The Formation Of Chinese-Americans’ Racial Identity In Chinese American Literature

Chinese American literature, as a part of ethnic literature, now has got a veryimportant position in American literature. Especially after the Second World War, alarge number of writers emerged, and their works promoted Chinese Americanliterature to the peak. Generally speaking, Chinese American literature can be dividedinto three periods: the end of the19thcentury to the1950s,1960s to1980s, and1990suntil now. In Chinese American literature, racial identity is a main theme. The writersof different periods are always trying to construct Chinese Americans’ identities incertain period through their works.This thesis chooses three representative works Fifth Chinese Daughter, ChinaMen, and Mona in the Promised Land from different periods. By analyzing thesethree works and combining the theory of Post-colonialism with racial theory, thisthesis explores the formation of racial identity in Chinese American literature.There are five chapters in this thesis. Chapter One briefly introduces ChineseAmerican literature, Chinese American immigrant history and theory.Chapter Two mainly concerns about the formation of Chinese Americans’ racialidentities in the first period from the end of the19th century to the1950s. In thisperiod, Chinese Americans had suffered a lot of racial discrimination. They wereplaying the role as the Other in the society. In order to survive, they had no otherchoice, but to construct their identities as the stereotyped images given by the society.Chapter Three analyzes the formation of Chinese Americans’ racial identities in the second period from the1960s to the1980s. Under the influence of the trend ofthought in the1960s, Chinese Americans had a strong rebellious awareness; theybegan to fight against the stereotyped images. They wanted to construct their ownSelf-identity.Chapter Four mainly concerns about the formation of Chinese Americans’racial identities in the third period from the1990s until now. Deeply affected by themulticulturalism, Chinese Americans realized that racial identity was no longerunique, and they began to construct their racial identity according to their ownhistorical backgrounds and experiences. And Chapter Five is a conclusion.