A Brief Introduction to Chinese American Writers and Their Works

1、华裔美国作家及其作品简介a brief introduction to chinese american writers and their works contentsabstract.1key words.1i. the brief introduction to the background information.2ii. the brief introduction to the writers and their works.31. maxine hong kingston.31) biography of the writer.32) the introduction to he

2、r works.42. amy tan.71) biography of the writer.72) the introduction to her works.83. gus lee.101) biography of the writer.102) the introduction to his works.114. gish jen.121) biography of the writer.122) the introduction to her works.12iii. the influence of chinese american writers and their works

3、.13iv. conclusion.14references.15 a brief introduction to chinese american writers and their worksa brief introduction to chinese american writers and their worksabstract: chinese-american literature refers to fictions written in english by americans of chinese origin. the woman warrior and the joy

4、luck club have made their authors, maxine hong kingston and amy tan, popular among american readers. the two best-sellers also hallmarked the entry of chinese-american literature into the american mainstream. while chinese-american literature is flourishing in the united states, the “china image” is

5、 also changing. the unique viewpoints and writing skills of chinese american writers, as well as the profound background of chinese history and civilization, had a strong influence on the american readers, making them feel refreshed. among them, maxine hong kingston, amy tan, gus lee, and gish jen a

6、re the famous ones. and this paper will focus on those chinese american writers and their works. the paper will follow three steps:1) the brief introduction to the background information; 2) the brief introduction to the writers and their works; 3) the influence of them and their works. key words: c

7、hinese american literature; chinese american writers; works; influence, thoughts摘 要：美国华裔文学是指华裔美国人用英文写的小说。花木兰和喜福会这两部作品使其作者汤婷婷、谭恩美深受美国读者的喜爱。同时这两部畅销书也标志美国华裔文学融入美国主流文学。而华裔文学在美国的蓬勃发展，“中国形象”也在变化。华裔美国作家独特的观点和写作技巧以及深厚的历史文化背景对美国读者产生了强烈的影响，使他们感到耳目一新。其中，汤婷婷、谭恩美、李健孙、任璧莲都是十分著名的作家。而本文将侧重于这些华裔作家和他们的作品介绍。这篇论文将分以下三部

8、分:1)背景知识简介；2)作者及其作品简介；3)作者及其作品的影响。 关键词：美国华裔文学;华裔美国作家；作品；影响；思想i. the brief introduction to the background informationchinese-american literature refers to works that are written in english by americans who are with the chinese origin. when chinese began to immigrate to the united states during the go

9、ld-rush age, most of them had been struggling at the bottom of the american society. when mentioned in american literature, the image of chinese was a weak female who was always seeking for help. in the eyes of westerners, they were always “outsiders.” under such situations, even america-born chines

10、e writers fought against their mother culture in their creations. the situation did not change until the latter half of the 20th century in which the civil rights movement took place in the united states. many americans began to think about people of the other races and their cultures in a different

11、 way. besides, feminist movement, anti-vietnam war and minority rights, in addition to the improvement in sino-us relation, forced the mainstream of american society to pay more attention to the chinese image. in the 1970s, when more and more people accepted globalization, they not only accepted the

12、 chinese-american writers whose works reflected the chinese culture but also subjected to fighting against authority and centralization. whats more, the unique viewpoints and writing skills of these writers, as well as the profound background of chinese history and civilization, had a strong influen

13、ce on the american readers, making them feel refreshed.nevertheless, chinese-american writers are a very unique group. to the american culture, they are chinese who followed the chinese tradition, but in front of the chinese civilization, they are also outsiders. living as “outsiders” of both cultur

14、es, their interpretation of the “china image” may not be as accurate as it is supposed to be. it is natural that they have to follow the american cultural trend and aesthetic taste. therefore, in their fictions, chinese immigrants cannot get rid of the image of “outsider” and “the weak” while their

15、knowledge about the chinese civilization is far from enough. this is the dilemma for chinese-american writers. therefore, identity-seeking has always been one of the most prominent themes in chinese american literary writing, since chinese americans have been grappling with the psychological and soc

16、ial dilemma of the identity crises. chinese immigrants often find themselves in an identity dilemma when they move to america. although first-generation chinese immigrants usually try to maintain their ethnic identity in america as chinese, they often find it difficult to attain this goal. all kinds

17、 of racism in the american society contribute to the breakdown of their traditional chinese values, and they have to struggle with a new culture. finally they see the necessity of going back to their chinese roots and trying to achieve a connection with their original chinese culture and a sense of

18、racial and cultural pride if they are to know and accept who they are in the multicultural environment. consequently, at the final stage, chinese americans find their new identity as chinese americans who embrace the multiple and often conflicting aspects of chinese american culturea blended culture

