attitude to language led to a weaker representation of her Chinese identity.

The renegotiation of Han’s Chineseness is also observed in her exchange with Suzanne. During her period of residency in Hong Kong, Han met Suzanne, who, with Han, had lived in a Catholic Convent twenty years ago. Suzanne mentioned that Han was once a Catholic but finally left the religion. Extract 56 is Han’s interaction with Suzanne in which Han expresses her ethnic identity as Chinese by showing her strong negative attitude towards Catholics as well as European.

Extract 56 ‘What about you,’ she said. ‘You are no longer a Catholic. You left the religion, didn’t you, after you kicked Mother Superior on the shin. You mother was devout, though.’ ‘Yes.’ I did not tell her why I had walked out. The Mother Superior had nothing to do with it. I had wanted to be all Chinese, not a counterfeit semi-European, one of those gay, generous people who lived on the brink of the small European circles of Shanghai or Peking, in that curious half- world of concessions and colour bars, a world now dead, like the missions, and the superiority of the whites, and many other things. (Han, 1952, p. 64, Part 1: Onset, 10: Suzanne)

Han authorized her Chinese identity by claiming that “I had wanted to be all Chinese”. Suzanne and Han talked about their past days in Catholic Convent, where Han had stayed for two years to learn European culture. When Suzanne asked Han about her religious status, Han admitted that she was no longer a Catholic and expressed her identity choice as an authentic Chinese by stating emphatically her wish “to be all Chinese”. As genetically a Eurasian, Han aligned her ethnic identity as Chinese, her father’s side, even though her mother was a Belgian and a devout Catholic. It appears that Han equated Catholic with Europe and disassociating from Catholicism meant her rejection of her European side, which was aligned with her mother.

To reinforce her firm choice of self-authentication as a Chinese, Han drew a clear

137

distinction between herself and European. Han denied those people, “who lived on the brink” of the marginalized “European circles” in big Chinese cities like Shanghai or Peking, their Chinese identity and referred to them as “counterfeit semi-European”. In Han’s eyes, the world of those people was incomplete and the “concessions” they have been used to enjoy were “now dead”. Similarly, there was no place for the religious work of European missionaries in China, and that white people were no longer privileged.

In accordance with the relation pair adequation / distinction in the relationality principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005), showing the sameness with one particular identity category may be through the exhibition of the difference with another conflicting identity position. The exhibition of Han’s Chinese identity is shown to be a process of trying to dissimilate with European religion, giving up the affiliation to the European circle, and thus finally aligning with her Chinese side. The process is described by research, from a self-motivational perspective, as a tendency for ethnic minority individuals to motivate themselves to meet the standard cultures and values of the mainstream society (Oyserman, Bybee, Terry & Hart-Johnson, 2004; Oyserman & James, 2009). Han, likewise, made an effort to assimilate into her mother’s European world to accept it as a “possible identity” (Oyserman & Destin, 2010, p. 1004), even though finally she rejected it.

As Bourdieu (1984) illustrated, one strategy that individuals use to articulate the authenticity of their identity is constructing the “distinction” of target objects they do not align with, reject or degrade. By dissociating with Catholics, denigrating ethnic Chinese people who behaved as semi-European, and predicting a negative future of both the missionaries and the white races, Han displayed the salience of her Chinese identity. The identification of differences with others is a way to exhibit one’s own identity. In Extract 57, Han’s Chinese identity is displayed through listing of a range of differences between her and Mark.

138

Extract 57 ‘He [Mark]’s a foreigner, and you [Han] are going to China. It will mean disaster, and sorrow. He is married. Don’t lose your heart now. You cannot afford it. This is not love. It’s hunger. Why should you be so upset by this man. Others have tried, and you’ve been terrified. Everything is against you. Remember, he’s a foreigner, and you are going to China.’ [Han’s narration of her mental activity] (Han, 1952, p. 76, Part 1: Onset, 12: The Nets of Fate)

Han reminded herself of the identity distinction between her and Mark which posed a possible impediment to the love affair between them. Han positioned Mark as “a foreigner” and differentiated herself as you who “are going to China”. Because of their divergent future plans and different ethnic identities, Han positioned the possible relationship between them negatively as “disaster” and “sorrow”. In terms of the marital status, Han pointed out that Mark was “married” which also posed the distinction with Han who was currently a widow. To persuade herself to believe there was no grounds for them to fall in love, Han attributed her emotion towards Mark to “hunger” but not “love”.

Han then constructed the relationship between “others”, who have tried to be in love with a foreigner, and herself, who had “been terrified” by their sorrowful endings. It is observed that Han equated herself with these “others” because their stories were similar to hers. Han’s conclusion that “everything is against” in relation to her love with Mark showed that Han’s identity illegitimated her from falling in love with Mark in the contextual climate.

As suggested by Connolly (2002), it is differences between people that make individual’s identities distinctive. These psychological aspects identify Han’s ethnic identity as different from Mark. Han repeated the statement she made at the beginning of this excerpt at the end, which was she used to persuade herself not to fall in love with Mark and to remind herself of her identity as Chinese.

Han’s Chinese identity was shown to be more salient when she translocated from Hong Kong to Chungking, her home city in China. In Extract 58, Han’s identity 139

transformation is shown by her discarding of her Hong Kong identity.

Extract 58 Airplane travel more than any other means of transport employed by man alters the relationship of space with time, and incites a fission of personality. One is always different in a different place, and transformation occurs quickest by plane. … And then the transformation occurred, and the Hongkong me was gone, it had vanished, dissolved like a cloud in one’s hand, and I had never left this place at all. I knew this airfield better than my room at the Hospital; my tongue started rolling the syllables, my voice altered as I asked for my bill; I had already forgotten my acquired Cantonese. (Han, 1952, p. 101, Part 2: Progress, 1: Return to Chungking)

Han made the comparison between the airfield of Chungking, which is in mainland China, and the room at the Hospital, in which she had been living in Hong Kong, and identified herself with the former more than the latter. The transformation of Han’s identity caused by a rapid change in space shift, as in air travel, was described as “a fission of personality”. She indicated that one’s identity change could be a result of translocations as “one is always different in a different place”, which pre-empted her identity transformation after she arrived at Chungking from Hong Kong.

Han confirmed that “the transformation occurred” to her identity, and constructed the contrast between “Hongkong me” and the current self soon after she landed at Chungking. Whereas Han discarded the “Hongkong me” as it “was gone”, “vanished” and “dissolved”, she authenticated her Chungking identity as she positioned Chungking was the place which “she had never left” “at all”.

Han’s identity transformation was also evident in her language change. While her Chinese identity was authenticated when she began to use the Szechuan accent and intonation, her Hong Kong identity was denaturalized when she realized that her “acquired” Cantonese had been “already forgotten”. As argued by Vertovec (2001), any specific location is a representative of a range of factors that influence an individual’s’ identity construction including language ideologies formed by historical events. When

140

people translocate between different cultural spaces, their identity can undergo modification due to language changes (Anderson, 2019). Han’s expression of her Chinese identity was the consequence of the translocation, with the modification of her identity influenced by her different senses of belonging to Chungking and Hong Kong, as well as her language shift due to the translocation.

The translocation back to Chungking also triggered Han’s recall of her childhood with her mother and her younger sister, Suchen. Extract 59 is Han’s narrative in which she explained the relationship between her Chinese identity formation and her early experiences.

Extract 59 ‘You are ugly,’ I had been told as a child, and with these three simple words my mother and Suchen had pushed me out of their feminine universe; and so I had driven myself desperately through my youth, to open many worlds for myself, since the only one that was valuable in their eyes, the world of personal beauty, had been denied to me. (Han, 1952, p. 113, Part 2: Progress, 2: My Sister Suchen)

Han displayed her Chinese identity by rejecting her identity as aligned with her European mother. She recalled others insulting her as “ugly” in her childhood so that she became separated from her mother and her younger sister Suchen. Han was differentiated by the two female members of her family and excluded from being a member of “their feminine world”. In pursuing her “world of personal beauty”, Han “desperately” opened “many worlds” for herself which intensified her feeling of dissimilarity with her mother as well as Suchen. As noted earlier, Han was a Eurasian whose mother was Belgian, who spoke French, so that Han distanced herself from her mother as well as European culture.

A number of studies have found that mixed-race parents’ interaction with, and their racial attitudes to, their children played a significant role in the construction of the self- positioned racial or ethnic identity of their children (e.g., Belsky, 1984; Rockquemore & Laszloffy, 2005). Boykin (1986) and Ruble et al. (2004) proposed that an individual’s 141

development of a group identity is closely related to their early experiences of interactions with someone of this group.

Phinney (2003) and Phinney and Ong (2007) argues that an individual’s ethnic identity needs many years to be constructed, during which time their identity choices are influenced significantly by events. It is inferred that Han’s mother’s perception of her as an out-group member during her childhood was one of the reasons for Han’s self- identity positioning as Chinese rather than bi-ethnic.

Han’s mother’s discrimination between her and Suchen during her childhood also impacted in the identity positioning of Han in adulthood. As Extract 60 shows, Han made the distinction between her and her younger sister Suchen in terms of their different relations with China. Han’s Chinese identity was evident in her perceived distinction with Suchen and the authentication of her as a Chinese.

Extract 60 And this strong, terribly alive China was to her unreal and faraway, a tedious long-winded novel with dirty covers. Where I saw with a passionate lift of the heart the ecstasy of the monotonous river, she saw how muddy it was, how inconveniently wide. Where I knew the sullen waiting, the silent street corner lounging, of all the people around me, waiting for Destiny, and not a word spoken, she saw only the danger and the dirt. Where The Family meant to me affection, respect and mutual help, she saw hostile intent, she read malice and annoyance with herself. (Han, 1952, p. 119, Part 2: Progress, 3: Acedia)

Han validated her Chineseness by comparing the contrasting attitudes of Suchen and her towards Chinese. In this paragraph, Han structured three parallel sentences to encompass her, and Suchen’s, entirely different attitudes towards China. In Han’s eyes, China was “strong” and “terribly alive,” while to Suchen, China was “unreal and faraway”; Every time Han was in front of the Yangtze River she could feel the “ecstasy” of the river that made her heart filled with a “passionate lift”, while Suchen saw the river just “muddy” and “inconveniently wide”.

142

In addition, Han instinctively understood the Chinese people who, during that time, did nothing but rolling through streets and waiting for their destiny to come, while Suchen had no affinity with Chinese people but just saw “the danger and the dirt” on the streets. While Han had a deep emotional attachment to, and alignment with, her Chinese family, Suchen saw it as “hostile” and vicious. Han’s identity as a Chinese is evident in her display of emotion to China, her alignment with Chinese people and her Chinese family, in contrast to Suchen’s lack of perception of herself as a local Chinese. in line with the relationality principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005), by constructing the different relations with China of herself, as “adequation”, and Suchen, as “distinction”, Han’s Chineseness was relationally positioned.

The authenticity of Han’s Chinese identity can be observed in her interaction with Suchen’s boss, Mr. Franklin, the English man who was working in Chungking. Extract 61 is the dialogue between Han and Mr. Franklin after Mr. Franklin condemned Han’s uncle who wanted to kill Suchen’s child and had tried to poison the girl baby. Han’s Chinese identity can be seen in their contrasting attitude towards girl babies.

Extract 61 ‘In China the life of a girl baby is not so valuable as all that. They did not see why she should not die if she was weak and could not pull through. So many babies die you know.’ [said Han] ‘But how callous you are!’ he [Mr. Franklin] exclaimed. ‘And you a doctor trained in England!’ (Han, 1952, p. 123, Part 2: Progress, 4: New East, Old West)

Han exhibited her Chinese identity by showing her understanding of Chinese culture. Mr. Franklin distinguished between himself and Han’s family members by second person pronouns, “your uncle” and “they”. Mr. Franklin accused Han’s uncle of his intention to kill Suchen’s girl baby, and Han showed understanding of her uncle’s behaviour by pointing out the standard social attitude towards a girl baby in China. Han used an indicative mood to state that killing a weak girl baby was common in China and demonstrated an alignment between her uncle and Chinese people. Han’s empathy with her uncle and her understanding of why Chinese people used to treat a weak girl

143

baby in that way, contributes to the authentication of Han’s Chinese identity.

Han’s identity positioning irritated Mr. Franklin, who challenged Han’s Chinese identity by reminding her of her identity as a well-trained doctor in England. In Mr. Franklin’s view, the education Han received in England should have changed her identity positioning from an old-fashioned Chinese view and differentiated her from the “callous” Chinese people. Han equating her position with Chinese did not meet Mr. Franklin’s expectation of her as “a doctor trained in England”.

Extract 62 is the ongoing exchange between Mr. Franklin and Han. Mr. Franklin commented about Han as a hard-hearted, unfeeling woman, who laughed at her younger sister’s misery even though her sister was in great danger Han continued to display her Chinese identity by firmly aligning with Chinese people and dismissing any equivalence with her European mother.

Extract 62 ‘We always laugh when things are sad and emotional,’ I replied between gusts. ‘We all do, you know.’ ‘A cannibal race, you Chinese,’ said Mr. Franklin, spurred into wit by his indignation. ‘You seem to have a poor opinion of foreigners in general. Why do you side with the Chinese when your own mother is a European?’ and he bent his nearly bald head and his weak blue eyes on me. “I have, alas, identified myself with my Chinese side. I do not place foreigners above the common run of humanity. Perhaps I do have a poor opinion of them. I don’t know.’ [said Han] (Han, 1952, p. 124, Part 2: Progress, 4: New East, Old West)

Han legitimized herself as Chinese as shown in “we always” and “we all do”. Mr. Franklin’s negative judgment of Han as a hard-hearted, unfeeling woman formed the distinction between himself and Han. Han accepted this distinction and responded by using the first-person plural pronoun, “we always” and “we all do”, to differentiate between them, up to a nationwide level constructing an linking her with all other Chinese people. The authentication of Han’s Chinese identity was reinforced by Mr. Franklin’s negative evaluation of Chinese as “a cannibal race” and his reference to Han and Chinese people as “you Chinese”. 144

Mr. Franklin asked Han “Why do you side with the Chinese when you own mother is a European”. He tried to undermine Han’s identity as Chinese by proposing a link between Han and her European side. A distinction between Han and Mr. Franklin in terms of their identity choices was also evident. Mr. Franklin evaluated Chinese as an inferior identity stating that he could not understand why Han did not choose to identify with her European mother, who had a more superior ethnic identity. As a response, Han clearly identified herself as Chinese by “I have identified with myself with my Chinese side”, and expressed a negative evaluation of European race by “I do not place foreigners above the common run of humanity”.

In this interaction, Han exhibited her Chinese identity not only by highlighting her dissimilarity with European and her commonality with her Chinese side, but also accepting all the negative comments ascribed to her by Mr. Franklin, a foreign person. By “we all”, “we all do”, equating herself with Chinese and showing her contempt towards European, in her interaction with a foreigner, Han expressed her Chineseness thoroughly. As the relationality principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005) suggests, identity can be displayed through more than one relation pair. In the current interaction, Han’s Chineseness was shown by her adequation with Chinese people, legitimation with Chinese culture and distinction with foreigners.

As argued by Aboud (2003) and Miller (2015), an individual’s ethnic identity is acquired during the span of their lives, especially if there are contrasts with others who are of different ethnicities. It can be inferred that Han’s display of her Chinese identity was also a result of her interaction with Mr. Franklin, a racially white, and ethnically English person, who was different from Han not only physically but also culturally.

In contrast with Han’s interaction with Mr. Franklin, Han’s exchange with Ying, her Chungking friend from their childhood, Han’s Chinese identity was displayed by her ethnic bond with Ying and her self-authentication as Chinese. Extract 63 describes the 145

interaction between Han and Ying, in which Han’s Chinese identity was authenticated through her identification with Ying.

Extract 63 Ying was good to me twelve years ago when I was a frightened young bride, doing and saying the wrong things. She and I used to make dresses of the same material and cut. Chinese women often do that, and think it not at all disturbing to wear the same gown as another woman. (Han, 1952, p. 126, Part 2: Progress, 5: Moment in Chungking)

The long-time friendship between Han and Ying from their early years is apparent in Han’s shared experiences with Ying by recalling the memories of “she and I” who “used to make dresses” of “the same” not only in fabric but also in style. The sameness between Han and Ying helped showed how intimate they were in their early time and Han authenticated both her, and Ying’s, Chinese identity by referring to them as “Chinese women”. Influenced by the Chinese culture, Han and Ying “often do that” and took “wear(ing) the same gown as another woman” for granted seeing that “not at all disturbing” because of their Chinese culture. The behaviour of wearing clothes of the same material and cut was also deemed as a representative of Chinese collectivistic activity in which people construct close relationships with their friends (Schug, Yuki & Maddux, 2010). Han’s Chineseness was apparent in her behaviour which was a result of Chinese cultures.

As suggested by De fina (2003) and De Fina, Bamberg and Schffrin (2006), identities displayed in any contexts are not only influenced by local exchanges with others but also the wider ideologies and cultures constructed during past experiences. Extract 64 is the ongoing exchange between Han and Ying after Han went back to Chungking and Ying was sitting in the dining-room waiting for Han. Ying’s evaluation of Han as not changed at all even though the time Han spent in Europe contributed to the authentication of Han’s Chinese identity.

Extract 64 Ying was calm as if she had seen me yesterday. She said: ‘You have not changed.’ 146

‘You have not changed at all. Last year’s flowers were beautiful, they are better this year, next year they will be more so….’ ‘Alas, with whom shall I see them!’ said Ying, and we both laughed with our eyes moist with tears after this quotation. (Han, 1952, p. 126, Part 2: Progress, 5: Moment in Chungking)

Han’s Chinese identity was authenticated as “not changed” by Ying; Han reacted similarly to Ying enhancing her comments by “not changed at all”. The alignment between Han and Ying is further evidenced by their spontaneous quoting of the same line of a Chinese poem, further helped authenticate Han’s Chinese identity. The original Chinese of “last year’s flowers were beautiful, they are better this year, next year they will be more so, with whom shall I see them” is “今年花胜去年红，可惜明年花更

好，知与谁同 (pinyin:jin nian hua sheng qu nian hong, ke xi ming nian hua geng hao， zhi yu shei tong)。” Written by the famous essayist Xiu Ouyang born in Song Dynasty, the line expresses the sorrow and depression of the uncertain ups and downs of Ouyang’s life and destiny. Han and Ying quoted this line to express that they were moved by their reunion after a long separation.

The emotional interpretation of this Chinese quotation was accompanied by “laughed with our eyes moist with tears” by both Han and Ying in which the Chinese identity of Han was disclosed. In this excerpt, Han’s Chinese identity was authenticated by her identification with Ying as a Chinese woman, the influence of the Chinese culture on her as well as the emotional use and interpretation of the Chinese poem.

Unlike Han’s emotional agreement and identification with Ying, Han expressed her differences with Mark and Mark’s culture. Extract 65 is Han’s dialogue with Mark. Han’s identification with Chinese can be observed in her description of Mark’s western misunderstanding of China.

Extract 65 “how awful of you to give up those dear old customs.” [said Mark] … I said: ‘You only understand the present when it is past, and in your own terms. You start reforms

147

when it is nearly too late, and indulge in relief after the famine has occurred. Foreigners have such rigorous ideas of how Chinese should behave, speak, philosophize, display at all times fatalism, inscrutability, serenity, these figments of Western imagination so wrongly attributed to my earthy, extrovert race. They lose the reality of China in the myth of a Cathay old enough to charm them. They don’t want the uncomfortable truths of China, its enormous and collective hunger, its exorbitant poverty, its violence, its urge towards assertion, and the inevitability of its revolution. (Han, 1952, p. 135, Part 2: Progress, 6: Hongkong Profiles)

Han authenticated her Chinese identity by expressing her correct understanding of China. In contrast with Han’s use of the first person plural pronoun form “we” in her interaction with Ying, Han referred to Mark’s misunderstanding of China by using second person pronoun “you only” and “your own terms” pragmatically. The contrast in her use of language in the two interactions reveals Han’s ethnic and cultural differences with Mark.

The disdainful expressions “start reforms when it is nearly too late” and “indulge in relief after the famine has occurred” emphasise Han’s differences with Mark. Han dismissed the views of Mark and “foreigners” by evaluating their interpretation of China as ignorant, rejecting “foreigners” interpretations as “Western imagination” and “so wrongly”. Han validated her Chinese identity identifying China as “my race” and positively evaluated “my race” as “earthy” and “extrovert”.

Han rejected the foreigners’ impressions of China by referring to them negatively as obsolete, as “in the myth of a Cathay” and pointing out explicitly that they “lose the reality of China”. Han authenticated her Chinese identity by describing the unfavourable aspects of China, such as “hunger”, “poverty”, “violence”, “urge towards assertion” and “revolution”, which were “uncomfortable” for foreigners to accept, but “truths of China”. In this excerpt, Han’s Chinese identity was exhibited by rejecting foreigners’ understanding of China and identifying herself ethnically with China, while noting the characteristics of Mark as ethnically English. She asserted her identity as the person who best knew the genuine China.

148

The next piece of narrative took place after Han analysed the disadvantageous situation she could face after returning to China. In dismissing her relationship with Kuomintang, as well as a fear of her potential association with the western imperialist, she disclosed her identity as committed to China.

Extract 66 ‘I could have fitted myself into the new pattern, and my past would have been forgiven me, for I never dabbled in politics. Like all middle-of-the-road liberals, I was against the Kuomintang. My Kuomintang husband would be forgiven me. But now I’ve done the wrong thing; I’ve fallen for an imperialist, and a newspaperman. And to save myself, perhaps I shall have to do all sorts of things. Confess certainly, repent, revile what I have loved, foul this thing between us.’ [said Han] (Han, 1952, p. 217, Part 2: Progress, 12: The Squirrel Cage)

Han used the subjunctive mood “could have done” pattern to exhibit her wish to be legitimized to live and work in China. Han dismissed her identity as being affiliated with Kuomintang because she had “never dabbled in politics”. Han equated herself with “all middle-of-the-road liberals” in terms of their political stance as “against the Kuomintang”. Han authenticated her past identity as the wife of a Kuomintang General, positioning this experience as “past” and no longer relevant.

In contrast with the past, which Han claimed had nothing to do with politics, the current situation facing Han was difficult. To Han, the most important thing was going back to China and serving the country as a medical doctor, but she was concerned about staying in China because of her close relationship with Mark, an imperialist western newspaperman.

To authenticate her identity was not related to Kuomintang or western imperialism, Han identified things between her and Mark as “wrong” and she would “do all sorts of things” to reject the love between her and Mark. In the narrative, Han describes herself as politically neutral in politics rejecting her past history related to Kuomintang, the association with liberals and the denigrating her current love with Mark. Discarding these identities highlighted Han’s Chinese identity which she strived to hold to.

149

The authentication of Han’s Chinese identity is also observed in her discussion with Mark when conceptualising their life after they marry which is shown in Extract 67. Han’s identity as Chinese was evident through her easy entry to China whereas without, a passport, she could not enter another country.

Extract 67 ‘We could go to India. You could be my mistress in India. I hate the thought.’ [said Mark] ‘I cannot go anywhere but to China. I have no passport.’ [said Han] ‘No passport?’ said Mark, alarmed and incredulous. ‘Chinese don’t need passports from Hongkong to China. Mine lapsed when I came from England to Hongkong in February. I cannot get one now, except, of course, illegally. It’s very expensive.’ [said Han] (Han, 1952, p. 219, Part 2: Progress, 12: The Squirrel Cage)

Mark advised Han to go with him and live in India, and Han voted down this suggestion because of her ethnic identity, and without a passport, was unable to enter into any country except China. Han illustrated that by self-authenticating as “Chinese” who could be “from Hongkong to China” even without a legal passport.

As Chinese, Han was unable to get a new passport other than “illegally” and “very expensive”. As a Chinese without a valid passport, Han was authorized to go to China but not any other country. In this interaction, Han’s Chinese identity was evident in the contrasting access to China and other countries.

Similar to Han’s identification of her distinction with Mark, Han described the differences, and contrary stances of American people represented by Anne Richards. Extract 68 is Hans’ response to Anne after she expressed her concern of a possible war between her own country and Han’s country. Anne worried that if someday American would call Chinese people “the yellow bellies” and “the subhuman” while positioning Americans “late enemies” as “fine fellows” and “democrats”, Chinese people would call an American “a ferocious beast, a viper” or “a spy” (Han, 1952, p. 229). Han’s Chinese identity was displayed in her recognition of the possible oppositional

150

relationships between China and America as described by Anne.

Extract 68

‘I hope,’ said Anne, ‘that the day will never come when your country and mine will be at war, Suyin. When we shall call your people the yellow bellies, the subhuman, and our late enemies fine fellows and democrats. I was just wondering whether one day you would call me a ferocious beast, a viper, and a spy, Suyin.’ ‘It has already begun,’ I smiled with pain. ‘Name-calling has already begun, Anne, you know that.’ (Han, 1952, p. 229, Part 2: Progress, 13: Starting Points)

The potential tension between Han and her American friend Anne disclosed Han’s Chinese identity. Anne initiated the topic of the relations between China and America, making a distinction between China, with which she equated Han as “your country”, and America, with which she equated herself, as “mine”. Anne also expressed her concern that there was the possible conflict between the two countries.

The adequation of Han with China was further identified by Anne with “your people” differentiated by Anne from her American compatriots. The distinctive national affiliations between Anne and Han are reflected by a possible change in the relationship between China and America. The Americans, Anne’s people, would probably label Chinese, Han’s people, as an inferior ethnicity as “the yellow bellies” and “the subhuman”. Likewise, Han, who represented Chinese, was also likely to name her friend Anne, equated with America, using offensive terms. All of these possible political situations made Anne worried about her friendship with Han because both of them aligned with their own countries. Han agreed with Anne’s positioning of her as being associated with China by admitting that her abusive labelling of Anne, which was the same as condemning America, had begun. Anne then reminded Han to see Chinese people and Chinese rulers separately and to take a rational stand when consider the relationship between China and America.

In Anne’s view, the American people had always viewed China with special affection, and she hoped it would not worsen the antagonism between China and America. Anne 151

indicated that Han and Anne, who aligned respectively with China and America ethnically, should always make a distinction between people and rulers. Extract 69 is Han’s response in which her Chineseness was displayed through her emotional ties with Chinese people.

