People In A Foreign Land

Identity has always been a focus in Chinese-American literature. The question of identity and belonging turns to be complicated and severe when it comes to displaced and rootless people who are confronted with more than one culture. Facing identity crisis and perplexed by their cultural and social contexts, Chinese diaspora subjects in America are eager to seek a new identity and a sense of belonging which can match their special circumstances. The Joy Luck Club, a masterpiece of Chinese-American writer Amy Tan, is fairly impressive. It shows the vivid life of Chinese-Americans and the long-established Chinese cultural traditions behind them, takes the literary world of America by storm and pushes Chinese-American literature onto a new stage. Being the numbers of Chinese diaspora subjects, the mothers and the daughters in The Joy Luck Club are the typical ones who locate themselves in identity dilemma. The novel resonates for readers of the entire world who have their researches done from various perspectives and in many fields. Among them, the study on identity issue is not only important in the academic field, but also bears a practical significance in the context of cosmopolitanism. This thesis will analyze identity issue from diaspora perspective or global perspective, and have an illumination of diaspora subjects'homeland, pointing out that diaspora subjects should maintain cultural traditions of their origin while absorbing the mainstream culture so as to reconstruct homeland of their own—diaspora subjects'homeland.Structurally, this thesis falls into three chapters.The first chapter introduces the theory of identity and diaspora perspective. It shows the identity dilemma which perplexes Chinese-American writers and analyzes Amy Tan's diaspora consciousness, foreshadowing for the research on identity issue from diaspora perspective.The second chapter is the display of the Joy Luck women's diaspora consciousness. It concentrates on the mothers'displacement, solidarity, attachment to heritage and the daughters'rootlessmess and impossibility to be fully accepted by"host"society. It points out that confronted with different cultures, displaced and rootless Chinese-Americans are people in a foreign land forever.In the third chapter, diaspora subjects'homeland is illustrated from diaspora perspective. It introduces"homeland"and"the hearth and home complex". Starting from the emotional state of homesickness, this chapter illustrates the Joy Luck mothers'reconstruction of their lost identity and establishment of their imagined homeland by way of story-telling. The Joy Luck mothers'stories are the link between the history and the memory and the bridge leading to the daughters'understanding and acceptance of their ethnic heritage. Story-telling enables the Joy Luck women to successfully maintain the cultural traditions of the origin and hold a place in the mainstream culture. And then this chapter emphasizes the significance of taking roots and reconstructing diaspora subjects'homeland through the coalition of the mainstream culture and the maintaining of their family heritage.At last, the conclusion part of the thesis concludes that with the construction of identity, Chinese diaspora subjects have a deeper and clearer understanding of the world; facing cultures of variety, only by way of border-crossing thinking—absorbing the proper and suitable elements of various cultures instead of a simple combination, can diaspora subjects take roots and construct homeland of their own.