Struggle And Hope

Denise Chong, the prominent Chinese Canadian female writer, is famous for her family saga, The Concubine's Children:Portrait of a Family Divided. Winning awards including the City of Vancouver Book Prize and Governor-General's Literary Award, the book has attracting extensive attentions and high praises. The Concubine's Children not only documents authentically the joys and sorrows, struggle and hope of several generations in Chong's family, representing factually the history of Chinese immigration to Canada. Also the book is of great significance in constructing Chinese Canadian literature.From the perspective of thematic analysis, this thesis elaborates on the motif that although early Chinese Canadians, with Sam being their representative, suffers from racial discrimination and terrible tribulation, embrace the lifetime hope of "return home in brocade" and "return to China";although Chinese Canadian women struggle under the dual oppression of gender and racial discrimination, with May-ying being their representative, continuously pursue independence and freedom; the local-born Chinese Canadians experiences clashes of Western culture and Chinese traditional culture, struggles in dilemma between two cultures and strives to melt into the mainstream society and walk out of spiritual dilemma.In recent years, domestic scholars begin to concern for the development of Chinese Canadian literature in English and publish few articles on research of text and comments on Chinese Canadian writers. From an entirely new perspective, this thesis explores the profound implication in the ethos of family value in Chinese traditional culture as well as the profound influence of the ethos of family value on Chinese Canadians in different times. This thesis aims to make tentative exploration to research of Chinese Canadian literature.