Extract 69 ‘That won’t make any difference at all, Anne. It’s the people who get killed.’ [said Han] (Han, 1952, p. 229, Part 2: Progress, 13: Starting Points)

Han refused to differentiate between Chinese people and the Chinese government, identifying the fact that Americans had killed Chinese people, no matter whether they were rulers or just common people. Han’s Chinese identity was expressed through aligning with all Chinese people despite their different political backgrounds. Being asked by Anne whether the killing of Chinese people by Americans would influence their friendship, Han’s reaction identified her difference, ethnically, from Anne as seen in Extract 70.

Extract 70 ‘You’ll always write to me, won’t you? You won’t forget me. We’re friends, Suyin. We’re friends. Nothing will make any difference, will it?’ [said Anne] I stared at Anne. Would there come a day when I would not be her friends? And Mark…would I hate him, because he was one ist and I was another ist? Would it happen? ‘I think I shall always be your friends, Anne,’ I said. (Han, 1952, p. 229, Part 2: Progress, 13: Starting Points)

The Chineseness of Han was exemplified by the potential break between Han and her western friends because of their different ethnic affiliations. It is observed that Anne was depressed because of Han’s strong emotional tie with China and her deep concern about if her friendship with Han could end caused by Chinese people been killed by America. Anne shifted the focus from national politics and reminded Han of their good friendship. Although Han displayed her clear adequation with China, Anne requested her to make a distinction between their friendship and their different national commitments. Anne’s suggestion did not dissuade Han from separating ethnicity and personal relationships.

152

On the contrary, Han used several interrogative sentences to predict her friendship with Anne would end one day. Not only the friendship with Anne, Han’s American friend, but also her relationship with Mark, Han’s English lover, could change one day because of their different ethnic identities.

Although Han eventually responded to Anne to confirm their friendship, the hedged expression “I think” suggested Han’s uncertainty. In the exchange, Han’s Chinese identity was confirmed by both Anne and Han through Han being aligned with Chinese people, Han’s perceived divergence from Anne, and the strength of Han’s Chinese attachment to China which was greater than her personal relationships with the foreigners.

Besides the interaction with Mark and Anne, who were ethnically different from Han, in Han’s exchange with Suzanne who was racially the same with Han, Han’s Chinese identity was evident in her pride of being a Chinese, in contrast with the attitude of Suzanne. Extract 71 is Han’s response to Suzanne after Suzanne expressed her concern that her Chinese ethnicity may be detected by her white lover’s current wife.

Extract 71 ‘I hope his wife doesn’t find out I’ve got Chinese blood in me. It would make it much worse for him.’ [said Suzanne] ‘Suzanne, how stupid you are.’ [said Han] (Han, 1952, p. 230, Part 2: Progress, 13: Starting Points)

Han’s Chinese identity was shown by her negative evaluation towards Suzanne’s sense of inferiority originated from her Chinese ethnicity. Suzanne talked about her French lover’s proposal as well as her feelings of inferiority in being an ethnic Chinese, and concern that her Chinese blood could be a drawback to her planned marriage with the Frenchman. Han expressed her difference with Suzanne in relation to pride in being Chinese by negatively evaluating Suzanne as “stupid”, disclosing, in contrast, her own attitude towards her Chinese ethnicity. Other studies (e.g., Ochs & Capps, 2001; Ochs,

153

2005) have suggested that differences in age, social status and educational background between individuals impact dramatically on their identity positions and individuals may differ remarkably even though they were living in the same community when these elements are taken into account to identify their identity positions.

Han’s Chinese identity was further authenticated by Suzanne as shown in Extract 72.

Extract 72 “You look Chinese, and you want to be. But I pass as white.” [said Suzanne] (Han, 1952, p. 230, Part 2: Progress, 13: Starting Points)

Suzanne pointed out her difference from Han from the perspective of others’ different perception of them. Different from Han’s appearance was perceived was compatible with her Chinese ethnicity, whereas Suzanne, who could “pass as white”. As Ichheiser (1970) proposed, people evaluate both others and themselves by appearances. Brunsma and Rockquemore (2001) found that for black and white Americans, the assumption of how other people perceive their physical appearances profoundly affects individuals’ construction of racial identity.

Similarly, although both Suzanne and Han were Eurasian, they diverged in their racial identity due to their different appearances. Suzanne’s Chinese blood did not give her an evident Chinese look which reduced her attachment to China. Suzanne’s understanding of Han as “want to be” Chinese suggests that Han’s Chinese look played a role in her sense of belonging to China. Han also confirmed her Chinese pride which is exhibited by Extract 73.

Extract 73 ‘No, I don’t. You’re stupid; you’re twenty years behind the times. All over Asia I’ve met people, doctors, professors, writers, prouder of a drop of Chinese blood in them than of anything else. We are just as good, it not better, than anyone else. Why do you want to measure yourself against a mean, false white standard? This is our world, Suzanne.’ [said Han] (Han, 1952, p. 230, Part 2: Progress, 13: Starting Points)

154

Han disagreed with Suzanne. She talked about the pride of Chinese of people she had met in recent years even though there was still much prejudice towards Chinese (according to Suzanne, see Han, 1952, p. 230). Han defended her assertion by describing the wide range of people with various professions spreading “all over Asia”. Han aligned with these people by using the first person plural pronoun “we” and claiming, positively, Chinese were “just as good”, at least, as other ethnicities, and that negative evaluation of people of white ethnicities was “mean” and “false”. In Han asserted that Chinese should judge themselves by Chinese standards because they had their own world, which was incompatible with “white standards”.

In the exchange between Han and Suzanne, Han exhibited her Chineseness by criticizing Suzanne’s sense of inferiority as a Chinese, describing a large number of people, with whom she felt aligned, who were proud to be Chinese. Suzanne’s perception of Han as “look Chinese” could be a representative of others’ perception because of Han’s appearance. Although Suzanne and Han had different attitudes concerning identity, and differed in their ethnic identity, they were similar in that they both identified with only one side of their biracial background and were not balanced between their two races.

Sanchez’s (2010) finding that multiracial individuals tend to experience social pressure to choose one single race associated with their identity may explain the different social constructions of Han and Suzanne’s racial identity choice. In addition, according to Bourdieu (1984, 1998), individuals’ biological property impacts a lot on values, modes of thinking and dispositions via the process of internalizing external characteristics. Han’s Chinese identity seemed to be constructed, in part, by this intersubjective process of internalizing others’ perception of her as having Chinese appearance and social expectations of her to choose to be a pure Chinese. The excerpts interpreted in this section show that the display of Han’s Chinese identity is in agreement with the relationality principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005).

155

As the extracts show, Han’s Chinese identity is stable and seldom negotiated. The consolidation of Han’s Chinese identity can also be found in another autobiography of Han The Crippled Tree (Han, 1965). In the first chapter of Part One of this autobiography, Han stated:

“I wanted to write a book about my father and mother and about China…China to me was of course my father and mother, and all I myself knew of China. To separate them from me would be to denude my story. Inextricably…more true than all the ideal books written about China. (Han, 1965, p. 17).”

In these lines, Han ascribes China the same level of significance as her father and mother; to Han, her father, mother and China were an inseparable part of her own story. These lines identify Han’s sense of belonging to China at different times.

There is an even stronger evidence of Han’s Chinese identity as unchanged throughout her life in the preface to the Chinese translated version of another of Han’s autobiographies, Birdless Summer (Han, 1968, Chinese translation:无鸟的夏天 , pin yin: wu niao de xia tian, translated by Chen, Huang & Meng, 2012), Han wrote (in 2009) in Chinese:

“我虽客居烟波千顷的瑞士莱蒙湖畔，又因身体原因，已十余年没有回到中国看看了，但这丝毫不能冲淡我对她的感情，因为中国是我的祖国，是我的骨肉，我的灵魂，我的生命。 (pin yin: wo sui ke ju yan bo qian qin de rui shi lai meng hu pan, you yin shen ti yuan yin, yi shi yu nian mei you hui dao zhong guo kan kan le, dan zhe si hao bu neng chong dan wo dui ta de gan qing, yin wei zhong guo shi wo de zu guo, shi wo de gu rou, wo de ling hun, wo de sheng ming. In English: Though I am now sojourning the shore of Lake Lemone in Switzerland, I have not returned to China for more than ten years due to physical reasons, but this does not dilute my feelings for her, because China is my motherland, my bones and flesh, my soul, my life).”

Han usually wrote in English and French, but in this preface, she used Chinese language, which displayed directly her strong Chinese identity. In these lines, Han positioned her relationship with Switzerland as a guest who is “sojourning” there, and made a comparison with her totally different attitude towards China, emotionally positioned as “my motherland, my bones and flesh, my soul, my life.” Han’s Chinese identity

156

displayed is that of a Chinese, Han was always missing China no matter how far away, physically, she was from China.

5.5 Summary of the chapter

This chapter analysed Han’s identity as a Chinese shown in A Many-Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952) with reference to Han’s other writings in detail. The emergence principle, the positionality principle, the indexicality principle, and the relationality principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005) were employed to explore how Han’s “Chineseness” emerged, was positioned, indexically produced and relationally constructed in different social settings (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005).

157

Chapter 6 Han’s racial identity displayed as an indexical process

displayed in her writing

In this section, the focus is how Han displayed her racial identity in A Many- Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952). Described by Spickard (1992) and Spickard, Moniz and Dineen-Wimberly (2015), race is related mainly to an individual’s biological features and physical appearance. One’s skin colour is the major dimension for the self and others to categorize racial identity (O’hearn, 1998) or, as Chávez & DiBrito (1999) posited, race identity is a superficial display of self, based on one’s appearance, which plays an important role in how people are socially treated. For example, a person, whose race is European usually has fair skin and blonde hair, and any person with these physical characteristics is labelled, racially, European no matter whether they are American or English. In comparison, a person whose race is East Asian usually has yellow skin and black hair; anyone featured with these physical traits is labelled racially East Asian, regardless of whether they are Chinese, Japanese or Korean.

Based on the differentiation between racial identity and ethnic identity made by the scholars noted above, this thesis sets “Eurasian” as Han’s racial identity because of her genetic property linked with two races (Asia and Europe). Like the analysis in the ethnic identity analysis section, the interpretation of Han’s racial identity will follow the timeline of Han’s narrative. Only the indexicality principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005) is employed as the analytical approach to interpreting how Han’s Eurasian identity is evident in her language interactions with varied interlocutors from an indexical perspective.

158

6.1 Han’s Eurasian identity indexically displayed in various contexts

The next extract describes the exchange between Han and Mark in their first encounter. Han displayed her racial identity by taking a stance as Asian after Mark commented on the lifestyles of Chinese and South-Eastern Asian people. He had remarked that, while Chinese and South-Eastern people lead a life of poverty in the countries in which they worked, they remitted from abroad comparatively large sums to support extensive families in their mother country.

Extract 74 ‘You should not condemn this [the lifestyles of Chinese people].’ [said Han] ‘Of course not. One should never condemn what one cannot understand. I don’t think we can claim to understand other people. I mean, east and west don’t really ever mix, do they? They’ll always be apart. You can’t be both east and west at the same time. You have to choose between the two.’ [said Mark] (Han, 1952, p. 34, Part 1: Onset, 4: Gay Encounter)

Mark’s lack of alignment with Han disclosed Han’s Asian identity. To show her obvious misalignment with Mark, the English correspondent who had expressed his negative evaluation towards the lifestyles of Chinese people, Han used the assertive negative auxiliary and the strong modal verb “should not condemn”. By aligning with Asian people while preventing Mark from commenting further on Chinese, Han displayed her Asian identity. In response, Mark agreed with Han by stating that he was not condemning Asian people’s lifestyle, admitting that he might not understand Asian people. He further conceded that white people cannot claim to understand people of other races. Mark then further expressed his identity as different from Asian by asserting that east and west “would always be apart” and can really never mix. Mark believed that as one cannot be both east and west at the same time, a choice must always be made between the two races. Extract 75 is part of the ongoing exchange between Han and Mark in which Han establishes her Eurasian identity by not aligning with Mark.

Extract 75

159

‘Oh, do you think so?’ I said, and turned my face away, and smiled. He was staring at me when I looked again, but politely averted his glance. He began to tell me about himself. ‘I’ve been nearly fifteen years in the Far East, all over the place. I am going to Europe next year. Rome, I think.’ [said Mark] ‘That will be a nice change,’ I said. (Han, 1952, p. 35, Part 1: Onset, 4: Gay Encounter)

Han used an interrogative mood “do you think so” as her evaluation of Mark’s opinions on race, and her body language, “turned my face away and smiled”, implicitly expressed that she did not agree with Mark that “east and west don’t really ever mix”, “they’ll always be apart”, one “can’t be both east and west at the same time” and “have to choose between the two” (Han, 1952, p. 34). By expressing her attitude through both speech and body language, Han showed that her, and Mark’s, views on race did not align. Mark in response stopped talking about race and changed the topic to his own family and life. The reconstructed ease in their conversational mood contributed to Han commenting positively on Mark’s plan of “going to Europe next year” as “a nice change”. Mark then disclosed that he did not really want to go to Europe but it was his wife who would like to live in Rome because she missed Europe a great deal. Han then further exhibited her Asian identity by labelling herself as Asiatic as shown in Extract 76.

Extract 76 ‘She is quite right. I’d hate to live permanently in Europe or in America; but then I am Asiatic. It’s different for you, of course. It will be much nicer for you there. As soon as China is under its new rulers there will be a great deal of upheaval and turmoil all round here. All South-east Asia will be heaving and bursting. You’re sitting on top of a volcano now. Oh yes, much safer away.’ [said Han] (Han, 1952, p. 35, Part 1: Onset, 4: Gay Encounter)

After Mark showed his reluctance to leave “the Far East” by saying it was his wife’s desire to go back to Europe but not his, Han expressed agreement with Mark’s wife, who “would like to live in Rome”, by stating “she is quite right”. Han justified her opinion by self-categorising as “Asiatic” who “hate to live permanently in Europe or in America” because of the incompatibility of the two contexts with her Asian identity. Han identified the racial misalignment between herself and Mark by positioning Mark

160

as “different”, and who would feel “much nicer” in Europe than in Asia, evidencing her confidence with the use of “of course”.

Han further demonstrated her stance as Asian by assertively predicting the political climate of China in which “a great deal of upheaval and turmoil” would take place and influence “all South-east Asia”. In Han’s view, Mark, as a European who was racially different from her, should not stay in Asia any longer, and that it would be “much safer” for him to go back to Europe. Han’s Asian identity was evidenced not only in the stance she took in associating herself with Asia but also by ascribing the stance to Mark of someone who was not supposed to stay in Asia. In Extract 77, Han’s narrative after her first encounter with Mark, and her Asian identity can be observed.

Extract 77 Now I know that I could not have said anything more calculated to make him resent going away to Europe. But I did not even know his name as I spoke to him. I thought that all Europeans should go back to their own countries, and he was just another European, a foreigner, to me. (Han, 1952, p. 35, Part 1: Onset, 4: Gay Encounter)

Han explicitly positioned her racial identity as different from Mark by stating “I thought that all Europeans should go back to their own countries” and categorising Mark as “just another European, a foreigner”. Han felt she should stay in China because of her Asiatic identity, while Mark should go back to Europe because people should be living in their own racial communities. As argued by Strauss and Cross (2005), individuals, especially racial minorities, have a tendency to express the salience of their racial identity, but not any other identity facet, when people of other races are present in the context, especially those of the white race. By identifying a lack of alignment between herself and Mark, Han, took the stance of being knowledgeable of the political contexts of Asia as well as explicitly categorising herself and Mark as different Han expressed her racial identity.

Han’s racial identity is further displayed in her interaction with Mark in Extract 78, an

161

exchange which took place between Han and Mark after they encountered Mark’s friends in a restaurant. Han’s Eurasian identity is apparent by positioning herself as a Eurasian as well as by Mark’s evaluations of Eurasians.

Extract 78 ‘I want all my friends to go round saying: “But who is this beautiful Chinese girl that Mark Elliott is taking out?”’ [said Mark] ‘Eurasian,’ I corrected. ‘You look all Chinese to me, and I’ve been fifteen years out here. I didn’t think you were Eurasian until you told me.’ [said Mark] ‘Even you,’ I said bitterly, ‘have a prejudice against the mixed bloods.’ (Han, 1952, p. 87, Part 1: Onset, 14: Macao Weed-end)

Mark showed his pride in dating Han and positioned her as “Chinese girl”. Han then negated this racial categorisation by identifying herself as “Eurasian”. Mark, taking an authoritative stance, claimed that his 14 years’ stay in Hong Kong had made him familiar with Chinese appearance. Han explicitly expressed her displeasure with, and disappointment in Mark as she felt her genetic identity as a Eurasian had been criticised. Han’s negative attitude was highlighted by her pragmatic use of “even you” indicating her presupposed difference between Mark and others who, like him, are prejudiced towards multiracial people. As Extract 79 shows, Mark then explained his understanding of Eurasians, showing his appreciation of Han’s Eurasian identity.

Extract 79 ‘Dear one, it is not so,’ he replied with some warmth. ‘You must not carry a chip on your shoulder as so many Eurasians do. You want to be Chinese, and you have trained yourself to have both East and West. You have a dual mind, and I envy you the way in which you become so many different worlds, so many different beings. There is more richness to your life, my dear, than you know. Much more than we poor one-world people possess.’ (Han, 1952, p. 87, Part 1: Onset, 14: Macao Weed-end)

Although Han’s identity as a person who had “both East and West” was acknowledged by Mark, he explained why he saw her as “all Chinese”. In Mark’s eyes, Eurasians tended to be resentful and sensitive, and Han “must not” be like “so many Eurasians”. Mark continued to take a stance of fully understanding Han, accepting that Han herself 162

wanted “to be Chinese”, but he also asserted that she was advantaged “to have both East and West”. Mark shifted the focus from the racial to the cultural positioning of Han: she looked “all Chinese” but had “a dual mind”. Mark then implicitly aligned with Han in her racial positioning by expressing his envy of Han. With her genetic biracial identity, Han was fortunate to be bicultural, to have “so many different worlds” and “so many different beings” which gave “more richness” to her life. By positioning himself as regrettably one of the “poor one-world people”, Mark strengthened his positive evaluation of Han’s biracial identity. In Extract 80, however Han shows the confusion her Eurasian identity causes her.

Extract 80 ‘But it is awful to be two or more people all the time. It’s schizophrenia,’ I replied. ‘How I wish I were you,’ he said.’ And how I pity all the men who do not have the pleasure to know and to love you.’ I could not understand either his wish to be me, or the eagerness with which he had said that he wanted to be seen with me. (Han, 1952, p. 88, Part 1: Onset, 14: Macao Weed-end)

Han then took the stance as a biracial individual who had suffered having such an identity; she evaluated the experience of being “two or more people all the time” as “awful” and “schizophrenia”. Mark persisted in emphasising the advantages of Han’s biracial identity by expressing a “wish” to be Han and sympathizing with those who had no chance to communicate with her. Han’s inability to comprehend Mark’s wish to be her carrying traits of “more people all the time”, appears to intensify her feeling that she did not align with Mark.

In this exchange, Han’s Eurasian identity was identified by both herself and Mark’s evaluations of her. At first, she negated Mark’s positioning of her as “all Chinese” and self-positioned as “Eurasian”. Mark then indicated the cultural advantage of being Eurasian but Han countered his suggestion by noting the disadvantage. Although Mark emphasised these advantages, Han persisted in expressing her identity confusion. The contrasting evaluations by Mark and Han of Han’s mix-blooded identity disclosed the racial difference between them. Due to a lack of the experience of being biracial, Mark 163

did not agree with Han even though she expressed her suffering in being biracial.

Han’s expression of her sensitivity as a biracial individual is also described by Williams and Thornton (1998) as the sense of marginalization a characteristic of multiracial individuals. Han’s display of the identity confusion as a Eurasian has previously been regarded as a feature of Eurasian woman writers, which was interpreted by Ling (1982) in her analysis of the protagonist’s identity in Crossings (Hua, 1968). The display of the stereotypical identity confusion, in turn, helps exhibited Han’s biracial identity.

Han’s Eurasian identity can also be observed in her exchange with Suzanne who is racially identical to Han. The exchange in Extract 81 took place between Han and Suzanne when talking about how their multiracial identity influenced their lives. Han’s Eurasian identity is expressed through categorizing herself as Eurasian, and evaluating her multiracial traits as being different to mono-racial people.

Extract 81 ‘We carry chips on our shoulders, waste time in resentment, expect to be looked down upon. We make it an excuse for unsuccess. “It’s because I’m Eurasian, that’s why,” we say. We turn ourselves into relics of the concessions, the good old days of white domineering; we ape the low white trash and their bad manners. It is our fault, Suzanne.’ [said Han] (Han, 1952, p. 230, Part 2: Progress, 13: Starting Points)

In response to Suzanne’s concern about her Eurasian identity as something to be looked down on by the white people, Han expressed a different attitude towards the multiracialism from Suzanne. Han took the stance of being racially aligned with Suzanne by using the first person plural pronoun “we” four times and labelling herself as Eurasian. To display her pride to be a Eurasian, Han referred negatively to white dominance as “old” and noting that some biracial people “aped” the “low”, “trash” in white culture and “their bad manners”. Han took the stance as a rational Eurasian who should not be subordinate to the broadly received white supremacy any longer.

Suzanne then disagreed with Han’s positive evaluation of their Eurasian identity 164

insisting that being racially white could bring more benefits, such as making life easier and getting a bigger salary. Suzanne insisted that if she was a Eurasian or a Chinese, but not look white, she would not get these privileges. Han once again took the stance as being extremely proud to be a Eurasian as shown in Extract 82.

Extract 82 I said with all the arrogance and the pride of China in my voice: ‘Being Eurasian is not being born of East and of West. It is a state of mind. A state of mind created by false values, prejudice, ignorance, and the evils of colonialism. We must get rid of that state of mind. We must carry ourselves with colossal assurance and say: “Look at us, the Eurasians! Just look. How beautiful we are, more beautiful than either race alone. More clever, more hardy. The meeting of both cultures, the fusion of all that can become a world civilization. Look at us, and envy us, you poor, one-world people, riveted to your limitations. We are the future of the world. Look at us.”’ [said Han] (Han, 1952, p. 230, Part 2: Progress, 13: Starting Points)

Whereas Han admitted that this hybridity of her race was associated with others’ bad impressions and misconceptions, she proposed that they should shoulder the responsibility to self-respect and show their merits to others. Han twice uses the auxiliary “must” to construct her own racial identity. Han then aligned with all Eurasians by “us” and “we”, highly positively self-evaluating Eurasians as “beautiful”, “clever” and “hardy”. She also compared their multiracialism with mono-racial individuals and expressing her difference with them by evaluating Eurasians as “more beautiful” than them.

Han then continued to show her pride as a Eurasian by articulating her ideology that being multiracial represents the confluence of two different cultures which is significant for “a world civilization”. In contrast, a mono-racial individual was regarded by Han as “poor”, and one who could only live in “one world” with “limitations” instead of a

“world civilization”. Han then claimed that, by aligning multiracials with “the future of the world”, their hybrid identity was of value in the advancement of the whole world. Han used a buffering strategy to perform her identity pride as a Eurasian which was proposed by Goffman (1959), to describe the actions taken by individuals when their identities are challenged, discriminated or even insulted. They researchers have also 165

pointed out that the most widely used buffering strategies for people to defend their self-esteem, related to their identities, simultaneously promote the value of their own identity while devaluing those who are prejudiced against them (Crocker & Major, 1989, 2003; Branscombe, Schmitt & Harvey, 1999).

In her interaction with Suzanne, Han’s expression of her Eurasian identity was through several indexical processes: self-labelling as Eurasian, racially aligning with Suzanne as well as other Eurasians, positively evaluating the self while negatively evaluating the single-race individuals, positioning the value of their identity and displaying strong pride to her identity hybridity. Han’s self-assurance of, and pride in, her identity hybridity is very similar to those in a recent study of a group of multiracial individuals in America. Soliz, Cronan, Bergquist, Nuru and Rittenour (2017) reported that multiracial individuals benefited considerably from their multiracialism in terms of their wider worldviews, stronger sense of self, beautiful physical appearance and multiple work opportunities.

The interpretation above shows that Han’s identity was display through multiple forms of indexical processes, which is in accordance with the indexical principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005). It is observed that Han’s racial identity was very stable and seldom changed. Han’s pride to be Eurasian was also evident in her preface to the Chinese translated version of Birdless Summer (Han, 1968, Chinese translation:无鸟的夏天 , pin yin: wu niao de xia tian, translated by Chen, Huang & Meng, 2012), Han wrote (in 2009) in Chinese:

“我作为一个中西合璧混血儿，多年来一直介乎于两种文化之间。一方面，我始终为自己身上流有中国人的血液而感到骄傲；同时也认为，文化交融是重要的。(pin yin: wo zuo wei yi ge zhong xi he bi hun xue er, duo nian lai yi zhi jie hu yu liang zhong wen hua zhi jian. Yi fang mian, wo shi zhong wei zi ji shen shang liu you zhong guo ren de xue ye er gan dao jiao ao; tong shi ye ren wei, wen hua jiao rong shi zhong yao de. In English: As a Chinese-Western mixed-race person, I have been between two cultures for many years. On the one hand, I am always proud to have Chinese blood in my body; on the other hand, I believe that cultural integration is important.)”

166

Whereas writing in Chinese instead of in English is strong evidence of Han’s Chinese identity, she openly showed her pride to be mix-racial for many years.

Performances of Han’s racial identity appears to change with the contextual interlocutors. When talking with Mark, Han displayed the salience of her Asian side, while in the exchange with Suzanne, she positioned herself firmly as Eurasian. Han’s racial identity shows that her identity is highly fluid and always transforms according to the context. The fluidity of Han’s racial identity exhibition is similar to that of the biracial Black-white Americans, a described by Khanna (2011), who were observed to present different identity in the white and black contexts. .

6.2 Summary of the chapter

This chapter interpreted Han’s identity as a Eurasian shown in A Many-Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952) and Han’s other writings were involved for a supplemental anlysis. The analysis employed only the indexicality principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005) to look into how Han’s biracial identity was indexically produced in her interactions with different interlocutors (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005).

