Conclusion 20

Bibliography 21

Acknowlegement 23

Introduction

Research Background

With the further development of feminism, women are realizing their rights and struggling for an equal social status to the men's。 Amy Tan, the daughter of an independent woman, acquires some idea from her mother's personal life experience。 Her mother, like many Chinese female immigrants, had to escape from Old China, where they were oppressed and persecuted by their fathers and husbands, and started all over in a new land—America。 They were self-dependent and brave, which influenced their daughters。 Amy demonstrates her feminism in her novels, as the main stories are always about women。 She sings for the women's courage and shed tears for their misfortunes。

Scholars have done much literary research and published plenty of theses on Amy Tan's works, but the research on The Bonesetter's Daughter is comparatively rare, especially in mainland China。 According to incomplete statistics, "The Domestic Research Overview of Amy Tan's The Bonesetter's Daughter from 2003 to 2014" by Xu Yan (2014), the literary research on Amy Tan's "The Bonesetter's Daughter" has been inactive in mainland China for the past ten years。 78 theses containing The Bonesetter's Daughter in its title were published during this period, meaning 6。8 annually。 Among the 78 theses, 18 research articles about The Bonesetter's Daughter investigate the Chinese ethnic identity, 8 about the post-colony feminism and 10 about the narration mode; 7 out of 74 study the changes in mother-daughter relationship; 7 out of 74 research the cultural conflict between oriental and western values。 The researches above account for approximately 43% of all the researches in mainland China。 There are some less popular thesis discussing the topics of female images, family ethics, and Chinese immigrants' traumatic memories, the themes of mysterious oriental image, cross-cultural communication, and silence, and from the perspective of eco-criticism。论文网

Research Significance

The current researches on The Bonesetter's Daughter in mainland China have some limitations。 Firstly, researches tend to study the cultural conflicts between China and America。 Secondly, the many of the researches fail to concern closely to the context, limited by the Chinese literature though the scholars are trying to analyze the text from perse aspects。 Thirdly, the cutting-point of studying the novel should be more precise。 If the researchers could interpret the novel and understand Amy Tan's other novels from internal and external with an impartial idea, the literary value of the author and her works can be then realized。 

Research Significance

This thesis aims to study the male images in Amy Tan's novel—The Bonesetter's Daughter。 It analyzes male images from the following aspects, namely nationality (living circumstance), appearance, personality, representative activities, life experience (personal fate), etc。 By making a comparison, the thesis reveals how Amy Tan is influenced by feminism。 

 Research Framework

In the introduction part, the thesis explains its task, purpose, academic background and possible contribution of the research and gives the frame work and methodology of this research。 Chapter one is the literature review。 The next chapter is an introduction to The Bonesetter's Daughter, Amy Tan, and Feminism。 Chapter three analyzes the male images in the novels。 Chapter four gives the reasons for Amy Tan's stereotypes on men。 The hypothetical reasons are the knowledge from her mother's and grandmother's personal experience and her awareness of women's consciousness。 After all the chapters above, the thesis draws a conclusion。