Self-seeking And Construction Of Cultural Identity

In the context of globalization, the issue of identity has become a hot spot in the academic field, especially for the Chinese Americans who think of themselves as"one hundred percent Americans"or typical Americans on the one hand, and who cannot elude the powerful and invisible influence of Chinese culture on the other hand. Amy Tan, one of the most popular Chinese American women writers, addresses the important theme of identity characterized by telling of the conflicting relationship between Chinese mothers and their American-born daughters. With cultural criticism as its guiding theory, this thesis aims to explore cultural identity of Chinese Americans by analyzing the mother-daughter relationship in Amy Tan's two autobiographic novels The Kitchen God's Wife and The Bonesetter's Daughter. As of the unique cultural background and writing skills of Chinese American writers, it makes the study of cultural identity more specific and penetrating, which is bound to influence the research on Chinese American literature deeply under the context of globalization.According to the materials I have collected, the issue of cultural identity for the Chinese Americans has not been wholly and systematically studied. In the meanwhile, from the perspective of a native researcher rather than that of American scholars, the writer of this thesis hopes to broaden the study of Chinese American literature by taking advantage of the native cultural resources.After analyzing the relation between the context of globalization and the study of cultural identity, this thesis combines the theme of mother-daughter relationship in Tan's works and the issue of cultural identity in an attempt to explore the connection and coherency between them. Therefore, the author of this paper draws the conclusion that Chinese American writers try to paper their experiences and feelings about their hybrid identities. They have gone through a struggling identity-seeking process, from silence to deconstruction and reconstruction, reconciliation and integration, which is reflected by the generational conflicts and reconciliation in Tan's novels.Meanwhile it points out that Tan's writing purpose is radiated in the reconciling ending of mother-daughter relationship, which indicates the possibility of equal dialogue by mutual understanding and interaction between East and West cultures.