Ethnicity In Multicultural America: A Multicultural Reading Of Gish Jen's The Love Wife

The notion of"multiculturalism"in the USA in the 1960s emerged as a consequence of the Civil Rights movement, anti-war campaigns, women's liberation movement, student upheavals and lesbian movement. Through her works Gish Jen shows her special thoughts on the issue of American identity and ethnicity in the multicultural context. Under the multicultural social environment culture conflicts among different ethnic groups and the mainstream WASP culture are inevitable. To solve the conflicts, Jen offers her opinions on the issue. To her assimilation means more learning and understanding from each other than estrangedness and alienation from their original culture. Multiculturalism could be one of the basic features of American culture: being tolerant to other cultures is part of American culture itself. The thesis intends to study Gish Jen's concept of ethnicity and cultural identity under the multicultural context through analysis of her novel The Love Wife published in 2004.Chapter One gives a brief introduction to the history of how multiculturalism emerged and developed and different Chinese American writers'opinions about it. Frank Chin tries to maintain the purity of Chinese culture in Chinese American works while Gish Jen tries to advocate the harmonious coexistence of the two cultures through communication and understanding. At the same time, Chinese American literature comes to a paradox in Multicultural America: Should the ethnic elements in Chinese American literature be dilated or diluted? Emphasizing the Chinese elements and keep their own identity could enrich the multiculture but does it mean that it could be a barrier for the melting and coexisting of different cultures?Chapter Two deals with the culture conflicts and coexistence in the novel The Love Wife and further explores the family representative in a multicultural social environment. It discusses what decides a person's culture identity and shows Gish Jen's ideas on the fluidity of cultural identity and ethnicity. The third chapter describes Chinese Americans in America today, their social status, their enrichment to American culture in different social fields and how they contribute to the American multiculture. Conclusion restates the author's opinion on culture identity in the multicultural environment and tries to give a general understanding of Americaness. Multiculturalism creates a more favorable environment for Chinese American literature and different ethnic groups to blend their own culture with other ethnic groups.