Suchergebnisse

Through a comparison of Chinese and Chinese American (auto)biographical accounts, this article facilitates a transpacific literary exchange that tracks cultural persistence and diffusion, offers a transnational perspective on the alleged absence of indigenous Chinese autobiography and the controversial use of fake "Orientalist" material in Chinese American life-writing, and highlights the need for bicultural literacy in grappling with this literature. Contesting Frank Chin's categorical condemnation of autobiography (as a Western Christian contraption laden with self-hatred), I trace its manifestations in transpacific texts and the convergences in those texts: melding of autobiography and biography, salience of maternal legacies, and interdependent self-formation. Unlike the Chinese authors who lavish compliments on their forebears, however, the Chinese American authors do not scruple to disclose unseemly family secrets or to defy the boundaries between history and fiction—practices that some Asian American critics find vexing. I demonstrate that the critical qualms about Chinese American life-writing have to do with the politics of representation and that bicultural literacy can obviate cultural misreading.

Through a comparison of Chinese and Chinese American (auto)biographical accounts, this article facilitates a transpacific literary exchange that tracks cultural persistence and diffusion, offers a transnational perspective on the alleged absence of indigenous Chinese autobiography and the controversial use of fake "Orientalist" material in Chinese American life-writing, and highlights the need for bicultural literacy in grappling with this literature. Contesting Frank Chin's categorical condemnation of autobiography (as a Western Christian contraption laden with self-hatred), I trace its manifestations in transpacific texts and the convergences in those texts: melding of autobiography and biography, salience of maternal legacies, and interdependent self-formation. Unlike the Chinese authors who lavish compliments on their forebears, however, the Chinese American authors do not scruple to disclose unseemly family secrets or to defy the boundaries between history and fiction—practices that some Asian American critics find vexing. I demonstrate that the critical qualms about Chinese American life-writing have to do with the politics of representation and that bicultural literacy can obviate cultural misreading.

Pt. 1 contains historial interpretations and provides a number of general themes, a.o. female rulers and feminist thought in ancient China, influences of foreign cultures on the Chinese woman, the Chinese woman past and present, historical roots of changes in women's status in modern China. The brief autobiographical sketches in Pt. 2 offer individual perspectives on Chinese women's lives in the first half of the 20th century. These women come from different regions of China, from different family backgrounds, and from different socio-economic groups, and have different levels of education. (DÜI-Alb)

Intro -- Preface -- I. From Ideals to the Chinese Dream -- II. Realization of the Chinese Dream -- III. Two Exciting Datasets -- IV. Relation Between Dream and Reality -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1 Two Dreams -- 2 "The Chinese Dream of Ordinary Chinese People" Project Team -- The Generation Born in the 1930s -- 1 From a Child Bride to a Blossoming Family Tree -- The Generation Born in the 1940s -- 1 Different Lives -- 2 I'm a Product of the Times -- The Generation Born in the 1950s -- 1 A Female Veteran's New Job -- 2 Aging with Dignity -- 3 Country Brings Safety and Stability -- 4 "To Be an Authentic Person" -- 5 To Win Honors for the Motherland -- The Generation Born in the 1960s -- 1 The Changing Countryside -- 2 A Tiring Dream for the Child -- 3 Approaching Happiness -- 4 From a Village to Shenzhen -- 5 An Elusive Dream from the Hutong -- The Generation Born in the 1970s -- 1 From Ordinary to Extraordinary -- 2 Three Generations of a Family Run a Relay Race to Fulfill the University Dream -- 3 Farmers and Land -- 4 The Bright Future of Large-Scale Agriculture -- 5 Become the Person You Want to Be -- 6 Go with the Times -- The Generation Born in the 1980s -- 1 Shaking Off Poverty through Education -- 2 The American Dream -- 3 Being a Good Doctor -- 4 A Tale of Two Cities -- 5 I Want to Return Home Due to the Development in My Homeland -- 6 Working for the Next Generation -- 7 From a Young Migrant Worker to an E-Commerce Entrepreneur -- 8 The "Startup Dream" of a Delivery Guy -- 9 Delivering Happiness and Positive Energy -- The Generation Born in the 1990s -- 1 All for the Next Generation -- 2 Soaring with a Free Spirit -- 3 To Own a House and a Car in His Hometown -- 4 Safeguarding Tender Souls at the Frontier -- 5 Vocational Education as an Alternative Path -- 6 To Become a Farmer after College.