19、 in a shrinking world that is itself becoming more and more culturally hybrid. with this aim, many chinese american writers use their pens to create a new form of culture. so chinese american liberation has come into being. ii. the brief introduction to the writers and their works1. maxine hong king

20、ston1) biography of the writermaxine ting ting hong was born on october 27, 1940, in stockton, california, which had been a major supply center during the california gold-rush era of the mid-nineteenth century. a year earlier, in 1939, her mother, ying lan hong, had arrived from china at ellis islan

21、d, new york, to join her husband, tom, who had emigrated from china to the united states fifteen years earlier. named for a blond female gambler whom her father had met while working in a gambling establishment in california, maxine, the first of six american-born children in the family, grew up in

22、stocktons chinatown, where her parents owned a laundry business. she never felt that her parents encouraged her to do well in her academic studies, in part because in their conservative chinese culture, women often are not expected to have careers outside of the home. her negative childhood experien

23、ces are reflected in the woman warrior, in which she exhibits a certain bitterness leveled at her parents, as well as at american and chinese cultures.after having excelled in her high-school studies, hong won eleven scholarships that allowed her to attend the university of california at berkeley, f

24、rom which she graduated in 1962. that same year, she married earll kingston, an actor. two years later, she returned to berkeley to pursue a teaching certificate, which she received in 1965. for the next two years, she taught english and mathematics in hayward, california, and then in 1967, she, her

25、 husband, and their son, joseph, moved to the island of hawaii, where her great-grandfathers first had worked when they immigrated to america. in china men, kingston describes the experiences of her forefathers working on the rough plantations of hawaii, which they called sandalwood mountain.in hawa

26、ii, kingston taught english at the state university and at mid-pacific institute, a private school; in her spare time, she wrote. when the woman warrior was published in 1976 and became an immediate and unqualified success, she retired from teaching and devoted her energies to writing. china men, wh

27、ich relates the ordeals of the male members of kingstons family in america, appeared in 1980, followed by hawaii one summer (1987), a collection of twelve prose selections. in 1989, she published tripmaster monkey: his fake book, her first traditionally structured novel, in which she tells the ficti

28、tious story of whitman ah sing, a chinese american living in berkeley, california, during the counter-culture 1960s, with its hippies, tie-dyed tee-shirts, and drug addiction. the energetic adventures of whitman ah sing, whose name evokes images of the american poet walt whitman and his refrain phra

29、se “i sing”“ah sing”reveal the protagonists unease about his role and future in america.kingston is a frequent commentator and guest speaker at academic conferences and cultural events across the country, and she has often found it necessary to write articles defending the woman warrior, explaining

30、herself and rebutting some critics who feel that the famous autobiography focuses too much on exotic chinese history and not enough on the day-to-day racism that chinese americans face in american society. to these charges, kingston responds that she is not trying to represent chinese culture; she i

31、s portraying her own experiences.2) the introduction to her works(1)the woman warriorthe woman warrior focuses on the stories of five womenkingstons long-dead aunt, no-name woman; a mythical female warrior, fa mu lan; kingstons mother, brave orchid; kingstons aunt, moon orchid; and finally kingston

32、herselftold in five chapters. the chapters integrate kingstons lived experience with a series of talk-storiesspoken stories that combine chinese history, myths, and beliefsher mother tells her.the first chapter, no-name woman, begins with one such talk-story, about an aunt kingston never knew she ha

33、d. because this aunt had brought disgrace upon her family by having an illegitimate child, she killed herself and her baby by jumping into the family well in china. after hearing the story, which is told to her as a warning, kingston is never allowed to mention her aunt aloud again, so she decides t

34、o create a history of her aunt in her memoir. she imagines the ways that her aunt attracted a suitor, comparing her aunts actions of quiet rebellion against the community to her own rebellion. kingston also recreates her aunts horrible experience of giving birth in a pigsty and imagines her aunts gh

35、ost walking around with no one to give it gifts, as was chinese custom. in the end, kingston is unsure whether she is doing justice to her aunts memory or just serving her own needs.white tigers is based on another talk-story, one about the mythical female warrior fa mu lan. fa mu lan, whose story i

36、s told through kingstons first-person narrative, trains to become a warrior from the time she is seven years old, and then leads an army of meneven pretending to be a man herselfagainst the forces of a corrupt baron and emperor. after her battles are over, she returns to be a wife and mother. the st

37、ory of fa mu lan is contrasted sharply with kingstons own life in america, in which she can barely stand up to her racist bosses. kingston realizes, however, that her weapons are her words.shaman focuses on kingstons mother, brave orchid, and her old life back in china. brave orchid was a powerful d

38、octor, midwife, and, according to the talk-story, destroyer of ghosts back in her village. to a young kingston, brave orchids past is as astounding as it is terrifying, and many of the images from her mothers talk-storychinese babies left to die, slave girls being bought and sold, a woman stoned to

