literature
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...
produced in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
by writers of
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
descent. The genre began in the 19th century and flowered in the 20th with such authors as Sui Sin Far,
Frank Chin
Frank Chin (born February 25, 1940) is an American author and playwright. He is considered to be one of the pioneers of Asian-American theatre.
Life and career
Frank Chin was born in Berkeley, California on February 25, 1940; until the age of s ...
,
Maxine Hong Kingston
Maxine Hong Kingston (; born Maxine Ting Ting Hong;Huntley, E. D. (2001). ''Maxine Hong Kingston: A Critical Companion'', p. 1. October 27, 1940) is an American novelist. She is a Professor Emerita at the University of California, Berkeley, wher ...
, and
Amy Tan
Amy Ruth Tan (born on February 19, 1952) is an American author known for the novel '' The Joy Luck Club,'' which was adapted into a film of the same name, as well as other novels, short story collections, and children's books.
Tan has written ...
.
Characteristics and themes
Chinese American literature deals with many topics and themes. A common topic is the challenges, both inner and outer, of assimilation in mainstream, white American society by
Chinese Americans
Chinese Americans are Americans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans along with their ancestors trace lineage from ...
. Another common theme is that of interaction between generations, particularly older, Chinese-born and younger, American-born generations. Questions of identity and gender are often dealt with as well.Huang 2006
History
19th-century Chinese American literature
19th-century Chinese American literature has only recently come to be studied, as much of it was written in Chinese. These Chinese-language writings of Chinese Americans immigrants have only recently been made available.
19th-century Chinese American writers were primarily workers and students.Leong 2008 These early Chinese American authors produced autobiographies as well as novels and poems, mostly in Cantonese.Leong 2008 Many wrote in both English and Chinese, sometimes exploring similar themes in each language, sometimes translating their own works from language into the other. Tone as well as content differed, as Chinese American writers in English dealt with rampant stereotypes of the
Yellow Peril
The Yellow Peril (also the Yellow Terror and the Yellow Specter) is a racist, racial color terminology for race, color metaphor that depicts the peoples of East Asia, East and Southeast Asia as an existential danger to the Western world. As a ...
.
Among these early writers was
Yung Wing
Yung Wing (; November 17, 1828April 21, 1912) was a Chinese-American diplomat and businessman. In 1854, he became the first Chinese student to graduate from an American university, Yale College. He was involved in business transactions between Ch ...
, the first Chinese student to graduate from an American University (Yale, in 1854), whose autobiography, ''My Life in China and America'', was published in 1909.Leong 2008
20th-century Chinese American literature
Chinese American literature written of the 20th century is written almost exclusively in English.
Edith Maude Eaton
Sui Sin Far (, born Edith Maude Eaton; 15 March 1865 – 7 April 1914) was an author known for her writing about Chinese people in North America and the Chinese American experience. "Sui Sin Far", the pen name under which most of her work was pu ...
, writing as Sui Sin Far, was one of the first Chinese American authors to publish fiction in English, although her works, first published in the teens, were not re-discovered and re-printed until 1995. In the 1930s,
Lin Yutang
Lin Yutang ( ; October 10, 1895 – March 26, 1976) was a Chinese inventor, linguist, novelist, philosopher, and translator. His informal but polished style in both Chinese and English made him one of the most influential writers of his generati ...
's ''My Country and My People'' (1935), and ''The Importance of Living'' (1937), became best-sellers.
Chinese American authors became more prolific and accepted after the lifting of the
Chinese Exclusion Act
The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. The law excluded merchants, teachers, students, travelers, and diplom ...
. Authors who achieved success in the 1950s included C.Y. Lee (author), whose ''
The Flower Drum Song
''The Flower Drum Song'' is a novel by Chinese-American author C. Y. Lee, first published in 1957. The novel tells the story of Chinese immigrants in San Francisco, and was a bestseller in its time. It is the basis of 1958 musical ''Flower Drum ...
'' was made into a
Rodgers and Hammerstein
Rodgers and Hammerstein was a theater-writing team of composer Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) and lyricist-dramatist Oscar Hammerstein II (1895–1960), who together created a series of innovative and influential American musicals. Their popular ...
