The "Other" In The Pursuit Of A Gold Mountain Dream

This thesis aims to interpret American author Maxine Hong Kingston’s secondbook China Men (1980) from the perspective of postcolonial criticism. China Menreveals the fact that Chinese American males as the ethnic race of the US are seen asthe “Other” in the eyes of native white people; they suffer from deprivation ofdiscourse power, emasculation of masculinities and deprivation of basic rights.Through discussing the miserable conditions of Chinese American males ofbeing the “Other”, the thesis argues that no matter how struggling they are, theycannot escape the fate of being expelled from the mainstream under the whitehegemony, even though the time changes, their living conditions are much improved,they still cannot avoid the embarrassment that their Chinese ethnic identity broughtthem, for they are still seen as the “Other” in their pursuit of the Gold Mountaindream.