39、death by her villagershaunt kingstons dreams for years to come. at the end of the chapter, maxine visits her mother after being away for many years. the two arrive at some kind of understanding after many years of disagreement and conflict, and brave orchid is warm and affectionate towards her daugh

40、ter for the first time in the memoir.the title of at the western palace refers to another of brave orchids talk-stories, about an emperor who had four wives. it is an analogy for her sister moon orchids situation: moon orchids husband, now a successful los angeles doctor, had left her behind in chin

41、a and remarried in america. brave orchid urges her sister into a disastrous confrontation with the man to demand her due as his wife. as a result, moon orchid, who does not speak a word of english, is left to fend for herself in america. she eventually goes crazy and dies in a california state menta

42、l asylum.the final chapter of the memoir, a song for a barbarian reed pipe, is about kingston herself. this section focuses mainly on her childhood and teenage years, depicting her anger and frustration in trying to express herself and attempting to please an unappreciative mother. there are a numbe

43、r of characters whose personalities highlight many of her kingstons own characteristics, including a silent chinese girl whom kingston torments as a little girl. in a pivotal moment in the chapter, kingston, after unsuccessfully trying to express her feelings one at a time, erupts at her mother with

44、 a torrent of complaints and criticisms. later in her life, however, kingston comes to appreciate her mothers talk-stories. at the end of the chapter she even tells one herself: the story of tsai yen, a warrior poetess captured by barbarians who returns to the chinese with songs from another land. i

45、t is a fitting conclusion to a text in which kingston combines very different worlds and cultures and creates a harmony of her own.(2) tripmaster monkey: his fake bookthe whitmanian presence is discernible via a character analysis of the protagonist (wittman ah sing), a study of the allusive chapter

46、 titles, and an examination of the overall thematic thrust of the book. such an investigation will reveal the remarkable cultural interaction between walt whitman, nineteenth century idealist-democrat-humanist, and maxine hong kingston, twentieth century asian american-modernist. a tangential benefi

47、t of this exploration will be a partial understanding of the continuing influence of whitmans leaves of grass as a primary text/guide for the american democratic experiment, with special reference to the asian american community.the plot of tripmaster monkey is clearly subordinate to wittman ah sing

48、s song of himself. i quote below tom wilhelmuss concise plot summary: wittman does what we suppose he would do. he cruises around san francisco, reads rilke aloud to passengers on a bay area bus, yearns after beautiful women, loses his job in a department store after conferring with the ex-yale youn

49、ger poet holed up in the stock room, gets stoned in berkeley, gets married on coit tower by a man who may or may not be a bona fide minister, visits his parents and his aunties in sacramento, makes a side trip to reno looking for a woman who may or may not be his grandmother, and winds up fulfilling

50、 his principal ambition which is to stage a play based upon the epic chinese romance of the three kingdoms at a theater in chinatown. (149) all this supposed plot exists to give wittman ah sing sufficient expanse for his solitary musings, an interior monologue strongly reminiscent of walt whitmans s

51、ong of myself.the whitmanian content of tripmaster monkey is evident, to begin with, in the fact that its protagonist, wittman ah sing, is named after the quintessential american poet, walt whitman. the narrator reports of wittman ah sing that his province is america, america, his province (41). mic

52、helle cliff observes: to underline the american ness of wittman, hong kingston has named him for the most american of american poets. to play with his name is irresistible. whitman ah sing the body electric. wittman, ah hear america singing (11). and many other word plays are certainly possible; for

53、 example, of thee ah sing and ones-self ah sing and ah hear it was charged against me.(1)2. amy tan1) biography of the writeramy tan was born on february 19, 1952 in california. she grew up surrounded by influences from both chinese and american cultures. she has written about trying to assimilate i

54、nto the mainstream, american world as a child, often at the expense of her chinese heritage. tans father and brother died of brain tumors when she was fourteen years old. at this time, she also learned that her mother had been married to a different man in china and had three daughters from this mar

55、riage, a situation not unlike junes in the joy luck club, her first novel. tan attended high school in switzerland and went to eight different colleges, ultimately receiving a masters degree in linguistics from san jose state university. tan became a published author at the age of eight when she wro

56、te an essay on the public library that was published in a local paper. before the joy luck club (for which she won the l.a. book award and the national book award) was published in 1989, tan had a wide variety of jobs, everything from a bartender to a counselor for developmentally disabled children.

57、 she now lives in san francisco with her husband lou demattei, whom she married in 1975. amy tan is part of a movement of asian-american writers that includes maxine hong kingston (the woman warrior) and wakako yamauchi (songs my mother taught me). a large part of tans contribution to the modern asian-american literary boom is her widespread popularity. the joy luck club, aside from winning numerous awards, was a fixture on the best seller list and was made into a feature film, for which tan helped to write the screen play. tans popularity helped expose an entire genre of