Transnationalism in Maxine Hong Kingston’s China Men and Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club

Abstract

Chinese American literature is commonly interpreted as the narrative of the living experiences of Chinese Americans. Under the past nation-state research paradigm, Chinese American literature critics both in China and America are preoccupied with the “assimilation” of immigrants and their descendants in Chinese American literature texts, they argue that Chinese culture is the barrier for the immigrants to be fully assimilated into the mainstream society. But putting Chinese American literature under the context of globalization, these arguments seem inaccurate and out of date. This article examines the transnational practices and emotional attachments in Maxine Hong Kingston’s China Men and Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club to show that the identity in these two works are neither American nor Chinese, but transnational. Thus, Chinese American literature is not the writing of Chinese Americans’ Americanness, but a celebration of their transnationalism.