This book concentrates on Chinese American literature by the first-generation immigrant writers, making some comparisons with that by Korean American writers, with the time span extending from the different beginnings of two Asian American ethnic groups to 1965 as its termination. As nascent literature, Chinese and Korean American writers articulate the double-voiced discourses from different perspectives to display the absolute difference between stereotyped characters in Orientalism and the real oriental image through writing about an almost-forgotten past.
The twofold voices of multiplicity and nationalism articulated by the main part of Chinese and Korean American writers echo each other and manifest the prime features in the two branches of Asian American ethnic groups. The majority of first-generation Chinese immigrant writers manifest multiplicity: ambassadors of goodwill, nostalgia, reminiscence, complaints, acculturation, the cultural transformation, protest against racial discrimination and appeal for acceptance and tolerance in the new land, Americanization and assimilability, presenting a more picturesque version of the Chinese immigrants in a covert and oblique way on the one hand. Within the early Korean American literature by most first-generation Korean American writers, the bulk of them display strong Nationalism of resistance in oppositional terms to Japanese occupation or Western imperial culture, epitomizing Korea and the Korean patriotic spirit in their literature instead of Korean Americans in the U.S. on the other hand. They expose a collective trauma, the displacement from the ancestral homeland with yet an attachment to the home in term of custom, language and folk culture that exist consciously or subconsciously in the memory.
Meanwhile, there are two distinctive figures that remain unique among their peers because both of them do not follow the routine line but offer alternative voices on the immigrant life in the host land against the strategies adopted by most Chinese and Korean American writers. Sui Sin Fars Mrs. Spring Fragrance, without intention of appealing to the curiosity of the American reading public, deconstructs the thinking mode of exclusive discrimination based on racial binary oppositions, ethnocentrism and scientific racialism by subverting the state-sanctioned racial stereotyped Other and exposing racial discrimination jeopardy so as to reconstruct a utopian world where people of all races live harmoniously with the idea of universality of human nature as its core and one family as its form. Younghill Kang interrogates the life on the new land and manages to deconstruct Emersonian American dream by keeping the contradictions between the promise of freedom and the reality of race discrimination, between economic survival and dreams of intellectual accomplishment, and between the ideal of America and actual experience of life in its margins existence, and simultaneously subvert Franklinian American dream with his four major Korean immigrants who fail to achieve their American ambitions respectively in East Goes West.
It is clear that these cultural warriors of the first-generation immigrant writers articulate different voices and manifest the variety, diversity, and indeed the unevenness of the literature, to the everlasting benefit of our future generations. The double-voiced discourses in the works of the majority and the unique of the Chinese and Korean American groups build bridges that span generations and nationalities between men and women, connecting Asian Americans to each other, to other minority groups, to American society and beyond. The hegemony of racist writing about Asians and Asian Americans is, to some extent, being challenged each time Chinese and Korean American voices emerge in an effort to define and express the unique and ever-evolving Asian American experience.
Here we wish to earnestly express my heartfelt gratitude to the following scholars and friends whose direction and help we forever cherish. The finished work has benefited from so many peoples contributions although there is only a single name on it.
To start, my gratitude goes to Professor Liu Zhenqian, my co-author, under whose intelligent, patient and enlightening guidance this book is finally completed. His profound knowledge and preciseness in the academic scholarship makes this book far better than it would have been.
My hearty thanks go to Professor Hyunsook Kim, my supervisor. She has been a talented mentor, a skillful trainer, a benevolent mother and an inspiring cheerleader with combined rigor and compassion which have made me a lot better than I would have been. Once and again she makes the worst good and the best better for me, which offers me new hope and courage to hold on straight to the end. Her benevolence and nobility in the moral quality have set an eternal example for me to follow in the rest of my life no matter where I am.
I acknowledge my gratitude to Professor Yootaeck Sohn, Professor Yongkwan Lee, and Professor Youngran Koh, whose lectures and seminars have broadened my horizon in literature. Their instruction and humanity broaden my vision and enrich my thoughts. I also acknowledge my gratitude to Professor Mi-jae Lee, Professor Kyong-hark Kim, and Professor Hang-jin Yoon who give me inspiration and thoughtful suggestion which benefit me enormously during my study.
Last but not least, I want to thank my family, who give me their love, tolerance, and support freely, and from whom, during all these long years of my study, I have escaped the duties of being a filial daughter, a nice wife and a patient mother. They understand me and give me unceasing encouragement and forgiveness. I am especially grateful to my father who supported me in every possible way in every stage of my life. Without the love and support from my family, it would be impossible to finalize this book.
With the help of such unselfish individuals, this book has been strengthened, and I alone am responsible for the flaws and misinterpretations.
Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.
The author
2023-10
Chapter 1 Introduction 1
Chapter 2 Double-voiced Discourses: Multiplicity in Chinese American Literature
and Nationalism in Korean American Literature 19
2.1 Multiplicity in Chinese American Works 20
2.2 Nationalism in Korean American Works 46
Chapter 3 Double-voiced Discourses in Sui Sin Far and Younghill Kang 76
3.1 Deconstruction of the Thinking Mode of Exclusive Discrimination in Mrs.
Spring Fragrance 77
3.2 Deconstruction of American Dreams in East Goes West 110
Chapter 4 Conclusion 138
Bibliography 147
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