167

Chapter 7 Han’s multi-cultural identity displayed as a partial

account in A Many-Splendoured Thing

This section looks into the multicultural facets of Han’s identity. As noted previously, cultural identity, is a sense of belonging towards one specific culture which may be related to one’s nationality, ethnicity, religion, education and social affiliation (Moha, 2005). Culture refers to having a common sense, and specific meanings, that form and explain why and how people and communities behave cognitively and affectively; culture anticipates what and how people are likely to do according to the particular social reality and beliefs (Berger, 1995). In the current study, Han’s cultural identity includes the traits Han shared with different groups related to her ethnicity, race and nationality.

As a Eurasian whose father is Chinese while mother is Belgium, and who had been educated in England for eight years, Han’s identity was inevitably influenced by both Chinese and European cultures. The analysis employs the partialness principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005), proposed to capture the relational, situational and fragmentary features of identity, as the analytical perspective, that is, identity is partially formed by individual’s long-established ideologies and partially by the situational performance of the self and the interlocutors. The following analysis is based on Han’s interactions with different interlocutors to see how Han displayed her multicultural identity in various contexts.

7.1 The partialness of Han’s multicultural identity displayed in her writing

The multicultural feature of Han’s identity was shown mostly in Han’s interactions with

168

Mark. The next exchange took place between Han and Mark during their first dinner after the preliminary construction of their friendship. The exchange in Extract 83 has occurred when Han responded to an observation by Mark regarding public schools in English, and the ties they created with Chinese public schools. They agreed that, in both English and Chinese schools, life was made easier when one met someone, anywhere in an official position, who had been to the same school. Han’s multicultural identity was displayed in part by her identification with Chinese and in part her familiarity with English university culture.

Extract 83 ‘It’s the same in China,’ I said. ‘We have the old school tie habit to an even greater extent, but with us it’s a university tie. I am prejudiced in favour of anyone who has been to my university. Even our marriages are often concocted in our co-educational universities. Because of the similarity of your public school code and our Confucian upbringing, I have always found Englishman predictable.’ [said Han] (Han, 1952, p. 38, Part 1: Onset, 5: The Mind’s Conjunction)

Han’s multi-cultural identity is apparent in her perceptions of English public school alumni culture after the topic was introduced by Mark. Han’s identification with Chinese is shown in the use of the first person plural pronoun “we” and she presents a knowledge of Chinese culture by pointing out the substantial sameness between the cultures of the university personal interrelationships of England and China. She also displayed her familiarity with English culture by “I have always found Englishman predictable”, in which the use of “always” semantically enhances the disclosure of her mastery of English culture. In this interaction, Han in part, explicitly, positioned as a Chinese in “we have the…” and “our Confucian upbringing”, and in part, unintentionally, revealed her knowledge of English culture, possibly an outcome of her eight years in England shortly before her arrival at Hong Kong. A deep understanding of the two cultures helps display the partial multicultural feature of Han’s cultural identity.

The multicultural feature of Han’s identity can also be observed in her ambivalent attitude towards the emerging love between her and Mark. Extract 84 took place after 169

Mark tentatively asked Han if there was any possibility for them to develop their relationship and to have a shared destiny. Han’s multicultural identity was displayed in her expression of her joy while, while simultaneously rejecting Mark.

Extract 84 I was delighted. Such a charming absurd thing to say, standing in the middle of a large crowd, on the Praya, with cars stuck to each other like a dilapidated concertina, and the last of all a truck full of Watson’s orangeade bottles! So I lifted a laughing face to his, feeling suddenly very tender, thinking it was all so comical, that he was talking, in jest, of omens and portents, and I replied: ‘Oh no, I am quite, quite sure, that we have no destiny together. Of that I am quite sure.’ (Han, 1952, p. 44, Part 1: Onset, 6: Destiny’s Puppy)

The exchange took place while Mark and Han were stuck on the road before their destination. Mark suddenly asked Han whether she thought there was any chance for them to have shared destiny in the future. Han indicated her emotional reaction to Mark’s question as “delighted” and described it as “charming” but “absurd” at the same time. As analysed in the previous sections, the cultural agreement between Han and Mark had been established in their early communications by talking about Mark’s experiences in China and the sameness in their occupations. “Delighted”, “charming” and “absurd” disclose the multicultural feature of Han’s identity: Whereas Han had been feeling emotionally close to Mark, so it was “charming” to have a possible “destiny together” with Mark, in traditional Chinese culture, women should not marry more than once in their lifetime, otherwise they will be deemed as unchaste. Han self- positioning as a Chinese and her Chinese cultural ideology prevented her from accepting a future “destiny together” with a foreign man, so she considered Mark’s thought of a “destiny together” as “absurd”.

The multicultural feature of Han’s identity is further displayed in her description of her feeling of a “destiny together” with Mark: in part, she felt “very tender”, and in part, she thought that was “so comical”. The two different cultural ideologies appeared to cause Han to feel ambivalent in her relationship with Mark. As argued by Pennycook

170

(2007), individuals’ overall identity construction is influenced by their contextual cultural norms, but which specific identity facets they reveal to others depends on their interactional choices. Han, for example, responded to Mark “with a laughing face” but refuted the possibility of the “destiny together” by a repeated “no”, and firmly confirming her answer by saying “quite sure” three times.

Han’s multicultural identity display is an outcome partly of her Chinese cultural notions and partly of her newly emergent love of Mark. It is evident that Han unintentionally showed her delightedness but deliberately negated the likelihood of their future relationship.

As shown in a number of fictional accounts (e.g., The Joy Luck Club, Tan, 1989: Crossings, Chuang, 1968), it is common for Chinese women, engaged in transnational situations, to fall in love with men of different ethnicities; in many situations, a love relationship with foreign men makes Chinese women painfully torn between love and their Chinese traditional cultural ideologies. Han frequently showed such ambivalence in her relationship with Mark. In Extract 85, Han narrated her mental activity after one week without seeing Mark. The bicultural feature of Han’s identity is evident.

Extract 85 It was like being kicked again and again in the belly, an experience I had endured years ago, when the secret police of the Kuomintang made a mistake in my identity. I knew exactly, looking at him [Mark], what the poets of my country and the Jews of the Bible meant when they spoke so vividly about the melting within the belly that is emotion. (Han, 1952, p. 76, Part 1: Onset, 12: The Nets of Fate)

The Chineseness and western cultural traits of Han are observed in “the poets of my country” and “the Jews of the Bible”. Han described her physical reaction at the moment when she saw Mark. While the feeling of “like being kicked again and again in the belly” showed Han’s strong emotion for Mark, she was familiar with this feeling because it was similar to what she remembered from an experience “years ago” with her ex-husband (the “secret police of the Kuomintang”). Han then connected this 171

feeling with both the literature of Chinese and the west represented by “the poets of my country” and “the Jews of the Bible” respectively. The two cultural references exemplify Han’s identities associated with the two cultures.

Although Han’s self-positioned ethnic identity as Chinese is explicitly performed by her words “my country”, her concept of “emotion” was explained by a metaphorical expression “melting within the belly” from both cultures. The same pattern of manifestations of “emotion” in the two cultures helps reveals the multicultural feature of Han’s identity.

In this narrative, Han’s interpretation of her experience appears to be a result partially of her local interaction with Mark and partially of the activation of her memory of her ex-husband. Han’s multicultural identity was activated part by her awareness of the common ground of the two cultures, Chinese and the west. Her emotional response due to her feelings for Mark, an English man, and the intensity of her reaction to her experience with her ex-husband were similar. It appears that Han’s experiences of both the west and Chinese were part of Han’s multicultural identity.

The multicultural aspect of Han’s identity is evident also in her communication with Mark and their interaction involved obvious specific cultural elements as in Extract 86.

Extract 86 ‘Oh, dear one, I’ve dreamed, so often I have dreamed of your head next to mine, sharing the same pillow,’ said he [Mark]. ‘You’ve cribbed that from a Chinese poem, and I don’t use a pillow,’ I replied. (Han, 1952, p. 89, Part 1: Onset, 14: Macao Weed-end)

Han immediately recognized that Mark’s dream, expressing his love for Han, was based on a classic Chinese literary quotation describing a picture of “sharing the same pillow” with Han. Han then directly pointed out that the dream Mark depicted was “cribbed” from “a Chinese poem”. In ancient Chinese culture, the image of “sharing the same pillow” by a man and a woman was the representative of a couple’s precious love. Some

172

classic literature works, e.g., A Collection of Poems of Ming Dynasty (2011), use this image as a conceptual metaphor, such as the idioms “同床共枕 (pinyin: tong chuang gong zhen; English translation: lying on the same bed, using the same pillow)” and “百世修来同船渡，千世修来共枕眠 (pinyin: bai shi xiu lai tong chuan du, qian shi xiu lai gong zhen mian; English translation: a hundred years’ of effort brings about the luck of riding on the same boat, a thousand years’ effort brings about the luck of sleeping on the same pillow).”

Han’s multicultural identity is evident in part through the immediate and instinctive awareness of the association between Mark’s dream and the conventional Chinese conceptual image related to Han’s Chinese cultural identity and, in part, through Han’s language style “you’ve…, and I don’t…” featured a non-hedging and direct tone, which is different from traditional Chinese women’s communicative style, especially when interacting with their beloved men (Gunn, 1991). As argued by Chen (1962) and Keenan (1995), traditional Chinese women, born in the 1910s China (Han was born in 1912) during which feudalism still existed, were uneducated, humble and tended to be compliant to men all the time.

Even though self-identified as a traditional Chinese woman, Han unintentionally revealed a multicultural aspect of her identity. Whereas she took a knowledgeable stance on Chinese literature, she was also direct in her speech and showed no subservience to the man she loved, more typical of a woman educated in a western cultural context. Her multicultural identity was also apparent in her boldness in expressing her love to Mark publicly, as shown by Extract 5. In Extract 87, Han’s multicultural identity was displayed partly by Mark’s comments on her ethnicity and partly by her rejection of the impact of probable unfriendly comments by others about their relationship.

Extract 87 ‘I know,’ he [Mark] said, ‘that when I, a foreigner, take you out, a Chinese girl, and we are

173

nearly always the only mixed couple, both fairly well known in Hongkong, and everyone looks at you because you are beautiful, it is not good for your career.’ ‘But it’s you everyone looks at and I’m not worried about my career. I am so proud of you that I want to stand on the roof of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank and shout: Look at me. I am the woman that Mark Elliott professes to love.’ [said Han] (Han, 1952, p. 94, Part 1: Onset, 16: The House of Wisdom)

Mark pointed out the ethnic difference between them as “a foreigner” and “a Chinese girl” who were “the only mixed couple” in Hong Kong and that, as they were both locally “well known”, their close relationship could be harmful to Han’s profession. Han dispelled Mark’s worry by showing her she did not care about her profession but about their love. Han expressed her fearlessness in disclosing their relationship to the public by emotionally declaring she was “so proud of you” and her eagerness to show off herself as “the woman the Mark professes to love” publicly.

In this interaction, Han’s identity was partially accounted for in that her identity as Chinese was contrasted, ethnically, with Mark, and in part, her westernized cultural identity was unintentionally revealed by her boldness to express her love, regardless of others’ comments. Zurndorfer (2014) argued that there is a long history of patriarchal culture in China within which traditional Chinese women had no freedom and were compelled to obey their father and husband. As Hofstede (1980) claimed, in Chinese collective culture, love relationships and marriages are not only individuals’ responsibility but are also the responsibility of their whole family. In contrast, Han’s public display of her love is more typical of the western individualism. Based on the Chinese patriarchal and collectivistic culture, Han’s behaviour, freely pursuing and expressing her love with little concern about others’ comments, portray her identity as partially westernized.

The multicultural aspect of Han’s identity is also observed in her account of her thoughts after Mark told her that their plan to marry would be cancelled because Mark decided to leave China and go to Singapore for work. In Extract 88 Han behaves as a traditional Chinese woman in referring to Confucius. 174

Extract 88 I would treat this in the Chinese manner of a classical play; perform formal, detached, hieratic gestures, each one symbolic, with a meaning beyond its performance, yet only a gesture. In an instant the formulae were there. My mind went back to the old books, to the Classics I had droned: The Master said: ‘Yu, shall I teach you what knowledge is? When you know a thing, to recognize that you know it; when you do not know a thing, to recognize you do not. That is knowledge.’ Back, back my mind went, to the Book of Rites and Ceremonies: ‘Man and woman do not sit in the same room, do not hang their clothes on the same hook; they do not pass an object from hand to hand.’ (Han, 1952, p. 175, Part 2: Progress, 8: Mark)

Being informed that the dream of marrying Mark could not come true, Han chose to honourably use “the Chinese manner” to behave in front of Mark. The essence of “a classical play” was described by Han as “formal”, “detached” and “hieratic”. Han interpreted each gesture in the play as “only a gesture” but “symbolic” with “meaning”, according to which Han would adopt to perform herself to Mark. These principles, full of Chinese influences, also reminded Han of her past experiences of reading Chinese “old books” and “the Classics.” Han quoted one line in the “Analects of Confucius (论语，pinyin：linyin),” one of “the Classics” in Chinese history in which the conversations between Confucius, who was referred as “The Master,” and his students are collected. The original Chinese of The Master’s line Han quoted is: “子曰：“由，诲女知之乎！知之为知之，不知为不知，是知也 (pinyin: zi yue: hui nv zhi zhi hu! Zhi zhi wei zhi zhi, bu zhi wei bu zhi, shi zhi ye)。” This line is the most frequently quoted guideline for Chinese people to regulate their attitude towards knowledge, and Han also treated it as “the formulae” to guide her behaviour.

Han also quoted a line in “The Book of Rites and Ceremonies(礼记; pinyin: Li Ji),” which is another Chinese masterpiece describing the social conventional rites and ceremonies of Zhou dynasty. The original Chinese of which Han quoted is: “男女不杂坐，不同椸，不同巾栉，不亲授（nan nn bu za zuo, bu tong yi, bu tong jin zhi, bu qin shou）。 ” This line is often used by Chinese people to define the strict boundaries in the interactions between male and female. Han employed this line to regularize her behaviour. 175

Han once again quoted another line in “The Book of Rites and Ceremonies,” of which the original Chinese is “今人而无礼，虽能言，不亦禽兽之心乎？夫唯禽兽无礼，

故父子聚。是故圣人作，为礼以教人，使人以有礼，知自别于禽兽（pinyin: jin ren er wu li, sui neng yan, bu yi qin shou zhi xin hu? Fu wei qin shou wu li, gu fu zi ju. Shi zuo sheng ren gu, wei li yi jiao ren, shi ren yi you li, zhi zi bie yu qin shou）。 ” This line tells people of the substantial differences between human being and animals, and that people should have the capability to regulate the self and not be subject to impulses like animals. Han quoted these lines from the most ancient masterpieces to know how to behave in front of Mark. Han’s stance, aligning with the Chinese tradition, helps to display her Chinese cultural identity.

In comparison to her fearlessness in exposing her relationship with Mark shown in Extract 5, in this narrative Han exhibited a response more typical of a traditional Chinese woman concerned with Chinese traditional conventions. Han’s contrasting identity displays when confronting the same person but in different contexts shows that her identity is emergent and fluid. As argued, identity is not a natural phenomenon but an individual’s contextual performance highly dependent on the negotiation between the narrator and the contexts (De Fina & Georgakopoulou, 2008). It is interesting to see that after Han quoted these lines, and showed the tendency to adopt them as her behavioural principle, she expressed a challenge to these notions which related in Extract 89.

Extract 89 The old books, prescribing so minutely, so rigidly the behaviour of man in all phases of life, every hour of the day, from the moment of rising, and even during sleep. All life ritual, existence a ceremonial. For animals are slaves of their impulses, but man has propriety to rule himself. And I wondered what Confucius would have answered if I had approached him respectfully, and asked his advice on the way I should handle this situation. What would the Master have replied? I dared not think. (Han, 1952, p. 175, Part 2: Progress, 8: Mark)

To Han, these lines as very “minutely” taught people what and how to do “in all phases

176

of life”. It seemed that Han thought it was the right way to behave in light of these didactic texts. Han also showed her respect to Confucius and grammatically used the subjunctive mood to imagine the face-to-face communication between her and Confucius on her situation. It is argued that Chinese people show more reliance on authoritative classics in solving local problems (Matalene, 1985) and appear to be used to quoting ancient proverbs and classic lines (Peng & Nisbett, 1999). By quoting classic Chinese masterpieces and granting these texts as her own behavioural regulation and showing her respect to Confucius, Han performed her Chinese cultural identity.

However, as a self-positioned Chinese who was supposed to follow what “Analects of Confucius” and “the Book of Rites and Ceremonies” taught people, Han unconsciously disclosed her western cultural identity in challenging these Chinese classics. Han superficially responded modestly by saying she “dared not think” what Confucius would advise her to do if she was face-to-face with him. Nonetheless, if Han had already regarded these texts as standards of behaviour, there would be no necessity for this communication to take place. In the age of Confucius (551 BC – 479 BC), women were not supposed to step out of their home, let alone have any contact with teachers like Confucius, and it was, not until the civil service examination in 1901 was abolished that women were allowed officially to attend school (Elman, 1994; You, 2005),. At the time of Han’s writing, before the PRC establishment, women in China were seldom given the chance to study. As the subjunctive mood of “what Confucius would have answered” pragmatically disclosed, there would never be any possibility for Han to ask Confucius, even if Han and Confucius had been born in the same era, because of the feudalism of the time.

In the extract, Han demonstrates her Chinese cultural identity by searching for the right answer to her current situation in classic Chinese literature, showing her respect to Confucius. At the same time, by challenging the Chinese masterpieces and standards of behaviours, Han’s western cultural identity is unintentionally revealed. As argued by Tweed and Lehman (2002), Chinese culture is rooted on Confucianism, which focuses 177

more on the acquisition of knowledge and meaning rather than generation or innovation. Chinese people tend to respect, honour and admire authoritative figures, seldom challenging or doubting them. Han’s challenge of the Chinese traditional culture suggests that her westernized cultural identity has been influenced by her doctoral study in England on her and.

The eight years’ of Han’s medicine study in England was also conducive to her t falling in love with Mark. Although western education had not changed Han’s Chinese cultural identity, it would be appropriate to say that Han’s identity had been extended with more facets. Extract 90 is another interaction between Han and Mark that took place after Mark told Han he would leave Hong Kong and could not marry Han. Han displayed her attitude towards her love with Mark from different cultural points of view.

Extract 90 And when he talked of what lay in front of us, tried to reason why he could not relinquish me, I spoke against myself. ‘But I have nothing to hold you, nothing at all. Is love reason enough to inflict pain and suffering?’ I said it was Hongkong, the beauty of it, the fortuitous occasion, circumstance. ‘Had we met in London some years ago, we would not have fallen in love; we might never have plucked up enough courage to go out together in Chungking.’ Every word against our madness. Every gesture delicate surrender to his will. (Han, 1952, p. 178, Part 2: Progress, 8: Mark)

Although Mark had already decided to leave Hong Kong for Singapore to work, he showed his reluctance to separate from Han. Han responded to Mark by taking a stance that implied there was no bond between them because they belonged to different cultural communities by saying “I have nothing to hold you”. Han used the emotional expression “spoke against myself” to show the conflict between their love and their position of incompatible cultural identity. To Han, the context of Hong Kong was “beauty” and “fortuitous”, implying it was only in Hong Kong that the love between her and Mark could occur and develop.

As a Chinese, Han did not identify either herself or Mark as Hong Kong locals. She implied that neither London, Mark’s hometown, nor Chungking, where Han’s family

178

was located and to which Han was dreaming of getting back soon, would afford them to fall in love. It was Hong Kong, with its multicultural social climate that gave them the illusion that they could marry. If Han were back in mainland China, living within her own cultural communities, she would not have the freedom to love and would have to “surrender” to the local cultures. Her love for Mark might have been seen as “madness”.

As Ting-Toomey (1999) suggested, individuals need their membership with some specific groups all the time. Therefore, people always negotiate their identities to assimilate with the mainstream culture group and regulate their behaviours to match with local contextual climates. Identifying as Chinese, Han might not have allowed herself to love Mark if they were living in Chungking. The negotiation of one’s identity according to the changing contexts indicates that contexts play a crucial role in one’s identity performance. In Extract 91, Han described how her identity was perceived by different cultural contexts and in what ways these social perceptions had impacted her.

Extract 91 I told him, beforehand, what would be said and used against me by some people. ‘I am a Eurasian. It only means that my mother was European, my father Chinese; in China no one ever thinks of me but as Chinese, but it is not the same with your colonial English. The English of the colonies and the concessions made it a shame and an inferiority to be a Eurasian; perhaps because there are so many of them in India. They will jump at the word, and never think of me as a person at all. It may be bad for your career.’ [said Han] (Han, 1952, p. 178, Part 2: Progress, 8: Mark)

Han presupposed the comments which English and Chinese might make “against” her identity. Genetically Han was “a Eurasian” and this hybridity of her race caused ta dilemma for her in positioning her identity. While Han’s identity was perceived as nothing “but as Chinese” in China because of the Chinese father-oriented culture (as illustrated by Jaschok and Miers, 1994), her Eurasian identity was viewed as “a shame and an inferiority” by some English people. People who are ethnocentric see themselves as the best ethnicity and the framework of reference for other ethnicities (Gudykunst & Kim, 2003; Neuliep & McCroskey, 1997).

179

Han referred to these English people as “your colonial English” and “the English of the colonies and the concessions”, pointing out the English colonial status in Hong Kong, including Mark with the English. Han described how these English had hurt her by stigmatizing her with language because of her racial hybridity and never treating her “as a person at all”. Because of the prejudice of English people against her, Han thought her Eurasian identity could negatively influence Mark, and, as she said, “may be bad for your career”.

In China, Han and Mark were not able to be together because the social positioning of Han as a Chinese who ought not to date a foreigner; in England, Han was treated as inferior who was not qualified to be together with Mark, the entirely white man. In the extract, Han’s racial and ethnic identity is positioned differently according to the place and social contexts: in Hong Kong, Han is multicultural and could fall in love with a racially different man; in Chungking and London, Han and Mark should never be together because of their different racial and cultural positioning.

Han’s identity was partially an outcome of her genetic properties, partially the product of the influence of the local ideologies and partially an outcome of socio-cultural perceptions. As argued by Wodak (1999), individuals’ cultural identity construction is always being negotiated according to their social interactions with various interlocutors in various situations. The dynamic nature of Han’s identity is evident when a change of the contexts occurred. As shown in Extract 92, Han presumed it would be a hard situation if she and Mark married and went to China together. Han’s multicultural identity is the result of her strong attachment to Chinese as well as her recognition of her partially westernized ideologies.

Extract 92 ‘True or not, we cannot go to China together like this. You are working for an imperialist paper in a bourgeois democracy. A potential reactionary, a possible spy. You will probably get to Peking if and when your government is recognized by, and recognizes New China. Like all men of calm 180

and vision, you also urge recognition. But you are a newspaperman, always suspect, always to be watched. And if I have anything to do with you, we shall both be suspected. It will be bad for your work. I too, am born wrong, a potential reactionary, a potential saboteur of the New China. I also am of that bourgeois class which will have to be re-educated in the People’s Democratic Dictatorship. Not a proletarian, my saving grace is medicine, and poverty. But my thoughts must be changed, my heart purified, my soul renewed. It is as you said. I shall have to cut out great portions of myself. I shall have to give you up.’ [said Han] (Han, 1952, p. 216, Part 2: Progress, 12: The Squirrel Cage)

Han directly indicates the contrast in identity between her and Mark if they lived in China. As an English newspaperman who was working for “a potential reactionary” paper, Mark would probably be under surveillance by the Chinese government all the time. Han then positioned her identity as, in part, westernized with a western bourgeois cultured mind and thus would be similarly treated as “a potential saboteur of the New China”. If her western education background made the new Chinese government disqualified her Chinese identity, she would be “re-educated,” parts of her thought would be “changed,” her heart would be “purified” and her soul “renewed”. If Han chose to live in China without being suspected and watched, she must prove herself to the Chinese government that she was a pure Chinese without having been brainwashed by the western bourgeois.

In an analysis of the possible situation which Han might face in China, Han’s identity is multiple-layered. On the one hand, she self-positioned as a member of the western “bourgeois class”, and culturally identified with Mark; on the other hand, she displayed her Chineseness by firmly choosing to give up Mark in order to be back in China working for Chinese people. Her partial western cultural identity and partial Chinese identity are shown in her last utterance. Despite her decision to affiliate with China, her overall identity consisted of different parts, of which a large portion was associated with Mark as a result of her western education. Han’s multifaceted identity is also described straightforwardly by Mark in Extract 93, with Han confirming Mark’s understanding of her and expressing her gratitude to him.

Extract 93

181

And as I stood in the garden, smelling the full soft night, I heard Mark’s voice again, clear and tender and light: ‘The multiple you — I never know which you it is going to be next time I see you — do go on being unpredictable, and I shall stick to my predictability’… the gay mocking true words. Would anyone else ever find me out so quickly, accept me so completely? For this I would open all my worlds to him, the thousand and one ways of looking at the one thing, the many faceted, the rainbow diffraction that magicked splendour into every fragment of life. Then if one of our worlds was invaded by the deluge of the mediocre, who in the name of reality deface and destroy, we would flee into another, and thus always remain ourselves, never doomed, as others are, to give our souls in bondage and join the howling pack. (Han, 1952, p. 110, Part 2: Progress, 2: My Sister Suchen)

After Han’s self-examination of each facet of her identity, she recalled Mark’s understanding of her as “multiple” and “unpredictable”. Han expressed her agreement with Mark using emotional expressions such as “soft”, “clear and tender” and “gay”. Han differentiated Mark from other people since Mark was the only person to know Han “so quickly” and accept her “so completely”. The quick and complete intersubjective identification of Mark with Han also encouraged Han to identify with and get close to Mark, to show and share her different and “many faceted” “worlds” to Mark. To Han, Mark’s uniqueness was his complete understanding of f Han’s dynamic identity.

