On The Construction Of Fluid Cultural Identity In Typical American

Gish Jen (1956—) as a representative author in contemporary Chinese American literature arena is regarded as one of the most important novelists since the late 1980s and early 1990s. Jen explores the themes of interracial relationships in American society including the Chinese, the Japanese, the Jewish, the black and the white. Besides, she expresses the themes of generational conflict, women's career aspirations and children's reactions to domestic stress and aging elders, which show her wide concern about society and make her quite different from other Chinese American writers. Her works reflect her creative and flexible thoughts. Jen is regarded as the most prominent author after Maxine Hong Kingston and Amy Tan.Typical American (1991) is Jen's first long novel and masterpiece. When it was published, the New York Times named it"the Notable Book of the Year". Though it is an immigrant story, Jen aims to switch the protagonists'identity and she claims,"it's an American story"(Jen 3). To the cultural critic Stuart Hall, identity has two forms, one is the identity of being, and the other is the identity of becoming. As a being, it provides universality; as a becoming, it shows the fragmentation of our identification. The latter can more vividly represent the postcolonial condition of the Chinese Americans. Based on the second understanding, this thesis limits its discussion on Jen's construction of fluid cultural identity in Typical American. The work reveals that identity is changeable, obtained and fluid rather than fixed and born.It is generally accepted that cultural identity acts as the invariable motif throughout the Chinese American literature. Identity is necessary for a person to enter a society and be recognized for the sake of convenient communication. For contemporary Chinese Americans, on the one hand, they recognize themselves as typical Americans; on the other hand, they find it hard to get rid of the influence of the invisible Chinese culture. Confronted with this identity crisis, the Chinese Americans are eager to seek a new identity to match their social surroundings. Therefore, Chinese identity and American identity become the center issue. Gish Jen adopts a new cultural identity strategy to deal with such Chinese American identity dilemma.This thesis undertakes the task of exploring her identity strategy of redefining"typical American"in her novel Typical American. The recognition of"typical American"experiences three stages. In the first stage, the Changs remain their Chinese identity and despite the"typical American". In the second stage, they claim that they are"typical American". This process is accompanied by their pursuit of the American Dream. However, when they bump into it and totally ignore their Chinese culture, the Chang's family suffers a lot. In the last stage, Ralph Chang begins to think about the notion of American. He realizes that to be American does not mean to make a choice between the host culture and the home culture, but to integrate the two cultures. By means of extending the notion of American, they accomplish their identity switch and the Chang's family becomes the Americans in the new sense.Jen's fluid identity strategy is advisable for Chinese Americans to seek their proper identity. It is also significant under the multicultural circumstances in understanding and bridging different cultures.