An Analysis Of The Flower Drum Song From The Perspective Of Diaspora Criticism

In 1915,Chinese-American Author Lee Chin-Yang was born in China.He went to The U.S for study in 1945.During the forty years he created more than ten English literary works which were based on the background of old China,among them the first English novel The Flower Drum Song was on the bestseller list of New York Times for a succession of years.In 1957,The Flower Drum Song was adapted and brought to Broadway and had been warmly welcomed ever since.In 1977,it was brought to the screen and was so well received that the film was nominated for Oscar Prize and brought him even more fame.The book was so famous and popular that the mayor of San Francisco enacted the special the day: Flower Drum Song Day for it.This thesis tries to analyze the novel The Flower Drum Song from the perspective of Diaspora Criticism.In this novel,in terms of the different cultural backgrounds,Wang Chi-yang and his son Wang Ta have the different attitudes and thoughts towards the same issues.That leads to the family's tragedy.They begin to build up their new culture identities after the reflection of behaviors and thoughts.This thesis explores the major reason which the Diaspora has confronted in foreign countries.The reason that the Diaspora wander outside of the mainstream culture of the strange countries is the cultural discrepancy.Only through building the new cultural identities can better survive here.The whole thesis can be divided into six parts.The first part is introduction brief gives knowledge of the author,main contents of The Flower Drum Song,and presents the literature review of the general researches of the novel from home and abroad.The first chapter introduces theory of Diaspora Criticism and its characteristics.The second chapter which is based on the theory in order to explain the dilemma of the Diaspora's life in American,the father Wang Chi-yang as representative of the first immigrant generation and the son Wang Ta as the example of second immigrant generation.They both face the identity problems in the United States.Chapter three reveals the deep gap that appears between the two generations who could not agree with each other on many issues,so the misunderstanding gap between them appeared.Then the thesis gives itsfurther analysis of the root of the confliction between them.In the forth chapter,thanks to Wang Ta's conflict tragic marriage,the father has deep introspection and becomes to accept different life style and cultures.At the same time,the son gets to be used to the Chinese tradition and culture.They start to build up their cultural identity.The last part is the conclusion.In this part the writer applies the Diaspora Criticism Theory to analyze the reason why the immigrants like Wang Chi-yang's family are rejected by the American mainstream culture,furthermore exploring the hard process which the immigrants rebuild their cultural identity.At the same time,the thesis reveals that the main root of the confrontations between the Chinese immigrants and the American natives are the different cultural background.In conclusion,this is the profound meaning of analysis of The Flower Drum Song.