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Abstract: The problem of cultural identification is almost the most important issue for the people who live in a foreign country. Chinese Americans are without exception. In Chinese American literature, the issue of cultural identification is reflected in many ways. Maxine Hong Kinston, an excellent Chinese American writer, discusses the cultural identification in her work China Men. This paper analyses the four main characters in the novel—the great grandfather, the grandfather, fathers and the brother to discuss the evolution of their cultural identification. Some historical background is also introduced as a reference to explain the reasons of the evolution. The author tries to reach a conclusion that cultural identification is not a still concept. However, it should be a dynamic and developing process, which the author believes will be expressed more abundantly in Chinese American literature in the future.28036
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Key Words: China Men; cultural identification; Chinese Americans
从汤亭亭的《中国佬》看华裔美国人的文化身份认同变迁历程
摘要：文化身份问题,对于所有居于他国的外国人来说，是一个所要面对的首要问题，美国华人群体也无例外。在华裔美国文学作品中，这一问题多有体现。美国著名华裔作家汤婷婷在其小说《中国佬》中着重探讨了文化身份认同问题，本文通过分析《中国佬》一书的主要人物—曾祖父，祖父，父辈，弟弟为代表的四代人，结合当时美国历史背景，研究四代华裔美国人文化身份认同的变迁历程。最终得出结论：文化身份认同绝对不是一个静止的概念,而是一个不断运动和发展的概念。这一点在以后的华裔文学作品中会有更充分的体现。
毕业论文关键词：《中国佬》；文化身份；华裔美国人
Content
ABSTRACT 1
KEY WORDS 1
摘要 1
关键词 1
1. INTRODUCTION 2
1.1 A brief introduction of the Chinese American literature 2
1.2 A brief of the author—Maxine Hong Kinston 2
1.3 A brief introduction of China Men 3
1.4 A brief introduction of cultural identification 4
1.5 The significance of studying the cultural identification 4
2. THE EVOLUTION OF THE CULTURAL IDENTIFICATION OF CHINESE AMERICANS IN CHINA MEN 5
2.1 A brief summary of the process of cultural identification of Chinese Americans in China Men 5
2.2 The cultural identification of first-generation Chinese Americans 7
2.3 The cultural identification of second-generation Chinese Americans 8
2.4 The cultural identification of third-generation Chinese Americans 10
2.5 The cultural identification of fourth-generation Chinese Americans 12
3. CONCLUSION 13
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 14
BIBLIOGRAPHY 15
The Evolution of the Cultural Identification of Chinese Americans: Maxine Hong Kinston’s China Men as a Case Study
1. Introduction
1.1 A brief introduction of the Chinese American literature
Researching the cultural identification of Chinese Americans, first of all, we should make a clarification of the concept of Chinese American literature. The history of overseas immigration of Chinese can date back to more than 1000 years ago. Chinese American literature is one part of world literature, with a history of no more than five hundred years old. General speaking, Chinese American literature narrowly refers to the English works composed by Chinese American writers who were born and grew up in America, while broadly, it refers to all the Chinese Americans’ literature works, whatever the writers’ birth place and language is. In this sense, the development of Chinese American literature is continuously expanding process. In this paper, the author focuses on China Men written by Maxine Hong Kinston who is the third generation of Chinese Americans growing up in America. Though Chinese American literature is flourishing now, it has experienced a long process of struggling. The history of Chinese American literature could be dated back to the late1890s or the early 1900s. However, in terms of mainstream American literature, it’s not until the 1970s that Chinese American literature was unveiled and regarded as a special literature tradition. In the 1960s, multiculturalism advocated by American Civil Rights Movement was established as the dominating culture of that period. Therefore, the former popular melting-pot model of communications among different races was gradually replaced by cultural mosaic or salad bowl which advocates the coexistence of different races and ethics. Under this context, Chinese Americans’ awareness was shown in many excellent works by Chinese American writers. Therefore Chinese American literature was on its way to maturity and prosperity. Firstly, there were some writers and scholars in western world starting to collect, edit and publish those unknown Chinese American works, among which some famous works are Roots: Asian American Reader (1971) edited by Asian American Study Center of Los Angeles; Asian-American Authors, (1972) edited by Kai-yu Shu and Helen Palubinskas; Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Asian American Writers (1974) by Frank Chin and some other writers. Apart from these typical works, many influential Chinese American writers appeared in public: Maxine Hong Kingston, Shawn Wong, Frank Chin, Amy Tan, Gus Lee, Louis Chu, Mei Ng, Lan Samantha Chang, etc. In their works, they presented their own ethnic experiences and ethnic history and discussed their Chinese American identification. All these promoted the development of Chinese American literature and it gradually evolved into a power of great significance in American literature. Nowadays, Chinese American literature marches into a broader space and field and presents a new image to the world with its persified themes.