The Stereotype Of The Chinese Female In Lisa See’s Works

Lisa See is one of the third-generation（post-1990s）Chinese American female writers,enjoying one-eighth Chinese descent whose most popular works are Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and Shanghai Girls which both won the American Asia Pacific Literature Award.SF tells the story of two girls named Snow Flower and Lily who become laotong through Nushu in the 19^th century;SG chronicles the lives of a pair of Shanghai sisters,Pearl and May,from 1937 to 1957.This thesis dissects female images in the two novels,unraveling the specific Chinese female"other"portrayed in the two works via the theory of imagology.This article is divided into the following four parts.The first part is mainly concerned with research purpose,research significance,research framework and current research status of See’s works at home and abroad.The second part focuses on See’s duplication of the stereotyped images of Chinese female that are depicted as victims of foot binding,sufferers of three obedience and four virtues and carriers of superstition and selfishness.The third part points out that See tries to transcend the stereotype of the Chinese female by emphasizing the spirit of freedom and independence shown in Snow Flower and May.The fourth part analyzes the intensification of stereotype of the Chinese female.The setting of the novel,namely,the Chinese neighbourhood including Shanghai,Yongming County and Chinatown has weakened the transcendentality of images,hence a paradoxical stereotyped Chinese female image coming into being.Compared with her predecessors’pure ethnic writing,seeking for identity,and the mysterious ghosts and dragon ladies in their works,Lisa See,one of the third-generation Chinese American female writers,whose works have achieved the transcendence in characterization,where the ego-subject consciousness and spiritual world of the female are explored more comprehensively.However,the Chinese female images under the pen of Lisa See still have some inevitable limitations,without substantial breakthroughs.As a matter of fact,these images reproduce and strengthen the mainstream Western perception of Chinese female to some extent.