ChineseAmericanLiterature

ChineseAmericanLiterature

Chinese American Literature

8.1 Introduction

The history of Chinese American can be traced back to the

first influx after the Gold Rush of 1846.Hoping to pursue fortune

in California Gold Rush, the first wave of immigrants came to the

continent. However, most of these immigrants became an

important part of labor for plantation, railroads, mining, and field

work. Despite the enormous contribution the immigrants had

made, the group was considered as inferior race by the dominant

society. As a result, the early Chinese immigrants suffered hostile

racial discrimination for a long time.

The second wave of Chinese immigration ranged from 949

to the 1980s. In the Mid-1970s，the civil Rights Movement

introduced the concept of ethnic nationalism. Then the studies

on Chinese American began in America. In 1965, with the issuing

of The Immigration Reform Act, a great number of well –educated Chinese moved to this country and injected new blood

for Chinese American writing. From then on, Chinese American

began to turn their attention to literature. The times witnessed

many significant Chinese American writers, who published a

number of anthologies, such as Kai-yu Hsu, David Hsin-fu Wand,

Frank Chin, Jeffery Paul Chan Wong, Maxine Hong Kingston, and

Amy Tan, etc. The third Chinese immigration wave began from

the 1980s, which mainly composed by students, professionals, as

well as a number of manual workers.

The Chinese American literature has undergone the process

from being neglected to being noticed, from being marginalized

to entering the mainstream literature. In the 1880s, the Chinese immigrants suffered the racial discrimination and hostility from

the White society. Similarly, the Chinese American literature was

rejected by the mainstream culture. For the second generation of

Chinese American, it is not easy to identify themselves as Chinese,

since they have been born, raised, educated in America. For the

American-born Chinese, the choice between Asia and American

was tantamount to the choice between yellow and white. If Asian

is chosen, it seems that it is tough to integrate into American

society. While if American is chosen, the racial mark of American-born Chinese can never be sloughed off. As Vita Sommers puts

it, “there could never be a complete solution to the identity

dilemma of the Chinese American.”Therefore, numerous

Chinese Americans have been suffering the sense of Diaspora

and displacement. In the Chinese American writer’s work, more

of less, they explored the experience for the American-born

Chinese.

Only when the books written by Lin Yu-tang, which was

published in American,

did the Chinese American literature enter the American

public’s eyes. The most representative work in this period is the

Fifth Chinese Daughter(1945) by Jade Snow Wong, which exerts

great influence for the later Chinese American writers, such as

Maxine Hong, Amy Tan, Lious Chu, and so on. The literary form

in the period is simple in genre, dominated by autobiography

and fiction, while little drama and poetry. The main content of

these works is the introduction of local customs, cultures, values

in China to American readers. In the 1960s, dramatic changes had

taken place in America, which led to the anti-tradition or anti-mainstream activities and behaviors. As a result, people at the

time realized that it was necessary to allow different cultures to speak out loudly, especially the minority groups. The pioneer of

Chinese American literature began to fight against the

mainstream hegemony. In 1968, Chuang Hua who published a

novel titled “Crossings”. The novel was a sustained example of

high modernism in Chinese American literature, which reflected

the dissatisfaction of self in the world and the both joyful and

painful process of identification for the protagonist. During the

1970s, many brilliant Asian and Chinese American works

appeared, gaining great concerns from the American academic

circle. It was in 1976 when Maxine Hong Kingston published The

Woman Warrior: Memoirs of Girlhood Among Ghosts that

Chinese American literature generated its first dramatic influence

on the American literature. From the late 1980s, the Chinese

American literature has experienced the flourishing period and

started to acquire the recognition from the American public. The

Chinese American literature began to step out of the

marginalized situation from the late 1980s to the early 1990s, and

gradually reached its marurity. Although drama is the less

developed genre than fiction writing in Chinese American

literature, there is still sizable number of playwrights active over