In contrast with the “torture” she had just felt, Han evaluated the multilayered feature of her identity positively in this narrative by comparing it to “the rainbow diffraction that magicked splendour into every fragment of life”. The advantage of having different facets was to give her opportunities to choose between them but to “always remain” herself. It is argued by Bhatia and Ram (2009) that transnational individuals always make meaning of their local identities by changing their performances according to different cultural settings. As a transnational Eurasian, Han showed her pride in having many sides to her overall identity by commenting that other people were “doomed to” give their souls “in bondage” and to lose themselves. The partial feature of Han’s identity associated with many cultures emerged in Han’s love with Mark as well as her acceptance of her life with “every fragment”.

182

As observed, Han’s multicultural identity is exhibited in her interactions with Mark, the ethnic English man who is familiar with Chinese culture. Han’s multicultural identity also appears in her interactions with Suzanne, her Eurasian acquaintance who is the same, racially, as Han. Extract 94 is an interaction that took place between Han and Suzanne, who stayed with Han in the Catholic Convent nearly twenty years before. When Han met Suzanne in Hong Kong, Suzanne asked her what had happened during the last twenty years. Han’s response displays different facets of her overall identity by self-positioning and comparing herself with Suzanne in regards to their very different past experiences.

Extract 94 ‘I went to a Chinese University. I toured Europe. I came back to China. I married and I was inland, in Chungking, during the war. We went to England, my husband and I...I finished medicine in England. I have a child.’ My life compacted of many fragmentary lives, each one a separate, private identity: undergoing many changes, yet always mine. ‘But I’m not interesting, tell me about you.’ I was avid for her story, the life of a Eurasian like myself, co-inmate of that expensive Convent where, to please my mother, I had spent two years of my life learning French, useless manners, and to hate Europeans. A world of myself when very young which I had left so completely. She was still linked to it; all of it, in her mind, a pleasurable memory. Because of those Convent days our lives had now crossed and would influence each other. (Han, 1952, p. 61, Part 1: Onset, 10: Suzanne)

Han used simple sentences in a statement tone to conclude each fragment of her experiences in both China and Europe during the past twenty years. Each “separate, private identity” of Han represented one facet of her identity and all of these facets together constituted her overall identity. Even though “many changes” occurred, each facet of Han’s identity is genuine since the identity as a wife, a widow, a mother, a Chinese undergraduate, and an English medical student was “always mine”.

Han then positioned herself as “a Eurasian” by showing her sameness with Suzanne in their racial identity. Han pointed out that, even though she was the same racially as Suzanne, she refused to recognize her European side as one facet of her identity. She referred negatively to French culture, saying that she had spent two years studying in the Convent, learning French, “useless manners” and to “hate Europeans”. Han

183

indicated that she and Suzanne had different associations with a European world: to Han, the European world had been “left so completely” while Suzanne “was still linked to” and was missing it “in her mind”. In other words, even though both Han and Suzanne were Eurasian, their self-identification with their European side was different.

In this extract, Han portrays her multicultural identity by listing each facet of her identities constructed in her past twenty years and compared her different attitude towards their European ethnicity with Suzanne. Despite their differences, Han admitted that, because of the shared experiences in the Catholic Convent, their lives “had now crossed and would influence each other”. As suggested by Kramsch and Whiteside (2008), as long as individuals have an awareness that they have identities, their performance of identity is not only a matter of their personal ideology display but also a product of their exchange with others. Similarly, Han’s identity is shown to be a fragmented product: it had been constructed in part by her personal choice of her cultural identity as disassociated with her European side, and in part by the influence of her interactions with other people. In Extract 95, Han describes how Suzanne’s ideologies influenced her, and how Han’s attitudinal change towards her life and her relationship with Mark help her multicultural identity emerge.

Extract 95 Suzanne changed her mind too often to marry. Her hands rose and fell, fingers curling outwards, her laughing mouth exonerating the mutability of her affections. ‘My life seems to have been a succession of love affairs.’ And again ripples of laughter ran through her. I was rapt with envy. It sounded such an insubstantial occurrence in her laughing voice: a thing of no importance, a pleasant pastime. Why was it not so with me? Why did I have to be the way I was? (Han, 1952, p. 62, Part 1: Onset, 10: Suzanne)

On the one hand, Han showed her negative attitude towards Suzanne’s style in relationships by pragmatically using the expression “too often to marry”; on the other hand, Han displayed her “envy” of Suzanne. Suzanne’s positioned her love affairs with different men as “a thing of no importance, a pleasant time”, while Han chose to confirm her identity as a “Chinese” and “a good family girl” (Han, 1952, p. 37) who

184

was conservative and treated a love relationship as a serious decision. The last two sentences of the extract reveal that the contrasting attitudes towards their love affairs made Han begin to re-examine her past life and notions: Why could she not live like Suzanne? Why could she not give up her orthodox value and then be happy to enjoy love?

As reported by Han, Suzanne’s father was English, which made her ethnically English, but she was culturally French because of her French education. Suzanne even showed her understanding of Englishmen as sentimental, without imagination in love and formal. By contrast, Suzanne was fond of Frenchmen who were taken to be the safely married ones because they were always looking for the romantic episode in a satisfactory unromantic existence. The interaction in extract 96 took place after Han had analysed the factors that had contributed to the difference between herself and Suzanne in their attitudes towards love relationships, even though they had the same racial identity.

Extract 96 ‘Did you never, well, have a Chinese?’ [said Han] ‘No,’ said Suzanne promptly. ‘They don’t appeal to me.’ How odd, I thought, that there should be this feeling about race. I could not have dreamt of being touched by a foreigner. Until Mark… But Suzanne was opening new vistas to me. (Han, 1952, p. 63, Part 1: Onset, 10: Suzanne)

Despite Suzanne’s genetically biracial identity, Han pointed out the influence of a French education on Suzanne, which determined her cultural identity as affiliated to the French. Suzanne always chose Frenchmen to fall in love with; she had no interest in Chinese or English men, who were more aligned with her racial identity. As Dörnyei (2005) and Gu (2001a) indicated, education plays an important role, especially for multilingual individuals, in the development of their cultural identity. The role education plays in one’s identity lies not only through teachers’ instructions but also in cultural negotiations between peers day after day. For both Han and Suzanne, their cultural identity is a product of their early education, which for Han was in her Chinese 185

community while for Suzanne was with her French peers.

The background to Suzanne’s cultural identity construction background made Han aware of their different principles in choosing a man to love. Whereas Han tended to take “race” into consideration and could not accept “being touched by a foreigner”, Suzanne only cared about whether the men “appeal to” her without regard to race. Han’s ideology was an emblem of Chinese traditional culture, in which women were not supposed to date a man without her family’s consent (Chong, 2008), in contrast to Suzanne’s attitude. It appears that the exchange with Suzanne challenged Han’s existing ideologies and, to use Han’s own words, Suzanne’s experiences and attitudes was “opening new vistas” for Han. Han’s bicultural identify is disclosed partly by her commitment to her Chinese cultural ideology and partly by the influence of Suzanne’s different ideology during their interaction. Han seemed to re-think about her identity as shown in Extract 97.

Extract 97 And as she [Suzanne] went, I felt withered, unused, avaricious of myself. I went back to the Hospital and stretched on the bed. One name hammered at me with each heartbeat of my heart. I stripped and looked at myself in the mirror a long long time. I was unhappy for nearly an hour. (Han, 1952, p. 65, Part 1: Onset, 10: Suzanne)

It is obvious that Han’s interaction with Suzanne caused her to reconsider her ideology in regard to race and love relationships. Compared with Suzanne, Han depicted herself, metaphorically: as a flower, “withered”; as land, “unused”; starved and “avaricious”. In contrast with Suzanne’s, life which blossomed with love affairs, Han’s life had seldom been nourished by love, which she pretended never to desire. Han’s intense emotional feeling for Mark is evident in “each heartbeat” she felt when Mark’s name of “hammered at” her. The re-examination of the positioning of her identity appears to be the product of Suzanne’s influence.

The tentativeness of Han’s identity positioning is displayed by her description of her

186

actions such as “I stripped and looked at myself in the mirror a long long time”. She had time and private space to scrutinize the person she really was, what she really wanted, and whether her prior self-positioning was genuine. After the scrutiny, Han felt “unhappy for nearly an hour”, which implies that she was unsatisfied with her current life and her attitude towards her pent-up love for Mark. There appears to be a conflict between Han’s social identity, a traditional Chinese woman who was only meant to be in love with Chinese men, and her desire for a deep relationship with Mark, an English man.

In the exchange with Suzanne, Han’s cultural identity is shown to be a partial account: her Chinese cultural identity is exhibited by her long-established traditional Chinese ideology, and her European cultural identity is subconsciously revealed by her acceptance of Suzanne’s cultural ideology influenced by her French education. In addition, Suzanne’s preference for French men, and Han’s relationship with Mark, also show that one’s identity is not an outcome only of genetic race but also the subsequently acquired and selected cultural features (Hermans & Hermans-Konopka, 2010). Han’s multicultural identity feature is exhibited by her identification with Suzanne’s ideologies as well as her emotional feelings for Mark.

As well as her interactions with Mark and Suzanne, who had European and Chinese cultural backgrounds, Han’s exchange with the other American people confirmed her multicultural identity. The next exchange took place between Han and Anne Richards, Han’s American friend who had been working in Hong Kong for a long time. Anne showed her understanding of Han’s fragmented identity as belonging to both worlds in that she read, wrote, spoke and thought in both western and Chinese ways. Anne also commented on Han as a person who can always explain the meaning beyond the words others hear and at times can feel “torn in two”. Anne was concerned about Han’s torment between the two cultures because of her relationship with Mark, and that Han found loving Mark had not helped her feel her identity was more integrated. Extract 98 is Han and Anne’s dialogue in which her agreement with Anne discloses her 187

multicultural identity.

Extract 98 ‘I wonder,’ said Anne, ‘what it must be like for you, Suyin, at this moment. You who belong to both worlds, who read and write and speak and think both ways. You who can always explain the meaning beyond the words we hear. You must be absolutely torn in two. And loving Mark does not make it better, does it?’ ‘I am torn all the time. And loving Mark makes it terrible.’ [said Han] (Han, 1952, p. 229, Part 2: Progress, 13: Starting Points)

Anne pointed out that there were identity choices for Han but also showed her uncertainty about which was the better option during the particular political climate in China. Anne judged Han to be a multicultural person who belonged to both Chinese and European worlds, and that the two cultural systems helped Han see, and interpret, things in “both ways”. In comparison to Anne, Han’s multicultural ideology gave her the ability to think and articulate the deeper meanings of words. Anne considered this as the reason that tore Han mentally into two, a tension that had not been relieved by Han’s relationship with Mark.

Han agreed with Anne’s interpretation of her, confirming her dual cultural mindset by s describing herself as “torn all the time”, a feeling that had been only aggravated by her love for Mark. In the exchange with Anne, Han exhibited her multicultural identity partially by agreeing with Anne’s positioning of her and partially through her self- examination.

As well as her interaction with Anne, Han’s multicultural identity can be observed in her response to Evelyn, who she met at a party in Hong Kong. Extract 99 is Han’s response after Evelyn, an English administrator looking after Chinese students financially sponsored by the English government, expressed her lack of understanding of Chinese students from the United States returning to Shanghai. The first thing these Chinese students did after they were back in China was to launch fiery attacks, in the newspapers, about the imperialism of the country in which they had studied. They

188

confessed to the Chinese government that they had been seduced by corrupt, perverse, reactionary thoughts, and this had frightened Evelyn. Han’s cultural identity related to both Chinese and English is exhibited by her response to Evelyn.

Extract 99 ‘Oh, I supposed it’s a phase,’ said I. ‘The attacks are propaganda, part of the policy to eradicate the hold of American influence on our educational system. All our revolutions have been marked by anti-foreign feeling; xenophobia is always latent in China, and is due to our ever-present recall of oppression and humiliation; we, like the Irish, have historical memories. I think all missionaries will have to go, for today China is fiercely pro-itself, and will not let its higher education be under foreigners again. It’s as if Oxford and Cambridge were run by Chinese dons and Buddhist monks.’ (Han, 1952, p. 150, Part 2: Progress, 6: Hongkong Profiles)

Evelyn expressed her incomprehension that Chinese students, who had been educated in the United States, could verbally attack and condemn the country as soon as they returned to China. Han responded by attributing what Evelyn had described of these students to “a phase”. Han showed her comprehension of these students were defending “our educational system”. She interpreted what these students had done as strategic “propaganda” and “the policy to eradicate the hold of American influence”. The use of the first person pronoun “our” three times, and “we” once, showed Han’s identity as culturally aligning with China. To rationalize the inexplicable behaviour of these students for foreigners, Han attributed their “anti-foreign feeling” and “xenophobia” of the Chinese to the “ever-present recall of oppression and humiliation”. Han even predicted that the western missionaries would lose their presence in China because China was now, “fiercely pro-itself” and “will not let its higher education be under foreigners again”. Her deep understanding and rationalization of these things occurring in China expressed Han’s cultural attachment to China.

Han’s comparison of the Chinese and the Irish in terms of their similar “historical memories” indicates Han’s bicultural identity enabling her understanding of both Chinese and “the Irish” histories. Han pointed out the similarity between the Chinese rejection of a foreign educational system and the English attitude to “Oxford and Cambridge,” the two top universities in England. Just as the Chinese would no longer 189

let foreigners influence its higher education just as England would not let “Chinese dons and Buddhist monks” control their university systems.

In this interaction, Han’s multicultural identity is exhibited partially by rationalizing the foreigners’ perceived ungratefulness of Chinese students as a phase of resistance and partially by as associating the Chinese experiences with both the Irish and the English histories and ideology. Han’s multicultural identity is apparent partially in her instinctive alignment with Chinese students and partially in the intentional stand she takes with the interlocutor, Evelyn, who was English. Han’s alignment with Evelyn is an example of her use of social identity strategy ((Bernache-Assollant, Lacassagne & Braddock, 2007; De Fina, 2013) to meet her communicative goal, that is, to encourage Evelyn to agree with her. The influence of both the long-established Chinese ideology and the western culture on Han’s identity can also be identified in Extract 100. In this episode, after she went back to Chungking to see her family, she describes her thought process after her younger sister Suchen refused to see her at night. Han’s bicultural identity is evident in her hesitation as to whether she should insist on seeing Suchen or not.

Extract 100 This was a rebuff. It was midnight, by Western standards too late for a visit. But Suchen knew that I was coming. By our standards she was younger than I and should welcome me at any hour. In China there is no such thing as set hours for visits. I had often flung myself out of bed for late- coming friends. For a moment I pondered. Should I retrieve my half-frayed dignity with a semi- casual gesture, as of straightening a fold in a curtain, and go? That would be the right thing to do. Or should I insist? Small Liu and the porter waited and watched. (Han, 1952, p. 111, Part 2: Progress, 2: My Sister Suchen)

Although Han took into account that Suchen was living in a foreign house, and thus might have assimilated western standards, she considered that Suchen should welcome a visit from Han, her Chinese elder sister, “at any hour”, according to the Chinese expectations. Although Han’s bicultural identity helps her apply her common sense, based on European culture, to understand Suchen’s refusal to see her late at night, she

190

naturally, and instinctively, adopted Chinese culture, in which the younger should always respect the older sibling within a family. Han gave an example of herself, who “had often flung herself out of bed for late-coming friends”, to show her Chinese cultural identity.

Because of her two cultures, Han “pondered” her decision. Han unintentionally displayed her European cultural identity as she thought she should respect Suchen and “retrieve my half-frayed dignity with a semi-casual gesture” by leaving politely. Her Chinese cultural identity, however, also emerged. Within Chinese culture, it was Suchen who did the impolite thing in rejecting Han, especially in the circumstance that an onlooker, Small Liu, who was not their family member, “waited and watched,” so Han thought she should not withdraw but “insist” because of her “dignity”.

Han’s multicultural identity is shown to be multiple-layered in this narrative. As indicated by a large body of literature, one individual may display particular facets of his/her identity by using a range of strategies to manipulate and negotiate their identity performance in different contexts (Grice, 2002; Zagenczyk, Gibney, Timothy & Scott, 2011). Here Han appeared to be pondering which responses to make: should she insist or give up; should she respect her younger sister or to comply with her Chinese cultural expectations. Either choice would be influenced by the identity facet she would like to exhibit at this moment. Han’s multicultural identity exhibition was an outcome partially of ideologies constructed related to the two cultures and partially because of negotiation with other interlocutors within the local context.

Before Han’s younger sister Suchen departed for America, Han asked her what she was going to do in America. Suchen replied that she would be happy and never come back to China because she was tired of the terror, disease, hunger, and misery, and, for a long time, always seeing poor people around her. Extract 101 is an exchange between Han and Suchen at Hong Kong Airport. Han’s cultural identity is displayed as a partial account by her firm determination to stay in China as well as the unintentional exposure 191

of her Western cultural ideology.

Extract 101 “Many of our friends and the people we grew up with are now leaving China with no intention of ever coming back. You live in the stars, Suyin, who think otherwise. I never want to be insecure and frightened again.’ [said Suchen] Everyone wanted security. Security no longer a word, but a deity, a life-demanding god. I could not worship or dedicate myself to it; I could only hang in precarious balance between Mark and China. (Han, 1952, p. 222, Part 2: Progress, 13: Starting Points)

Instead of complaining about her life in China as being full of misery and insecurity Suchen saw America as the paradise which could give her happiness. She aligned herself with a lot of her friends in terms of their hatred of China, and Han, as one of those who “think otherwise”. Suchen’s misalignment with Han highlights Han’s attachment to China. Han confirms her otherness from Suchen, and Suchen’s friends who wanted to escape from China and find a place of “security”. Han expressed her disagreement with such people with her attitude towards “security”, which would be gained by leaving China and living in other countries. She used the words “deity” and “god” contemptuously to refer to ‘security’. Instead of deciding to “worship or dedicate” herself to “security”, Han would rather live up to her ideals of dedicating herself to the Chinese people, as she had stated repeatedly.

Han’s Chinese identity is displayed by not aligning with people who were leaving China. At the same time, her words “deity” and “god” which are generally associated with western religion unintentionally revealed her western cultural identity. Han showed her u interpreted the “security” most people were longing for as similar to the “god” which is the spiritual icon of almost all western people but not Chinese. In addition, the “balance between Mark and China”, which Han was trying to keep, also showed that Han’s cultural identity as being partially associated with China and partially attached to English Mark. In the interaction with Suchen, the portrayal of Han’s multicultural identity can be seen in her attachment with China as well as her western cultural thoughts.

192

Han’s Chinese cultural identity, as well as her attachment to Mark, can also be observed in her communication with Mei, Han’s daughter. Extract 102 is a piece of dialogue between Han and Mei after Mei asked Han ,if she married Mark and they lived in a house together, what food would they have at home, Chinese or English. Han’s response reveals a multicultural trait of her identity in her depiction of their life if she married Mark.

Extract 102 ‘We’ll have Chinese food one day and English food the next.’ [said Han] ‘There’s a girl at school,’ said Mei. ‘Her mother has married an Englishman. The children all make fun of her. They say her father is a foreign devil. They say he smells bad. They laugh at her.’ ‘Nonsense,’ said her mother. ‘Anyway Mark can’t be your father, because your father is dead. He can only be my husband. So there. (Han, 1952, p. 144, Part 2: Progress, 6: Hongkong Profiles)

In response to Mei’s question as to whether they would have Chinese or English food after Han married Mark, Han confirmed her Chinese identity by assuring Mei that they would alternate between Chinese food, Han and Mei’s cultural preference, and English food, in consideration of Mark’s dietary preference. It is argued by a range of studies (e.g., Deaux & Ethier, 1998; Kwan & Sodowsky, 1997; Phinney, 1993; Smith, 1991; Yang & Bond, 1980; Yip & Fuligni, 2002) that practices of ethnic or culturally specific activities are the important ways for people to associate with their ethnicity and particular cultures; eating particular foods conveys symbols of ethnicity (Gans, 1979). The salience of Han’s Chinese cultural identity is evident in her plan to cook Chinese food at home once every two days.

Mei then described the ridicule that one girl in her school had suffered due to her mother’s remarriage with an Englishman. Han refuted the notion of Mei’s schoolmates that the mother’s current husband was the girl’s father. Han assured Mei that Mark was her husband and had nothing to do with Mei, and that Mei, had one father who had already passed away.

193

Based on traditional Chinese culture, rooted in Confucianism (Chen, Luan & Zhang, 2000; Cheng, 1991; Yu, 2008), any big decision made by any family member is relevant to and influences all family members (Confucius, 1915). The behaviours of Mei’s schoolmates, who implied a familial relationship between the girl and her mother’s new husband, was influenced by stereotypically Chinese culture. In contrast, Han expressed an ideology more typical of western individualistic culture, in which Han claimed that her husband was only her husband, but not her daughter’s future father. It can be inferred that Han’s individualistic ideology was a product of her English education.

The interaction between Han and Mei demonstrated the partialness of Han’s identity. Her Chineseness was exhibited by her plan to cook Chinese food at home every two days, while her westernized cultural identity was shown unintentionally by her individualistic ideology in contrast with traditional Chinese culture. In Extract 103, a narrative which occurred after Han went back to Chungking and was reunited with her family, Han’s multicultural identity is portrayed as culturally influenced by not only her years in England but also her Chinese family.

Extract 103 It is rather frightening to be so many different people, with so many dissimilar and equally compelling emotions, affections, ideas, élans, apprehensions, aware of so many delicate differences in restraint, nuances of phraseology in the enunciation of a similar mood in three different languages, always so aware of shades of meaning that life becomes occasionally unbearable. Other people are faced with a choice between two courses of action. I am usually torn between at least two worlds, involving different ways of existence. Tiresias, Tiresias to the core, if a core is left to a being so much like Peer Gynt’s onion as I. (Han, 1952, p. 110, Part 2: Progress, 2: My Sister Suchen)

Han realized the inconsistency between her different identities was “rather frightening”. She admitted that each of the identities was genuine and was equally important to her because each of them was reflective of her experiences. Han emphasized the partialness of her identity by differentiating herself, who was “usually torn between at least two worlds”, from “other people”, who face only two choices. The identity predicament appears to be a result of using three languages; the use of the French word “élans

194

(English translation: enthusiasm)” also highlighted the complexity of Han’s identity.

In addition, Han compared her identity to Tiresias, a character in Greek mythology who had been transformed between male and female, to show that her identity was fluid and dynamic. Han also identified her identity with “Peer Gynt’s onion”, which is derived from Henrik Ibsen’s famous play “Peer Gynt.” The relevant scene in the play is when Peer cuts an onion into slices to show the hollowness of his core. It appears that Han compared her identity with that of an onion: she had multiple identities; an onion has many slices; and while an onion has no core in its innermost, no facet of her identity was predominant. In the narrative, the partialness of Han’s identity was revealed by Han’s awareness of being “torn between at least two worlds”. Han’s multicultural identity is performed partially by her self-positioning and partially exhibited by her use of metaphorical images related with different cultures.

In this section, Han’s multicultural identity display is analysed by the partialness principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005), verifies that Han’s cultural identity was a partial account. Han’s multicultural identity was also positioned straightforwardly by herself in her other writings. In the preface of the Chinese translated version of Birdless Summer (Han, 1968, Chinese translation:无鸟的夏天 , pin yin: wu niao de xia tian, translated by Chen, Huang & Meng, 2012), Han wrote (in 2009) in Chinese, Han wrote:

“不同的文化成就了今天的我。(pin yin: bu tong de wen hua cheng jiu le jin tian de wo. in English: Different cultures have constructed me.)”

As shown above, Han positioned herself as multicultural and her identity has been constructed by these multiple cultural traits.

7.2 Summary of the chapter

195

This chapter explored Han’s multicultural identity as shown in A Many-Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952). The analysis employed only the partialness principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005) to capture and analyse the partial property of Han’s multicultural identity displayed in her social contacts (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005).

196

Chapter 8 Han’s professional identity display in varied settings

Professional identity is the sense of the self which describes how a person perceives their identity within their occupational context, and how this is communicated with others (Beijaard, Meijer & Verloop, 2004). In this study, the professional identity of Han is positioned according to both her self-positioning, and how others identifying her, as a medical doctor.

In this section, Han’s performance of her professional identity is analysed. In March 1949, Han completed her doctoral study of medicine in England and arrived at Hong Kong for work as a physician. The following analysis employed the emergence principle, the indexicality principle and the relationality principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005) to describe how her professional identity was displayed in various contexts and the factors influenced the performance.

8.1 Han’s professional identity as an emergence in interactions

From March 1949 to June 1949, Han lived in Church Guest House in Hong Kong. Extract 104 is an interaction between Han and Helen Parrish, the wife of an American missionary, about her new dieting and weight-loss plan. Han’s professional identity as a medical doctor was displayed intersubjectively.

Extract 104 ‘Thanks to you, Doc,’ she [Helen] flashed at me. ‘You were an answer to my prayer, Doc,’ says Helen Parrish. … She was quietly desperate about it [dieting] until I arrived at Church Guest House in February, fresh from England, where I had completed my medical studies. For weeks I stood over her at meals, brandishing under her nose a written list of forbidden items. ‘It’s such a relief to know that you are going to stay at Church Guest House for a while,’ she says. ‘So nice to have a doctor at hand, when one’s got children.’ (Han, 1952,

197

p. 15, Part 1: Onset, 1: Exodus from China)

Han, in stating that she “stood over” Helen and “brandishing under her nose” the list of must-not food suggests that she was self-confident in her professional knowledge and had pride as a medical practitioner. Furthermore, Helen’s gratitude and affirmation of Han as a competent doctor is shown by her extremely positive feedback. This is evident in “thanks to you”, “you are an answer to my prayer” as well as “such a relief” which are strong expressions of the trust Han generated.

The repeated use of the professional title “Doc” and the shortened form “Doc”, indicative of a close relationship between Helen and Han, also reveal Helen’s reliance on Han. The line “so nice to have a doctor at hand” has reinforces Helen’s admiration of Han as a medical doctor whom, she believed, was sent to her by God as a response to her prayer. Han’s identity as an eligible physician emerged through her own professional performance and her patient’s compliments on her medical skill. As Extract 105 shows, Han’s identity as a respected physician also emerged in the difference in Helen’s attitudes towards her and other people living in Church Guest House.

