The Thematic Characteristics of First and Second Generation Chinese American Writers: Based on the Analysis of The Bonesetter’s Daughter, Crazy Rich Asians, Everything You Never Told Me, and A Thousand Years of Good Prayers

Sirui Wang

doi:10.54254/2753-7064/15/20230525

Research Article

Open access

Published on 20 November 2023

Download pdf

Wang,S. (2023). The Thematic Characteristics of First and Second Generation Chinese American Writers: Based on the Analysis of The Bonesetter’s Daughter, Crazy Rich Asians, Everything You Never Told Me, and A Thousand Years of Good Prayers. Communications in Humanities Research,15,13-17.

Export citation

The Thematic Characteristics of First and Second Generation Chinese American Writers: Based on the Analysis of The Bonesetter’s Daughter, Crazy Rich Asians, Everything You Never Told Me, and A Thousand Years of Good Prayers

Sirui Wang *^,1,

¹ Nanjing Foreign Language School

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

https://doi.org/10.54254/2753-7064/15/20230525

Abstract

Novels created by Chinese American writers are expected to reveal certain situations in Chinese American immigrant families. Family conflicts can be combined with more social problems, such as racial discrimination, gender discrimination, political suppression, and the discussion of ancestry and familyhood. First and second-generation Chinese American writers have different perspectives and techniques to blend family conflict with social problems, but their works also have features in common. The paper compares Crazy Rich Asians, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, The Bonesetter’s Daughter, and Everything You Never Told Me to analyze their plots, characters, and the backgrounds of their authors, respectively, to conclude these Chinese American writer’s techniques similar, or variable, and the causes to such differences. In general, the writing methods of Chinese American writers and their techniques are closely related to their educational experience and cultural background. Different degrees of relation with Oriental culture and moral values lead to various points of view expressed in stories. A lack of knowledge of Asian traditions may lead to misinterpretation of certain behaviors, but this might also prompt writers to introduce the better part of Asian traditions. As writers often get inspiration from surrounding people and events, settings, plots, and characters can also be seen to reflect the writers’ cultural and educational backgrounds.

Keywords

novel, Chinese American writers, thematic characteristics

View pdf

References

[1]. Govani, Shinan. “How ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ Splash Their Cash.” The Daily Beast, 12 July 2017, www.thedailybeast.com/how-crazy-rich-asians-splash-their-cash.

[2]. Kwan, Kevin. Crazy Rich Asians. Anchor Books, a Division of Penguin Random House LLC, 2020.

[3]. Tan, Amy. The Bonesetter’s Daughter. Sparknotes, 2020.

[4]. Ng, Celeste. Everything I Never Told You Book Club Kit. Grand Prairie Library System, 2020.

[5]. Li, Yiyun. A Thousand Years of Good Prayers. Fourth Estate, 2006.

Cite this article

Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.

Disclaimer/Publisher's Note

The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s). EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.

About volume

Volume title: Proceedings of the International Conference on Global Politics and Socio-Humanities

Conference website: https://www.icgpsh.org/

ISBN：978-1-83558-119-3(Print) / 978-1-83558-120-9(Online)

Conference date: 13 October 2023

Editor：Javier Cifuentes-Faura, Enrique Mallen

Series: Communications in Humanities Research

Volume number: Vol.15

ISSN：2753-7064(Print) / 2753-7072(Online)

© 2024 by the author(s). Licensee EWA Publishing, Oxford, UK. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. Authors who publish this series agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the series right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this series.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the series's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this series.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See Open access policy for details).