Cultural Identity Dilemma And Reconstruction Of The New-generational Chinese American In Everything I Never Told You

Everything I Never Told You was the first novel written by Chinese American writer Celeste Ng(伍绮诗)in 2014 who rose to fame overnight.The novel starts with the death of the eldest daughter,telling the story of Lydia who is determined to commit suicide due to the pressure ranging from racial issues to tough family expectations.Cultural identity crisis,one of the main challenges James Lee,father of Lydia,confronts in the WASP culture dominating society,is considered to be the root of this tragedy.Therefore,he imposes his dream of being an authentic American,like many of his white neighbors,on his daughter.However,such American dream is brought into an awkward situation as intercultural and inter-ethnical challenges arise in this process.He ultimately overcomes such identity crisis via reconfirmation and reconstruction of identity,integrating himself and his family with a multicultural melting pot.This thesis sets its first orientation on the influence of the male protagonist’s Chinese heritage and values from the perspective of cultural identity theory.The second part of the thesis is the descriptive analysis of James Lee’s overlapped identities,second generation of Chinese,American citizen,father of the third generation of Chinese American.Then,this thesis contextualizes the dilemma of identity James encounters in contemporary American society.He is the alienated and marginalized “Other”.Finally,James Lee’s cultural identity construction process is interpreted based on the change of his attitudes toward family value and role of family members in this salad-bowl culture.The author argues that the new generation,differing from the previous generations,are really flexible in identity issues and could adapt themselves to this WASP dominated culture by identity reconstruction.