Re-reading Immigrant Chinese Self-narratives in English (1980s to 1990s): A West–East Perspective of Philosophy and Literature

ABSTRACT

This essay addresses the question of why the immigrant Chinese self-narratives published in English during the 1980s and 1990s set against China’s Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) have achieved extraordinary commercial success and unabated popularity in the West. Reading them against the conventions of the Western self and the Chinese self, this essay argues that manipulation of the self by the retrieval of favourable sources from both Western and Chinese cultural and autobiographical legacies has improved their accessibility in the Western locality of their publication and achieved their lasting popularity. It reflects the unequal and uneven forces of Chinese and Western economic, political, and cultural representations in that particular historical moment.

KEYWORDS:

• Immigrant Chinese life-writing
• autobiographical authority
• the self
• Chinese autobiographical convention

Acknowledgements

This article is drawn from my doctoral thesis. I am deeply indebted to my supervisors Dr. Mitchell Rolls and Dr. Jayde Lin Roberts for their constant encouragement and guidance, and to the University of Tasmania for supporting my PhD studies. My great thanks also go to the editors and the anonymous reviewers for their in-depth comments, suggestions, and corrections, which have improved the manuscript and make this version possible.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Yan Phou Lee 李恩富.

2 Jung Chang 张戎.

3 Mobo Gao 高默波, Shuyu Kong 孔书玉, Zhihui Geng 耿智慧 (transliteration), and Xueping Zhong 钟雪萍.

4 Authors' names are kept unchanged from those printed on the book covers. When they are mentioned for the second time and afterwards only surnames are used unless ambiguity occurs. Ningkun Wu 巫宁坤; Yikai Li 李一凯 (transliteration); Nien Cheng 郑念; Rae Yang 杨瑞; Anchee Min闵安琪.

5 Fung Yu–lan 冯友兰 (1895–1990).

6 Sima Qian 司马迁 (ca. 145?–86 BC)‌; "Tai shi gong zi xu" 太史公自序 written between ca. 109–91 BC.‌

7 Tao Qian 陶潜 (365–427), also named Tao Yuanming 陶渊明; Wu liu xian sheng zhuan 五柳先生传 (ca. 397).‌

8 Yu Dafu 郁达夫 (1896–1945); Hu Shi 胡适 (1891–1962).

9 Chen lun 沉沦.

10 Si shi zi shu 四十自述.

11 Zhang Haidi 张海迪, Dreams From a Wheelchair (Lun yi shang de meng) 轮椅上的梦.

12 Yang Jiang 杨绛 (1911–2016), A Cadre School Life: Six Chapters (Gan xiao liu ji); Zhang Xianliang 张贤亮 (1936–2014).‌‌

13 Lu Xun 鲁迅 (1881–1936).‌

14 Dong Zhujun 董竹君 (1900–1997), Wo de yi ge shi ji 我的一个世纪. ‌

15 Shanghai sheng si jie 上海生死劫.

16 Shi Tiesheng 史铁生, My Faraway Qingping Bay (1983) 我的遥远的清平湾.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Zhejiang Association of Foreign Languages and Literature [grant number ZWZD2019021] and the Communication University of Zhejiang [grant number Z301B20537].

Notes on contributors

Fang Xia

Fang Xia is a lecturer in language and culture at Communication University of Zhejiang in Hangzhou, China, whose work encompasses English language teaching and traditional academic research. She researches in life narrative, cultural identity, and comparative studies of literature and culture between the West and China. Her current research is focused on understandings of Chinese immigrants’ autobiography through mapping the formation and development of American-Chinese life writing discourse.