Split And Reconstruction

Sui Sin Far is the first Chinese American woman writer in North America.In the era of prevailing racial discrimination,she writes stories with the themes on equality and freedom.In 1912,her book Mrs.Spring Fragrance was published.Sui has created different images of Chinese Americans successfully and endeavors to present their true life in the 19~thh century.As the first novel of Chinese American literature,Mrs.Spring Fragrance is of great significance.Cultural identity construction of the characters in this book is of great concern.This paper thus aims to analyze the stories with theories on diaspora.Close reading and qualitative analysis are adopter as the major research method.Though close reading,cultural identity construction strategies in this book is classified.Thus the anxiety and the pain Chinese Americans have experienced when seeking social identity in the 19~thh century are better understood.On the basis of classification,the application of diaspora theory in qualitative analysis offers reasonable explanation theoretically on processes of American Chinese community's cultural identity reconstruction,factors that affect the construction of cultural identity and ethnic characteristics formed in the process of dispersion.This paper analyzes Chinese American with diaspora theories on the basis of studies by Stuart Hall.As dispersed people,Chinese American were considered as“inassimilable”and“permanent”foreigners in 19~thh century.Dispersed experiences cut off their direct connection with home and exclusion from the mainstream led to their rejection of American values as well.The dual estrangements from home and host country brought identity dilemma.Therefore,their cultural identity construction has gone through three processes:refusing assimilation,suffering double negation from homeland and the host country,and building new ethnicities.Only through self-adjustment in this alien country and construction of ethnic culture that was equal to but different from American culture,could Chinese American obtain respect and acknowledgment.This paper analyzes the three processes mentioned above from three aspects:the cultural conflicts between Chinese Americans and white Americans,the internal contradictions among Chinese Americans and the adjustments Chinese Americans have made to accommodate cultural differences.American and Chinese culture are quite different.When they encounter each other,conflicts will be inevitable.But cultural elements articulate constantly at different points despite conflicts.It enables Chinese Americans to maintain their ethnic characteristics in the host country and to complete the identity transition from“dual others”to a race with new ethnicities.They would finally find a space parallel to homeland and host country,where they could enjoy equal rights.