Nightclub as a Liminal Space: Space, Gender, and Identity in Lisa See’s <i>China Dolls</i>

• Main Author: Melody Yunzi Li
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-11-01
• Series: Humanities
• Subjects: nightclub; Chinatown; San Francisco; <i>China Dolls</i>; Lisa See; dancing girls
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/7/4/126

Nightclubs flourished in San Francisco&#8217;s Chinatown in the late 1930s when it became a nightlife destination. To Chinese Americans, however, San Francisco nightclubs became a new site at the time for them to re-explore their identities. For some, visiting these nightclubs became a way for them to escape from traditional Chinese values. For others, it became a way to satisfy Western stereotypes of Chinese culture. Lisa See&#8217;s <i>China Dolls</i> (2015) describes three young oriental women from various backgrounds that become dancers at the popular Forbidden City nightclub in San Francisco in the late 1930s. Through the three girls&#8217; precarious careers and personal conflicts, Lisa See proposes the San Francisco nightclub as both a site for them to articulate their new identities beyond their restricted spheres and a site for them to perform the expected stereotypical Asian images from Western perspectives. It was, at that time, a struggle for the emergence of modern Chinese women but particularly a paradox for Chinese-American women. The space of the Chinese-American nightclub, which is exotic, erotic, but stereotypical, represents contradictions in the Chinese-American identity. Through studying Lisa See&#8217;s novel along with other autobiographies of the Chinese American dancing girls, I argue that San Francisco nightclubs, as represented in Lisa See&#8217;s novel, embody the paradox of Chinese American identities as shown in the outfits of Chinese American chorus girls&#8212;modest cheongsams outside and sexy, burlesque costumes underneath.