Strangers within our gates: A study of four first generation Chinese immigrant men's autobiographies, 1930s-1940s

This thesis is an analysis of the development of the immigrant identity represented in four autobiographies by first-generation Chinese immigrant men published during the 1930s-1940s. As three were written in Chinese and none were published in a traditional fashion, only one book has been briefly studied. Therefore, the first intent of this thesis is to retrieve these texts from oblivion in order to enrich our understanding of Chinese immigrants' experience in the period.; Second, in bringing the wide range of issues they addressed in their autobiographies, such as family, career choice, religion and their national identity, under the aegis of the historically colonial context of their immigration, I find a unique inclusive cosmopolitan immigrant identity that has seldom been described in immigrant studies. The four Chinese immigrants of this study never explicitly addressed the birth of a new American identity during the course of their emigration to the United States, as was the case for most immigrants of other ethnic groups. Facing racial and financial adversities such as anti-Chinese immigration legislation during the period, the four Chinese autobiographers tried to integrate their Chinese cultural legacy with various cultural traditions in the United States. Thanks to their inclusive approach to cultural difference, they developed a fluid cosmopolitan point of view, as they identify simultaneously with the Chinese, the Chinese in America and overseas, and the colonized people of the world. With these characteristics, the term "cosmopolitan Chinese in the United States" defines the four autobiographers more accurately than the terms "Chinese immigrants in the United States" or "Chinese Americans." Therefore, I contend that their self-portraits deviate from dominant theoretical models that interpret immigrants' experience according to the theme of Americanization.; Their inclusive response to their America experience also challenges some assumptions upon which models of Americanization are based, such as that foreign cultures are incompatible with mainstream American culture. I conclude that the four writers of this study were pioneers in a special sub-genre of modern Chinese American autobiography.