Extract 105 ‘I think it’s unfair having people who are not missionaries to stay here. This is Church Guest House, after all. I don’ mean you, doctor. You’re in the basement, anyway.’ [said Helen] (Han, 1952, p. 17, Part 1: Onset, 1: Exodus from China)

As a medical doctor, Han was treated respectfully, as shown by Helen Parrish’s attitude towards her. According to Helen, who was eligible to live in Church Guest House, people who were not missionaries should not have been accommodated. She treated Han as an exception because Han was living “in the basement”. It is observed that the reason was objective but superficial, as shown in Helen’s direct use of “doctor” to speak to Han. Helen’s use of Han’s professional title shows her respect for Han. Han’s professional identity as a physician was reinforced by Helen’s friendly attitude towards

198

her in Church Guest House.

As well as Helen’s friendliness and respect, that Han’s professional identity gives her a privileged position can be observed from in the apparent attitudes towards physicians in Hong Kong in Extract 106.

Extract 106 I am not a missionary, yet I am staying at Church Guest House, a favour and a concession to the Medical Service which employs me. (Han, 1952, p. 18, Part 1: Onset, 1: Exodus from China)

As a physician employed by the local medical institution, Han was given “a favour and a concession” to live in the place which should not have accommodated her. The attitude towards Han’s occupation, in the context, endorsed her pride in her identity as a physician. In the next excerpt, Extract 107, Han’s professional identity emerges in her description of her experience of curing a woman who suffered from blood loss shown.

Extract 107 Mark was in my room when I came back from cleaning the abortion. Four days the woman had bled at home before her husband brought her to the Hospital. Exsanguinate, her eyeballs rolled up, she lay unconscious on the operating table. We gave her blood and worked fast, and when it was done she was well enough to whisper a word or two. It was with that sense of well-being which a doctor gets so often, and often so cheaply, that I opened the door of my room and found Mark waiting for me. (Han, 1952, p. 172, Part 2: Progress, 8: Mark)

Han exhibits her identity as a doctor by precisely describing her work done for the woman as “cleaning the abortion”. The professional difference between Han and the woman’s husband is apparent. The woman’s husband, as a layman, was too ignorant to send her wife to the hospital after “the woman had bled at home” for four days until the woman with “eyeballs rolled up” and “lay unconscious”. In contrast, Han accurately defined the woman’s symptom using the medical term “exsanguinate” and then “gave her blood” which successfully helped the woman to be “well enough to whisper a word or two”.

It appears that Han was satisfied with the process of treating this woman as it gave her

199

a “sense of well-being”. Han’s professional identity, her positive sense as a doctor, was apparent “so often” in the narrative. It was evident in her defining of the patient’s symptoms, constructing the professional contrast between her and the layman, precisely describing her treatment of the patient and through showing her pride and happiness as a doctor for what she had done well for other people. This section shows that Han’s professional identity emerged in her interactions, which is consistent with the emergence principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005).

8.2 Han’s professional identity display as an indexical process in languages

The next extract is Han’s response to an English agricultural expert who had previously worked as a missionary in Mainland China. Han’s professional identity was displayed in stating that she planned to go back to China to do medicine after the English agricultural expert asked Han what Han was going to do after the short stay in Hong Kong.

Extract 108 ‘Go to China, do medicine.’ [said Han] (Han, 1952, p. 24, Part 1: Onset, 2: The Kingdom of God)

By answering the English agricultural expert’s query into what Han was going to do, by replying “do medicine” Han takes a stance as a medical doctor, thus strengthening her professional identity and affirming the social role she expected of herself in the future. The agricultural expert then expressed his doubt, reminding Han of the possibility of becoming involved in a relationship, and to take care not to fall in love and get married, if she intended staying in Hong Kong for a while. In Extract 109, Han then continues to show the salience of her professional identity.

Extract 109 ‘No fear. I’m going to be shut up in the hospital in two months’ time. Besides, I’m only 200

interested in medicine. I was married for eight years and that ought to be enough time in this world of war, for any woman. One must not be greedy.’ [said Han] (Han, 1952, p. 24, Part 1: Onset, 2: The Kingdom of God)

Han negated this possibility by stating directly that “no fear”. Han continued to take a stance as a doctor by devoting herself to her work by claiming assertively that “I’m going to be shut up in the hospital”, and “I’m only interested in medicine”. To demonstrate her devotion to her work, Han compared her attitude to her work and the possible love affair, by noting that she was satisfied with the length of time, eight years, she had had of marriage. She took the stance of not being “greedy” in relationships, and that not being influenced by any relationship enabled her to performed her identity as a dedicated doctor.

As well as the exchanges with the foreign people, Han’s professional identity is evident in her interaction with her friends Robert and Nora Hung, a couple who came from Shanghai to Hong Kong for business. Robert told Han that all they wanted from life was a nice home and peace, and even though they had many homes they had no peace at all in mainland China. As a businessman, Robert showed his envy of Han’s career but as he had younger brothers to look after, he chose to do business from an early age. Nora then commented that, as Robert was so fussy about his health, he would not be a good doctor. Extract 110 is Han’s response to Robert and Nora; Han’s professional identity is apparent as she talks about her early aspiration and stance taking as a doctor.

Extract 110 We all laugh. I say: ‘I always wanted to be a doctor. Now I am one, and I am going back to China at the end of the year when my job comes to an end.’ No one objects. It is different if one is a doctor. The communists are good to doctors. They get preferential treatment. Businessmen do not, in July 1949. (Han, 1952, p. 47, Part 1: Onset, 7: Shanghailand)

Robert expressed his envy of Han’s occupation and looked mournful when talking about his lost opportunity to be a doctor, implying that being a doctor was a more respected occupation than a businessman in China. Han showed her pride in being a doctor by 201

asserting that she “always” aspired to be a doctor and now it had come true. When Han described her plan to go back to China, in contrast to Nora and Robert who had escaped from China to Hong Kong, she was supportive. Han took the stance that she wanted to stay in China, her home country, because being a doctor was “different”, and was privileged by the communists. In the Chinese context, positive attitudes towards doctors, which meant better treatment for doctors, relative to other occupations, enhanced Han’s pride in her professional identity.

The respected social status of doctors can also be observed in Han’s interaction with two colleagues of her ex-husband encountered by chance in Hong Kong. Extract 111 is Han’s response after the two former Kuomintang officers told Han that they came to Hong Kong to live, and that mainland China was not a safe place any longer. In this interaction Han’s stance emphasises her professional identity as a doctor.

Extract 111 ‘The scenery is collapsing round us, and we are out-of-work actors looking for new roles.’ [said the two Kuomingtang officers] ‘But I’m going back to China,’ I said. ‘I’m a doctor now, you see.’ ‘Of course if you are a doctor, you must go back. The people need you and politics don't matter.’ [said one of the colleague of Han’s ex-husband] (Han, 1952, p. 85, Part 1: Onset, 14: Macao Weed- end)

After the Communists won control in China, the two men, who were previously Kuomintang officers, went to Hong Kong to seek out new lives. The different conditions for Han and the two men in getting a Hong Kong passport demonstrated Han’s professional identity. As a doctor, Han did not need to get a Hong Kong passport to have her Chinese identity transferred to live in Hong Kong; she was able to go back to China, her country, because she was needed by Chinese people and would not be influenced by the political climate in China. The two men supported Han’s decision by affirming the high social status of doctors. There is evidence in this extract of intersubjective agreement between Han and the two interlocutors of Han’s of professional identity.

202

In Macao, not only in mainland China and Hong Kong, a doctor was also a respected profession that enjoyed privileges, as observed that in Extract 112, Han’s exchange with the hotel manager in which Mark was living in Macao. In this extract, Han’s professional identity in evident in the manager’s friendliness to her.

Extract 112 When he [the hotel manager] heard I was a doctor he shook hands with me again. ‘Business good?’ he asked me. ‘Oh, I’m not in private practice.’ [said Han] ‘Bad, bad. Ought to make money now. Woman doctor, make your fortune in no time. Men don’t like their wives to be seen by men doctors. Come to Macao. I’ll lend you some money. How many thousand you want, forty, fifty?’ (Han, 1952, p. 87, Part 1: Onset, 14: Macao Weed-end)

In the interaction between Han and the hotel manager, Han was treated well due to her occupation. The manager’s behaviour “shook hands” with Han “again” after he knew Han’s occupation demonstrates his attitude of admiration towards Han. The question “business good”? suggests that the manager aligned Han’s work with “business”, a profitable career. The intensified evaluative expression “bad, bad” showed his disapproval of Han’s working situation, being “not in private practice”, stating that Han’s work provided a good opportunity “to make money”. In particular, the social circumstances in Macao gave female doctors more opportunity to “make your fortune in no time”. The manager invited Han to go to Macao to construct her “business” to earn money and showed his willingness to financially support Han. Han’s identity as a professional doctor is displayed by the manager’s warmth to her.

As well as other people’s respect of Han, because of her professional identity, her own internalization of the features of a doctor can be observed in her family life. Extract 113 is Han’s narrative describing her thoughts after Suchen, her younger sister in Chungking, refused to see her in the late evening. Han displayed her professional identity by expressing a range of traits associated with a doctor as she persisted in trying to see Suchen.

203

Extract 113 I am feudal and a Taoist, and use despotism with enlightenment, for I am a doctor. One has to impose upon the sick one’s own will, and anything else is hypocrisy and nonsense. Doctors use power so much and get so much pleasure out of it. They stalk in their white gowns, like prophetic kings; the stethoscopes round their necks are the badges of their magic knowledge; they survey the prostrate forms of their patients, lying helpless in neat rows on their beds. They lay healing hands and save lives. This is arrant, orgiastic power, the most corrupting one to the soul, that of doing good. For it is easy to believe that one is good. So I said, knowing well that I was wrong, that I was compelling another person, and had no excuse: ‘Tell Mrs. Chang [Suchen] that I shall see her tonight.’ (Han, 1952, p. 111, Part 2: Progress, 2: My Sister Suchen)

Han forthrightly took the stance as a doctor by declaring “I am a doctor”. By syntactically using the conjunction “for”, Han constructed a causal relationship between her identity as a doctor, using “despotism” but “with enlightenment”, Being a doctor, it was a reasonable stance to dominantly “impose”, but not to discuss with, her will upon patients Being a doctor, Han had the power to determine others’ destiny and enjoy the process. Han figuratively aligned her career with “prophetic kings”, who “stalk in their white gowns” and have the supreme power. She compared “stethoscopes round their necks” of doctors to “the badges” which have been endowed with “magic knowledge”.

Han also conceptualised the unequal relationship between doctors and their patients in which doctors were always a symbol of power, who “lay healing hands and save lives” in contrast with their patients who were “helpless” and were “prostrate”. Han then evaluated the power of being a doctor, negatively as “arrant”, “orgiastic” and “the most corrupting” in the name of “doing good” to people. Even though Han knew clearly that what she would choose to do “was wrong”, as a doctor, Han still decided to conceive “doing good” to be “compelling another person”.

Based on this presupposed goodness of being a doctor, Han made the decision to insist on meeting Suchen with “no excuse”. Han’s identity as a doctor comprises her stance- taking as a doctor, the construction of the alignment between doctors and kings in regard

204

to their powers, the inequality between doctors and their patients and the presupposed mercifulness of doctors. It is also shown that the expression of Han’s professional identity was a result of the interaction in which Han decided to perform this identity in order to force Suchen to see her.

Han’s identity as a medical doctor can be observed also in her interactions with different interlocutors. Han met her old friend Sen, with whom she was very familiar and knew his sisters and family, and with whom she had been to University in the same year after she went to England, at a party. In Han’s words, Sen and she both belonged to China and “wore the old school tie (Han, 1952, p. 213)”. When Han and Sen met again in Hong Kong, Sen had been a scientist in the New Democracy; he told Han that he heard she was going to Peking. Han admitted that she would going back to China shortly after her stay in Hong Kong.

Then Mrs. Cheng, a Taiwanese, problematized Han’s future plan to go back to China, by warning her that the Communist would shoot her because she was the widow of a Kuomintang General; Han’s ex-husband was killed in battle against the communists. As Han had been abroad and would be considered an intellectual, Mrs. Cheng believed that she would not escape and would be suspect as soon as she went back. As soon as Han was in China, the Communists would indoctrinate, and reindoctrinate, her but would never trust Han and, in the end, they would shoot her. Extract 114 is Han’s response to Mrs. Cheng; her identity as a doctor is evident in the stance she takes as a medical doctor, regardless of the political situation in China.

Extract 114 I said politely: ‘I am not intellectual, I am a technician. It is not a question of fearing what might happen to me. I only want to work for my people.’ (Han, 1952, p. 213, Part 2: Progress, 11: All Chinese Together)

The topic of Han’s plan to go to China was raised by Sen, a scientist and an old friend from Peking to Hong Kong to buy and test some technical apparatus. After Han had

205

responded to Sen, confirming her schedule for her return to China, her decision was problematized by Mrs. Cheng, who came from Taiwan. When Mrs. Cheng pointed out that the political environment was unfriendly to Han, Han took a stance as having nothing to do with the politics. Mrs. Cheng’s analysis of Han’s identity was that the Communists would presuppose she aligned with Kuomintang, and that it would pose a risk to her if she went back to China. Han then described herself as a “technician” who would just “work for my people” but not do anything related with politics. Mrs. Cheng persisted problematizing Han’s choice. She claimed that, if she were Han, she would not think of working for people who had killed her husband; she stated that she could never become a communist. Sen confirmed the positioning of Han’s identity as a medical doctor, which Han also took, as shown in Extract 115.

Extract 115 ‘But we are all Chinese together. Han is a doctor, and her duty is to the people who need doctors—the Chinese people.’ [said Sen] I felt grateful to Sen. After all that is why I had trained in England—so that I could be a doctor in China. (Han, 1952, p. 213, Part 2: Progress, 11: All Chinese Together)

Han’s professional identity was endorsed by Sen, taking the stance that he knew Han very well. Sen expressed his support for Han to work in her profession and to use her techniques to serve Chinese people, explicitly positioning Han’s identity as “a doctor”. Han responded by saying she “felt grateful to Sen” and referring to her study, and all she had done in England, as preparatory work for being a doctor in China. In the interaction, Han exhibited her professional identity by positioning herself as nothing but a doctor, and aligning herself with Sen who supported her future plans to work in China, but not with those who attributed other identities to her. In the interactions with different interlocutors, Han’s professional identity was shown to be display indexically, as described by the indexicality principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005).

206

8.3 Han’s professional identity displayed as a relational product

Han’s professional identity is evident in her identity relations in her interactions with others. Extract 116 shows that Mrs. Jones, the wife of a missionary living in Church Guest House, envied Han’s because of her career. Han’s professional identity as a medical doctor is considered a highly respected profession in various contexts.

Extract 116 If he [Mrs. Jones’s husband] leaves he will have to resign from the Mission, and find a job in England. He has been away from home a long time, and does not know how to set about finding a job. Mrs. Jones is scared, there are no heroics about her. ‘If Henry were a medical missionary the communist would let him get on with his work. But he is an evangelist.’ [said Mrs. Jones] (Han, 1952, p. 16, Part 1: Onset, 1: Exodus from China)

Mrs. Jones’s husband was a missionary working as an evangelist in mainland China for years. In this excerpt, the distinction in social status between a physician and missionary is apparent. As an evangelist, Mrs. Jones’s husband would not “know how to set about finding a job” under the social circumstances of the time but if he was a medical missionary, he would be accepted to “get on with his work” by the Chinese communists, the governing party of mainland China. If Mrs. Jones’s husband had some medical training like Han, Mrs. Jones would not feel “scared” or have “heroics” about herself. The distinction between the attitudes of the Chinese communists towards the two professions means that as a medical doctor, Han‘s status was high in the Chinese social climate, further helping to authenticate Han’s identity as a respected medical doctor.

Extract 117 is Han’s reaction after being asked about what she planned to do after leaving Hong Kong by an English agricultural expert who had been working in mainland China for years as a missionary. Han’s professional identity is evident in their intersubjective interaction, which emphasises the salience of her identity as a doctor.

Extract 117

207

‘Go to China, do medicine. Not because I am a communist, but because I am a Chinese.’ [said Han] (Han, 1952, p. 24, Part 1: Onset, 2: The Kingdom of God)

Han emphasised her identity as a medical doctor by responding to the agricultural expert with “do medicine” about her plan in the near future. By stating that “I am a Chinese”, Han positioned her relationship with China, in which she would be working, and authenticated her identity as a doctor who would legally “go to China” to conduct her profession in her country. The agricultural expert suggested that Han should take care not to fall in love and get married if she was going to stay in Hong Kong for a while. Han’s response enhanced her professional identity performance as can be observed in Extract 118.

Extract 118 ‘No fear. I’m going to be shut up in the hospital in two months time. Besides, I’m only interested in medicine. I was married for eight years and that ought to be enough time in this world of war, for any woman. One must not be greedy.’ [said Han] (Han, 1952, p. 24, Part 1: Onset, 2: The Kingdom of God)

Han rejected the possibility of getting married or falling love by declaring “I’m going to be shut up in the hospital”. She implied a difference in salience between her occupation, which she claimed as the only thing she was “interested in”, and her personal life, in which she already had an experience of eight years’ experiences of marriage. Han asserted that eight years was long enough for marriage in the current social context and equated herself with “any woman” who was living in this “world of war”. Han used the indefinite pronoun “one” to authenticate her identity as “one of the women in this world”, and to rationalize her identity choice as an enthusiastic physician but not as a person who enter any relationship again.

Similar to what is described as having “enoughness” to be authenticated as a member of an identity category (Blommaert & Varis, 2013, pp. 146), Han appeared to have sufficient features of a physician who was fully engaged in her career. The self- authentication as a medical doctor, the self-rejection of the identity facet relevant to her

208

personal life and the adequation with women contribute to the performance of her professional identity. The two pieces of analysis interpreted how Han displayed her medical doctor identity by constructing relations with other people which is consistent with the relationality principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005).

8.4 Summary of the chapter

This chapter examined Han’s identity as a physician shown in A Many-Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952) in detail. The emergence principle, the indexicality principle and the relationality principle were employed to see how Han’s professional identity emerged, indexically produced and relationally constructed in different contexts (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005).

209

Chapter 9 Discussion

Identity is defined as, “the social positioning of the self and others” (Bucholtz & Hall,

2005, p. 586). The current study analyses Suyin Han’s identity display and negotiation based on her famous autobiography, A Many-Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952), from a socio-cultural linguistic perspective. Based on the conceptualization of Bourdieu (1991) and Norton (2013) that language practices are the context for identity to form and perform, a large volume of texts were selected from A Many-Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952) to examine the research question: How is Han’s identity constructed and displayed in her writing of a Many-Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952).

To answer the overarching research question, the study identified and explored Han’s identity facets shown in A Many-Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952) in detail. Han’s identity is divided into four categories which emerge in her writing: ethnic identity, racial identity, cultural identity and professional identity. Each of the four identity themes are defined and the interpretation employed the five-principle framework (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005).

For each identity facet, one or more analytical principles of the five-principle framework (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005) were applied to analyse how Han’s different levels of identities were represented both in her own narrative and in her interactions with a range of interlocutors. As indicated by Vygotsky (1978, 1997) and Bucholtz and Hall (2005), identity is always constructed, displayed and transformed through intersubjective exchanges between individuals, with contextual factors also significantly relevant to the social positioning by the participants themselves (Gumperz, 1982; Gumperz & Cook-Gumperz 2005; van Dijk, 2001). The current interpretation of Suyin Han’s identities takes into account different interactional, social and cultural contexts in which Han displayed her identities in varied patterns.

210

9.1 Patterns of the facets of Han’s identity display and negotiation

9.1.1 Patterns of the display and negotiation of Han’s ethnic identity

Han’s ethnic identity performance is interpreted from four perspectives, it is: 1) an emergent product in social interactions, 2) an ethnic positioning of the self as well as other interlocutors, 3) an indexical process which reveals Han’s ethnic positioning in her language use and 4) a relational construction process in intersubjective exchanges with others. The analysis of Han’s ethnic identity follows the timeline of Han’s writing of A Many-Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952). Two contexts are involved based on this autobiography: Hong Kong and Chungking.

Han’s Chinese identity was apparent when she was accommodated in Church Guest House in Hong Kong, which was usually for western missionaries. The living expenses at the Church Guest House were a heavy burden for Han because she earned a Chinese salary. The differences in the salary packages for western missionaries and Han, a Chinese, made Han’s Chinese identity emerge.

The Chineseness of Han was displayed in her interactions with different people. Han’s change in attitude towards Mary Fairfield, the western missionary, appeared to be caused by Mary Fairfield’s expression of her love of, and faith in, Chinese people, and Han’s compliment to Mary Fairfield disclosed Han’s Chinese attachment. In the interaction with Anne Richards, an American who was Han’s old friend, Han’s Chinese identity was evident from her non-native English language as pointed out by Anne. In the exchange with Mark Elliott, an English correspondent working for many years in Hong Kong, Mark’s detailed recall of a trip to China, and the name of Chinese places, identified a closeness between Mark and Han which revealed Han’s Chineseness. In the

211

conversation between Adeline, the wife of an English tradesman doing business in Hong Kong, Han’s Chinese identity emerged when Adeline challenged Han’s plan to go back to China to contribute to the development of the newly established China.

Han’s Chinese identity also emerged when she encountered two former Kuomintang officers in Hong Kong who were Han’s ex-husband’s colleagues. The recall of the past days in China reinforced Han’s Chinese identity, which was related to Chinese Kuomintang. The use of a Chinese cultural image, “sharing the same pillow”, as well as the Chinese Taoist ideology, also made Han’s Chinese identity apparent in her exchanges with Mark. Before going back to China to reunite with her Chinese family, Mark predicted that Han’s Chinese identity would be more salient in China than in Hong Kong. In agreeing with Mark on this point, Han’s her Chineseness emerged.

Han’s Chinese identity was evident in her family members’ consistent evaluation of her as “unchanged” despite eight years of study in England after she translocated from Hong Kong to Chungking. Han also, unintentionally, identified her homesickness for China when she behaved more emotionally after she reunited with her family, by using expressions such as “very pleased,” “the perfect family teeth” as well as more frequent quotations of Chinese ancient poems. A number of studies (e.g., Kim, Suyemoto, & Turner, 2010; Skey, 2010) have reported that individuals feel a greater sense of belonging when they interact with people of the same racial and ethnic identity. In addition, the Chinese traditional presents her family gave to her for her intended marriage also identified her Chinese identity.

Han’s Chinese identity emerged in her discussion with Mark of their life if they married after she went back to Hong Kong. The presupposition of social hostility towards both Han and Mark if Han supported English culture, or Mark showed support for Chinese communism, disclosed that Han’s identity was associated with China. To pray for good luck for her marriage with Mark, Han went to a Chinese temple to complete the Chinese rituals of blessings. Han also emphasized, several times, that her plan was to live in 212

China and work for the Chinese people whether or not she married Mark. Han’s Chinese identity emerged in her Chinese cultural behaviours and her firm determination to go back to China.

Han positions her Chinese identity in her exchanges with others. By positioning western missionaries she met in Hong Kong as just ordinary people, Han reveals her respect for Confucius, the most influential Chinese philosopher of all time. In the interaction with Hong Kong local people, Han several times positioned herself, as well as her daughter, as ethnically Chinese, showing her support for the Chinese Communists. She also expressed her firm decision to return to China and use her medical skill to serve Chinese people.

Han also referred to the Chinese cultural ideology, to regulate behaviour that a widow was not supposed to date a foreigner. Because she positioned herself as Chinese and different from Mark, Han expressed her sensitivity to Mark’s description of her to his friends and self-positioned as his “Chinese scoop”. In the exchanges with Mark, Han emphasized, several times, that she would consider marry him only if Mark could live with her in China. The positioning of Han’s Chinese identity is also evident in her description her roots being in China, her robust opposition to the foreigner’s humiliation of Chinese people and her firm support of the Chinese Communists.

The Chinese identity of Han is also displayed as an indexical process through interactions with others. After she arrived at Hong Kong, Han took a stance as a Chinese language user, in contrast with local people as Cantonese users, which identified her Chinese identity. The Hong Kong context and local people’s friendliness to Han led her to negotiate her ethnic identity as shown by her decision to let Mei, her daughter, learn Cantonese.

Han’s performance of her Chinese identity is not only through the stance taken by herself but also the stance she ascribed to other people. In Han’s description of her first 213

encounter with Mark Elliott, she ascribed the stance of foreigner to Mark, which contrasted with her own stance as Chinese. By talking about their mutual friend, Mark took a stance of understanding why the friend hated Chinese people while Han attributed the reason to the friend being too English. Han also took the stance as completely understanding Chinese people’s behaviours in opposition to Mark, after he had criticised the lifestyles of the Chinese people he had observed.

Han took the stance, as a good Chinese woman who should abide by Chinese cultural norms for a widow, not to date a foreigner after being invited by Mark to have dinner. The negotiation of Han’s identity is observed in her attitudinal change towards a date with Mark. Her American friend, Anne Richards, reminded her that is was the context change that contributed to her decision to have dinner with Mark.

Han’s Chineseness is also displayed in her stance in aligning with Nora Huang from Shanghai when discussing Chinese people’s culture of talking about their physical illnesses openly. Han also took a stance of being responsible for China, as it was her country and she was strongly against foreigners evaluating China negatively. Han’s Chinese identity can also be seen in her negative attitude to English people, as represented by Diana Kilton, in that she took a pragmatic, but not friendly, stance in her relationship with Diana.

Han’s Chinese identity is also exhibited in the following ways by: taking a contrasting cultural stance with Mark in expressing love; taking a knowledgeable stance about Chinese history and geography; assuming a conflict between her plan to go back to China and the intended marriage with Mark; her commitment to her Chinese family and her concern about her younger sister; comparing the cultures of Europe and China on the treatments on miserable experiences and her alignment with China; directly labelling herself as “all Chinese”; her visualisation of an agreement between her third uncle and Mark, and her faith in the future of China in relation to her younger sister’s determination to leave China. 214

Han’s Chinese identity was apparent by being directly referred to as a model Chinese woman by her third uncle and her old friend Ying. Han expressed the view that, if she took the stance of a woman who could live in the old-fashioned Chinese feudal society, she could be the concubine of Mark. Han’s Chineseness is also exhibited in her stance as very knowledgeable about Chinese ancient patriarchal social culture. She claimed that if she aligned with Chinese superstitious peasants, and if Mark’s ethnic identity aligned with hers, they could marry without hesitation and live in China together.

