A Post-colonial Study Of Saving Fish From Drowning

As a representative Chinese American writer, Amy Tan has been enjoying great favorable comments since the publishing of her first novel The Joy Luck Club in1989. After the success of her first work The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan continues to devote herself in creating the following major novels:The Kitchen God’s Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses and The Bonesetter’s Daughter. Thus, she has already formed a unique individual style, since all of the four works involve in the same motif of the mother-daughter relationship, the identity of Chinese American immigrants as well as the cultural clash and integration between the East and the West. Her skillful techniques and exquisite style of writing is praised by readers and researchers from different countries of the world.However, the lately published lengthy novel Saving Fish from Drowning which has spent Amy Tan five years of painstakingly writing seems not arouse as much attentions in the academic studies and does not receive such unanimous popularity among the western critics and readers as her previous works. On the contrary, the comments about the work are still controversial. Some critics state that Amy Tan has broken through her previous theme about Chinese American in her novels while others argue that the writing style of this novel is the most un-Tanlike. This thesis tries to prove the fundamental reason of the western critics and readers’ controversy about this novel with employment of the relative theories of post-colonialism. The ultimate explanation for the controversy, as will be discusses in this thesis by means of close readings of the text, is Amy Tan’s deconstruction of the western traditional "white supremacy".This thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter includes literature review, the survey of related theories and the introduction of Amy Tan and her work Saving Fish from Drowning. Chapter two indicates that the setting of the novel Saving Fish from Drowning converts from illusory description of the East in Amy Tan’s previous work into a documentary journey in the East. By analyzing the exotic Oriental culture and scenery in the Westerners’ eyes, this thesis points out that the Orient does not need the one-side "salvation" by the West. In fact, their "salvation" can only destroy the integrity of the Oriental culture. Quite the opposite, the western culture can benefit from the eastern culture and realize their "self-salvation" in the process of rediscover of the East.Chapter three shows that Amy Tan jumps out of the stereotypical portrayal of the character in this novel. Amy Tan demonstrates the cultural conflicts, cultural differences and cultural shocks in the process of heterogeneous culture communication so as to counterattack the White Supremacy effectively and positively. She breaks the "Silence" of Chinese females and reconstructs masculinity of Asian males.Chapter four analyzes Amy Tan’s ironic depiction of the whites and her subversion of the traditional theme of the whites’rescuing myth. The whites are unable to save anyone. On the contrary, only the Oriental harmonious values can save the whites who suffer various spiritual and physical troubles in reality. Thus, it deconstructs the western hegemony and the west-east binary opposition successfully.Chapter five draws a conclusion that although the novel Saving Fish from Drowning got a negative response among the western critics and readers, it marks Amy Tan’s maturity and mastery of fiction. It also reflects her wish of exploring the universal love and constructing a harmonious society that different races and cultures coexist peacefully. All of these reveal her literature pursuit of multiculturalism.