Conflict Complex and Artistic Ambiguity: American Chinese Literature Beyond Politics and Ethnicity

Author: Zhang Qiong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-05-01
Features: This book is based on the author's doctoral dissertation and aims to conduct specialized research on American Chinese literature, responding to the current trend of "de-ethnicization" in ethnic minority literature research. It seeks to propose and predict new approaches and suggestions for studying American Chinese literary works and cultural adaptation, viewing them from a broader and more comprehensive perspective as literary works first and foremost. The book argues that the success of many American Chinese writers has surpassed the boundaries of ethnic politics and ethnology. Additionally, from the perspectives of both creators and readers, the central narrative of the book focuses on two unique aspects of American Chinese literature—ambivalence and artistic ambiguity—and consistently highlights them as key factors contributing to the works' transcendence of ethnic boundaries and their literary charm.
Chapter 1 begins by analyzing the ambivalence and artistic ambiguity within the family context in these works. As a special space, ethnic families witness cross-racial transformations and conflicts of ethnic roots, as well as the subtle interplay between nationality and internationality. At the same time, "home" has increasingly become an idealized symbol of nostalgia for postmodern and diasporic ethnic groups, serving as an important yet limited space for the formation of female self-identity. In this chapter, the metaphorical relationships between mothers and daughters in American Chinese literature become the primary focus of analysis. Due to the involvement of cultural conflicts, cultural imagery, marginal experiences, Chinese cultural collective unconsciousness, and intuitive discourse in women, this special cultural context reveals the subtle attitudes of the writers toward their nation's culture in their creative process—whether through alienation, reconciliation, or resistance. In the works of Amy Tan, the theme of mother-daughter relationships provides readers with a perspective to explore the implicit and subtle messages between culture and artistic creation. Meanwhile, the ways in which Jade Snow Wong and Gish Jen handle mother-daughter relationships also reveal the eternal and contradictory pursuit of literary creation. Although mother-daughter relationships are a universal theme in literary writing, the unique cultural attitudes and approaches in these works give them a distinctive literary charm. Additionally, this chapter analyzes the ambivalence and artistic ambiguity in the portrayal of interethnic marriages in Chinese American novels. In such families, ethnic factors and cultural conflicts lead to issues of cultural assimilation and a sense of belonging. Some works intertwine contradictory cultural values, life attitudes, and diasporic ethnic traditions, reflecting the shared concerns of modern individuals in cultural adaptation. Therefore, by examining the eternal paradigm of marital relationships in human relationships, the paper demonstrates how shifts in ideology and life perspectives enrich the content of American Chinese literature.
Chapter 2 explores the manifestations of ambivalence and artistic ambiguity in ethnic and non-ethnic pursuits in Chinese American works. First, the author analyzes the latent dualities and ethnic shadows in many of these works, attempting to reveal the existence of both universal and specific second selves and ambivalences in American Chinese literature. When encountering the ambivalence and artistic ambiguity in the texts, readers must employ a more comprehensive knowledge, such as historical, economic, and other aspects of American reality, to extend the aesthetic experience of life. The second part of this chapter introduces and analyzes Gish Jen's novel Monica in the Promised Land (1996). While examining the cultural pursuits of the author and literary characters both within and outside the ethnic context, the article elaborates on the characteristics of diasporic ethnic literature, the philosophical fusion of perspectives, and the self-establishment of difference cultures. Additionally, from a new critical perspective on diasporic ethnic groups, the relationship between identity-seeking and the homeland versus the adopted country is reexamined. In this chapter, the analysis of the code transformation of ambivalence and artistic ambiguity between culture and literature also encourages deeper reflection on the relationship between the self and the other, as well as cross-cultural relationships, making it clear that the traditional purely European (or Western) cultural framework is no longer applicable. Therefore, in the creation and criticism of American Chinese literature, a complex "phenomenology of difference" that transcends traditional identity concepts and dialectics will be further explored. In the works of Gish Jen and other Chinese American writers, whether from a literal or metaphorical perspective, we can sense that we are in a dynamic process of dissemination and movement. This process, to some extent, is also an inexhaustible resource for the polyphony of literature.