Han’s Chinese identity is also exhibited in the relationships she constructed in a range of contexts with different interlocutors. Han’s Chinese identity is authenticated by her use of Chinese language, in contrast with a local Hong Kong resident’s use of Cantonese, in her interactions with local people after she arrived in Hong Kong. Han then pointed out the mistake made by the local Hongkonger in the concept of North and South China, which negated the local Hongkonger’s Chinese identity even though she identified herself as a Chinese. The authentication of Han’s Chinese identity is also shown by the rejection of her previous days in the Catholic Church associated with her western side of her ethnicity.

Han’s Chinese identity is performed through listing the differences in ethnicity and their future plans in her relationship with Mark, After Han went back to Chungking, her Chineseness became more evident in her rejection of her recently acquired the Cantonese language, and her shift in use of language to the Chungking dialect; the use of more emotional expressions in her narrative also helps authenticated her Chinese identity. In Chungking, Han recalled her childhood, during which her Belgium mother and her younger sister, Suchen, discriminated and isolated her, also strengthened her Chinese identity. Han also compared the difference in the relationships, and their emotional intensity, with China for her and Suchen: to Han, China is the place where she has her roots while to Suchen, China is the place of misery and cruelty.

215

Han’s Chinese identity is also shown by the different attitudes between Han and Suchen’s English boss. After he condemned Chinese attitudes towards girl babies in China, Han aligned herself with Chinese. In an exchange with her old friend Ying, Han equated herself a Ying as Chinese women who did things culturally Chinese. Ying also affirmed Han’s Chinese identity by denying a change of Han’s identity after her past eight years in England. Their use and emotional interpretation of the same Chinese poem also suggest the salience of Han’s Chineseness to her.

The Chinese identity of Han is expressed at times by her pointing out a foreigner’s misunderstanding of China, and by Han often using the first person plural pronoun “we” to refer to Chinese people while using the second person plural pronoun “you” to make a distinction between her and foreigners. In order to show her commitment to China, Han rejected her relationships with Kuomintang and western imperialists as well as her love of Mark, who was a westerner. Easy entry to China, and that she was not eligible to enter to any other country also affirmed Han’s Chinese identity, as well as the assumption of inappropriateness of Han’s friendship with her American friend due to the deterioration in the relationship between China and America. Other factors which reinforced Han’s Chinese identity through her interactions included the difference between Suzanne, who was racially identical to her, and Han who had more Chinese features in appearance, as well as Han’s alignment with most Eurasians who were proud to have Chinese blood.

As Verkuyten (2005) contended, ethnic identity is the most significant facet in most people’s overall identity and is the most stable throughout individuals’ lives. Ethnic identity can be used to unify individuals’ past, present and the imagined future self- identification, which is constructed not only by their exploration of self-identity but also their interactions with others.

Han’s ethnic identity was displayed as very stable and seldom showed negotiation despite translocations or changes in interlocutors. This finding is consistent with 216

Blommaert, Collins and Slembrouck (2005) and De Fina and Perrino (2013) who reported performances of identities in local interactions are always influenced by factors beyond the local contexts including broader social values, ideologies and cultures. In the current study, Han displayed evidence of the stability of her Chinese identity with familiar and unfamiliar Hong Kong locals and western people in both Hong Kong and Chungking.

9.1.2 Patterns of Han’s racial identity exhibition

Han’s racial identity display is interpreted solely by the indexicality principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005). The Eurasian identity of Han is observed in her interactions with Mark as well as Suzanne. In Han’s first encounter with Mark, when Mark showed his misunderstanding of Asian people’s lifestyles Han took a stance aligning with Asian people by requesting Mark to stop commenting on the Asian lifestyle. Han exhibited her Eurasian identity by disagreeing with Mark that one could never be of two races.

Han further exhibited her Eurasian identity, after they became lovers, by revealing her sensitivity when Mark alleged that, in his eyes, Han was all Chinese. In the exchange with Suzanne who is also a Eurasian, Han’s Eurasian identity is portrayed by not empathising with Suzanne’s sense of inferiority in having “Chinese blood”. In contrast to Suzanne’s negative attitude, Han showed pride in being a Eurasian who had dual heritage.

In this study, it is apparent that Han’s positioning of her identity, racially, as a Eurasian did not change. Whenever she interacted with Suzanne, who viewed her hybrid Eurasian identity as a stigma, or with Mark, the pure European who positioned Han as a pure Chinese, Han insisted in her identity as mixed racial and proud to have “a dual mind”.

The finding that Han showed pride in being n Eurasian is consistent with the argument 217

that Eurasians have a stable racial identity and have the advantage of two worlds (Edwards, Ali, Caballero & Song, 2012). However, in Singapore, the most widely recognized global city in Asia, Yeoh, Acedera and Rootham (2019) reported that the racial identity of the Eurasians who participated in the study was fluid, caused by the change of social power, increasing immigration and the number of local inter-racial marriage.

9.1.3 Patterns of Han’s cultural identity display

Considering Han’s multicultural background, in analysing Han’s cultural identity only the partialness principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005) was employed since Han’s cultural identity was shown to be influenced partially by Chinese cultures and partially western cultures. When Mark used the Chinese literary classic image “lying on the same bed, using the same pillow”, Han exhibited her Chinese cultural identity by acknowledging the Chinese origin of this quotation, but her westernized mind was evident in her challenge of the Chinese tradition.

Han’s dual cultural identity was exhibited when, for example, she imagined a face-to- face interaction with Confucius during the time Chinese females were not allowed to attend schools. In some contexts, Han admitted her cultural and ethnic background differences to Mark, but her western cultural identity was displayed in her boldness to publicly show her love for Mark. Mark’s deep understanding of Chinese culture meant he understood Han; it was the quick construction of agreement between Mark and Han that made Han fell in love with Mark so quickly. In other words, Han’s multicultural identity is shown by her construction of an intimate relationship with the similarly multicultural Mark.

Han’s multicultural identity was also observable in her interactions with Suzanne, also genetically biracial, with whom she had shared experiences in their early days. On the one hand, Han commented on Suzanne’s behaviour, and her attitude, towards intimacy 218

as too hasty disclosing her traditional Chinese culture ideology; on the other hand, after her reunion with Suzanne in Hong Kong, she admitted to being strongly influenced by Suzanne to re-examine her old-fashioned Chinese notions of intimacy. Being influenced by Suzanne easily could be evidence of Han’s western culture on Han’s thinking.

Han also revealed her multicultural mind by talking about her private feelings for Mark with her American friend Anne Richards, who knew her well. In addition, while interacting with Evelyn, who was British both ethnically and culturally, Han’s multicultural identity was apparent in her comprehension of both Chinese and English cultures through aligning, partially, with Chinese overseas students and partially with English students’ behaviours.

Han’s multicultural identity was also evident in her exchanges with her family members. With Suchen, who dreamed of escaping from China and living in America, she showed her Chineseness by positioning the self as inseparably associated with China, while her westernized cultural ideology was apparent in her attachment to Mark. In contexts where the interlocutors were not family members, Han displayed her identity as a product of her Chinese style of dignity as well as her acquired western customs.

As Berzonsky and Adams (1999) and Hammerback (2011) argued, individuals’ identity performance is always determined by their local interactional contexts. The identity facet they choose to display in front of their interlocutors is a product of the salience of their identity grounded in their interactional contexts.

It is also in Han’s narrative that her multicultural identity is observable. Han’s awareness of her identity split, and her use of various metaphorical expressions from different cultures helps to reveal Han’s multicultural identity. As the principle of partialness (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005) implies, Han’s cultural identity has been shown to be a partial product: sometimes it was intentionally exhibited and sometimes unconsciously; some part was an outcome of her interactional negotiation in specific 219

contexts; some part was an outcome of interlocutors’ attitudes towards her, and, proportionally, an outcome of longitudinally constructed cognition may played roles in the interactions. Han’s multicultural identity is always displayed in different patterns according to different contexts.

9.1.4 Patterns of Han’s professional identity

Han’s professional identity as a medical doctor is analysed using the emergence principle, the indexicality principle and the relationality principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005). Han’s professional identity is displayed through others’ reliance on her because of the health benefit she brought to them, her feeling of self-worth after saving people’s lives, and her firm determination to use her medical skill to serve Chinese people. It was also apparent in the observable privilege Han enjoyed living in the Church Guest House which was for accommodating western missionaries, the high importance of her identity as a medical doctor to her relative to her other identity facets, as well as the kindness she gained in divers social contexts owing to her doctor identity and her application of the characteristics of doctors in her interactions with people in contexts apart from her workplace.

The professional identity of Han as a medical doctor can also be seen in her subsequent research into the birth-control situation of China around 1960s. She published her research articles (e.g., Family Planning in China, Han, 1957; Birth Control in China- Recent Aspects, Han, 1960) to report the medical development of family planning in China.

9.2 Factors impacting on Han’s display and negotiation of each identity facet

It is suggested that individuals’ ethnic identity is not fixed or unchangeable but flexible,

220

fluid and highly dependent on interactional contexts (Yancey, Erickson & Juliani, 1976; Lieberson & Waters, 1986; Nagel, 1994; Song, 2003). In the current study, however, Han’s ethnic identity as Chinese appeared to be fixed and seldom showed negotiation in her exchanges with people whether in mainland China or Hong Kong.

It is argued that parents’ ethnic identification, as well as the degree of their intimacy with their children, might determine the self-positioned ethnic identity of their children (Neblett Jr, Smalls, Ford, Nguyên & Sellers, 2009; Remi, 2018; White-Johnson, Ford & Sellers, 2010). Similarly, it can be inferred that Han’s positioning of her ethnic identity strongly and invariably as Chinese is the outcome of her childhood experiences of not being accepted by her mother, a Belgian, as she described in her writing interpreted in Chapter 5.

It is assumed that, because Han was 38-year-old when she wrote this book, her identity was stable as identity is usually constructed during one’s early childhood and adolescence. Han had grown up in mainland China in which the social culture is stable in comparison with Hong Kong which is multicultural due to its colonial history. As China is conservative and continuous it is not strange that Han had positioned her identity as unchangeably Chinese.

Carter (2017) argued that an individual’s identification with a specific ethnic group is hard to change once constructed. It can be inferred, thus, that Han’s strong Chinese identification is the product of her interactions with her Chinese family in mainland China, and the lack of an emotional tie with her Belgian mother, which have been consistently observed in this study.

As widely acknowledged by scholars (e.g., Luke, 2009; Volkman, 2005; Yngvesson, 2002), physical appearance also plays an important role in individuals’ ethnic identity positioning. The firmness of Han’s identification with her Chinese side, but not her bi- ethnic traits, is appears also to be an outcome of others’ positioning of her including 221

Mark, Han’s English lover, who positioned Han as “all Chinese”; Suzanne, the Chinese- French Eurasian, also assessed Han as “looked Chinese” but not European. Thus, despite her biological ties with her Belgian mother, her strong attachment to mainland China and her biological appearance as a pure Chinese contributed to her ethnical identification with Chinese.

The only sign of Han’s ethnic identity negotiation in her writing is her determination to send her daughter, Mei, to a language school to learn Cantonese after arriving in Hong Kong. The factors that caused Han to switch her language ideology (from “of course I speak Chinese” to let Mei “learn Cantonese”) are manifold. First, the Hong Kong locals’ help and friendliness to Han warmed her and made her want to assimilate into local life. Similarly, Evans and Liu (2018) reported that new immigrants-arriving in England were more willing to integrate with local mainstream groups and learn local languages when they did not feel excluded.

Second, as Han wanted to integrate with her newly constructed local interpersonal relationships, learning local language became a prerequisite for her assimilation into local life. As posited by a number of scholars (e.g., Blommaert, 2010; Carter, 1997; Gu & Patkin, 2013; Heller, 1995), language is always associated with power relations determined by specific social, cultural and political factors.

From a historical perspective, Tsui (2007) illustrated how the language climate was formed after Hong Kong had become the colony of British from 1898 to 1997. Although Hong Kong is a southern city of China, its official language was Cantonese rather than Mandarin Chinese. Owing to the language policies issued by the British government, Hong Kong, which uses the same dialect as other Guangdong cities, such as Guangzhou, the capital city of Guangdong Province, has little tolerance of other mainland Chinese dialects. For Han, her Mandarin Chinese was criticized so that she was pressured to use Cantonese for local interactions.

222

While many studies have argued that multi-racial individuals could experience a period of confusion and conflict because of their multiple races (e.g., Mahtani, 2002; Rocha, 2016; Rockquemore, Brunsma, & Delgado, 2009), Han’s self-positioned racial identity appears to be consistently Eurasian. There is a large body of literature found that multiracial individuals’ racial identification is strongly influenced by the quality of their interactions with their parents and their parents’ racial identification (e.g., Hughes, 2003; Ou & McAdoo, 1993; Quintana & Vera, 1999). Likewise, it is inferred that the establishment of Han’s racial identity had been confirmed before she completed this writing.

As a large body of literature argues (e.g., Kovecses, 2005; Shore, 2002; Triandis, 1995; van Dijk, 2009), culture is a collection of shared historical ideologies, understandings, or values maintained by a specific group of people who have the same social representations, including self-representations, in regards to their own language, history, origin, daily experiences, institutions and socio-political organization. The current study finds that Han’s cultural identity appears to consist of multicultural features in diverse settings.

As contended by Valsiner (2000, 2003), the construction of an individual’s personal culture is an outcome of both the individual’s internalization of socially mediated cultures and the performance of their acquired and negotiated cultures externally. The cultural identity of Han, displayed as significantly multicultural, is also a product of her interactions with multiple social and cultural contexts.

It is noted that in A Many-Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952), the writing displays only how Han’s multicultural identity unfolded in varied contexts; it does not mention how this identity feature is formed. What can be observed is that Han had used multiple languages (Chinese, English and French) not only in her self-narratives but also in her interactions with different interlocutors.

223

The interrelationship between the use of more than one language and one’s identity was clear. García (2009), for example, suggested that the process of blending or integrating two languages (or more) was a normal habit and strategy for multilingual people “in order to make sense of their multilingual worlds” (p. 140). Li and Zhu (2013) emphasized that for transnational individuals, there was an inevitable relationship between the shift between languages and their identities because people’s identities tend to be constructed and transformed in their multilingual practices when they move across boundaries of space. Whereas Creese and Blackledge (2015) argued that the mixing of different languages enabled individuals to use all their language resources to construct, perform and negotiate their different identities, at times even simultaneously.

For Han’s identity as shown to be related to multiple cultures, it is inferred that her biological mixed-blood naturally led to her multilingual capability because of her daily family interactions in at least two languages, and it is her mastery of different languages that allowed her access to different cultures.

As Pennycook (2009) pointed out, transnational activities can cause individuals to encounter more cultures by which their identities are reshaped and negotiated in their interactions with even more languages. Han’s cultural identity display in her writing is also considered to be a product of her eight years of life and her doctoral education in England.

Likewise Duff (2015) argued, that individuals’ transcultural behaviours can facilitate not only mediation between national borders but also engagement with different languages. In such cases the construction and negotiation of individuals’ cultural identities are completed before they transfer to another place. Han’s cultural identity, showing both traditional Chinese and western aspects, is an established construct of her early experience in China as well as her stay in England as an adult. The mix of ideologies related to both Chinese and western cultures, and Han’s exchanges with people of different cultures as well as her intimacy with Mark, a similarly multicultural 224

English person, contributes to the display of Han’s multicultural identity.

There was no evidence in this study of Han’s professional identity as a medical doctor being negotiated. As argued by Leijen and Kullasepp (2013), the professional identity construction of an individual is an intersubjective outcome of the individual’s personal aspiration and the socio-cultural climates in which they are immersed. Similarly, the current study found that the formation and display of Han’s medical doctor identity was the outcome not only of her early ambition to be a medical doctor but also the social expectations and respect she experienced as a doctor in diverse cultural contexts.

As it is constructed by social, political and cultural contexts, one’s professional identity can be highly dynamic (Troman, 2007). As evident in Han’s writing, the identity of a medical doctor was highly respected whether Han was in Hong Kong, mainland China or Macao. The pleasant social interactions Han experienced undoubtedly helped enhanced her identity as a medical doctor. The consolidation of Han’s social role as a medical doctor displayed the similar trace to the identity of coaches, illustrated by Pope, Hall and Tobin (2014). They suggest that the salient identity of a coach is a result of other people’s expectation to them.

Song, Kim and Lee (2016) and Chávez (2018) also report a positive relationship between one’s familial engagement and their professional identity development. The more one communicates with their family members, and the better quality of their communications, the more likely they are to develop a stable professional identity in their adulthood. In Han’s writing, her attachment with her Chinese family was very strong as shown in her plans for the future, including her career and the intended marriage, which were pivotal in her plan to go back to China. It is also obvious that Han’s interaction with her third uncle was important to her. The constancy of Han’s professional identity as a medical doctor can be seen as partly an outcome of her good familial relationship, including her interactions with the core family members (and her father and her mother, which is described in detail in her The Crippled Tree, Han, 1965), 225

which is discussed in Chapter 5.

9.3 The development of Han’s identity facets in combination

As suggested above, the study has found that each identity facet of Han appeared to be highly stable and was seldom negotiated. Erikson (1963, 1968) conceptualized the formation of one’s identity as usually completed in adolescence. More recently, Kroger (2007) argued that identity development can continue until late adolescence or even early adulthood.

According to Marcia’s (1966) Four-Identity-Status model, which looks into the four stages of identity development occurring at different ages: diffusion (when identity has not been constructed), foreclosure (when identity is being constructed but unsteadily), moratorium (when identity is being constructed rationally) and achievement (when identity has been constructed completely). Identity achievement usually takes place during one’s early adulthood.

Arneaud, Alea and Espinet’s study (2016), however, showed that people were more likely to get a stable identity during their middle-age than when they were adolescents. It is posited that each of Han’s identity facets were shown to be highly fixed because Han wrote A Many-Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952), she was 38 years’ old, the end of her early adulthood (the age range of early adulthood is from 17 to 40, see Levinson, 1978). According to Erikson’s life-span scheme (1963, 1968) and Marcia’s identity status model (1966, 2007), at the end of early adulthood, one’s identity had already achieved.

The longitudinal studies of Fadjukoff, Pulkkinen and Kokko (2005, 2007, 2016) reported that, during the individuals’ adulthood (age 27-42), there is a multitude of

226

events which contribute to the achievement of their identity developments such as marrying, having children, undertaking a long period of education and getting a full- time job. A similar pattern can be observed in Han’s identity display. Before she wrote A Many-Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952) she had married, had a daughter, completed her doctoral degree and she found a job in Hong Kong. It can be inferred that each of these events in Han’s life contributed to the establishment of her each identity as a part of her overall identity.

An interesting finding of the study is that Han’s ethnic identity is the most prominent in her writing relative to each of her other identity facets. According to Umaña-Taylor (2011), one’s ethnic identity is found to be the most significant and serving as a protective identity facet to one’s entire identity status. It is concluded that Han’s robust Chineseness is positively related to the stability of her other identity facets.

Figure 3 Han’s each identity facet is interdependent, and the development of each in combination

contributes to the overall identity of Han

The interdependent relationship between one’s identity facets has been proposed by

227

Amiot, de la Sablonnière, Terry and Smith (2007) and Kroger (2018). As both studies indicated, an individual’s identity facets develop interdependently and influence each other. This would explain why Han’s identities showed little negotiation despite her Mandarin Chinese not being valued in Hong Kong society and her firm determination to go back to China being criticized by both Hong Kong locals and westerners. It was her professional identity as a medical doctor that endowed Han with high respect in any social context.

As Thomas and Axmitia (2014) suggested, one’s overall identity development is largely constructed by their social status identity. In the interactions with different interlocutors, it was the degree of respect awarded to her because of her professional identity as a medical doctor that determined her high social status. Han’s other identity facets, including her multilingual characteristics as well as her Eurasian positioning, could be performed openly and thoroughly.

228

Chapter 10 Conclusion

This thesis analyses the display and negotiation of Suyin Han’s identity as shown in her autobiography A Many-Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952) supplemented with document analysis of Han’s other writings. A nuanced understanding of Han’s identity display and transformation is achieved by the triangulation of the research methods and an analytical framework: Narrative analysis and critical discourse analysis are used with the extracts of Han’s writings; a five-principle framework that argues identity is a social positioning of self and others is applied for the text interpretation. The thesis interprets the different facets of Han’s identity, the factors that helped Han’s identity to be displayed and negotiated, and how is each facet of her identity unfolded.

The study applies a method to research an individual’s identity based on their writing which justifies the socio-cultural research conceptualization of identity. In this section some limitations of the current study are noted which need to be considered in relation to the outcomes of the study. Further research is also recommended.

First, shortly after the current study commenced, Han passed away in Switzerland, and so a planned interview with her had to be cancelled. A face-to-face interview with Han would have supplemented the research data, even though it is widely recognized that analysis of narratives has become the main domain, and research approach, for identity interpretation. As A Many-Splendoured Thing (Han, 1952) was written between September 1950 and July 1951 in Hong Kong, an interview of Han more than 60 years after she wrote the book may have contributed to the analysis of her identity transformation.

Second, as Erikson (1963) suggested, an individual’s identity development is a life-long process which can take place at every point and their identity style, apparent in one life

229

stage, may transform into another over time. From this perspective, the current study only looks into Han’s identity displayed in one autobiography written in her adulthood (aged 38). Further research may consider a longitudinal study of Han’s identity development, from her childhood if possible, with a wider selection of her work incorporated.

It is highly recommended that further analysis consider The Crippled Tree (Han, 1965), in which Han wrote about her family stories and Chinese history during 1885 and 1928, A Mortal Flower (Han, 1966), which covers the years between 1928 and 1938, and Birdless Summer (Han, 1968), about the years from 1938 to 1948. The three autobiographies give an almost complete account of how Han’s identity was constructed and the social and cultural factors that influenced Han’s identity development.

There are also implications from this study for the application of the five-principle framework to identity research. Prior studies have used this framework either for the analysis of one individual’s identity displayed in fragmented space and time or for different people’s momentary identity exhibition in one single setting. In contrast, the framework, in this study, has, for the first time, been employed to interpret one person’s continuous identity display and negotiation in an autobiography. This study testifies to the wider applicability of this framework and recommends that it is used in further research with a longitudinal study of identity with an individual, a community, or larger groups.

The findings of the study confirm that identity and language(s) are always intertwined, and that multi-languages provide people with access to multiple identity choices and possibilities. Thus, there are also implications for language study and education from this study of identify in Suyin Han’s autobiography, A Many Splendoured Thing.

230

References

Aboud, F. E. (2003). The Formation of In-group Favoritism and Out-group Prejudice in Young Children: Are they Distinct Attitudes. Developmental Psychology, 39(1), 48– 60.

Agha, A. (2007). Language and Social Relations. Cambridge University Press.

Alessandria, K. P., Kopacz, M. A., Goodkin, G., Valerio, C., & Lappi, H. (2016). Italian American Ethnic Identity Persistence: A Qualitative Study. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 16(4), 282-298.

Ali, L., & Sonn, C. C. (2010). Constructing Identity as a Second-Generation Cypriot Turkish in Australia: The Multi-hyphenated Other. Culture & Psychology, 16(3), 416– 436.

Alimoradian, K. (2014). ‘Makes Me Feel More Aussie’: Ethnic Identity and Vocative Mate in Australia. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 34(4), 599-623.

Alisat, S., & Pratt, M. W. (2012). Characteristics of Young Adults' Personal Religious Narratives and Their Relation with the Identity Status Model: A Longitudinal, Mixed Methods Study, Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 12(1), 29- 52.

Amiot, C. E., de la Sablonnière, R., Terry, D. J., & Smith, J. R. (2007). Integration of social identities in the self: Toward a cognitive-developmental model. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 11(4), 364–388.

231

Anderson, T. (2019). Reproductions of Chinese Transnationalism: Ambivalent Identities in Study Abroad. Applied Linguistics, 40(2), 228-247.

Antaki, C. (1998). Identity Ascriptions in Their Time and Place: ‘Fagin’ and ‘The Terminally Dim’. In C. Antaki & S. Widdicombe (Eds.), Identities in Talk (pp. 71-86). London: SAGE Publications.

Anthis, K. (2014). Hope, Will, Purpose, Competence, and Fidelity: Ego Strengths as Predictors of Career Identity. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 14(2), 153-162.

Ardelt, M. (2003). Empirical assessment of a three-dimensional wisdom scale. Research on Aging, 25(3), 275-324.

Arneaud, M. J., Alea, N., & Espinet, M. (2016). Identity Development in Trinidad: Status Differences by Age, Adulthood Transitions, and Culture. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 16(1), 59-71.

Aronsson, K. (1998). Identity-in-interaction and social Choreography. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 31(1), 75-89.

Ashmore, R., Deaux, K., & McLaughlin-Volpe, T. (2004). An organizing framework for collective identity: Articulation and significance of multidimensionality. Psychological Bulletin, 130(1), 80-114.

Baker, C. (2011). Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism (5th ed.). Bristol, Buffalo, Toronto: Multilingual Matters.

Bamberg, M., & Georgakopoulou, A. (2008). Small stories as a new perspective in narrative and identity analysis. Text & Talk, 28(3), 377–396. 232

Bang, H. (2013). African American Undergraduate Students’ Wisdom and Ego-Identity Development: Effects of Age, Gender, Self-Esteem, and Resilience. Journal of Black Psychology, 41(2), 95-120.

Bassiouney, R. (2012). Politicizing identity: Code choice and stance-taking during the Egyptian revolution. Discourse & Society, 23(2), 107-126.

Bauer, E. B., Guerrero, B., Hornberg, S., & Bos, W. (2015). Understanding Students with Immigration Backgrounds: A German Case of Students’ Language and Identity in Development. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education 14(5), 302-318.

Beijaard, D., Meijer, P. C., & Verloop, N. (2004). Reconsidering research on teachers’ professional identity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 20(2), 107–128.