Fifth Chinese Daughter
Jade Snow Wong () (January 21, 1922 – March 16, 2006) was a Chinese American ceramic artist and author of two memoirs. She was given the English name of Constance, also being known as Connie Wong Ong.
Early life
Wong was born on January 2 ...
.
The 1970s saw further progress. Playwright
Frank Chin
Frank Chin (born February 25, 1940) is an American author and playwright. He is considered to be one of the pioneers of Asian-American theatre.
Life and career
Frank Chin was born in Berkeley, California on February 25, 1940; until the age of s ...
's play, '' The Chickencoop Chinaman'' (1971) became the first play by an Asian American to be produced as a major New York production.
Maxine Hong Kingston
Maxine Hong Kingston (; born Maxine Ting Ting Hong;Huntley, E. D. (2001). ''Maxine Hong Kingston: A Critical Companion'', p. 1. October 27, 1940) is an American novelist. She is a Professor Emerita at the University of California, Berkeley, wher ...
David Henry Hwang
David Henry Hwang (born August 11, 1957) is an American playwright, librettist, screenwriter, and theater professor at Columbia University in New York City. He has won three Obie Awards for his plays '' FOB'', '' Golden Child'', and '' Yell ...
won the
Obie
The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards originally given by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City. In September 2014, the awards were jointly presented and administered with the A ...
award for his play, '' FOB'', as well as a Tony Award for Best Play for his ''
M. Butterfly
''M. Butterfly'' is a play by David Henry Hwang. The story, while entwined with that of the opera ''Madama Butterfly'', is based most directly on the relationship between French diplomat Bernard Boursicot and Shi Pei Pu, a Peking opera singer. T ...
''.
Bette Bao Lord
Bette Bao Lord ( Chinese: 包柏漪, Pinyin: Bāo Bóyì; born November 3, 1938) is a Chinese-born American writer and civic activist for human rights and democracy.
Early life
Lord was born as Bette Bao in Shanghai, China. With her mother and fa ...
's ''Spring Moon'' (1981) became an international bestseller and an
American Book Award
The American Book Award is an American literary award that annually recognizes a set of books and people for "outstanding literary achievement". According to the 2010 awards press release, it is "a writers' award given by other writers" and "the ...
nominee.
Amy Tan
Amy Ruth Tan (born on February 19, 1952) is an American author known for the novel '' The Joy Luck Club,'' which was adapted into a film of the same name, as well as other novels, short story collections, and children's books.
Tan has written ...
's '' The Joy Luck Club'' was published to immediate popularity and wide, though not universal, acclaim. The book stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for over forty weeks, and won the
National Book Award
The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors.
The Nat ...
, the
Los Angeles Times Book Prize
Since 1980, the ''Los Angeles Times'' has awarded a set of annual book prizes. The Prizes currently have nine categories: biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction (the Art Seidenbaum Award added in 1991), history, mystery/thriller ( ...
, and the Commonwealth Gold Award. '' The Joy Luck Club'' was produced as a major motion picture in 1993 and was nominated for Best Picture.
The 1990s saw further growth, as
David Wong Louie
David Wong Louie (; December 20, 1954 – September 19, 2018) was a Chinese-American novelist and short story writer.
Life and career
Born in Rockville Centre, New York, Louie graduated from East Meadow High School in 1973, as "one of the fe ...
received acclaim for his short story collection, ''Pangs of Love'', and
Eric Liu
Eric P. Liu (born 1968) is an American writer, former civil servant, and founder of Citizen University, a non-profit organization promoting civics education and awareness. Liu served as Deputy Assistant to President Clinton for Domestic Polic ...
Currently active and acclaimed Chinese American authors are
Gish Jen
Gish Jen (born Lillian Jen; () August 12, 1955) is a contemporary American writer and speaker.Matsukawa, Yuko"MELUS interview: Gish Jen" '' MELUS'', Vol. 18, 1993
Early life and education
Gish Jen is a second-generation Chinese American. Her p ...
