Chinese American Business Literature: A Cross-civilization Study

Chinese American Business Literature refers to the literary works focusing on business or businessmen and written by ethnic Chinese in America. This study focuses on the images of the ethnic Chinese businessmen in the Chinese American Literature, analyzing their cultural relations with both Chinese and American cultures, tracing their cultural development, and reasoning the deep relationship between their tragic fate and the universal plight of modernity.This dissertation is divided into four major parts. Chapter One is the first part. It gives a general introduction about the Chinese American literature and its relevant studies. Chinese American literature began from the late nineteenth century, developed faster since 1950s, and boomed from the late 1970s. Its relevant studies can be divided into two parts: one part follows a bigger tradition of overseas Chinese-language literature studies, the other part focuses on Chinese American literature in English. Although these two parts seem divided mainly by differences in language, there is gradual change in cultural stands. Now, these two parts are showing an integrative trend with the prevailing of diaspora studies. Chinese American Business Literature can be divided into three groups: "worker literature", "business legend", and "office literature".The second part of this dissertation includes Chapter Two and Three, tracing the influences of both Chinese and American cultures on Chinese American business literature. Chinese culture is agricultural while American culture commercial in essence, corresponding to very different value system. Chinese ideal value is becoming a moral saint while American ideal value is becoming a superman. The moral pursuit to be a saint, and Chinese key aesthetic concept, that is, literature embodies Tao, are still carried on well in Chinese American business literature. On the other hand, many Chinese businessmen in the Chinese American business literature have been imbued by American commercial spirit, and the well combination of Chinese culture and American culture is highlighted by the authors.The third part consists of Chapter Four and Five, mainly analyzing the trend of diaspora cultural development. Chapter Four discusses how Chinese businessmen react under the tension of two heterogeneous cultures, pointing out their process of cultural development's metaphorical significance on Chinese modernity. Through the analysis of the images of Chinese businessmen, Chapter Five reasons the promising future of cultural combination instead of cultural conflict, discusses the wrong direction in the practices of cultural combination, and pictures an ideal pattern for the combination of Chinese and American cultures.Chapter Six forms the fourth part, highlighting the insight given by business literature on the predicament of modernity and possible way out.The academic values of this dissertation are listed as follows:1. This dissertation fills a blank in the study of business literature. Among all the domestic and foreign studies on business literature, none has made a systematic analysis on overseas Chinese businessmen yet. Chinese businessmen in the Chinese American literature have cross-cultural background, and their living experiences and spiritual condition are indispensable to our whole nation's better solution to modernity problems. Compared with national business literature such as ancient Chinese business literature and American one, the authors of Chinese American business literature are more familiar with the business world, because many of them are businessmen themselves, and a great part of Chinese American business literature have autobiographic style. So the stories are more realistic, and the characters are closer to the real world. They have special historic significance in enlightening us to find an appropriate direction out of the plight of modernity.2. This study provides a new perspective for the overseas Chinese literature studies. For a long time most of the achievements in this field are general studies except for case studies on individual author or individual work. Recent years witnesses more systematic research achievements, and most of them are from the perspective of cultural imagination and feminism. This dissertation focuses on a big group who has been unfairly neglected for so long, adding a totally new way to deepen the study of overseas Chinese literature studies.3. This study supplements the research on the ethnic Chinese. Because the great economic success of ethnic Chinese in recent decades, more and more scholars, whether domestic or foreign, take part in the study of ethnic Chinese. The literary presentation and representation of overseas Chinese businessmen not only reflect the overseas Chinese living reality, but also provides various possibilities that have not been recorded in history. Therefore, by studying the literary images of Chinese American businessmen, this dissertation gives insight to the more wayward spiritual world of overseas Chinese.4. This study is a practice of cross-civilization study, proving that diaspora literature is a rich land on which cross-civilization study can have a good harvest, thus making contribution to the theoretical construction of comparative literature.5. This study corresponds with the time appeal to way out the predicament of modernity, striving for the possibilities of both material and spiritual satisfaction. The Chinese American businessmen's frustrations and achievements just tell the advantages and disadvantages of modernity, illuming us to develop more harmoniously.6. This study is a correspondence to the cry over cross-civilizational conflicts. The analysis of the images of Chinese American businessmen shows that cultural interaction is more likely to result in mutual supplement rather than severe conflicts in the global context.