The Image Of The Other In Wayson Choy’s Novels

As a Chinese Canadian writer,Wayson Choy has obtained remarkable achievement in Canadian literary world.His best-known novel The Jade Peony and its sequel All That Matters enjoy great popularity and win many prizes after publication.Set in the Chinatown of Vancouver in the 1930s and 1940s,The Jade Peony and All That Matters recall the strenuous life of Chinese immigrants in Vancouver’s Chinatown from different perspectives.The Jade Peony chronicles the growing-up experience of Jook-Liang,Jung-Sum and Sekky.All That Matters unveils Chinese immigrants’ hard struggles in a foreign society from the perspective of Kiam-Kim.Under Edward Said’s the Other theory,this thesis explores how Choy breaks Canadian society’s understanding on Chinese immigrants in Orientalism’s discourse and deconstructs Chinese Canadian’s negative images and reconstructs Chinese culture.This thesis mainly analyzes the negative portrayal of Chinese images and culture in Canadian society,and how Choy deconstructs the Other image of Chinese Canadian and rewrites Chinese traditional culture.The Occident’s longstanding discrimination and prejudice over the Orient place Chinese Canadian and culture in an Otherized area and they fail to be recognized by the mainstream society,which poses an enormous threat to their life.In The Jade Peony and All That Matters,Wayson Choy builds many positive Chinese images and rewrites authentic Chinese culture.The thesis points out that deconstructing the Other image of Chinese Canadian and rewriting Chinese culture are beneficial to reduce those misunderstandings against Chinese Canadians and help to establish an easy place for them in Canadian society.