Over Bitterness"Lady Sorrowfree": Happiness Winning, No Regrets In This World-a Deconstructive Feminist Reading Of Amy Tan’s The Kitchen God’s Wife

Amy Tan, one of the most noticeable contemporary Chinese American femalewriters, benefits from her multiple cultural backgrounds evoking her pursuit of theChinese-American female’s dual identity in her works. The Kitchen God’s Wife, Tan’ssecond novel, had been the number one best-seller on the New York Times hardcover listsoon after its publication in1991all the while encountering harsh criticism for itsOrientalism. The thesis targets to probe into the construction of the multi-dimensionalidentity of contemporary Chinese American women in the novel by means ofdeconstruction of the patriarchal culture in different layers, which is demonstrated by Tanfrom an anti-Orientalist perspective.This thesis consists of five interdependent parts. It includes introduction, threerelatively independent chapters and a conclusion. In the introduction, an overall statementsummarizing the author and The Kitchen God’s Wife is made. Thereafter follows anexplanation of the three approaches: Deconstructive Feminism, anti-Orientalism, andPower of Discourse. The last part of the introduction is a brief literature review and thesisstatement.The second chapter mainly explores how Tan tries to subvert and demolish thepatriarchal culture from four aspects. Firstly, Amy Tan creates a world of women in hernovel to overturn the male-centered writing. Secondly, by destroying the old femalemorality and reconstructing a new one, Tan asserts that females can build their newcultural image in the patriarchal society. Thirdly, Amy Tan reinterprets Chinese dietaryculture in the novel on the purpose of subverting and demolishing the patriarchal culture.Fourthly, Tan further states that by rebuilding the balance between Yin and Yang, women’scultural identity can be constructed.Chapter three focuses on deconstructing Orientalism. By means of overthrowing thestereotypes of Chinese women, deconstructing the “save and be saved” theme and constructing double cultural identities, Amy Tan aims at deconstructing Orientalism andunfolding the story in an anti-Orientalist way.Chapter four reaffirms the dominant role of discourse. It points out that Tanemphasizes the importance of discourse in women’s identity-seeking in three layers.Firstly, to subvert the male discourse, Tan creates female protagonists who fight for theiridentities by articulating their own voice. Secondly, Tan employs the Pidgin English in thenovel as a narrative strategy which affirms Chinese American writers’ hybrid culturalidentity. Thirdly, by rewriting the traditional Chinese myth of Kitchen God and creating anew Goddess–Lady Sorrowfree, Tan shows how the Chinese American women overturnthe traditional patriarchal manipulation.After summarizing all the points in this paper, the conclusion reiterates that in TheKitchen God’s Wife Tan explores the devastating influences of patriarchal culture whichhinder Chinese American women from constructing their cultural identities. Due to AmyTan’s bi-cultural background, she successfully deconstructs the patriarchal culture andracism with the weapon of feminism, and it is believed that only the two cultures arereconciled, can Chinese American women rebuild their cultural identities.