A Space Of One’s Own: An Analysis Of Bone From The Perspective Of Spatial Criticism

Bone of Chinese American writer Fae Myenne Ng is a novel about how aChinese American family deals with their situation stuck between Chinese origin andAmerican culture. It is important for the diasporic Chinese Americans to find or createa space truly of their own. Spatial criticism is the outcome of western post-modernity,advocating that space is an influential social and cultural power arising from certaincultural basis instead of being static or a container subject to time. This thesis resortsto Spatial Criticism to study about the living reality of Chinese Americans andproposes my personal ideas and findings about the living space of Chinese Americansand the corresponding social and cultural power.Chapter one studies the three spaces Chinese Americans have experienced,namely China, the U.S. and Chinatown and it is believed that China stands forChinese traditional culture as showed in custom and legends, America stands forhegemonic culture and the spirit of American dream, and Chinatown stands for thesocial and cultural force that integrates Chinese tradition and American individualfreedom. Chapter two analyzes how Chinatown is protective but restrictive forChinese Americans with the concepts like physical space and social space in SpatialCriticism. Chapter three focuses on how America represented by San Francisco ispromising but biased, and point out America is the deep reason that Chinatown isprotective but confining. The last chapter explores the efforts made by the threeAmerica-born girls to find a space and proposes that the Thirdspace constructed byaccepting the inherited Chinese tradition and pursuing American individual freedom isthe solution to the cultural divergences between Chinese origin and American culture.The conclusion is Chinese Americans should value their Chinese culturaltradition and heritage and draw on its excellence to increase ethnic confidence, whileidentifying with the best part of American culture and melt in the multicultural society,becoming proud Chinese Americans.