Hungry Daughters' Quest

Jade Snow Wong (1922-2006), Maxine Hong Kingston (1940-) and Amy Tan (1952- ) are among the most influential and notable women writers in Chinese American literature. Wong is the first among this group who won recognition in American mainstream literature. In 1945, she published her first book, Fifth Chinese Daughter, which is described as an early classic of Asian American literature and has never been out of print. Inspired by Wong, in 1976 Kingston published her first, also the most recognized book, The Woman Warrior, which received the National Book Critic's Circle Award for nonfiction. Her other books include China Men (1980) and Tripmaster Monkey (1989), etc. The addition of her powerful words has enriched contemporary American literature despite enraging some others critics simultaneously. Amy Tan, greatly indebted to Kingston, published The Joy Luck Club (1989), a best-seller that aroused nationwide critical attention. Her other famous novels are The Kitchen God's Wife (1991), The Hundred Secret Senses (1995), The Bonesetter's Daughter (2001), and Saving Fish from Drowning (2005),etc.In general, these three women writers share a lot in common in their works from the theme to the content, committing themselves to resisting the phallocentric order. They all draw extensively on their Chinese background and take a special interest in exploring conflicts between families and daughters, expounding the female narration of identity and expressing women's long-repressed desire and hunger.Take Wong's Fifth Chinese Daughter, Kingston's The Woman Warrior and Tan's The Joy Luck Club as examples in the thesis, these are all their first published books, which have achieved great acclaim in their different eras, revealing...