Immigrants’ Identities and Cultural Expressions inThe Accidental Asian and The Saigon Kids

• Main Authors: Su-Chu Lin, 林素珠
• Other Authors: 高嘉勵
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/ja963a

碩士 === 國立中興大學 === 台灣文學研究所 === 99 === Since the twentieth century, the expansion of transnational capital, the religious conflicts and the various political and economic reasons have resulted in migration across borders. In addition to the circulation of money, materials, knowledge, and technology, people’s migration has become a global trend. In the transnational and multi-cultural era, no one can live in a single culture and his or her identifies are no longer fixed. From Chinese American families and transnational marriage in the Taiwanese society, we can see the two different cultures interacting with each other in the society and the family, which demonstrate power struggle, compromise and integration. Thus, further examining this issue of transnational migration is needed. It is worth exploring the cultures brought by immigrants include the imagination of their native countries, the feelings toward their traditions, the survival experience during the migration, and the life experience in the new residence. Based on the understanding of multi-cultural society, this thesis will explore the texts of Eric Liu''s The Accidental Asian and Zhang Youyu''s The Saigon Kids. The writing strategies of these authors reflect the conditions of Chinese American families and immigrants from Southeast Asia and show the conflicts and contradiction when the migrants integrate into the mainstream society. Moreover, the texts also present the process of how the migrants pursue their identities under the operation of history, culture and power. By discussing the two novels, this research hopes that the public can accept the cultures of new immigrants and let the different cultures of ethnic groups enrich our life.