The Subversion To Chinese American History: A Study On The Protagonist In Donald Duk

Frank Chin, the fifth generation of Chinese American in America, is an outstanding writer. Through his contributions to historical literature heritage in the fields of Asian/Chinese American literature and Asian/Chinese American literary review, he was entitled "the founder of Asian American literature" by advocating real Chinese American history, and the spirit of Chinese traditional heroism. Frank Chin fights with white supremacy in mainstream society and demonstrates through his sharp writing skills and literary form that "the pen is mightier than the sword". In this thesis, I highlight an analysis of the protagonist's subversion idea to Chinese American history in Donald Duk, Frank Chin's first novel, through the application of New Historicism approach. The thesis falls into five parts: Part One: IntroductionIt is requisite to present a brief introduction of Frank Chin and his Donald Duk, as they are still unfamiliar to most Chinese students and readers. This is followed by an illustration of the approach of New Historicism, drawing special attention to some terms as "History" (大历史) and "history" (小历史) , "subversion", and "hegemonic discourse and marginalized discourse" related to this thesis.Part Two: The Premise and Condition of Subversion: From Rejecting to Re-recognizing the Chinese American History and CultureA brief introduction of the Chinese American history and culture performs an important role in outlining the background of this thesis. Donald Duk rejects the Chinese American culture and regards himself as one of the white Americans because of the orthodox education of mainstream society. However, Donald Duk is confused about the difference of attitudes towards Chinese American between his father and his historyteacher, the different performance of Chinese American laborers in railway building between his dreams and orthodox history. After checking the historical records in the library, Donald Duk realizes that the real Chinese American history has been distorted by mainstream society. Donald Duk re-recognizes Chinese American history and culture and shows his proudness of being a Chinese American. Part Three: The Strategies of Subversion: EducationDonald's father educates and influences Donald with his own personalities: conducting himself with personal dignity, warm hospitality, generous contribution and support to the weak play the culture heritage educational role on Donald. Donald Duk's father and uncle persuade him frequently to learn by heart Chinese traditional heroic heritage and images, such as Kwan Kung (关公))))) Lee Kuey (李逵) , Soong Gong (宋江) and Ngawk Fay (岳飞) . The loyalty to nations and faith to colleagues and friends of these heroes take the function of the ethnic thought education. Both the culture heritage and the ethnic thought education take place of the orthodox education of the mainstream society and help Donald realize his self-education by dreams so that he can prepare strategies to subvert "History" with "history". Part Four: The Action and Result of SubversionThe protagonist subverts his history teacher's stereotype and discrimination towards Chinese Americans in class and points out Chinese laborers' contributions to the Central Pacific railway building. His action indicates a better solution of Chinese American's gaining equal rights -fighting against the white supremacists by uniting with the whites who have sympathy for Chinese Americans. Part Five: The ConclusionThe real purpose of Donald Duk's work is not to subvert the Chinese American history completely, but only to do so in part. More realistic meanings can be seen from Donald Duk's reconnection with his ChineseAmerican roots at the end of the novel. The returning to his roots is not simply to withdraw to his race community to bear the tribulation, but is "a corkscrew development" of the protagonist. Chinese Americans should maintain their ancestral heritage and change their identical psychology of marginalized status, and should participate in more political activit...