The Chinese Americans’ Identity Crisis And Construction

Fae Myenne Ng, as an up-rising star among Chinese American female writers, makes an immeasurable contribution to the contemporary American literature, especially the Chinese-American literature. Ng was endowed with one of Granta’s Best Young American Novelists in1996, and was granted the National Endowment for the Arts and acquired Guggenheim Fellowship in2009. Her works have also been awarded many rewards:the first novel Bone (1993), which has the delicate conception and in-depth theme that are unprecedented by Ng’s any other works, has attracted critics’ attention since it was published. It was nominated for the Pen-Faulker Award and was selected in the Pushcart Prize Anthology. Her second novel Steer toward Rock (2008) won the American Book Award.So far, many critics have made achievements on Fae Myenne Ng’s Bone. They explore themes, narrative strategies, language style, imagery, characters of Bone, and conduct comparative studies on Chinese-American works. Among the various criticisms, only one critic, who does not apply any concrete post-colonial theory in her thesis, concentrates on the post-colonial study on Bone. It is safe to say until now, at least in China, no critic has conducted an overall and deep research on the post-colonial study on Bone with concrete and detailed post-colonial theories. This thesis is an attempt to depict the theme of cultural identity crisis and construction with Edward Said’s concept of the Other and Homi Bhabha’s theory of the Third Space.This thesis gives a brief introduction to the development of Chinese American literature, the life and works of Fae Myenne Ng, the main characters and the plot of Bone. Apart from the literature review, which mainly concentrates on studies on Fae Myenne Ng’s Bone both at home and abroad, the theoretical support—Edward Said’s concept of the Other and Homi Bhabha’s theory of the Third Space is systematically focused on. The main body of this thesis centers on the theme of cultural identity construction to make the post-colonial analysis of Fae Myenne Ng’s Bone, based on Said’s concept of the Other and Homi Bhabha’s the Third Space theory. The first part thoroughly locates the problem of identity crisis that Chinese immigrants as the Other in America have. The second part deeply digs what strategies Chinese Americans use to build up the Third Space to construct the cultural identity.The conclusion holds that Fae Myenne Ng deserves her status of being an outstanding representative of Chinese American writers. Ng shows Chinese Americans’ hardship and efforts in making their self-affirmation by combining her unique narrative strategy with the authentic life experience, and exposes the dilemma and identity crisis that Chinese Americans are involved in. Besides, Ng also paves a new way for Chinese Americans to construct their cultural identities, and emphasizes the importance of remembering the past and Chinese origin. Analyzing Ng’s work not only helps to see the charm of her talent in writing, but also helps to get to know about the creative thinking and literary features of the Chinese American writers.