Resistant Voices From China Men: An Interpretation To Historical Reconstruction In China Men

Due to the publication of The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingstonestablished her popularity as a Chinese American writer. Compared with The WomanWarrior, her second work China Men was more mature than the first one. However,the research on China Men was not as heated as The Woman Warrior. As arepresentative writer of Post-Modernism, Maxine Hong Kingston applied manypost-modern writing techniques in China Men. It could be interpreted from differentperspectives, such as Reader-Response Criticism, Post Colonialist Criticism,Feminism, Critical Race Studies, Culture Study, Archetypal Criticism and MasculinityStudies. Historical reconstruction was a brilliant contribution that Maxine HongKingston had made to Chinese American literature. Before her writing, there was nodescription of Chinese immigration history in Chinese American literature, especially,the early Chinese immigrants’contribution to America. Her innovation made ChineseAmericans know their past from a totally different perspective. For the ChineseAmericans, reconstructing history meant reconstructing identity. Among the essaysrelated to historical reconstruction, only a few applied the theory New Historicism. Infact, the thought of reconstructing history was coincident with New Historicism,which declared the subjectivity of history.This thesis mainly focuses on the strategies for resistance and the relationshipsamong history, memory and literature in China Men. Before analyzing the strategies,this thesis elucidates the reasons behind the resistance. The first reason is the silencedChinese immigrants in American history, and the second is the negative influence ofthe anti-Chinese immigration laws upon Chinese immigrants.The first strategy for resistance in China Men is reconstructing Chineseimmigration history to resist history of mainstream America and its theoretical originis small history countering large history from New Historicism. The reconstruction ofChinese immigration history is by means of memory and literature. The secondstrategy is analyzing the intertextuality among the stories of China men and historical documents. Intertexuality is the second theoretical origin of the thesis. Thecombination of historical documents and stories testify China men’s existence inAmerica and their contribution to America. Based on the analysis of the strategies, therelationships among history, memory and literature in China Men are explored.History and memory are important origins of Chinese American literature. Andliterature and memory are essential elements in reconstructing Chinese immigrationhistory.