The Pursuit Of Cultural Identity

Cheng Baoyi, a famous Chinese French poet, writer andcalligrapher. Le dit de Tianyi is his novel written by French in1998,which received Prix Femina and signed with nine countries intranslation copyright. Since becoming an elected member ofAcademie francaise in2002, Cheng Baoyi has been the first ethnicChinese to enter the French supreme hall of literature.And then, thedomestic research on Le dit de Tianyi gradually diversified. Based onthe theory of cultural identity, the thesis studies the hero’s identitydilemma, expecting to expand the research perspective of the fiction.The paper is composed of introduction, main body and conclusion.In introduction, the author briefly reviews research object andresearch status, puts forward the writing purpose and significance,and briefly introduces main theories adopted in this paper. There arethree chapters in the main body. Chapter One mainly discusses thehero’s mixed cultural identity dilemma. Tianyi, as a double othernessisn’t accepted as Chinese in France. In addition communicationbarriers also make him difficult to integrate into local life. Afterreturning China, because of his experience of studying abroad andthe special historical background, he also faces the dilemma ofidentity, and thus has to labor in order to realize "regular" in thoughts and identity. In the second chapter, the author expounds that the herotries to get rid of the identity uncertainty in France and China. Firstly,he finds spiritual ballast by recalling the past dribs and drabs.Secondly, he realizes the identity confirmation by the help of family,friendship, and the sympathy of same kind of people. Thirdly, Tianyitravels many countries and cities to look for a new environmentaccepting him. On the other hand, he can also through the landscape,grounding art all over the world, to look for the ego identity. As to thethird chapter, the author expounds that Tianyi eventually goes madbecause his identity is not recognized. At the same time, makes ananalysis of personal and social reasons for this result, argues thatculture difference and integration projecting a fragile and sensateperson lead to tragedy of a culture drifter under the background ofChinese social upheaval in20th century and the culturalintersection between the east and west. In the conclusion part, theauthor summarizes the paper, and through the above discussion itcan find that Tianyi’s experience is the experience of a generationof Chinese intellectuals, as well as the product of specific historicalenvironment.