A Post-colonial Approach To The Reconstruction Of Cultural Identities In Dragonwings

Dragonwings(1975)is written by Laurence Michael Yep(1948-),one of the creative and prolific contemporary Asian American writers in children’s literature.Ever since it was published in 1975,domestic and overseas researches have been made on this novel concerning culture,narrative perspective,discursive strategies,Chinese images,and history.Yet not enough importance has been attached to the issue of cultural identity from the perspective of post-colonialism on this novel.Therefore,taking post-colonial theory as the theoretical guidance and close-reading as the basic research methodology,this thesis endeavors to elaborate the transformation and reconstruction of Moon Shadow and Windrider’s cultural identities in Dragonwings.This thesis consists of five chapters besides Introduction and Conclusion parts.Introduction mainly concentrates on the writer Yep,his representative novel Dragonwings as well as the main structure of the thesis.Chapter 1 reviews domestic and overseas researches that have been made concerning Dragonwings up till now and points out several aspects that are proposed to be carried out in the future.Chapter 2presents major concerns of the post-colonial theory,the research significance,and the research innovations of this thesis.Starting with analyzing the negative emotions of Moon Shadow and Windrider,Chapter 3 focuses upon unveiling the omnipresent discipline and punishment that the white supremacy carries out on Chinese immigrants in America,who are dominated as objects and are echoed with the negative depictions of popular stereotypes as Chinese “Others” in the traditions of Orientalism and Asian American literature.Chapter 4 is supported by epistemological essentialism where cultural negotiation comes in,and recaps that cultural negotiators should be the ones who ought to possess the ability of empathy thinking and adopt different views on an equal footing.Chapter 5 explores the reconstruction process of Windrider and Moon Shadow continuously exceeding themselves,and ends with the summary that Chinese Americans’ cultural identities are the “becoming” productions in a fluid state.Conclusion sums up the main points of research findings.Through in-depth analysis of the text,this thesis systematically demystifies the unequal discourse powers behind Chinese stereotypes,highlights the necessity of breaking through their survival plights,and illuminates the possibility of harmonious coexistence between different cultures and races by detailing the transformation from alienated Chinese “Others” to hybrid cultural negotiators,in which there is an open Third Space of cultural hybridity.And more,it also points out the inevitability of continuously reconstructing one’s hybrid cultural identity,underlining the Zeitgeist from“who are we” to “who can we be”,serving as an agent for Chinese Americans and the marginalized as the global cultural communication develops and deepens.