A Study On Kai Ting's Pursuit Of Cultural Identity In The Ritual Writing Of China Boy

Gus Lee(1947-)is one of the most renowned contemporary Chinese American writers.As his masterpiece,China Boy(1991)won great popularity since its first issue.China Boy is a semi-autobiographical novel in which Gus Lee writes about Kai Ting's growing experience of searching for cultural identity.Ritual writing is an important feature in the Chinese American novel China Boy,which plays a unique role in revealing the theme of cultural identity pursuit in this novel.Besides the ritual plots which can be easily perceived,the novel also implies a ritual structure of "rites of passage".This thesis,with reference to the ritual theory,analyzes the ritual writing in China Boy from the aspects of ritual plots and ritual structure,trying to explore the important functions of ritual writing in tracing Kai Ting's pursuit of cultural identity,while also further pointing out the practical inspirations for Chinese Americans' pursuit of cultural identity as well as the guiding functions for Chinese American literature creation and appreciation embodied in the ritual writing of the novel.The thesis consists of five chapters.Chapter One briefly introduces Gus Lee as well as his work China Boy,and also gives an overall summary of relevant research on this novel both at home and abroad.Chapter Two is the theoretical framework,which introduces the ritual theory from two aspects,including the relationship between ritual and cultural identification and the rites of passage,while also states the feasibility for analyzing this novel with ritual theory.Chapter Three and Chapter Four are the main parts of the thesis,with different focuses on ritual plots and ritual structure respectively.Chapter Three analyzes how the ritual plots,including incomplete rituals,differences between Chinese rituals and American rituals and repeated rituals trace Kai's pursuit of cultural identity.Chapter Four holds that seeing from the whole structure,the process of Kai's pursuit of cultural identity is actually a complete rite of passage,following the three-staged ritual structure of "separation-liminality-aggregation".Chapter Five is the conclusion of the thesis.As a distinctive writing feature in China Boy,ritual writing traces Kai's pursuit of cultural identity through ritual plots and ritual structure,which demonstrates the theme of cultural identity pursuit of this novel.Ritual plots reveal the significance of Chinese rituals for Chinese Americans to establish hybrid cultural identity,while ritual structure depicts Chinese Americans' pursuit of cultural identity,implying the chronicity of cultural identity pursuit.In addition,ritual plots can work as an important way for Chinese American literature to show Chinese Americans'conditions of cultural identity,while the collective unconsciousness implied in ritual writing raises people's concerns about the ritual factors in literary works,benefiting literary creation and appreciation.