Reconstructing Chinese American Identity

In the history of Chinese American literature, Frank Chin isgenerally considered to be one of the founders of Asian/ChineseAmerican literature for his prolific writings and unique thoughts onliterary criticism. Actively practicing his writing philosophy of "Writingis fighting," Chin spares no efforts to subvert the racial stereotypesimposed on Asian/Chinese Americans, which aim at maintaining them aspermanent aliens in American society. In order to deconstruct the myth ofChinese being passive, docile, backward and conservative, Chin inventsthe methods of recovering the lost history of Chinese Americans and ofappropriating heroic Chinese culture to reconstruct an alternative identityfor Chinese Americans. Written in 1991, Donald Duk is the right novel tostudy Chin's speculations on Chinese American identity.The thesis firstly gives a brief introduction of Frank Chin and thenovel Donald Duk. Based on Frank Chin's notion of "Racist Love,"Chapter 1 offers an examination of two kinds of racist stereotypes ofChinese Americans, that is, the detective Charlie Chan and Dr. FuManchu. Donald Duk is kind of characteristic of "Model Minority" whohas internalized the "Racist Love." Therefore his "dual personality" isinevitably formed and brings him a crisis of ethnic identity. Chapter 2 discusses how Frank Chin restores the ethnic identity forhis protagonist Donald Duk. In accordance with his persistent stress onthe importance of Chinese American history, in the novel Chin arrangesDonald Duk to unearth his ancestors' erased heroic history of buildingrailroad to deconstruct the official dominant version of history. Inaddition, echoing with Homi Bhabha's assertion that the articulation ofcultural difference becomes a way of claiming identity in the mainstreamsociety, Chin also deploys Chinese traditional culture to construct theimage of Chinese Americans as heroic, brave and aggressive. In thissense, Chin actually situates Chinese American identity in a spacebetween Chinese American history and the imaginary of the Chinesetradition of heroism.Chapter 3 interrogates Chin's attempt to claim America as home forChinese Americans, which can be seen as his utmost intention. Contraryto the traditional concept of "home," the "home" here is regarded as adynamic process of root-seeking. In addition, Chin's experiment ofconstructing a hybrid Chinese American identity is tentatively explored inthis chapter.