The Voice Of "the Other":a Post-colonial Approach To China Men

Among all the works of Kingston, The Woman Warrior and China Men must be the best known ones. As the title says, the former is an ode for the China women while the latter is an epic for China men. Being different from the other Chinese American women writers, Kingston tried to think and write from the perspective of the male. She concentrated on the male’s mental and physical conditions and portrayed them carefully. This is a premise to help China men to make a sound in American society. Another significant difference is the intention of writing. According to Kingston herself, she does not write for China the country or the Chinese people. She writes for America and Chinese Americans. The figures she created are Americans. The stories are about Americans. Chinese Americans are kind of Americans instead of Chinese. So the intention of the creation is not to express Kingston’s emotion for China or Chinese people, but to show her strong feelings for her forefathers and countless pioneers like them and to bring the hidden history alive.The author of this thesis attempts to make a post-colonial approach to China Men. There are three chapters in the main body. The first two chapters are concentrated on the theme of "the other". In the first chapter, the author gave a detailed analysis of the misery experience of China men, including the identity crisis faced by China men, the oppressed silence on China men and the oblivion of China men’s contribution to the United States. All the misery experiences constituted the process for China men to be otherized. The second chapter emphasized the inordinately revolt took by China men, including the breaking of silence, the resisting of being feminized and of being marginalized. The process of revolting is a process of resisting to be otherized. The third chapter focused on the hybrid writing styles. In America, the mainstream culture is western culture. The Chinese American writers also face the danger of being otherized. However, through the use of hybrid policy, Kingston has opened new avenues for Chinese American writers. In China Men, the use of hybrid policy is mainly embodied in the reconstruction of Chinese culture and western culture. In addition, the hybrid writing style, another distinguished feature of the work, is of typical post-colonial characteristics. This can be regarded as the writer’s practice of resisting to be otherized.Although the revolt was not so effective at that time, its far-reaching influence couldn’t be ignored. Nowadays, more and more Chinese Americans have become the elites in different fields in America. More and more voices of China men can be heard. It is inseparable from the great efforts made by the early China men. The author of this thesis strived to make a complete and detailed analysis based on the principle of being consistent with the writer’s original writing intention. Through the study, the author of this thesis has found out that any China men, including both the common people and the social elites, have to face the similar dilemma of being recognized as the "other" by the mainstream society. Therefore, the writer and the figures created by the writer share some common problems and situations. To both the figures created by Kingston and Kingston herself, only with tireless efforts can they change their living conditions for the better. Although they tried in different ways, their efforts are of the same far-reaching significances.