Belanger, E., & Verkuyten, M. (2010). Hyphenated Identities and Acculturation: Second-Generation Chinese of Canada and the Netherlands. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 10(3), 141-163.

Belsky, J. (1984). The determinants of parenting: A process model. Child Development, 55(1), 83–96.

Berger, B. M. (1995). An Essay on Culture: Symbolic Structure and Social Structure. Berkeley, Los Angles: University of California Press.

Bernache-Assollant, I., Lacassagne, M., & Braddock II, J. H. (2007). Basking in Reflected Glory and Blasting Differences in Identity-Management Strategies Between Two Groups of Highly Identified Soccer Fans. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 26(4), 381-388.

233

Berry, J. W. (1997). Immigration, Acculturation, and Adaptation. Applied Psychology, 46(1), 5-34.

Berry, J. W. (2009). A critique of critical acculturation. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 33(5), 361–371.

Berry, J. W. (Ed.). (2017). Mutual Intercultural Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Berzonsky, M. D., & Adams, G. R. (1999). Reevaluating the Identity Status Paradigm: Still Useful after 35 Years. Developmental Review, 19(4), 557–590.

Bhatia, M., & Ram, A. (2009). Theorizing identity in transnational and diaspora cultures: A critical approach to acculturation. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 33(2), 140–149.

Blackledge, A., & Pavlenko, A. (2001). Negotiation of identities in multilingual contexts. The international journal of bilingualism: cross-disciplinary, cross-linguistic studies of language behavior, 5(3), 243-257.

Bledin, K. (2003). Migration, identity and group analysis. Group analysis, 36(1), 97- 110.

Blommaert, J. (2005). Discourse: A Critical Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Blommaert, J. (2007). Sociolinguistic Scales. Intercultural Pragmatics, 4(1), 1–19.

Blommaert, J. (2010). The Sociolinguistics of Globalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 234

Blommaert, J., & Bulcaen, C. (2000). Critical Discourse Analysis. Annual Review of Anthropology, 29, 447-466.

Blommaert, J., Collins, J., Slembrouck. S. (2005). Spaces of multilingualism. Language and Communication, 25(3), 197–216.

Blommaert, J., & Varis, P. (2013). Enough is enough. In J. Duarte & I. Gogolin (Eds.), Linguistic Superdiversity in Urban Areas: Research approaches (pp. 143-159). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Bosch, L. A., & Segrin, C., & Curran, M. A. (2012). Identity Style during the Transition to Adulthood: The Role of Family Communication Patterns, Perceived Support, and Affect. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 12(4), 275-295.

Bosma, H. A., & Kunnen, E. S. (2001). Determinants and mechanisms in ego identity development: A review and synthesis. Developmental Review, 21(1), 39-66.

Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. G. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of theory of research for the sociology of education (pp. 241-258). New York: Greenwood Press.

Bourdieu, P. (1991). Language and symbolic power. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Bourdieu, P. (1998). Practical reason: On the theory of action. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.

235

Bowen, G. A. (2009). Document analysis as a qualitative research method. Qualitative Research Journal, 9(2), 27-40.

Boykin, A. W. (1986). The triple quandary and the schooling of Afro-American children. In U. Neisser (Ed.), The school achievement of minority children: New perspectives (pp. 57–92). New York, NY: Routledge.

Branscombe, N. R., Schmitt, M. T., & Harvey, R. D. (1999). Perceiving pervasive discrimination among African Americans: Implications for group identification and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(1), 135-149.

Brekhus, W. H. (2003). Peacocks, chameleons, centaurs: Gay suburbia and the grammar of social identity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Brockmeier, J., & Carbaugh, D. (Eds.). (2001). Narrative and Identity: Studies in Autobiography, Self and Culture. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publications.

Brown, J., & Brown, L. (2013). The international student sojourn, identity conflict and threats to well-being. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 41(4), 395-413.

Brubaker, R. (2005). The ‘diaspora’ diaspora. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 28(1), 1-19.

Bruner, J. (1991). The narrative construction of reality. Critical Inquiry, 18(1), 1-21.

Brunsma, D. L., & Rockquemore, K. N. (2001). The New Color Complex: Appearances and Biracial Identity. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 1(3), 225–246.

Bucholtz, M. (2003). Sociolinguistic Nostalgia and the Authentication of Identity. 236

Journal of Sociolinguistics, 7(3), 398-416.

Bucholtz, M., & Hall, K. (2004). Theorizing identity in language and sexuality research. Language in Society 33(4), 469-515.

Bucholtz, M., & Hall, K. (2005). Identity and interaction: a sociocultural linguistic approach. Discourse studies, 7(4-5), 585-614.

Burke, P. J., & Stets, J. E. (2009). Identity theory. New York: Oxford University Press.

Butler, J. (1999). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge.

Cakir, S. G. (2014). Ego identity Status and Psychological Well-Being Among Turkish Emerging Adults. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 14(3), 230-239.

Cameron, J. E. (2004). A three-factor model of social identity. Self and Identity, 3(1), 239–262.

Carter, R. (1997). Investigating English Discourse: Language, literacy and literature. London: Routledge.

Carter, M. J. (2017). How Self-Perceptions of Identity Change in Person, Role, and Social Identities Relate to Depression. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 17(4), 282-296.

Cashman, H. R. (2008). Accomplishing marginalization in bilingual interaction: Relational work as a resource for the intersubjective construction of identity. Multilingua, 27(1-2), 129-50. 237

Chávez, A. F., & Guido-DiBrito, F. (1999). Racial and Ethnic Identity and Development. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education 84: 39-47.

Chávez, R. (2018) The Role of Family in Latino Males’ Occupational Identity Development: A Thematic Analysis Based on Participants’ Occupation Outcomes, Identity, 18(2), 141-157.

Chen, Q. (1962). Zuijing Sanshi Nian Zhongguo Jiaoyu Shi [a History of Chinese Education during the Last Three Decades]. Taipei: Wenxin Press.

Chen, J., Luan, C., & Zhan, W. (Eds.). (2000). Education in Chinese traditional virtues: A new perspective. Changchun, China: Jilin Education Press.

Chen, S. X., & Bond, M. H. (2007). Explaining Language Priming Effects Further Evidence for Ethnic Affirmation among Chinese-English Bilinguals. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 26(4), 398-406.

Cheng, C. (1991). New dimensions of Confucian and neo-Confucian philosophy. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

Chiang, S. Y. (2016). “Is This What You’re Talking About?”: Identity Negotiation in International Teaching Assistants’ Instructional Interactions with U.S. College Students. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 15(2), 114-128.

Chin, L. (1995). Finding the way: Chuang Hua’s Crossings and Chinese Literary Tradition. MELUS, 20(1), 53-65.

Chiu, M. (1999). Motion, Memory, and Conflict in Chuang Hua’s Modernist Crossings. MELUS, 24(4), 107-123. 238

Choi, J. (2010). Living on the hyphen. In D. Nunan & J. Choi (Eds.), Language and culture: reflective narratives and the emergence of identity (pp. 66-73). New York: Routledge.

Chong, K. H. (2008). Deliverance and submission: evangelical women and the negotiation of patriarchy in South Korea. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

Chow, H. P. H. (2007) Sense of Belonging and Life Satisfaction among Hong Kong Adolescent Immigrants in Canada. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 33(3), 511- 520.

Chun, C. W. (2016). Addressing Racialized Multicultural Discourses in an EAP Textbook: Working Toward a Critical Pedagogies Approach. TESOL Quarterly, 50(1), 109-131

Confucius. (1915). The ethics of Confucius. New York: Putnam.

Connolly, W. E. (2002). Identity/difference: Democratic Negotiations of Political Paradox. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.

Corbin, J, M., & Strauss, A. (2008). Basics of qualitative research; techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (3rd ed.). United States, Portland: Sage Publications

Coupland, N. (2001). Language, situation, and the relational self: Theorising dialect- style in sociolinguistics. In P. Eckert & J. R. Rickford (Eds.), Style and sociolinguistic variation (pp. 185-210). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Creese, A., & Blackledge, A. (2010). Translanguaging in the Bilingual Classroom: A 239

Pedagogy for Learning and Teaching? The Modern Language Journal, 94(1), 103-115.

Creese, A., & Blackledge, A. (2015). Translanguaging and Identity in Educational Settings. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 35, 20-35.

Crocetti, E., Rubini, M., Luyckx, K., & Meeus, W. (2008). Identity Formation in Early and Middle Adolescents from Various Ethnic Groups: From Three Dimensions to Five Statuses. Journal of Youth and Adolescence 37: 983-996.

Crocker, J., & Major, B. (1989). Social stigma and self-esteem: The self-protective properties of stigma. Psychological Review, 96(4), 608--630.

Crocker, J., & Major, B. (2003). The Self-Protective Properties of Stigma: Evolution of a Modern Classic. Psychological Inquiry, 14(3-4), 232-237.

Crossman, J. (2016). Alignment and Misalignment in Personal and Organizational Spiritual Identities. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 16(3), 154-168.

Cutler, C. (2008). Brooklyn style: Hip-hop markers and racial affiliation among European immigrants in New York City. International Journal of Bilingualism, 12(1- 2), 7-24.

Dai, Q., Williams, J., & McGregor, E. (2016). Who Am I? The Developing Self- Concept of Scottish-Born Chinese Children: A Comparison with White Scottish, Mainland Chinese, and Hong Kong Chinese Children. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 16(4), 239-249.

Daiute, C., & Lightfoot, C. (Eds.). (2004). Narrative Analysis: Studying the Development of Individuals in Society. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 240

Damari, R. R. (2010). Intertextual stancetaking and the local negotiation of cultural identities by a binational couple. Journal of Sociolinguistics 14(5), 609-629.

Davies, B., & Harre, R. (1990). Positioning: The discursive production of selves. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 20(1), 43-63.

Davis, L. (2017). Addressing Indigenous language loss by unsettling the racialized linguistic hierarchies entrenched in Canada’s language policies. Working Papers of the Linguistics Circle of the University of Victoria, 27(1), 52-78.

De Fina, A. (2003). Identity in Narrative: A Study of Immigrant Discourse. Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

De Fina, A. (2013). Top-Down and Bottom-Up Strategies of Identity Construction in Ethnic Media. Applied linguistics, 34(5), 554-573.

De Fina, A., Bamberg, M., & Schiffrin, D. (2006). Discourse and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

De Fina, A., & Georgakopoulou, A. (2008). Analysing Narratives as Practices. Qualitative Research, 8(3), 379-387.

De Fina, A., & Perrino, S. (2013). ‘Transnational Identities’. Applied linguistics 34: Applied linguistics, 34(5), 509–515.

De Zulueta, F. (1995). Bilingualism, Culture and Identity, Group Analysis, 28(2), 179- 190.

241

Deaux, K. (2018). Ethnic/Racial Identity: Fuzzy Categories and Shifting Positions. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 677(1), 39-47.

Deaux, K., & Ethier, K. A. (1998). Negotiating social identity. In J. K. Swim (Ed.), Prejudice: The target's perspective (pp. 301-323). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

Dong, J. (2017). Voice Making in Intercultural Communication: The Chinese Transcontinental ‘Commuters’. Language and Intercultural Communication 17(2), 150–165.

Dörnyei, Z. (2005). The Psychology of the Language Learner: Individual Differences in Second Language Acquisition. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Du Bois, J. W. (2007). The stance triangle. In R. Englebretson (Ed.), Stance taking in discourse: Subjectivity, Evaluation, Interaction (pp. 139-182). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Benjamins.

Duff, P. A. (2015). Transnationalism, multilingualism, and identity. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 35, 57-80.

Duszak, A. (2002). Us and others: an introduction. In A. Duszak (Ed.), Us and Others: Social identities across languages, discourses and cultures (pp. 1-28). Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Edwards, R., Ali, S., Caballero, C., & Song, M. (Eds.). (2012). International perspectives on racial and ethnic mixedness and mixing. London: Routledge.

Elman, B. A. (1994). Changes in Confucian Civil Service Examinations from the Ming to the Ching Dynasty. In B. A. Elman & A. Woodside. (Eds.), Education and Society in Late Imperial China, 1600-1900 (pp. 111-149). Berkeley: University of California 242

Press.

Endo, R. (2016). Counternarrating Racialized Expectations at School: The Diverse Enactments of “Non-Dominant” Identities Among 1.5-Generation Japanese Immigrant Youth. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 15(4), 201-215.

Erikson, E. (1963). Childhood and Society. New York, NY: Norton.

Erikson, E. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. New York, NY: Norton.

Erikson, E. (1985). The life cycle completely. New York, NY: Norton.

Evans, M., & Liu, Y. (2018). The Unfamiliar and the Indeterminate: Language, Identity and Social Integration in the School Experience of Newly-Arrived Migrant Children in England. Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 17(3), 152-167.

Fadjukoff, P., Pulkkinen, L., & Kokko, K. (2005). Identity Processes in Adulthood: Diverging Domains. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 5(1), 1-20.

Fadjukoff, P., Pulkkinen, L., & Kokko, K. (2007). Implications of Timing of Entering Adulthood for Identity Achievement. Journal of Adolescent Research, 22(5), 504-530.

Fadjukoff, P., Pulkkinen, L., & Kokko, K. (2016). Identity Formation in Adulthood: A Longitudinal Study from Age 27 to 50. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 16(1), 8-23.

Fairclough, N. (2003). Analysing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research. London: Routledge.

243

Fairclough, N. (2010). Critical Discourse Analysis. Harlow: Longman.

Fairclough, N. (2015). Language and Power (3rd ed.). London; New York: Routledge.

Farrer, J. (2012). Good stories: Chinese women’s international love stories as cosmopolitan sexual politics. Sexualities, 16(1-2), 12-19.

Frisén, A., & Wängqvist, M. (2011). Emerging adults in Sweden: Identity formation in the light of love, work, and family. Journal of Adolescent Research, 26(2), 200–221.

Fitzgerald, T, K. (1993). Metaphors of identity: A culture-communication dialogue. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Gal, S. (1988). The political economy of code choice. In M. Heller (Ed.), Codeswitching: Anthropological and sociolinguistic perspectives (pp. 245–264). Berlin, Germany: Walter de Gruyter.

Gal, S. (2006). Migration, minorities and multilingualism: Language Ideologies in Europe. In C. Mar-Molinero & P. Stevenson (Eds.), Language Ideologies, Policies and Practices: Language and the Future of Europe (pp. 13–27). London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Gans, H. (1979). Symbolic ethnicity. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 2(1), 1-20.

Gao, X. (2012). ‘Cantonese is not a dialect’: Chinese netizens’ defense of Cantonese as a regional lingua franca. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 33(5), 449-464.

García, O. (2009). Education, Multilingualism and Translanguaging in the 21st Century. In Skutnabb-Kangas, T., Phillipson, R., Mohanty, A. K., & Panda, M. (Eds.). Social 244

Justice Through Multilingual Education. Bristol, Buffalo, Toronto: Multilingual

Matters.

Gee, J. P. (2000). Identity as an analytic lens for research in education. Review of Research in Education 25: 99-125.

Gee, J. P. (2005). An introduction to discourse analysis: theory and method. London: Routledge.

Gee, J. P. (2008). Social Linguistics and Literacies: Ideology in discourses (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

Giddens, A. (1991). Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life Garden City. New York: Anchor Books for Doubleday.

Golden, A., & Lanza, E. (2013). Metaphors of culture: Identity construction in migrants’ narrative discourse. Intercultural Pragmatics, 10(2), 295-314.

Gong, L. (2007). Ethnic identity and identification with the majority group: Relations with national identity and self-esteem. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 31(4), 503-523.

Grice, H. (2002). Negotiating identities: an introduction to Asian American women's writing. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Groff, C., Pilote, A., & Vieux-Fort, K. (2016). “I Am Not a Francophone”: Identity Choices and Discourses of Youth Associating With a Power Minority. Journal of 245

Language, Identity, and Education, 15(2), 83-99.

Gu, M. (2011a). Language choice and identity construction in peer interactions: insights from a multilingual university in Hong Kong. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 32(1), 17-31.

Gu, M. (2011b). ‘I am not qualified to be a Hongkongese because of my accented Cantonese’: mainland Chinese immigrant students in Hong Kong. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 32(6), 515-529.

Gu, M. (2015). From opposition to transcendence: the language practices and ideologies of students in a multilingual university. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 17(3), 310-329.

Gu, M., & Patkin, J. (2013). Heritage and Identity: Ethnic Minority Students from South Asia in Hong Kong. Linguistics and Education, 24(2), 131–141.

Guarde-Paz, C. (2017). The Prescriptive Dialectics of Li 禮 and Yi 義 in the Lienü zhuan 列女傳. Philosophy East & West, 67(3), 651–666.

Gudykunst, W. B., & Kim, Y. Y. (2003). Communicating with strangers: An approach to intercultural communication. New York: McGraw Hill.

Gumperz, J. (1982). Discourse Strategies. Vol.1. Cambridge: Cambridge University. Press.

Gumperz, J., & Cook-Gumperz, J. (2005). Making space for bilingual communicative practice. Intercultural Pragmatics, 2(1), 1-23.

Gunn, E. (1991). Rewriting Chinese: Style and Innovation in Twentieth-Century 246

Chinese Prose. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Hall, K. D. (2002). Lives in translation: Sikh youth as British citizens. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Hall, S. (2008). Who need ‘identity?’ In P. du Gay, J. Evans & P. Redman (Eds.), Identity: a reader (6th ed.) (pp. 15-19). London: Sage and Open University Press.

Hamburg, S. N. (2013). Han Suyin: Han Suyin, family doctor, author, and a bridge between China and the West. British Medical Journal, 346, 1-2.

Hammerback, J. (2011). Identity's Strategy: Rhetorical Selves in Conversation, Dana Anderson: Columbia: U of South Carolina P, 2007. ix + 209 pages. $39.95 hardcover. Rhetoric Review, 30(3), 316-320.

Hamilton, P, L. (1999). Feng Shui, Astrology, and the Five Elements: Traditional Chinese Belief in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club. MELUS, 24(2), 125-145.

Han, S. (1952). A Many-Splendoured Thing. London: Jonathan Cape Limited.

Han, S. (1957). Family Planning in China. Eugenics Review, 49(2), 81-82.

Han, S. (1960). Birth Control in China-Recent Aspects, 52(1), 19–22.

Han, S. (1965). The Crippled Tree. London: Jonathan Cape Limited.

Han, S. (1966). A Mortal Flower. London: Jonathan Cape Limited.

Han, S. (1968). Birdless Summer. London: Jonathan Cape Limited.

247

Hasford, J., Abbott, K., Alisat, S., Pancer, S. M., & Pratt, M. W. (2017). Community Involvement and Narrative Identity in Emerging and Young Adulthood: A Longitudinal Analysis. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 17(1), 40-54.

Heller, M. (1995). Code-switching and the politics of language. In L. Milroy & P. Muysken (Eds.), One speaker, Two languages: Cross-disciplinary perspectives on code-switching (pp. 158-174). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Henry, A., & Goddard, A. (2015). Bicultural or Hybrid? The Second Language Identities of Students on an English-Mediated University Program in Sweden. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 14(4), 255-274.

Hermans, H. J. M., & Hermans-Konopka, A. (2010). Dialogical Self Theory: positioning and Counter-Positioning in a Globalizing Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Heung, M. (1993). Daughter-Text/Mother-text: Matrilineage in Amy Tan’s “The Joy Luck Club.” Feminist Studies, 19(3), 596-616.

Ho, W. (2008). Negotiating the Past: Gender Inequality in Chuang Hua’s Crossings. Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies, 34(2), 155-75.

Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture’s consequence: International differences in work-related values. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

Homma, Y., Zumbo, B. D., Saewyc, E. M., & Wong, S. T. (2014). Psychometric Evaluation of the Six-Item Version of the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure with East Asian Adolescents in Canada. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 14(1), 1-18.

248

Hua, C. (1968). Crossings. Boston: Northeastern UP.

Hubbard, R. R., & Utsey, S. O. (2015). A Qualitative Study of Biracial Identity among Afro-Germans Living in Germany. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 15(2), 89–112.

Hughes, D. (2003). Correlates of African American and Latino Parents’ Messages to Children About Ethnicity and Race: A Comparative Study of Racial Socialization. American Journal of Community Psychology, 31(1-2), 15-33.

Hyland, K. (2010). Community and Individuality: Performing Identity in Applied Linguistics. Written Communication, 27(2), 159-188.

Hyland, K. (2012). Disciplinary Identities: Individuality and community in academic discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ichheiser, G. (1970). Appearances and realities: Misunderstanding in human relations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Inguglia, C., & Musso, P. (2015). Intercultural profiles and adaptation among immigrant and autochthonous adolescents. Europe’s Journal of Psychology, 11(1), 79– 99.

Jameson, F. (1981). The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act. New York: Cornell University Press.

Jaschok, M., & Miers, S. (1994). Women in the Chinese Patriarchal System:

Submission, Servitude, Escape and Collusion. In M. Jaschok & S. Miers (Eds.), Women and Chinese patriarchy: submission, servitude, and escape (pp. 1-24). Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. 249

Johnstone, B. (2007). Linking identity and dialect through stancetaking. In R. Englebretson (Ed.), Stancetaking in discourse: Subjectivity, evaluation, interaction (pp. 49-68). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Johnstone, B. (2010). Locating language in identity. In C. Llamas and D. Watt (Eds.), Language and Identities (pp. 18-28). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Jones, L. (2012). Dyke/Girl: Language and Identities in a Lesbian Group. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Jones, L. (2014) “Dolls or teddies?” Constructing lesbian identity through community- specific practice. Journal of Language and Sexuality, 3(2), 161-90.

Kang, S. M. (2006). Measurement of acculturation, scale formats, and language competence: Their implications for adjustment. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 37(6), 669–693.

Kanno, Y. (2003). Negotiating bilingual and bicultural identities: Japanese returnees betwixt two worlds. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Keefe, S. E. (1992). Ethnic Identity: The Domain of Perceptions of and Attachment to Ethnic Groups and Cultures. Human Organization, 51(1), 35-43.

Keenan, B. C. (1995). Imperial China’s Last Classical Academies: Social Change in the Lower Yangzi, 1864-1911. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies.

Kemppainen, R. P., Hilton, S. C., & Rannut, U. (2015). Ethnic Identification and School Language of Russian-speaking Students in Estonia. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 14(5), 336-353. 250

Khanna, N. (2011). Ethnicity and race as ‘symbolic’: The use of ethnic and racial symbols in asserting a biracial identity. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 34(6), 1049–1067.

Kim, E., & Shammas, D. (2019). Understanding Transcultural Identity: Ethnic Identity Development of Asian Immigrant College Students during Their First Two Years at a Predominantly White Institution. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 19(3), 212-229.

Kim, G. S., Suyemoto, K. L., & Turner. C. B. (2010). Sense of Belonging, Sense of Exclusion, and Racial and Ethnic Identities in Korean Transracial Adoptees. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 16(2), 179 –190.

Kim, M. (2016). A North Korean Defector’s Journal through the Identity- Transformation Process. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 15(1), 3-16.

Kirschner, S. R., & Martin, J. (Eds.). (2010). The sociocultural turn in psychology: the contextual emergence of mind and self. New York: Columbia University Press.

Klapwijk, N., & Walt, C. V. (2016). English-Plus Multilingualism as the New Linguistic Capital? Implications of University Students’ Attitudes towards Languages of Instruction in a Multilingual Environment. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 15(2), 67-82.

Kommonen, K. (2011). Narratives on Chinese colour culture in business contexts: The Yin Yang Wu Xing of Chinese values. Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, 18(3), 366-383.

Kovecses, Z. (2005). Metaphor in Culture: Universality and Variation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 251

Kramsch, C., & Whiteside, A. (2008). Language Ecology in Multilingual Settings: Towards a Theory of Symbolic Competence. Applied linguistics, 29(4), 645-671.

Krippendorff, K. (2013). Content analysis: an introduction to its methodology (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage.

Kroger, J. (2007). Why Is Identity Achievement So Elusive? Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 7(4), 331-348.

Kroger, J. (2018). The Epigenesis of Identity—What Does It Mean? Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 18(4), 334-342.

Kroskrity, P. V. (2004). Language ideologies. In A. Duranti (Ed.), A companion to linguistic anthropology (pp. 196-517). Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Kwan, K. K., & Sodowsky, G. R. (1997). Internal and external ethnic identity and their correlates: A study of Chinese American immigrants. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 25(1), 51-67.

Labov, W. (1972). Language in the Inner City. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Langman, J. (2004). (Re) constructing Gender in a New Voice: An Introduction. Journal of language, identity, and education, 3(4), 235-243.

Lai, M. L. (2011). Cultural Identity and Language Attitudes – into the Second Decade of Postcolonial Hong Kong. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 32(3), 249-264.

252

Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Lawton, B., & Foeman, A. (2017). Shifting Winds: Using Ancestry DNA to Explore Multiracial Individuals’ Patterns of Articulating Racial Identity. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research 17(2), 69-83.

Lee, R. M. (2005). Resilience against Discrimination: Ethnic Identity and Other-Group Orientation as Protective Factors for Korean Americans. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 52(1), 36-44.

Lee, T. R. (2002). How life is associated with colors in Chinese culture: utilizing colors based on Chinese five-essence theory. 9th Congress of the International Colour Association 4421(1), 400-403.

Leeman, J. (2018). It’s all about English: the interplay of monolingual ideologies, language policies and the U.S. Census Bureau’s statistics on multilingualism. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 252, 21-43

Leijen, Ä., & Kullasepp, K. (2013). Unlocking the potential of conflicts: A pilot study of professional identity development facilitation during the initial teacher education. International Journal for Dialogical Science, 7, 67–86.

Levinson, D. J. (1978). The Seasons of a man's life. New York: Knopf.

Li, W., & Wu, C. (2009). Polite Chinese children revisited: creativity and the use of codeswitching in the Chinese complementary school classroom. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 12(2), 193-211.

Li, W., & Zhu, H. (2013). Translanguaging Identities and Ideologies: Creating 253

Transnational Space through Flexible Multilingual Practices amongst Chinese University Students in the UK. Applied Linguistics, 34(5), 516-535.

Li, X. (2015). International Students in China: Cross-Cultural Interaction, Integration, an Identity Construction. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education 14(4), 237-254.

