Imagined China: A Study Of Reception Of Chinese American Literature In American Mainstream Society From Perspective Of Orientalism

Chinese American literature is an indispensable part of American literature as well as a vital force in ethnic minority literature. Chinese American literature has been emerging in past half century; gaining recognition of American mainstream literature, welcomed by numerous readers. It also has attracted extensive attention from the academic circles.Because of the Chinese heritage, it is inevitable for Chinese American writers to use China and Chinese culture as writing materials. Affected by American mainstream culture, Chinese American writers, to some extent, write their stories with the influence of Orientalism. Orientalism, proposed by Said, serves as a critical part of the Post-colonialism theory, which reveals Western world’s ambience of controlling, reconstruction and domination on the Oriental culture. According to Orientalism, Eastern world is a land of backwardness, savageness, fatuousness and autarchy, while the Western world is honored to be an advanced heaven with civilization and democracy.The representative genres of most popular Chinese American literature include the rebuilding of Chinese Americans’history in the United States; the dissension between the elder generation representing the Chinese tradition and the youths standing on the American side; the depiction of life in Chinatown and the Chinese bachelor society in America. Yet these features of the books have indeed promoted the spread of Chinese American literature. But, writers have a tendency to satisfy western readers’curiosity of China by adding lots of distorted stories about this distant and mysterious country, which caters to the mainstream’s prejudice on China and Chinese culture.There are five parts in this thesis. The first chapter is a general introduction of research background, previous researches and significance of this study. The second chapter introduces the theoretical basis:Post-colonialism and Said’s Orientalism. The third chapter selects some representative Chinese American literature works, discusses the themes of most welcomed Chinese American literature works. Chapter Four unfolds a series of analysis of how China and Chinese culture are portrayed in Chinese American literature, presenting an "imagined China" from the perspective of Orientalism. The last Chapter is conclusion of research findings and limitations.Targeting at representative works of Chinese American literature, this thesis discusses and concludes the themes, applies Said’s Orientalism in the analysis of the depiction of China and Chinese culture in Chinese American literature works, reveals the Orientalism presented in these works. It is hoped that this thesis could be a help for readers to get better understanding of Chinese American literature.