Subversion And Reconstruction

In Orientalist discourse of American Caucasian literary works, Chinese Americans are always stereotyped as inferior"other"and positive images of this ethnic group can hardly be found. As one of most important Chinese American writers, Frank Chin has been taking the rebellion against the stereotypes imposed on Chinese Americans, especially Chinese American men, as his major concern. This thesis offers an analysis of Frank Chin's subversion and rebuilding of the image of Chinese American males in his two novels, Donald Duk and Gunga Din Highway.The thesis is composed of five parts:The first part is an introduction to Frank Chin and his works, followed by a brief introduction about Edward Said's Orientalism and his definition of intellectual.Chapter One is about the Chinese male images in"Racial Castration", which is probed into from three perspectives of history, culture and politics, then a detailed analysis is given to illustrate the"Self-Orientalization"of Chinese Americans, centering on three characters of Chin's novels.Chapter Two focuses on Chin's subversion of Fu Manchu and Charlie Chan, the two typical negative images imposed on Chinese and Chinese American males. The social and historical contexts of the popularity of these stereotypes are studied before the exploration of how Frank Chin exposes their falsity and absurdity in his novels.Chapter Three is made to reveal how Frank Chin reconstructs the positive image of masculine Chinese American men by reclaiming the erased history of early Chinese American railway workers and reviving the Chinese heroic tradition.The last part is conclusion. Chinese American literature is a marginalized literature, and Frank Chin is a further-marginalized writer. However, Chin has never given up his fight against prejudice and discrimination against Chinese Americans. In his two novels, Donald Duk and Gunga Din Highway, Chin successfully subverts the stereotypes imposed on Chinese American males and builds up positive masculine Chinese American male images. This is of great significance to clear up the racial prejudice against this ethnic minority and help them build up confidence to claim rightful place in American society.