Constructing Cultural Identities Through Space: From The Joy Luck Club To The Farewell

The films The Joy Luck Club(1993)and The Farewell(2019)are both directed by Chinese Americans with all Asian cast.In the films,the role of space has been foregrounded to construct different cultural identities of Chinese Americans.The thesis is aimed to study how space plays a key role in constructing different cultural identities and why different identity constructions appear despite the fact that they fall into the same category in terms of film genres.Under the guidance of Lefebvre’s space theory,Joseph Frank’s concept of“spatial juxtaposition” and Stuart Hall’s insights on the fluidity of cultural identities,this thesis mainly focuses on finding out the relations between spatial elements and identity constructions in the films and how cultural context determines cinematic constructions.In chapter one,literatures concerning these fields will be reviewed to sketch out what has been done in academic circles.Drawing the critical tool of Lefebvre’s space theory,chapter two will discuss how China and America are portrayed in a contrastive way to create cultural hierarchy and how the hierarchy serves to endorse the “model minority” image of Chinese Americans in The Joy Luck Club.In chapter three,by using Joseph Frank’s theory,attention will be paid to examine how Changchun and New York are put in juxtaposition to emphasize their equal position and uniqueness and how it helps to construct the cultural identity of Asian Americans as hybrid constitution in The Farewell.Chapter four will contextualize these two films to find out how realistic concerns of Asian Americans determine cinematic portrayals of Asian American films.By providing a detailed analysis of spatial elements and contextualizing these two films,this thesis concludes that Chinese Americans adopt different strategies of assimilation and empowerment in the face of different political and cultural challenges in America.Moreover,American society has become more tolerant with different races as transformations in film industry happen and the working staff in this area strive to fight against stereotypes.