A Study Of Chinese American Ethnic Memory From The Perspective Of Folk Customs In Chinese American Novels

Early Chinese American novels are mostly autobiography which depicts the lifecondition of Chinese American immigrants of the first and second generation. Thethesis has focused on ethnic memory in three books of Chinese American literature:Fifth Chinese Daughter of Jade Snow Wong, Eat a Bowl of Tea of Louis Chu and TheJoy Luck Club of Amy Tan through the analysis of three folk customs, marriagecustom, festival custom and folk belief.The thesis answers the following questions:1. What are the main fundamental folk customs in three Chinese Americannovels?2. What kind of inheritance and vicissitude of folk customs are displayed indifferent periods?3. How do factors in the inheritance and vicissitude of folk customs influenceChinese American ethnic memory?The thesis has five chapters.The first chapter briefly introduces Chinese American novel history. Besides, thechapter also states the significance, the research object, theoretical framework and theorganization of the thesis.The second chapter illustrates the theoretical framework and literature review ofthe thesis. In this chapter, the definition of folklore, ethnic group, Chinese Americanethnic group and ethnic memory are included.The third chapter analyses three folk customs, marriage customs, festivalcustoms and folk belief in the three books, Fifth Chinese Daughter, Eat a Bowl of Teaand The Joy Luck Club. Besides, the chapter also concludes the inheritance andvicissitude of the three folk customs.The fourth chapter explores the relationship between autobiographical memoryand ethnic memory. Besides, the change of ethnic memory from the perspective of folk customs and the influence factors in the change of ethnic memory in novels arediscussed.The fifth chapter is consisted of a conclusion of the whole thesis and asuggestion of future study.