Liang, A. C. (1999) Conversationally Implicating Lesbian and Gay Identity. In M. Bucholtz, A. C. Liang & L. A. Sutton (Eds.), Reinventing Identities (pp. 293-310). New York: Oxford University Press.

Lieberson, S., & Waters, M. C. (1986). Ethnic groups in flux: the changing ethnic responses of American whites. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 487(1), 79-91.

Liebkind, K. (2006). Ethnic identity and acculturation. In D. L. Sam & J. W. Berry (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of acculturation psychology (pp. 78–96). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ling, A. (1982). A Rumble in the Silence: Crossings by Chuang Hua. MELUS, 9(3), 29-37.

Luke, A. (2009). Race and language as capital in school: A sociological template for language education reform. In R. Kubota & A. M. Y. Lin (Eds.), Race, culture and identities in second language education: Exploring critically engaged practice (pp. 286–308). London, UK: Routledge.

Lynn, M., & Parker, L. (2006). Critical race studies in education: Examining a decade of research on U.S. schools. The Urban Review, 38(4), 257-290.

Maehler, D. B., Zabal, A., & Hanke, K. (2019). Adults’ Identity in Acculturation 254

Settings: The Multigroup Ethnic & National Identity Measure (MENI). Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 19(4), 245-257.

MacSwan, J. (2017). A Multilingual Perspective on Translanguaging. American

Educational Research Journal, 54(1), 167–201.

Mahtani, M. (2002). What’s in a name? Exploring the employment of “mixed race” as an identification. Ethnicities, 2(4), 469–490.

Marcia, J. E. (1966). Development and validation of Ego-identity status. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 3(5), 551-558.

Marcia, J. E. (2007). Theory and measure: The Identity Status Interview. In M. Watzlawik & A. Born (Eds.), Capturing Identity: Quantitative and Qualitative Methods (pp. 1-13). Lanham, MD: University Press of America.

Martin J, N. & Nakayama T. K. (1997). Intercultural Communication in Contexts. Mountain View, California: Mayfield Publication Corporation.

Matalene, C. (1985). Contrastive Rhetoric: An American Writing Teacher in China. College English, 47(8), 789-808.

McCall, G. J., & Simmons, J. L. (1978). Identities and interactions: an examination of human associations in everyday life. New York: Free Press.

McGarty, C., Bliuc, A-M., Thomas, E. F., & Bongiorno, R. (2009). Collective Action as the Material Expression of Opinion-Based Group Membership. Journal of Social Issues, 65(4), 839-857.

McSpadden, L. A., & Moussa, H. (1993). I Have a Name: The Gender Dynamics in 255

Asylum and in Resettlement of Ethiopian and Eritrean Refugees in North America. Journal of Refugee Studies, 6(3), 203-225.

Mcentee-Atalianis. L. J. (2013). Stance and metaphor: Mapping changing representations of (organizational) identity. Discourse & Communication, 7(3). 319– 340.

Mendoza-Denton, N. (2002). Language and Identity. In J. K. Chambers, P. Trudgill, & N. Schilling-Estes (Eds.), The Handbook of Language Variation and Change (pp. 499- 499). UK: Blackwell.

Mey, J. L. (2001). Pragmatics: an introduction (2nd ed.). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.

Miller, E. T. (2015). Discourses of whiteness and blackness: an ethnographic study of three young children learning to be white. Ethnography and Education, 10(2), 137–153.

Mistri, Z. (1998). Discovering the ethnic name and the genealogical tie in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club. Studies in Short Fiction, 35(3), 251-257.

Moha, E. (2005). Multilingualism, Cultural Identity, and Education in Morocco. New York: Springer.

Mogalakwe, M. (2006). The Use of Documentary Research Methods in Social Research. African Sociological Review 10(1), 221-230.

Morek, M. (2014). Constructing social and communicative worlds – The role of peer- interactions in preadolescents’ discursive development. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 3(2), 121–133.

256

Morek, M. (2015). Show that you know – Explanations, interactional identities and epistemic stance-taking in family talk and peer talk. Linguistics and Education, 31, 238–259.

Mossakowski, K. N. (2003). Coping with Perceived Discrimination: Does Ethnic Identity Protect Mental Health? Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 44(3), 318-331.

Mu, G. M. (2015). A meta-analysis of the correlation between heritage language and ethnic identity. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 36(3), 239-254

Mu, G. M. (2016). Looking Chinese and Learning Chinese as a Heritage Language: The Role of Habitus. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 15(5), 293-305.

Myers-Scotton, C. (1993). Common and uncommon ground: Social and structural factors in codeswitching. Language in Society, 22(4), 475–503.

Nadon, N. (2013). Rhetoric of Wounds: Trauma, Identity, and Interpersonal Relationships in Chuang Hua’s Crossings. Canadian Review of American Studies, 43(1), 74-89.

Nagel, J. (1994) Constructing ethnicity: creating and recreating ethnic identity and Culture. Social Problems, 41(1), 152-176.

Nagel, J. (2003). Race, Ethnicity, and Sexuality: Intimate Intersections, Forbidden Frontiers. Oxford University Press.

Naumann, L. P., Benet-Martínez, V., & Espinoza, P. (2017). Correlates of political ideology among U.S.-Born Mexican Americans: Cultural identification, acculturation attitudes, and socioeconomic status. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 8(1), 20–28. 257

Neblett Jr, E. W., Smalls, C. P., Ford, K R., Nguyên, H X., & Sellers, R. M. (2009). Racial Socialization and Racial Identity: African American Parents’ Messages about Race as Precursors to Identity. Journal of Youth Adolescence, 38(2), 189–203.

Noels, K. A. (2014). Language variation and ethnic identity: A social psychological perspective. Language & Communication, 35, 88–96.

Norris, S. (2007). The micropolitics of personal national and ethnicity identity. Discourse and Society 18(5), 653-674.

Norris, S. (2011). Identity in (Inter)action: Introducing Multimodal (Inter)action Analysis. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.

Norton, B. (1995). Social identity, investment, and language learning. TESOL Quarterly, 29(1), 9-31.

Norton, B. (2000). Identity and Language Learning: Gender, Ethnicity and Educational Change. England: Pearson Education.

Norton, B. (2013). Identity and Language Learning. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.

Neuliep, J. W., & McCroskey, J. C. (1997). The development of a U.S. and generalized ethnocentrism scale. Communication Research Reports, 14(4), 385–398.

Ochs, E. (1992) Indexing Gender. In A. Duranti & C. Goodwin (Eds.), Rethinking Context: Language as an Interactive Phenomenon (pp. 335-358). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ochs, E. (2005). Constructing Social Identity: A Language Socialization Perspective. 258

In S. F. Kiesling & C. B. Paulston (Eds.), Intercultural Discourse and Communication: The Essential Readings (pp. 78-91). Blackwell Publishing.

Ochs, E., & Capps, L. (2001). Living narrative: creating lives in everyday storytelling. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

Ochs, E., & Tailor, C. (1995). ‘The “Father Knows Best” Dynamic in Dinnertime Narratives’, in K. Hall & M. Bucholtz (Eds.), Gender Articulated: Language and the Socially Constructed Self (pp. 97-120). New York: Routledge.

O'Hearn. C. C. (Ed.). (1998). Half and Half: Writers on Growing Up Biracial and Bicultural. New York: Pantheon Press.

Olinger, A. R. (2011). Constructing identities through “discourse”: Stance and interaction in collaborative college writing. Linguistic and Education, 22(3), 273-286.

Otele, O., & Latrache. R. (2011). Does Discrimination Shape Identity? Identity Politics and Minorities in the English-Speaking World and in France: Rhetoric and Reality. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 32(3), 199-207.

Ou, Y. S., & McAdoo, H. P. (1993). Socialization of Chinese American children. In H. P. McAdoo (Ed.), Ethnicity: Strength in diversity (pp. 245–270). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Oyserman, D, Bybee, D., Terry, K., & Hart-Johnson, T. (2004). Possible selves as roadmaps. Journal of Research in Personality, 38(2), 130–149.

Oyserman, D., & James, L. (2009). Possible selves: From content to process. In K. D. Markman, W. M. P. Klein & J. A. Suhr (Eds.), Handbook of imagination and mental stimulation (pp. 373–394). New York: Psychology Press. 259

Oyserman, D., & Destin, M. (2010). Identity-based motivation: Implications for intervention. The Counseling Psychologist, 38(7), 1001–1043.

Paciocco, A. (2018). Performing Chinese Diasporic Identity through Mandarin: The Case of Italian-Schooled Chinese Migrant Youth in Prato (Italy). Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 17(4), 207-221.

Park, J. E. (2007). Co-construction of Nonnative Speaker Identity in Cross-cultural Interaction. Applied Linguistics, 28(3), 339–360.

Payne, G., & Payne, J. (2004). Key Concepts in Social Research. London: Sage Publications.

Peng, K., & Nisbett, R. E. (1999). Culture, Dialectics, and reasoning about contradiction. American Psychologist, 54(9), 741-754.

Pennycook, A. (2003). Global Englishes, Rip Slyme, and performativity. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 7(4), 513-533.

Pennycook, A. (2007). Global Englishes and transcultural flows. London: Routledge.

Pennycook, A. (2009). Refashioning and performing identities in global hip-hop. In N. Coupland & A. Jaworski (Eds.), The new sociolinguistics reader (pp. 326–340). Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

Phinney, J. S. (1990). Ethnic identity in adolescents and adults: Review of research. Psychological Bulletin, 108(3), 499-514.

Phinney, J. S. (1993). A three-stage model of ethnic identity development in 260

adolescence. In M. E. Bemal & G. P. Knight (Eds.), Ethnic identity: Formation and transmission among Hispanics and other minorities (pp. 61-78). Albany: State University of New York Press.

Phinney, J. S. (2003). Ethnic identity and acculturation. In K. Chun, P. Organista, & G. Marin (Eds.), Acculturation: Advances in theory, measurement, and applied research (pp. 63-81). Washington, D. C.: American Psychological Association.

Phinney, J. S., Cantu, C. L., & Kurtz, D. A. (1997). Ethnic and American identity as predictors of self-esteem among African American, Latino, and White adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 26(2), 165-185.

Phinney, J. S., & Ong, A. D. (2007). Conceptualization and measurement of ethnic identity: Current status and future directions. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 54(3), 271-281.

Pope, J. P., Hall, C. R., & Tobin, D. (2014). How Do Coaches Identify With Their Role as a Coach? Exploring Coach Identity through a Role Identity Theory Lens. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 14(2), 136-152.

Portes, A., & Rumbaut, R. (2001). Legacies: The story of the immigrant second generation. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Pustulka, P. (2016). Ethnic, gender and class identities of Polish migrant mothers: intersecting maternal narratives with transnationalism and integration. Social identities, 22(1), 44-61.

Quintana, S. M., & Vera, E. M. (1999). Mexican American children’s ethnic identity, understanding of ethnic prejudice, and parental ethnic socialization. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 21(4), 387–404. 261

Rampton, B. (1999). Styling the Other: Introduction. Journal of Sociolinguistics. 3(4), 421-427.

Remi, J. S. (2018). Black mixed-race men, perceptions of the family, and the cultivation of ‘post-racial’ resilience. Ethnicities, 18(1), 86–105.

Reyes, A. (2002). “Are you losing your culture?”: poetics, indexicality and Asian American identity. Discourse Studies, 4(2), 183-199.

Roberts, R. E., Phinney, J. S., Masse, L. C., Chen, Y. R., Roberts, C. R., & Romero, A. (1999). The structure of ethnic identity of young adolescents from diverse ethnocultural groups. Journal of Early Adolescence, 19(3), 301-322.

Rocha, Z. L. (2016). “Mixed race” identities in Asia and the pacific: Experiences from Singapore and New Zealand. Oxon: Routledge.

Rockquemore, K. A., Brunsma, D. L., & Delgado, D. J. (2009). Racing to theory or retheorizing race? Understanding the struggle to build a multiracial identity theory. Journal of Social Issues, 65(1), 13–34.

Rockquemore, K. A., & Laszloffy, T. (2005). Raising Biracial Children. Oxford: AltaMira Press.

Root, M. P. P. (1999). The biracial baby boom: Understanding ecological constructions of racial identity in the 21st century. In R. H. Sheets & E. R. Hollins (Eds.), Racial and ethnic identity in school practices: Aspects of human development (pp. 67-89). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Rosenberg, M. (1979). Conceiving the self. New York, NY: Basic Books. 262

Ruble, D., Alvarez, J., Bachman, M., Cameron, J., Fuligni, A., Coll, C. G., & Rhee, E. (2004). The development of a sense of “we”: The emergence and implications of children’s collective identity. In M. Bennett & F. Sani (Eds.), The development of the social self (pp. 29-76). Hove, East Sussex, New York: Psychology Press.

Rumbaut, R. G. (2008). Reaping what you sow: Immigration, youth, and reactive ethnicity. Applied Developmental Science, 12(2), 108–111.

Rumenapp, J. C. (2016). Analyzing discourse analysis: Teachers’ views of classroom discourse and student identity. Linguistic and Education, 35, 26-36.

Sabatier, C. (2008). Ethnic and national identity among second-generation immigrant adolescents in France: The role of social context and family. Journal of Adolescence, 31(2), 185-205.

Samnani, A., Boekhorst, J. A., & Harrison, J. A. (2012). Acculturation strategy and individual outcomes: Cultural diversity implications for human resource management. Human Resource Management Review, 22(4), 323–335.

Sanchez, D. T. (2010). How Do Forced‐Choice Dilemmas Affect Multiracial People? The Role of Identity Autonomy and Public Regard in Depressive Symptoms. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 40(7), 1657–1677.

Sauntson, H. (2016). Authenticating Sexual Diversity in School: Examining Sociolinguistic Constructions of Young People’s Sexual Identities. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education 15(1), 17-31.

Schegloff, E. A. (1997). Narrative analysis: Thirty years later. Journal of Narrative and Life History, 7(1-4), 97–106. 263

Schilling-Estes N. (2004). Constructing Ethnicity in Interaction. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 8(2), 163-195.

Schug, J., Yuki M., & Maddux, W. (2010). Relational Mobility Explains Between- and Within-Culture Differences in Self-Disclosure to Close Friends. Psychological Science, 21(10), 1471-1478.

Schwartz, S. J., Unger, J. B., Zamboanga, B. L., & Szapocznik, J. (2010). Rethinking the concept of acculturation: Implications for theory and research. American Psychologist, 65(4), 237-251.

Scollon, R. (1997). Handbills, tissues, and condoms: A site of engagement for the construction of identity in public discourse. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 1(1), 39-61.

Scott, J. (1990). A Matter of Record, Documentary Sources in Social Research. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Shanghai People’s Publication. (2011). A Collection of Poems of Ming Dynasty. Shanghai: Shanghai Bookstore Press.

Shek, D. (1996). Mental Health of Chinese Adolescents: A Critical Review. In S. Lau (Ed.). Growing up the Chinese Way: Chinese Child and Adolescent Development (pp. 169-200). Hong Kong: Chinese University Press.

Shin, J. (2016). Hyphenated Identities of Korean Heritage Language Learners: Marginalization, Colonial Discourses and Internalized Whiteness. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 15(1), 32-43.

264

Shin, S. J. (2010). “What about Me? I’m Not Like Chinese But I’m Not Like American”: Heritage-Language and Identity of Mixed-Heritage Adults. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 9(3), 203-219.

Shirai, T., Nakamura, T., & Katsuma, K. (2016). Identity development in relation to time beliefs in emerging adulthood: A long-term longitudinal study. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 16(1), 45–58.

Shore, B. (2002). Taking culture seriously. Human Development, 45(4), 226–228.

Silverstein, M. (1976). Shifters, Linguistic Categories, and Cultural Description. In K. H. Basso & H. A. Selby (Eds.), Meaning in Anthropology (pp. 11-55). Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

Silverstein, M. (1996). Monoglot “Standard” in America: Standardization and Metaphors of Linguistic Hegemony. In. Brenneis, D. & Macaulay, R. K. S. (Eds.), The Matrix of Language: Contemporary Linguistic Anthropology (pp. 284-306). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Skey, M. (2010). ‘A sense of where you belong in the world’: national belonging, ontological security and the status of the ethnic majority in England. Nations and Nationalism, 16(4), 715–733.

Smith, E. J. (1991). Ethnic identity development: Toward the development of a theory within the context of majority/minority status. Journal of Counseling and Development, 70(1), 181-187.

Sokol, Y., Conroy, A. K., & Weingartner, K. M. (2017). The Cognitive Underpinnings of Continuous Identity: Higher Episodic Memory Recall and Lower Heuristic Usage Predicts Highest Levels of Self-Continuity. Identity: An International Journal of 265

Theory and Research 17: 84-95.

Soliz, J., Cronan, S., Bergquist, G., Nuru, A. K., & Rittenour, C. E. (2017). Perceived Benefits and Challenges of a Multiethnic-Racial Identity: Insight from Adults with Mixed Heritage. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 17(4), 267- 281.

Solomontos-Kountouri, O., & Hurry, J. (2008). Political, religious and occupational identities in context: Placing identity status paradigm in context. Journal of Adolescence, 31(2), 241-258.

Song, B., Kim, D. W., & Lee, K. (2016). Contextual influences on Korean college students’ vocational identity development. Asia Pacific Education Review, 17(1), 175– 184.

Song, M. (2003) Choosing Ethnic Identity. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Souris, S. (1994). “Only Two Kinds of Daughters”, Inter-Monologue Dialogicity in The Joy Luck Club. MELUS, 19(2), 99-123.

Spickard, P. R. (1992). The Illogic of American Racial Categories. In M. P. P. Root (Ed.), Racially Mixed People in America (pp. 12–23). California: Sage Publication.

Spickard, P. R., Moniz, J., & Dineen-Wimberly, I. (2015). Race in mind: critical essays. Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press.

Stone, L. D., & Thompson, G. A. (2014). Classroom mood and the dance of stance: The role of affective and epistemic stancetaking in the development of a classroom mood. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 3(4), 309-322.

266

Strauss, L. C., & Cross Jr. W. E. (2005). Transacting Black identity: A two-week daily- diary study. In G. Downey, J. S. Eccles & C. M. Chatman (Eds.), Navigating the future: Social identity, coping, and life tasks (pp. 67–95). New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Stryker, S. (1968). Identity Salience and Role Performance. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 30(4), 558-564.

Stryker, S. (2007). Identity Theory and Personality Theory: Mutual Relevance. Journal of Personality, 75(6), 1083-1102.

Stryker, S. & Burke, P. J. (2000). The Past, Present, and Future of an Identity Theory. Social Psychology Quarterly, 63(4), 284-297.

Snyder, M., & Cantor, M. (1998). Understanding personality and social behavior: A functionalist strategy (4th ed.). In D. T. Gilbert, S. T, Fiske & G. Lindzey (Eds.), The handbook of social psychology (Vol. 1, pp. 635-679). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.

Tajfel, H. (1972). Social categorization. English Manuscript of “La catégorisation sociale”. In S. Moscovici (Ed.), Introduction a la psychologie sociale (pp. 272-302). Paris: Larousse.

Tajfel, H. (1974). Social identity and intergroup behaviour. Social Science Information, 13(2), 65-93.

Tajfel, H., & Turner J. (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. In W. G. Austin & S. Worschel (Eds.), The social psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 33-47). Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole.

Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. (1986). The social identity theory of intergroup behavior. In S. Worchel & W. G. Austin (Eds.), Psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 7-24). Chicago: 267

Nelson-Hall.

Tan, A. ( 1989). The Joy Luck Club. New York: Putnam's.

Thomas, V., & Azmitia, M. (2014). Does Class Matter? The Centrality and Meaning of Social Class Identity in Emerging Adulthood. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 14(3), 195-213.

Ting-Toomey, S. (1999). Communicating across Cultures. New York: Guilford Press.

Ting-Toomey, S., Yee-Jung, K. K., Shapiro, R. B., Garcia, W., Wright, T. J., & Oetzel, J. G. (2000). Ethnic/CIS and conflict styles in four US ethnic groups. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 24(1), 47–81.

Tran, A. G. T. T. (2016). Who Is American? Demographic and Social-Contextual Correlates of Identification as a “Typical” American among Diverse Asian Americans. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 16(4), 207-224.

Triandis, H. C. (1995). Individualism and collectivism. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Troman, G. (2007). Research on teachers’ work & teacher professionalism: A short history. In I. Hextall, S. Gewirtz, A. Cribb, & P. Mahony (Eds.), Changing teachers’ roles, identities & professionalism (pp. 30–49). London, England: TLRP (Teacher and Learning Research Programme), Roehampton University, King’s College.

Tse, L. (2000). The effects of ethnic identity formation on bilingual maintenance and development: An analysis of Asian American narratives. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 3(3), 185-200.

Tsui, Amy, B. M. (2007). Language Policy and the Construction of Identity: the Case 268

of Hong Kong. In Amy B. M. Tsui & J. W. Tollefson (Eds.), Language Policy, Culture and Identity in Asian Contexts. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Tweed, R. G., & Lehman, D. R. (2002). Learning Considered Within a Cultural Context: Confucian and Socratic Approaches. American Psychologist, 57(2), 89-99.

Umaña-Taylor, A. J. (2011). Ethnic Identity. In S. J. Schwartz, K. Luyckx & V. L. Vignoles (Eds.), Handbook of Identity Theory and Research (pp. 791-809). New York: Springer.

Umaña-Taylor A. J., & Shin, N. (2007). An Examination of Ethnic Identity and Self- Esteem with Diverse Populations: Exploring Variation by Ethnicity and Geography. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 13(2), 178-186.

Valsiner, J. (2000). Culture and human development. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Valsiner, J. (2003). Beyond social representations: A theory of enablement. Papers on Social Representations, 12, 7.1-7.16. van Dijk, T. A. (1995). Aims of Critical Discourse Analysis. Japanese Discourse 1: 17- 27. van Dijk, T. A. (2001). Discourse, Ideology and Context. Folia linguistica, 35(1), 11- 40. van Dijk, T. A. (2009). Society and Discourse: How Social Contexts Influence Text and Talk. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Verkuyten, M. (2005). The social psychology of ethnic identity. Hove, United Kingdom; New York: Psychology Press. 269

Vertovec, S. (2001). Transnationalism and identity. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 27(4), 573–582.

Visweswaran, K. (1994). Fictions of Feminist Ethnography. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press

Volkman, T. A. (2005). Introduction: New geographies of kinship. In T. A. Volkman (Ed.), Cultures of transnational adoption (pp. 1–22). Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1997). The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky, Vol. 4: The history of the development of higher mental functions (R. W. Rieber, Ed.). New York: Plenum Press. (Original work published 1941).

Wallace, K. R. (2004). Situating Multiethnic Identity: Contributions of Discourse Theory to the Study of Mixed Heritage Students. Journal of Language, Identity and Education, 3(3), 195-213.

Wängqvist, M., Carlsson, J., Lee M. V. D., & Frisé, A. (2016). Identity Development and Romantic Relationships in the Late Twenties. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 16(1), 8-23.

Watanabe, H., & Uchiyama, I. (2015). Identity Integration of Japanese Married Working Women With and Without Children: Relationships Between Overall Identity and Context-Specific Identities. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 15(3), 188-201. 270

Waters, M. C. (1990). Ethnic options: Choosing Identities in America. Berkeley, California: University of California Press.

Wei, M. (2016). Language Ideology and Identity Seeking: Perceptions of College Learners of English in China. Journal of Language, Identity and Education, 15(2), 100- 113.

White-Johnson，R, L., Ford, K. R., & Sellers, R. M. (2010). Parental racial socialization profiles: Association with demographic factors, racial discrimination, childhood socialization, and racial identity. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 16(2), 237–247.

Wiley, T. G. (2005). The reemergence of heritage and community language policy in the U.S. national spotlight. The Modern Language Journal, 89(4), 594-601.

Williams, T. K., & Thornton, M. C. (1998). Social construction of ethnicity versus personal experience: The case of Afro-Amerasians. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 29(2), 255–267.

Wodak, R. (1999). The discursive construction of national identity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Wodak, R. (2001). What CDA is about - a summary of its history, important concepts and its developments. In R. Wodak & M. Meyer (Eds.), Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis (pp.1-13). London: Sage.

Wodak, R. (2012). Language, power and identity. Language Teaching, 45(2), 215–233.

Wood, M, G. (2012). Negotiating the Geography of Mother-Daughter Relationships in 271

Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club. The Midwest Quarterly, 54(1), 82-96.

Xu, B. (1994). Memory and the Ethnic Self: Reading Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club. MELUS, 19(1), 3-18.

Yancey, W., Erickson, E., & Juliani, R. (1976). Emergent Ethnicity: A Review and Reformulation. American Sociological Review, 41(3), 391-403.

Yang, K. S., & Bond, M. H. (1980). Ethnic affirmation by Chinese bilinguals. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 11(4), 411-425.

Yeoh, B. S. A., Acedera, K., & Rootham, E. (2019). Negotiating postcolonial Eurasian identities and national belonging in global-city Singapore. Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture, 25(3), 294-309.

Yinger, J. M. (1985). Ethnicity. Annual review of sociology, 11, 151-180.

Yip, T., & Fuligni, A. J. (2002). Daily variation in ethnic identity, ethnic behaviors, and psychological well–being among American adolescents of Chinese descent. Child Development, 73(5), 1557–1572.

Yngvesson, B. (2002). Placing the “gift child” in transnational adoption. Law & Society Review, 36(2), 227–256.

You, X. (2005). Conflation of Rhetorical Traditions: The Formation of Modern Chinese Writing Instruction. Rhetoric Review, 24(2), 150-169.

Yu, T. (2008). The revival of Confucianism in Chinese schools: a historical-political review. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 28(2), 113-129.

272

Zagenczyk, T. J., Gibney, R., Timothy F, W., & Scott, K. L. (2011). Psychological Contracts and Organizational Identification: The Mediating Effect of Perceived Organizational Support. Journal of Labor Research, 32(3), 254–281.

Zheng, H. (2014). Enchanted Encounter: Gender Politics, Cultural Identity, and Wang Tao’s (1828–97) Fictional Sino-Western Romance. NAN NÜ, 16(2), 274-307.

Zurndorfer, H. (2014). Women in Chinese Learned Culture: Complexities, Exclusivities and Connecting Narratives. Gender & History, 26(1), 23-35.

273