,
Jean Kwok
Jean Kwok is the award-winning, ''New York Times'' and international bestselling Chinese American author of the novels ''Girl in Translation'', ''Mambo in Chinatown,'' and ''Searching for Sylvie Lee'', which was chosen as ''The Today Show'' Read ...
,
Shirley Geok-lin Lim
Shirley Geok-lin Lim (born 1944) is an American writer of poetry, fiction, and criticism. Her first collection of poems, ''Crossing The Peninsula'', published in 1980, won her the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, a first both for an Asian and for a ...
, and
Sandra Tsing Loh
Sandra Tsing Loh (, born February 11, 1962) is an American writer, actress, radio personality, and former professor of art at the University of California, Irvine.
Life and career
Loh is the younger daughter of a Chinese father and a German m ...
.
Shawn Wong
Shawn K. Wong is a Chinese American author and scholar. He has served as the Professor of English, Director of the University Honors Program (2003–06), Chair of the Department of English (1997–2002), and Director of the Creative Writing Program ...
's novel ''American Knees'', published in 1996, was adapted into an independent feature film entitled ''Americanese'' in 2009.
Chinese American criticism
Frank Chin and others have been vocal critics of popular Chinese American authors, particularly Chinese American women authors, such as Maxine Hong Kingston and Amy Tan. Chin argues that Tan and others paint a world in which Chinese Americans must repudiate "the icky-gooey evil of Chinese culture". Others have criticized Chinese American women authors for criticizing sexism in Chinese culture; in so doing, critics argue, these women are participating in the "racial castration" of Chinese and Asian American men, who are already "materially and psychically feminized" by mainstream, white American culture.Eng, David. Racial Castration: Managing Masculinity in Asian America, p. 2
Some of these criticisms are fueled by anger over the way in which female Chinese American authors have portrayed the sexism and patriarchy of Imperial China, ways which male critics feel are sometimes unfair. For example, Maxine Hong Kingston has been criticized for her claim in
The Woman Warrior
''The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts'' is a book written by Chinese American author Maxine Hong Kingston and published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1976. The book blends autobiography with old Chinese Folklore, folktales.
''The Woma ...
that, in Chinese, the character for "woman" is also the character for "slave." Critics of Kingston claim that while 奴 (slave) contains 女 (woman), it is only as a radical to indicate the pronunciation of the character.
See also
*
Chinese American
Chinese Americans are Americans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans along with their ancestors trace lineage from ...
*
List of Asian American writers
This is a list of Asian American writers, authors, and poets who have Wikipedia pages. Their works are considered part of Asian American literature.
A-D
* Ai
* Shaila Abdullah
* Aria Aber
* George Abraham
* Jessica Abughattas
* Dilruba Ahme ...
American literature
American literature is literature written or produced in the United States of America and in the colonies that preceded it. The American literary tradition thus is part of the broader tradition of English-language literature, but also inc ...
*
*
*Shan Qiang He: ''Chinese-American Literature''. In Alpana Sharma Knippling (Hrsg.): ''New Immigrant Literatures in the United States: A Sourcebook to Our Multicultural Literary Heritage''. Greenwood Publishing Group 1996, , pp. 43–62 ()
Further reading
* Bloom, Harold. ''Asian American Women Writers''. 1997.
* Chin, Frank, et al. ''
Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Asian-American Writers
''Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Asian-American Writers'' is a 1974 anthology by Frank Chin, Jeffery Paul Chan, Lawson Fusao Inada, and Shawn Wong, members of the Combined Asian American Resources Project (CARP). It helped establish Asian American Li ...
''. 1974.
* Hagedorn, Jessica. ''Charlie Chan is Dead: An Anthology of Contemporary Asian American Fiction''. 1993.
* Him Mark Lai, Jenny Lim, and Judy Yung, eds. ''Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940.''
* Hom, Marlon K., ed. ''Jinshan Geiji: Songs of Gold Mountain.''
* Ling, Amy. ''Between Worlds: Women Writers of Chinese Ancestry.''
* The Voice of the Shuttle. Chinese American Authors. http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=3132
* Yin, Xiao-huang. ''Chinese American Literature Since the 1850s.'' University of Illinois Press, 2000.
{{Chinese American