Re-centralization:the Other's Sympathetic Identification And Identity Construction In The Flower Drum Song

In the world of Chinese American literature,there is a pioneering opus which is rarely known by the readers from mainland China,although it has already been graced on the New York Times Bestseller List and has been adapted to a Broadway musical as well as a famous movie in the United States.This work is C.Y.Lee's The Flower Drum Song(1957),which enjoys a broad readership.This novel is a typical Chinese American literary work and is quite popular in America and Taiwan Province.Therefore,according to the research purpose,many databases have been searched like CNKI,Oxford Journals and JSTOR but the relevant research on this work is only limited to recent ten years.Furthermore,there is a dearth of research on the novel analysis from the perspective of Post Colonial literary criticism,let alone much research about how the Other in this novel changes his or her marginalized social status through re-centering cultural identity.As to domestic studies,most research on the novel is too general and most research is given priority to Chinese American images.For instance,in Bian Nan-nan's An Analysis of The Flower Drum Song from Aspects of Cultural Conflict and Blend(2007),she only combs several cultural perspectives in the novel and analyzes the cultural panorama in western society.As to overseas studies,most research focuses on the analysis of the adapted musical instead of the novel itself.For example,in Sun Hee Teresa Lee's The Flower Drum Song by Richard Rodgers;Oscar Hammerstein;David Henry Hwang(2002),she sorts out the revival of American musical The Flower Drum Song with various methods instead of expounding the context in the novel.Lucidly,on one hand,as a Chinese American literary work,The Flower Drum Song contains two typical Chinese elements:one is Chinatown and the other is father-son conflicts,which offer a window to the historical and political upheavals of the time.Besides,in the novel,the major characters have experienced a series of miserable ordeals and as Chinese Americans these characters urge to recenter their own social status in the United States,thus,it offers the necessity to analyze the re-centralization in The Flower Drum Song.On the other hand,as the United States is a country that has experienced both Colonial and Post Colonial ideologies,it provides the visibility and possibility for the application to the theory of Post Colonialism.And this novel is a typical Chinese American work to reflect the true image of Chinese Americans in the 1930s' United States.Therefore,in order to ponder it profoundly,it is better to supplement the research method like Literary and Cultural Studies and Textual Close Reading.Generally speaking,as the authbr of this thesis I would like to cast a brick to let jade in,especially to promote the relevant research on how Chinese Americans recenter their social status in the mainstream society.Therefore,this thesis is about a demonstration of how the marginalized Other re-centers his or her social status through sympathetic identification and cultural identity construction in The Flower Drum Song from the perspective of Post Colonial literary criticism.In a broad sense,according to the research purposes and significances,the thesis will be divided into six chapters as follows:To start with,the first chapter will be an introduction.Briefly,this chapter concentrates on a terse introduction to the novel,related writer,research orientation,thesis structure as well as the significances of the research.In the second place,Chapter Two is about literature review.The details of present related research both at home and abroad can be reviewed.Besides,the innovations of this thesis will be explained.The third chapter points out the Manichean Binary Opposition in the Self and the Other.First,the cultural background will be clearly described.Then,as the marginalized Others,what miserable ordeals the Chinese Americans have experienced from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century will also be stated.The following sections mainly explain how these major characters spare no efforts to "assimilate" into the mainstream society at their first phase in America.And the function of all the ordeals in promoting Chinese Americans to recenter their social status in the United States will be discussed.Moreover,the reasons for distortion and depreciation toward the Other will be succinctly depicted.Chapter Four is the core of this thesis.First,as the "interpolation",the duality in the marginalized Other is discussed.Then,from the perspective of Post Colonial literary criticism,this chapter depicts a series of fighting strategies that the major characters in The Flower Drum Song have utilized to resist the mainstream ideology in the process of re-centralization.As to the third section,under the influence of Cultural Mosaic theory,a mix in the Self and the Other is also commented.Besides,the profound meanings that Cultural Mosaic has left on the re-centralization are highlighted,especially for the win-win effects of both individuality and nation.The significances of cultural identity construction in the process of re-centralization in The Flower Drum Song are embodied in Chapter Five.In this chapter,several significances,for example,the awakening in major characters,subverting colonial discourse and denying the master narrative,and re-centering Chinese Americans' image are defined in depth.Chapter Six is supplemented by the Conclusion.According to the ponderation of the novel The Flower Drum Song from the perspective of Post Colonial literary criticism,certain conclusions upon this thesis are drawn.First,the marginalized Other's re-centralization has helped Chinese Americans establish their social status in the United States and maintained the marrow of Chinese tradition on one hand.Then,the re-centralization plays the roles in deconstructing colonial discourse and denying the master narrative in the mainstream ideology on the other hand.In addition,the re-centralization also avoids making Chinese culture turn into another dominant culture in the society.Chinese Americans do not change themselves from the colonized side into another colonizer side.Furthermore,Chinese Americans also respect the competitions from other cultures and can compete with other cultures equally.Then,Chinese Americans can better enjoy the fruits of cultural integrality and cultural diversity.