A Cultural Hybrid

Cultural identity, a very significant concept in cultural study, refers to one's sense of belonging to a particular culture or ethnic group. Cultural identity is not fixed and static. It is always in a dynamic and changeable process with one's changing social environment. With the proceeding of cultural communication, assimilation and hybridization of different nations and countries have become a fairly universal phenomenon. In the words of Homi Bhabha, a process that is created by the new mestiza becomes a kind of "third space" of cultural hybridity, which means groups and individuals do not have a single identity but several. As a famous writer living in two worlds, Pearl S. Buck and her works are viewed as a typical example of such cultural phenomena.Throughout her life, Pearl lived in two worlds:the American world and the Chinese world. But she was not accepted by either one. In China, she was a "foreign devil"; in America, she was a "freak". Such bewilderment formed her double consciousness of belonging and not belonging, and developed her double perspective of both insider and outsider. Due to her dual life experience, the characters under her pen underwent similar double cultural experience.Wang Yuan, the main character of Pearl's novel A House Divided, was the son of a war lord Wang the Tiger and the grandson of Wang Lung, a Chinese peasant. Unlike his father or grandfather, he was a typical figure that represented the group of Chinese intellectuals who were influenced by the East and West cultures. Wang Yuan was born and brought up in China, received the Chinese traditional education, and then, studied abroad and was affected by the Western culture. In fact, Wang Yuan experienced the similar dual life and education as Pearl Buck did. In this sense, Wang Yuan was the spokesman of Pearl Buck. He was no longer a traditional Chinese but a new one, a hybrid of Chinese culture and Western culture as the author Pearl was.This thesis will mainly take an image study, with the theoretical base of cultural identity, to analyze the distinct representative of Chinese intellectuals:Wang Yuan.This thesis falls into five chapters. Introduction includes Pearl Buck's life and the novel A House Divided, the studies in China and abroad, and the relevant definition of cultural identity and hybridity. From Chapter One to chapter Three, the thesis attempts to figure out the hybridity embodied in the figure Wang Yuan in A House Divided. Living in two cultures, Wang Yuan always suffered the bewilderment of living on the border of two cultures and felt anxious of his indefinite cultural identity. But it was also the dual life experience supplied Wang Yuan a bifocal vision to understand one culture through the lens of another. In order to relieve the identity anxiety and regain the social recognition, Wang Yuan had to reconstruct his cultural identity. Chapter One mainly discusses Wang Yuan's identity of being a marginal stranger. As a patriotic Chinese in America and a strange foreigner in China, Wang Yuan was actually a stranger in two cultures. In the second chapter, the emphasis will be placed on Wang Yuan's bifocal insight. From three aspects, Wang Yuan's critical view towards filial piety, ambivalent sympathy for Chinese farmers and unconventional attitude towards women, this thesis analyzes Wang Yuan's bifocal vision as a double cultural man. Chapter Three centers on Wang Yuan's construction of his hybrid cultural identity. In conclusion, Wang Yuan's hybridity is reconfirmed. The analysis of the hybridity of the ideal Chinese image also shed new light on the understanding of the author Pearl Buck.