The Construction Of Chinese-American Males' Hybrid Identity In The Flower Drum Song

Chin Yang Lee(1915-2018)is a pioneer of Chinese-American writers who earns a reputation for his English writing in the western literary world.In 1957,he published his first English novel The Flower Drum Song.Since its publication,the novel has been listed on the bestseller list of The New York Times,It is a landmark work in the history of Chinese-American literature.The Flower Drum Song successfully reversed the image of the Chinese people abroad.Therefore,the author Chin Yang Lee plays an important role in the history of Chinese American literature.However,there is very little research on The Flower Drum Song in domestic,and even some scholars have prejudice against the image of Chinese-American males in The Flower Drum Song.Some scholars propose that the Chinese-American males in The Flower Drum Song blindly cater to American mainstream culture shamelessly,deepening the stereotype of Chinese-Americans in American mainstream society.This thesis interprets the identity construction of the Chinese-American males in The Flower Drum Song from the perspective of Homi K.Bhabha's hybridity theory.Homi K.Bhabha believes that the collision and integration of cultures will inevitably lead to the mixing of cultures.The process of cultural hybridity is also a process of mutual negotiation between different cultures,and identity can only be claimed in the Third Space of negotiation.The proposition of Homi K.Bhabha's hybridity theory breaks the identity space of binary opposition and provides a theoretical basis for the construction of the hybrid identity in the Third Space.Based on the theory of hybridity,this thesis analyzes Chinese-American males'identity crisis in the novel,and how they use mimicry strategy to resist the assimilation of American mainstream culture and finally actively seek hybrid identity construction in the Third Space.This thesis consists of four chapters.The first chapter is the introduction,which briefly introduces Chin Yang Lee and The Flower Drum Song,the research status of the work at home and abroad,as well as Homi K.Bhabha,s hybridity theory which mainly includes mimicry strategy,Third Space,and hybrid identity.The second,third and fourth chapters are the main parts of this thesis.The second chapter discusses the identity crisis of Chinese-American males.Through the analysis of cultural conflicts,gender imbalance,racial discrimination and other aspects,the deep causes of the cultural identity crisis,gender identity crisis and racial identity crisis of Chinese males are revealed respectively.The third chapter mainly analyzes Chinese-American males' American diet mimicry,American leisure lifestyles mimicry and American mainstream language mimicry,and illustrates how the Chinese-American males use mimicry strategies to resist the assimilation of American mainstream culture and alleviate the crisis of identity.The fourth chapter exploreS the process of Chinese-American males actively seeking hybrid identity construction in the Third Space by analyzing the formation of Chinese and American hybrid views on marriage,occupation,and family education.The last part is the conclusion,which summarizes the main contents of the thesis and points out that Chinese-American males did not blindly assimilate into the American mainstream culture.On the contrary,they integrated Chinese traditional culture with American mainstream culture to realize hybrid identity construction,which gives us an inspiration that in a multicultural society,blindly catering to the mainstream culture and blindly adhering to the traditional culture are not desirable.We should make full use of the Third Space and actively construct hybrid identities to coexist in the era of globalization.