The Continuity And Fracture Of Chinese Culture In Asian American Literature: A Case Study Of The Woman Warrior And Eat A Bowl Of Tea

Identity issue and cultural problems have always been the most significant focuses in Asian American literature studies, especially for the works of Kingston and Louis Chu. Most of those studies are related to colonialism, post colonialism and motifs of Asian American literature. Different angles such as genre, identity, cultural confliction and postcolonial theories are presented. The Asian American writers’ complicated cultural background and identity are also the subjects of academic studies about them. There is a relationship between the texts and cultures and the culture study obtains the consistent approval in academic field. This thesis presents a culture study on the Asian American people’s identity with the support of cultural theories to find their identity. It tries to reflect the continuity and fracture of Chinese culture in Chinese American literature and the confliction and conformity between Chinese culture and western culture. So it quests the relationship between Chinese culture and Asian American culture, and the identity of Chinese American writers. Kingston’s The Woman Warrior and Louis Chu’s Eat a Bowl of Tea are the texts to analyze the construction of identity. This research focuses on analyzing the expressions of the Chinese culture in The Woman Warrior and Eat a Bowl of Tea, discussing the relationship between Chinese culture and Chinese American culture and tries to identify the Asian American writers.