The Postmodernist Writing Techniques In Kingston’s China Men

Maxine Hong Kingston has been one of the most popular and controversial Chinese American writers in American literature. Affected by postmodernism, she has published The Woman Warrior and China Men successively. As the continuation of The Woman Warrior, China Men mainly focuses on the painful experiences of Chinese men living in America, and it further overturns the rooted cognition of China in American mainstream culture. Depending on excellent writing skills and profound cultural background, Kingston breaks the shackles of traditional novel writing mode, using myths, quotation, historical document, laws and news report to weave and reconstruct a great map of struggling history of Chinese American, as well as to create typical Chinese immigrant images in different times from mid-nineteenth century to the late of twentieth century. Through long-term accumulation of life experience and edification from American society and culture, these immigrants gradually change their way of self-identification, build a new cognitive subject, and confirm their identity of Chinese American. On the one hand, contemporary Chinese Americans inherit Chinese culture; on the other hand, they are as same as American native races on some aspects of thinking and living style. As a significant part of people, they promote the whole construction of the United States, and therefore should own equal identity and legal rights as native Americans. The thesis consists of three parts:The first part is introduction, including the writing experience of Kingston, the main content of China Men, and the research motivation, purpose and significance according to the overseas and domestic studies about Kingston.The second part is the main body of the thesis, including three chapters. Combining theoretical analysis with a close reading of the text, this thesis concludes three remarkable postmodernist writing techniques systematically: irony, collage, and intertextuality, and analyzes Kingston’s struggle for identity and cultural equality of Chinese Americans. The first chapter analyzes the postmodernist technique of irony used in China Men: on one hand, it shows the postmodernist randomness in form; and on the other hand, it embodies a reconstruction of identity and masculinity of Chinese American men, and shows Kingston’s important political and social intention of claiming equal rights. Chapter Two explains the unique effects of collage in genre and plot: collage of genre shows the strong characteristic of fragmentation, while collage of plot indicates the combination between virtuality and reality, as well as the embarrassing situation Chinese Americans face in the United States. The following chapter mainly reveals the influence of intertexuality on China Men. Texts in this book imitate and rewrite the stories of The Marriage of Flowers in the Mirror and Robinson Crusoe, and emphasize the discrimination and unfair treatments Chinese Americans suffer from in the United States, which also shows Kingston’s determination of making voice for this group.The conclusion summarizes the postmodernist techniques in China Men, and emphasizes the important influence of art practice on author’s writing intention. In postmodern framework, Kingston not only describes the positive and serious life attitude of Chinese American, but also digs out the political and historical roots which impede this group from gaining equal treatment. This thesis aims to point out that the artful use of postmodernist writing techniques and unique analysis of history are significant to Kingston’s access to be one of the mainstream authors in American literature.