The Cultural Difference And Identity In Lily In The Snow

This paper attempts to analyze the cultural difference and immigrants' identity in Li Yan's novel Lily in the Snow from the perspective of cosmopolitanism.With the globalization of the world and the increasing frequency of cross-cultural communication,immigrant writers in the new era begin to write the cultural mobility and diversity.In an open field of vision,they refuse to describe the identity based on the binary opposition and their nostalgia for homeland,but narrate the survival and spiritual dilemma of the new generation of immigrants in the multicultural context,as well as the possibility of cultural integration.Scholars at home and abroad have noticed Li Yan's portrayal of multiple dilemma encountered by immigrants in the new environment and her cross-ethnic writing to a certain extent.This paper will analyze Chinese immigrants' course of seeking spiritual home from three aspects: the transcendence of cultural difference,cultural reflection and the reconstruction of integrated identity.This thesis consists of five chapters.Chapter one introduces Li Yan's bilingual writing,cross cultural experience and researches of Lily in the Snow both at home and abroad,and expounds the research framework of this paper in accordance with the basic concept of cosmopolitanism.Chapter two firstly analyzes the multidimensional cultural differences within Chinese immigrants,which explains the invented ethnic boundaries and the unreliability of cultural antagonism.Then,through the perspective of cultural conflict,it demonstrates the common values and ethics among cultures which transcends cultural difference and provides a cultural bridge for intercultural communication and integration.Chapter three mainly analyzes Lily's introspection on the native culture and the heterogeneous culture.On the one hand,the alienation of Grace's maternal love and her psychological dependence on patriarchy reveals women's dilemma of her generation.The estrangement and scars of mother and daughter reflect the unequal mother-daughter relationship in the traditional Chinese family.On the other hand,secularized Christianity has become a tool for the priests and churches to make their own profit.The supremacy of money infiltrates the Canadian society that advocates freedom and equality.Lily forms a rational cultural perspective in the dual cultural reflection.Chapter four analyzes how immigrants in cultural dialogue reconstruct their identity based on cultural commonality and reflection.The loss of collective environment and beliefs,the disparity between living conditions in China and Canada have made immigrants psychologically and socially marginalized.However,the Chinese churches in Canada provide immigrants mental closeness to rebuild their religious identity.The subversion of “real man” like Majesty reshapes Lily's independent gender identity.In the end,Lily forms a integrated identity in heterogeneous cultural exchange.Chapter five summarizes the process of immigrants' way out of spiritual dilemma in the new era.The efforts of Chinese immigrants to integrate into the mainstream society in Canada reflect the diasporic state of Canadian minorities.The success of the Lily embodies immigrants' adaptation to the heterogeneous culture and the reconstruction of their identities.On balance,this thesis not only explains the cultural difference and identity in the multicultural background from the perspective of cosmopolitanism,but also records the literary turning of transcending racial differences in immigration literature in the new era.