An Interpretation Of The Rejection And Acceptance Of Chinese Discourse In The Jade Peony

Being one of the best Chinese Canadian writers, Wayson Choy makes his name for the fiction The Jade Peony, which has drawn great attention and won many awards since its publication. As a typical Chinese Canadian book, it depicts the life of Chinese immigrants in Chinatown of Canada and shows the confusion about identity that children face. In The Jade Peony, three generations of Chinese immigrants live in the Vancouver’s Chinatown, who are influenced inevitably and simultaneously by both Chinese culture and Canadian culture. Wayson Choy implies in his novel that they embrace both Chinese culture and Canadian culture, becoming Chinese Canadians.Under Michael Foucault’s theory of power and discourse, three questions are discussed:what the Chinese immigrants reject to Chinese culture discourse, what they accept and what makes them make such choices. Foucault proposes that power is everywhere and that it diffuses and embodies in discourse. Functioned under a certain power, only a certain kind of discourse is thought to be "truth" and is allowed to be said. In a broad sense, discourse covers all the forms of culture life.Chinese immigrants’ rejection and acceptance of Chinese culture discourse are explored separately in two chapters. The difference of social environment in Old China and Canada causes the different attitudes to many things between Chinese culture and Canadian culture and some of them are antithetical. For those respects, it is found that Chinese immigrants reject some Chinese culture discourses which no longer suit the life in Canada and that the tradition of ignoring and discriminating female and the unequal relationship among people are rejected by them. On the other hand, Chinese culture has been part of the Chinese immigrants’ life for such a long time that they accept some Chinese culture discourses unconsciously. The Jade Peony indicates that Chinese immigrants accept the essence of Chinese folk tales, Chinese way of viewing death and the world and Chinese family order.The thesis points out that living in Chinatown of Canada, Chinese Canadian are objects of two kinds of power—Chinese culture and Canadian culture. To live a better life in Canada, Chinese Canadian reject some Chinese culture discourses that are no longer fit them and accept some Chinese culture discourses that universally benefit.