CULTURAL IDENTITY IN THE WOMAN WARRIOR, THE CHICKENCOOP CHINAMAN, THE YEAR OF THE DRAGON AND DONALD DUK

TANG XIAO SHA

MASTER OF PHILOSOPHY CITY UNIVERISTY OF HONG KONG SEPTEMBER 2009

CITY UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG 香港城市大學

Cultural Identity in The Woman Warrior, The Chickencoop Chinaman, The Year of the Dragon and Donald Duk 《女勇士》《雞籠中國佬》《龍年》 《唐老亞》中的美國華裔作家文化身份

Submitted to Department of Chinese, Translation and Linguistics 中文、翻譯及語言學系 in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Philosophy 哲學碩士學位

by

Tang Xiao Sha 湯曉沙 September 2009 二零零九年九月

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Abstract

This study takes Chinese American literature from 1960s to 1990s as its subject, focusing on Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior:Memoirs of a Girlhood

Among Ghosts and ’s two plays, The Chickencoop Chinaman, and The Year of the Dragon, and his novel Donald Duk, and discusses the efforts, conflicts and compromise in the making of Chinese American cultural identity as manifested in these writings.

The first chapter begins with an introduction of early Chinese immigrants in the US and the formation of . By tracing back to the very origin of Chinese American community, I mean to show that although being regarded as unassimilable sojourners by

American mainstream society, were, from the very beginning, rooted in the land of America. This chapter also examines the historical and social situation of

America in the 1960s and the1970s. I intend to show how contemporary Chinese

American literature reflected the changing experiences of Chinese Americans and their different perspectives towards identity.

The second chapter moves on with an overview of white American representations of Chinese immigrants as silent stereotypes which reinforced the Orientalist discourse. It also surveys Chinese American literature before in the 1960s as to investigate in what ways Maxine Hong Kingston and Frank Chin’s works were different from yet inherited

Chinese American literary tradition.

The third chapter explores the characterization of silence in The Woman Warrior and

Frank Chin’s two plays so as to demonstrate that, in spite of those silent characters they deliberately created to be resonant with Chinese American stereotypes, both Maxine

Hong Kingston and Frank Chin had consciously taken over the power of representation

ii against Chinese American stereotypes imposed by the white American society. Also, this chapter takes the influential “Introduction” to Aiiieeeee!: An Anthology of

Asian-American Writers written by Frank Chin and his co-editors as an example to show that during the 1960s and the 1970s, in response to the rise of an Asian American consciousness inspired by the Civil Rights movement and the anti-Vietnam-war activism,

Chinese Americans made an effort to build up a distinct Chinese American cultural identity.

The fourth chapter investigates the relationship between Chinese culture and

Chinese American literature. In spite of the Chineseness in their works, Maxine Hong

Kingston and Frank Chin expressed their desire to de-sinicize Chinese America. With an examination into the process of sorting out a Chinese American identity, this chapter will try to reveal that on the one hand, Chinese American writers tried assiduously to sever their cultural connection with , which resulted in generational conflict and disintegration of the family; while on the other hand, a unique Chinese American identity that was neither Chinese nor Anglo-American which they expect to establish through de-sinicization and identification with black heroism was dubious at best.

The fifth chapter deals with re-sinicization—reclamation of the Chinese American historical experience—mainly manifested in Chin’s Donald Duk, partly in reaction to the rise of multiculturalism in the 1980s and partly due to Chinese Americans’ realization that

Chinese American history and traditional Chinese culture—admittedly this kind of

Chinese culture was an American invention—were usable resources for Chinese

Americans to legitimate their right to be an integral part of American culture and history.

This conviction was based on the assumption that Chinese Americans shared collective experience in making American history, which must be acknowledged in order to build up a healthy identity that could sustain their living in America. In addition to analyzing

iii the process of Chinese American identity-making through highlighting Chinese American contributions to American history, and adapting and interpreting traditional Chinese culture in the writings mentioned above, this chapter also investigates an internal confrontation within Chinese American literary circle, concentrating on the

Kingston-Chin controversy. On the one hand, Chin and his male co-editors of The Big

Aiiieeeee!:An Anthology of Chinese American and Japanese American literature made vitriolic tirade against Kingston’s dramatization of sexism and her “faking” of traditional

Chinese culture, which, according to them, was no better than white feminism and

Orientalism. On the other hand, Chin’s characterization of women in his plays was also criticized as revealing his male chauvinism, and his representation of “authentic” Chinese culture is questionable.

To analyze the process of building up a Chinese American cultural identity, and to exhibit the conflicting issues yet to be solved, this paper concludes that by embedding their ancestral past into American history, Chinese American writers had endeavored to convey a new Chinese American sensibility after torpedoing the stereotypes; and yet, their writings still unwittingly revealed their unconscious desire to assimilate into the

American society. Furthermore, while sorting out such American identity had not yet finished, some of them became at peace with their diasporic existence. Therefore I came to the conclusion that identity may not be a fixed, close and narrowly defined label to

Chinese Americans; it might be fluid, tentative or eclectic strategies for them and experienced as a process that would open more new possibilities for Chinese Americans to articulate their sense of belonging by critical reflection of the paradoxes they would be encountered.

Considering Chinese American literature has entered a new era where various cultural implications, such as the lure of multiculturalism, a greater sense towards

iv diasporaic writing, China’s ascendency to a new role in world affairs, and the inevitable influence of deep Chinese culture, it is my hope that this paper would contribute to the idea that Chinese culture would always play a dynamic role in Chinese American identity-making process and promote the understanding of identity in broad terms.

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Contents

Abstract ...... i Acknowledgements...... v Abbreviations...... vii Chapter I Introduction: Historical and Social Background...... 1 Early Immigrants and Chinatown ...... 1 Changing Sino-American Relations...... 3 Prelude to the Sixties’ Turmoil: America in the Fifties...... 5 Fading of the Melting Pot Image: America in the Sixties...... 8 Chapter II Chinese American Literary Tradition ...... 13 Stereotypes and Assimilates...... 13 Earlier Chinese American Literature...... 16 Changes in the Air：From Silence to Voice ...... 20 Chapter III Silence and Related Thematic Readings ...... 23 Silence: No-Name Aunt ...... 23 White Tiger: An Exotic Fantasy...... 28 Imagination versus Reality: A Profound Paradox ...... 32 The Inner Conflict and the Image of the Double ...... 35 Moon Orchid, Madness and Creative Writing ...... 39 China Mama, Tam and Fred: Contrast of Characterization in Chin’s Plays ...... 45 Eating as a Field of Confrontation ...... 49 Chapter IV Paradoxical Attitude towards Chinese Culture...... 57 The (Im)possibility of De-sinicization...... 57 Generational Conflict...... 66 Emasculation and Chin’s Characterization of Women...... 77 Chapter V Re-sinicization, Controversy and the Critique of Multiculturalism ...... 86 Can They Re-sinicize Themselves? ...... 86 Focus of Controversy: Authenticity of Chinese Culture...... 94 Multiculturalism: A Double-edged Sword ...... 101 Conclusion ...... 105 Reference...... 110

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Abbreviations

(See works cited for complete bibliographical details)

WW Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior

Dragon Frank Chin, The Year of the Dragon

Duk Frank Chin, Donald Duk

Chickencoop Frank Chin, The Chickencoop Chinamen

Chinatown Lin Yutang, Chinatown Family

CM Maxine Hong Kingston, “Cultural Mis-readings by American

Reviewers”

Come All Ye Frank Chin, “Come All Ye Asian American Writers of the Real and

the Fake”