Chapter 3 emphasizes and analyzes the ambivalence and artistic ambiguity of culture in different border zones, such as post-Orientalism and commercialism, neo-primitivism and modernism, between memory and anticipation, and between the homeland and adopted culture. The successful transplantation of literature, particularly the flourishing of American Chinese literature in the past five decades, cannot be ignored in terms of ideological influence, especially Orientalism, from a philosophical perspective. At the same time, the relationship between American Chinese writers and their homeland and adopted country is portrayed as highly nuanced in the works. To construct their identities, these writers demonstrate endless efforts in their creations, attempting to break free from the constraints of Orientalism and establish a conscious self, while deconstructing the misunderstood Chinese culture. Thus, their efforts to "struggle," "self-promote," and "accumulate power and achieve clear identity" are implicitly or explicitly reflected in their works, which also transform the misrepresentations of Orientalism into self-representation. Today, the success of these writers carries a touch of irony, as many of them have either consciously or unconsciously contributed to the distortion of the East. Another subtle way in which American Chinese writers integrate with mainstream literature is by inheriting American individualism and the American Dream, blending their creative efforts into self-fulfillment. In the contradictory fusion of Chinese American literature and Orientalism, and in its integration with mainstream culture, American Chinese literature has evolved from an early, objective interpretation of ethnic cultures that were stereotyped and discriminated against to a form of free self-expression, striving to give its unique voice within American literature. The second part of this chapter analyzes the neo-primitivist elements in Gish Jen's works to reveal the relationship between literary creation—especially ethnic female writing—and mystical primal elements. In Gish Jen's works, the author's cultural ambivalence is highlighted, and new American myths are reconstructed through the effect of artistic ambiguity. At the same time, the works also raise some thought-provoking and complex questions for modern readers.
The third part of this chapter focuses on the boundary between memory and anticipation, analyzing the mythic and spectral elements in literary narration and the unique narrative rhythm they create. In further elaboration, the article suggests that some strange stories chosen or created by the writers form a special type of narration, and many ethnic stories in memory also transcend the boundaries of ethnic history and culture, bringing aesthetic pleasure to readers. The subsequent confusion arises because the tension within and outside the works extends the depth of American Chinese literature, leaving the issue of cultural inheritance in a state of ambiguity. Therefore, the fourth part of this chapter naturally leads to the complex relationship between homeland and adopted culture, comparing the manifestations of these aspects in the works of Jade Snow Wong and Gish Jen from a historical perspective. The cultural border zones reflect that American Chinese literature provides a promising analytical field, filled with conflicting, merging, and interacting factors. Under the premise that ambivalence and artistic ambiguity are universal yet unique literary and aesthetic features of American Chinese literature, the final chapter of this book explores and reveals the transformation of classicization strategies in literary research and the latest trends in this complex evaluation. The analysis in this chapter also provides prospects for the study and creation of American Chinese literature, suggesting that in the process of consolidating existing classics, people have never ceased to appropriately reorganize the cultural field, a process that does not align with the expansion of classics. Here, the author analyzes from the perspective of ambivalence and artistic ambiguity, attempting to demonstrate that there are numerous mysterious and latent factors both within and outside literary creation, in addition to cultural and social factors, elements such as language, poetics, and other inherent elements related to the novel form should also be given attention. Thus, we cannot hold a naive optimistic attitude toward American Chinese literature or feel complacent in the favorable environment of globalization. Although we lack a cross-classical premise to analyze the acceptability of ethnic literature, overall, American Chinese literature should first be viewed as a subject of literature and aesthetics. Of course, the works contain inherent cultural and social tensions, but from a deeper and more fundamental perspective, ambivalence and artistic ambiguity are two features among many special matrices that contribute to the literary charm and success of American Chinese literature.