The Roads To Fame

Ha Jin and Qiu Xiaolong are the leading figures in contemporary Chinese American literature. Both left China for the United States in 1980s, and started their career as creative writers several years later. Now the two writers have produced piles of works. Through combining Chinese exotica and western ideologies, they have acquired fame in the American society within ten years. Ha Jin poses as a follower of the philosophical novel, whereas Qiu Xiaolong devotes himself to popular literature, carrying on the classic norms of western detective fiction. This study of their novels offers an examination of their writing in the two western forms. In so doing, I hope will not only shed light on understanding Ha and Qiu as individual writers, but also help with the study of a whole generation of Chinese American diasporic writers. This thesis is divided into four parts. Chapter One introduces Ha Jin and Qiu Xiaolong's fictional compositions and examines some of their features. In Chapter Two, through the discussion of three detective novels by Qiu Xiaolong (Death Of A Red Heroine, A Loyal Character Dancer, When Red Is Black), I argue that Qiu strictly follows the traditional formulas of western detective fiction, achieving popularity with western readers through the manipulation of classic devices such as"suspense","master detective and thickheaded assistant partnership", and"surprise ending". Chapter Three offers an analysis of the three major themes Ha Jin explores in his Waiting, In the Pond, and War Trash. These include the meaninglessness of future, the absurdity of human existence, and the unreliability of beliefs. I contend that the author assumes an existentialist's view in writing. The last chapter concludes that, although the American society has been preaching multiculturalism, it never stops marginalizing ethnic writers. Under great pressure, diasporic writers like Ha and Qiu have often chosen assimilation as the way of integrating into the mainstream culture. In adopting such well-known western forms as detective and philosophical fiction, Ha Jin and Qiu Xiaolong consciously write to gain the favor of mainstream readers. Taking advantage of their cultural background, they find their roads to fame by combining these exotic materials with popular western forms.