Gunga Din Highway:The Construction Of Chinese American Men's Gender Identity From The Perspective Of Cultural Trauma

This paper attempts to Chinese American men's gender identity from the perspective of cultural trauma in the novel Gunga Din Highway written by Frank Chin. In this novel, Frank Chin tries his best to reverse the fact that American mainstream society has feminized Chinese American men's gender identity into an identity lack of masculinity, and makes great contribution to the rectification and construction of a heroic and masculine Chinese American men's gender identity. In this novel, Frank Chin represents the bad influence of cultural trauma--the unmanly gender identity--on Chinese American men's gender identity construction, refutes and criticizes the distorted male Chinese American image Charlie Chan, showing that being assimilated Charlie Chan means going to the path of destruction and death. Only by building a manly Chinese American men's gender identity can the marginalized Chinese American men get rid of cultural trauma and find a sense of belonging in American mainstream society.Based on cultural trauma theory, this thesis explains Chinese American men's gender identity problem from the representation, causes, effects and working-through strategies of cultural trauma. The thesis is made up of five chapters. Chapter One first introduces Frank Chin's achievements and Gunga Din Highway's influence at home and abroad; and then introduces the development, representations, causes and working-through strategies of cultural trauma as well as identity problem related to cultural trauma; and finally show the thesis structure. Chapter Two first refers to the unmasculine gender identity as Chinese American men's cultural trauma; then explores the representation of the unmanly Chinese American men's gender identity—Charlie Chan image in Gunga Din Highway; and finally talks about the causes of gender identification of Charlie Chan from racism and Chinese Exclusion Act, white cultural hegemony and Chinese Americans' internalized assimilation consciousness. Chapter Three shows the effects of cultural trauma. The unmasculine gender identity makes characters encounter different identity crises, such as Longman Kwan's failed pursuit of being ‘Charlie Chan', Ulysses' s hard pursuit of searching for a manly gender identity, Benedict's hesitant attitude toward identity problem and Diego's hybrid identity. Chapter Four explores the establishment of a masculine Chinese American men's gender identity by working through trauma. By exploring the working-through strategies implied by the author, with the help of writing, collective strength and identity construction, Chinese American men can get rid of the nightmare of cultural trauma and build a heroic and masculine Chinese American gender identity. Chapter Five, the thesis points out the significance of analyzing gender identity problem from the perspective of cultural trauma theory. By knowing about the operating mechanism of cultural trauma, this thesis can help readers have a deep understanding of identity problem of Gunga Din Highway and also let researchers pay more attention to the application of cultural trauma into the study of identity problem of ethnic minorities.