The Construction Of Identity In The Chinese Canadian Novel The Jade Peony

Wayson Choy is the first-generation native Chinese writer in Canada.After the publication of his first novel The Jade Peony（1995）,it’s the first Chinese-American work nominated for the award.The Jade Peony is set against the background of the Great Depression and World War II,and focuses on the perspective of three children from a Chinese family in Vancouver’s Chinatown.It shows the process of the Chen family’s pursuit of their identity amidst the conflicts and collisions of different cultures.This article takes The Jade Peony as the research object,and uses the related theories of Western identity to study the identity construction of Chinese Canadians in this work.From the historical and cultural context of the history of Chinese Canadian immigration and the development of Chinese Canadian literature,the thesis discusses the historical reasons for the pursuit of different identities between generations of Chinese Americans.As a field for the construction of Canadian Chinese identity,Wayson Choy description and portrayal of Chinatown in The Jade Peony not only breaks the stereotype of Chinatown,but also shows that Chinatown is not an absolutely closed system,with particular emphasis on Chinatowns in the 1930 s and 1940 s.It has become a multicultural carrier to reflect the identity crisis of Chinese Canadians.In the following,the thesis analyzes how each generation of Chinese people find their own identity in the inter-multicultural space from the perspective of character experience and identity pursuit.Facing the social environment where multiple cultures coexist and multi-ethnic coexistence,it is impossible for the older generation of Chinese to maintain a purely essentialist identity construction in a foreign country.In order to be able to take root in Canada,the younger generation will choose between Chinese and Canadian cultures.Gradually biased towards Canadian culture,and the third generation of Chinese descent will choose a more open and tolerant mentality to construct their own identity after experiencing a variety of cultural conflicts and negotiations.Although the Chinese family in the novel is ordinary,it is true and representative.It shows the "big history" of the entire Chinese Canadian with the family’s "small history",and it is a small view through the process of tracing the three generations of the Chen family to construct their identity.The earth highlights the diachronic change trajectory of the entire Chinese Canadian in the construction of identity.