MASCULINE IDENTITY IN CHINESE AMERICAN LITERATURE AND HISTORY
MASCULINE IDENTITY IN CHINESE AMERICAN LITERATURE AND HISTORY

Summary/Abstract: Masculine Identity in Chinese American Literature and History offers a new perspective on the way in which male Chinese immigrants were perceived in modern and contemporary United States. The evolution of the immigrants' image, from effeminate or common laborers, in the beginning, to today's prosperous businessmen, will be one of the major focus points of this paper. Moreover, this change of perspective is reflected by the literary creations of Chinese American writers, which is another topic this paper discusses. Nowadays, authors and critics propose new models of male Chinese American characters, inspired by the old Chinese tradition of a man developing both his intellect and his heroism, i.e. wen-wun. An example of such a character is Donald Duk, whose transformation from ignorant teenager to heroic defender of Chinese American history will be analyzed within this paper.

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