Identities Of Chinese Diasporans In USA

Diaspora has become an important part of the studies of ethnic literature. As a diasporic group, Chinese Americans have displayed obvious characteristics of the cultural identification of diasporic communities. It is an efficient way to study the identification of the Chinese Americans literature from the perspective of diasporic culture, which can further our study of the literature of diasporic literature and culture. It can also deepen our understanding of the literature and culture of other ethnic groups of the United States of America., and eventually lead to a better understanding of the multicultural characteristics of American literature in general.Gish Jen, born in 1950, experienced the Civil Rights Movement during 1960s, and decided to be a writer from childhood. Her first novel Typical American made her famous overnight. This novel narrates the struggle to pursue for American Dream of the family of Ralph Chang and Americanization. At the same time, it expresses the constructed identity by self. Mona in the Promised Land, her second novel, narrates Mona's parents keep the "dual identities" and Callie identifies with Chinese while Mona refuses to accept the identity determined by race or blood and switches to be a Jew. Seth's identity shifts from Jewish to Japanese, while Sherman's identity shifts from Japanese to American. At the same time, through comparing Gish Gen's identity with the other Chinese American writers', such as Edith M. Eaton, Jade Snow Wong, Pardee Lowe, Maxine Hong Kingston, and Frank Chin, which interprets the diversity and fluidity of Chinese American's identity.This essay aims at illustrating the multicultural identification of the characters portrays by Gish Jen in the Mona in the Promised Land, in order to show Jen's efforts to contradict the stereotyped and unchanged images of Chinese Americans spread by the mainstream Americans. It is the opinion of the author of this thesis that the identity of diasporic groups is plural and ever changing.