Identity Shift: Thematic Changes From Homebase To American Knees

In the last 30 years Chinese American literature has developed rapidly and undergone some dramatic changes. Shown Wong, a renowned professor and pioneer of Chinese American literature, displayed his great talent for writing in 1979 by his first novel Homebase. After 16 years his second novel, American Knees (1995), was published. Wong's insights reflect the changing experience and identity shift of Chinese Americans. This thesis attempts to analyze the thematic changes of Wong's two novels in terms of Edward Said's theory on cultural context.Edward Said believes that the"beginning intention"of the author results from certain social factors and a text is"worldly"and inseparable from its broader social implications and cultural context. Therefore this thesis aims to adopt Said's theory to illuminate the identity shift of Chinese Americans revealed through Shawn Wong's two novels. Published in the late 1970s, Wong loudly sought to"claim America"through tracing Chinese ancestors'historical footmarks in Homebase. After an interval of sixteen years, a visible switch in thematic emphasis occurs in Wong's later novel American Knees. Whereas identity politics governed his earlier novel, the stress is now on heterogeneity and diaspora. The shift has been from seeking to"claim America"to forging a connection between China and Chinese America; from centering on race and on masculinity to revolving around the multiple axes of ethnicity, gender and sexuality. Factors as social conditions, economic situation and political motivation are changing for Chinese Americans. The changing cultural context has an important impact on the writing of Chinese American authors. From the thematic changes in Wong's literary creation, we can see the confrontations and conflicts around the gain and loss of the identity and the changes in Chinese Americans'positioning of identity. After being assimilated into the host culture, contemporary Chinese Americans reassess their national cultural roots. And in this case the original Chinese culture begins its negotiation with the dominant American culture. Gradually Chinese Americans construct a new sort of identity: Americans with Chinese ethnic features.