“Paper Son” ’s Identity Construction In Steer Toward Rock From The Perspective Of Homi K. Bhabha’s Hybridity Theory

After 15 years of the publication of Bone,Fae Myenne Ng’s second fiction Steer Toward Rock was published in 2008.The plot of it continues the writing subject of San Francisco Chinatown in Bone,and adapts her father’s authentic experience of being a“paper son”.Like what has been revealed in Bone,Ng does also present a historic phenomenon of Chinese-Americans in Steer Toward Rock and the hardship gone through by early Chinese immigrants under the Mc Carthyesque Chinese Confession Program.In short,Ng tells a story of “what makes a man” in this fiction,and it is also a process of identity seeking of the protagonist—“paper son” Jack.The application of Homi K.Bhabha’s hybridity theory on exploring “paper son”Jack’s identity crisis and construction in Steer Toward Rock,and to take it as the theoretical frame are helpful to deepen into the historic phenomenon in this fiction.Meanwhile,the combination between the reality and the text does also function in analyzing the identity strategies shown in Steer Toward Rock.“Paper son” ’s identity crisis includes his loss on social identity and cultural identity,and the related identity construction marks the process of the return of “paper son” ’s self-cognition.In conclusion,hybridization functions on his identity construction greatly.The process of “paper son” ’s construction of social identity and cultural identity indicates that hybridization as an identity strategy effectively regains national identity and cultural confidence.At the same time,this thesis also provides contemporary literary critics and cultural researchers with a thinking space to understand Bhabha’s hybridity theory.