Reconstruction Of Chinese American Masculinity In Fae Myenne Ng's Bone

Since its publication, Bone has received deserved attention. Fae Myenne Ng was born into a Chinese immigrant family in San Francisco. Ng attended Columbia University of Arts and received her Master Degree of Liberal Arts in 1984. She has lived in New York since 1989, where she wrote many drafts of Bone. She spent over ten years on the novel which was published in 1993. It is mainly based on the collective experiences of Chinese immigrants and her individual life experience in San Francisco Chinatown. Rosellen Brown, American author, thinks that there is a sense of history that can't be escaped by will or wit or wish in Bone. Critics from abroad and in put the emphasis on the identification of the second generation and the mother and daughters'relation or the relationship between Mah and Leon from the perspective of feminism.Chinese American men have been silenced and described by the American society as coolies, lazy bones, and model minority. The negative stereotype to the Chinese American men has greatly negative affected their lives in America. It has become an emergent task for the Chinese American writers to reclaim the stories of Chinese American men, especially the fathers, and of their marginalized families and communities. This thesis attempts to argue the deconstruction of Chinese American stereotypes and masculinity reconstruction by the text analysis of the main male characters in Bone. Through the struggle and activities of Grandfather and Leong in the American society, the thesis also argues their contribution to the American development and deconstructs the stereotype of coolies in American eyes. Another point the thesis focus is the father's struggle in the American society. Through the deconstruction of stereotypes the American society imposed on the Chinese American and reconstruction of Chinese American masculinity, the thesis intends to claim the masculinity of Chinese American and restore the real Chinese American history. Then people will have a good understanding of Chinese American.