A Postcolonial Interpretation Of Chinese American Generations’ Identity Construction In Bone

In1993, Chinese American woman writer Fae Myenne Ng published her first bookBone, and from then on she won her fame worldwide. The story happened in SanFrancisco s Chinatown, and developed around the Leong s family: Mah, Leon and thethree grown-up daughters, including Leila, Ona and Nina. The novel inevitablymentioned the conflicts and contradictions between the coolie first generation and newChinese Americans, and the racial discrimination they suffered in America. Comparedwith the earlier Chinese American works and immigrant literature which insist making afinal choice between Chinese culture and American culture, Fae Myenne Ng s Boneintends to find the third space between these two different cultures, that is, a fluidmixed traditional life which can embrace both the Chinese Americans torturingexperiences and their traditional cultures together.Although Chinese Americans are quite different those American Indians andHottentots who were once the slaves of imperialism, in their daily life they confrontwith the same troubles as American Indians and Hottentots: missing of historicalmemories, encountering cultural identity crisis, their edged position compared withmainstream society. Thus postcolonial criticism is applies to the interpretation ofChinese American literary works. This thesis will adapt the theories of postcolonialidentity and Professor Wang Lingzhi s analysis of Chinese diaspora within thetheoretical framework of postcolonialism to explore the dynamic identity constructingprocess of the three generations in Fae Myenne Ng s famous novel Bone. This thesisinsists that because their different experiences in American society, the three ChineseAmerican generations hold different attitudes towards their cultural identity; however,no matter what kind of attitude they hold, only by struggling through the awkwardsituation between Chinese culture and American culture can Chinese Americans exactlydefine and construct their cultural identities. The first Chinese immigrants, GrandpaLeong adhered to Chinese traditions and failed to realize his desire of returning hisbones to China despite his hard work throughout his life. The second generation,growing up during the social transition period, could neither get rid of the firstgeneration s influence nor escape from the oppression and discrimination of Americanmainstream, they are trying their best to construct their identity. The new generation hasbeen receiving American culture and education ever since they were born. FromChinatown and their parents they know something about Chinese culture, which provokes them to think about their identity. Chinatown to a certain degree can beregarded as the traditional Chinese culture. It is of no use to their identity construction ifChinese Americans blindly adhere to traditional culture or blindly escape from it. Toaccept the two aspects of their cultural identity and try to establish a new identity whichcan embrace both of the two different cultures; then Chinese Americans can completelysolve their identity confusion and construct their own independent, proper culturalidentity.