| Summary: | 碩士 === 高雄師範大學 === 英語學系 === 98 === The Lost Daughter of Happiness, another prize-winning work by Geling Yan, describes a fifth-generation immigrant who pieces together a story about her ancestors who immigrated to San Francisco during the Gold Rush from one hundred and sixty history books. Fusang, a Chinese woman at the age of twenty is kidnapped to Gold Mountain to look for the husband she has never met, but she is sold to a brothel in Chinatown instead. Chris, a twelve-year-old white boy from a military family wants to buy some cheap thrills from Chinese prostitutes, but gets trapped in the oriental mysteries that Fusang presents. And that is the moment when this beautiful but sad story starts. The local tyrant, Da Yong in Chinatown turns out to be the husband who had been engaged to Fusang since she was still in the cradle. In the end, to protect Fusang's pride, the husband is willing to commit a crime and step onto the gallows as his ultimate punishment.
Currently, most research studies composed in Chinese on Fusang, the Chinese edition of The Lost Daughter of Happiness, focus on the unique traits and the primitive natural maternity that the female protagonist, Fusang presents, emphasizing her beauty after every rebirth. However, this thesis is aimed at two male protagonists, Chris and Da Yong in an attempt to discover weaknesses of masculinitiy that are revealed incidentally when these two men construct or present their masculinities in situations that are full of abnormalities.
Chinatown in San Francisco during the Gold Rush is a ghetto where gather people of various classes and cultures, including Chinese workers and coolies, infamous local bullies, oppressed Chinese prostitutes, and white men who want to seek thrills. The setting provides a perfect scenario for analyzing masculinities.
This thesis comprises five chapters. Chapter One quotes some lines in Hamlet by Shakespeare to emphasize Fusang's strength and disprove the accusation that women are weak in mind, and summarizes the triangular sexual relationship among the three protagonists. Chapter Two explores the definitions of masculinity in modern theoretical studies and adopts Connell's suggestions about relationships among masculinities: hegemony, subordination, complicity and marginalization. Chapter Three recalls that the construction of Chris’ masculinity starting from his adolescence is impacted by his family education and contemporary social atmosphere. While the Chinese Exclusion movements are getting fierce, how does Chris face his Chinese lover and the social expectations of him? Under tremendous pressure, the mistake that Chris makes is so wrong that he cannot amend it. Finally, Chris sinks into the depths of vice and waits for rescue. Chapter Four explores how Da Yong shows his backbone by fighting back the oppression of the white society. Besides, this chapter also looks into the weaknesses under Da Yong’s masculine mask to see how he suffers from the longing for the wife he has never met and why he is willing to commit a crime to save Fusang's pride and face execution eventually. Chapter Five sums up the weaknesses of men in either Chinese or western cultures and illustrates that men spend their whole lives meeting the social expectations but reveal their weaknesses incidentally.
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