Slippery bridge: Chinese Diaspora and narratives of self and community (Maxine Hong Kingston)

This thesis examines the identities and the narratives of Overseas Chinese. Through discussing their history, I explore how the overseas Chinese came to imagine themselves as a community called 'Chinese Diaspora', which is ostensibly held together by the imagination of a 'homeland' in a faraway place in the distant past. By examining autobiographical texts, I discuss how the 'Chineseness' they maintained throughout the migration is founded upon such a virtual reality, and how this in turn is experienced by the individuals. Taking the narratives as something that both reflect and construct their identities, I explore the conundrum women in diaspora face in representing their own experiences of the community on the basis of Maxine Hong Kingston's memoir. Chinese women of diaspora have particular difficulties in claiming their individuality through narrations, especially because the community that sustains the 'traditional' Chineseness is rapidly transforming.