The Early Chinese American Literary Studies: The Historical Experience Of Re-survey And The Presentation Of Contemporary Significance

This dissertation is made of one Introduction, four Chapters and one Conclusion. Starting with a review on the Early Chinese American Literature study in China and America, this dissertation questions the Chinese scholars'description on the early Chinese immigrants'living conditions and literary writing, and takes the American scholars'problem-awareness as an shotcut in interpreting the early Chinese American literature's literariness. Focused on surveying the early Chinese immigrants'experiences in a transnational historical context and reevaluating the early Chinese American Literature's value in the post-globalization era, this dissertation chooses four classic "Jin Shan Pian" ("Gold Montain"), "Zhu Ke Pian" ("Expulsion of the Immigrants"), "Ku She Hui" ("Bitter Society") and "Mu Wu Shi" (Angel Island Poetry) as its subject, deconstructs the Chinese stereotypes (coolie, sojourner, gold-digger, illiterate, etc.) with new historical materials from Qiaoxiang(Chinese immigrants'background) study, and makes a creative academic writing on the early Chinese immigrants'American experiences.The first chapter starts with a discussion on the artistic style of "Jin Shan Pian". Begin with close reading work, this dissertation "discovers" a kind of first-hand expression about the early Chinese immigrants'expectation on their new life at "gold mountain". Different from the existing Chinese American history studies' conclusions on the early immigrants'"possetic nostalgia", "Jin Shan Pian" shows a rather optimistic expectation on the early Chinese immigrants'future lives in America. As a traditional Chinese scholar, Zhang Weiping interpreted the Chinese Americans'fate with the Wuxing theory. Based on Wuxing theory and the ancient Chinese folklores about gold, "Jin Shan Pian" failed in pointing out the deep-rooted racialist motive of "driving out Chinamen," but understood the Foreign Miner's Tax(1852) as the American government's urgent for money. However, this poem's innocent but self-consistent belief on "Gold Mountain'"s virtue of kindness also reflects the "Golden Mountain Heros'" courage in searching for their new home.The second chapter discusses Huang Zunxian's famous poem "Zhu Ke Pian." This poem based directly on Huang's experience as a responsible and passionate Chinese diplomat in San Francisco in the 1880s. Comparing "Zhu Ke Pian'"s description with the Chinese exclusive narration in the 19th century America, this chapter argues that at least in Huang's point of view, the early Chinese immigrants did have the intent of rooting when they arrived in America in the 1850s. Witnessing the ruthless facts of Chinese Exclusive Acts and social movement, Huang claimed that the traditional Chinese ideal "Great Harmony" is not proper in this "racial competition" social context. This cognition advanced in his generation of Chinese intellectuals owed to the Chinese immigrants'first-hand experiences.The third chapter begins with a comparison between "Ku She Hui" and typical "Condemnation Novel" in the 1900s in China, then uncovers "Ku She Hui'"s transnational political criticism against both the Chinese and the American governments. Introducing the 1905-1906 Boycott Movement study and China-America diplomatic relationship study, this chapter discusses the formation of the early Chinese American's transnational identity as a combination of the traditional Chinese ethical ideas and realistic experiences of surviving in America. The fourth chapter makes a further close reading on "Muk Wuk Poetry" (Angel Island Poetry), exhibiting the early Chinese American's sensibility and discovering their life details in the "wooden house". Beyond anger and depression, "Muk Wuk Poetry" contains great beauty of dignity and morality. Tracing this literary tradition back to "Fan Zhi Shi" in Tang Dynasty, this chapter discusses the early Chinese American's literary power against the writers'dreadful living conditions. At last, refered to the explanations of Shi Jing (Book of Songs), this chapter articulates the value of early Chinese American Literature reading for contemporary China and America.This dissertation concludes on the rearticulation of early Chinese American's transnational life and their literary writing and the reevalutaion of their immigrating actions. To the American academia, this dissertation discusses the nameless thing about early Chinese American, reconstracts for them positive images against the Iron Curtain of Language; to the Chinese academia, put the "realistic close reading" into practice, this dissertation present the early Chinese American Literature as a common heritage and a bridge of historical reflection between China and America.