Self-rediscovery And Self-reconstruction Of Marginalized Chinese American Women

Amy Tan (1952- ) is one of the most representative female Chinese American writers in the late 20^th century. Her masterpiece, The Joy Luck Club, which I would like to study in this thesis, attracts more readers compared with other Chinese American works, and established the author's place in the history of American literature. The book, soon after its publication in 1989, garnered enthusiastic reviews, remaining on the New York Times best-seller list for many months. The success of The Joy Luck Club set off a new climax in Chinese American literature after the hit of Maxine Hong Kinston's The Woman Warrior. Ann. H. Fisher, a famous American writer, speaks highly of the novel. She believes that this novel is full of complicated, endearingly human characters and first-rate story telling in the oral tradition. And she predicts that it should be a hit in any fiction collection.Being women of minority groups, suffering from double discriminations of race and gender, they are isolated gradually to the margins of society, culture and even language. Therefore, they fight against both racism and sexism. Amy Tan is one of those writers who probe deeply into the issue of marginalization. Based on her own experience of marginalized woman, her nice taste, and super skill of writing, The Joy Luck Club involves four families, seven narrators, as well as sixteen stories and describes the life experiences and psychological development of both Chinese mothers and American daughters.For quite a long time, Chinese and Western scholars have done comprehensive research on this book. On the basis of collecting and studying related materials as many as possible, I find out that, though, The Joy Luck Club is an obvious feminist work, articles and thesis from the feminist point of view are not deep or specific. Most feminist critiques are on women's rebellion and identity. In my thesis, I will, from feminist point of view, with a diachronic approach, in three aspects of race, gender, and culture, analyze the social, historical, and cultural reasons why Chinese American women in contemporary America are marginalized, and I will explore approaches of self-rediscovery and self-reconstruction of Chinese American women.As we know, American society is White Supremacy, whereas minority Americans are marginalized in various aspects of the Eurocentric society. Minority American women are double marginalized suffering from gender, social, cultural discriminations. And the minority American writers articulate by means of writing. Therefore, the minority American literature is experiencing fundamental changes and its prosperity predicts the well-developing multiculturalism. They fight against racism, sexism and try to establish their own cultural identity within the mainstream and marginalized cultures.This thesis is mainly divided into three chapters to discuss the self-rediscovery and self-reconstruction of marginalized Chinese American women.Chapter one examines marginalized women undergoing racial, sexual, and cultural discrimination. First, American Caucasian racist holds racial discrimination against Chinese Americans. They exclude Chinese Americans from the American white mainstream, both in economy and politics. Chinese Americans are regarded as "Chinese in the Occident". Second, the remnant of both Chinese and American cultures—sexism—oppresses Chinese American women. Though they experienced civil rights movement and feminist movement in the 20^th century, economic independence does not mean female freedom, and male-and-female inequality still exists. Third, American mainstream culture holds a negative attitude and sometimes misunderstands and misreads the marginalized Chinese American culture, which leads to the crisis of Chinese American cultural identity. In order to live, Chinese Americans have to choose different living strategies. No matter when, where, or under what cultural background, women's destiny has never changed, and has always been miserable.Chapter two concentrates on the self-rediscovery of Chinese American women. The process of self-rediscovery experiences two periods: from silence to awakening and from awakening to rebellion. In the first period, the awakening of ethnic consciousness helps the Chinese Americans to know Chinese community is the right place for them to obtain energy and wisdom. The female consciousness of Chinese American women develops and they gradually realize that women are not determined by destiny and they can make up their own decisions. When Caucasian culture comes, Chinese Americans should reconsider their own culture, otherwise, they would be lost in the cultural conflicts, which would lead to value misplacement. In the second period, Chinese American women fight against discriminations. The mothers and the daughters unite to revolt against racism and sexism. Together, they demolish the dominant culture of "phallus" and fight for equality. Till now, the self-consciousness of colored women comes to self-reliance and independence. With their political and economic independence, Chinese Americans preserve the essence of traditional Chinese culture in order to construct their own cultural identity.Chapter three discusses the barriers as well as approaches of the marginalized females' self-reconstruction. Chinese American women gradually realize that dichotomy between the Orient and the Occident, negative influence of ethnocentrism, obstacles caused by patriarchy and conflicts between mainstream and marginalized cultures are the barriers on self-reconstruction. Therefore, the approaches of self-reconstruction lie in three aspects: maintaining the Chinese American characteristics; pursuing the feminine ego and getting away from the traditional restrictions to women; and adopting a rational attitude of cultural relativism so as to construct a unique cultural identity of Chinese American women. It is worth noting that under the situation of globalization, it is impossible to keep the purity of one culture. So it is wise to communicate with other cultures and contribute to a harmonious environment of cultural co-existence and co-prosperity with the general environment of multiculturalism.Nowadays, the thoughts of sexual, racial and cultural equality are slowly filtering into people's minds. It has been endowed with social and academic meaning to analyze marginalized feminist works in feminist point of view to explore reasons and approaches of getting out of the marginalized situation. It is also the uniqueness and originality of this thesis.