Identity is an important issue for immigrant writers. Especially for immigrants with a third world background, in the face of western strong culture and racism, they will inevitably face a series of questions about identity: Who am I? How to define yourself? How to treat one's own race and others? As a unique group of minority writers, they have a sharper sense of culture, and feel more strongly the marginal position and other position of themselves and the whole ethnic group in the mainstream society and culture. Therefore, in their literary creation, they always pay attention to the living conditions of their ethnic groups in two cultures with their unique life experiences and dual cultural perspectives, and the thinking on identity issues caused by them. The Jade Peony by Chinese Canadian writer Cai Weisen represents such an exploration. The work is set in Vancouver Chinatown in 1930s and 1940s, and tells the growing experience of three children from an immigrant family in China. By recalling the history of early immigrants and telling the story of Chinatown, the author rewrites the history of Chinese, reshapes the image of Chinese, breaks the prejudice and stereotype of white racism against Chinese, and realizes the author's appeal for Canadian Chinese identity.
This paper is divided into six chapters:
The first chapter is the introduction, which briefly introduces the writer Cai Weisen and his work The Jade Peony, and states the topic selection value and writing framework involved in this paper. The second chapter introduces some postcolonial theories used in the paper and the meaning of identity in postcolonial context, which lays a theoretical foundation for the specific analysis of the works below. The third chapter to the fifth chapter is the main part of the paper. Through the study of the Jade Peony, this paper reveals the writer's thinking on identity and his appeal for Canadian Chinese identity. Specifically, the third chapter analyzes the importance of rewriting the history of Chinese in Canada in constructing the identity of Chinese in Canada and the concrete embodiment of this problem in the works. The fourth chapter points out that the author reproduces the identity crisis and confusion experienced by chinese canadians through the description of the protagonist's growing experience in Chinese and Western cultures in Jade Peony. With the help of "Worship to God" ceremony, the author expressed his views and opinions on chinese canadians's identity. The fifth chapter points out that the author transcends his own race and expresses his concern for human nature through the analysis of cross-racial issues. The sixth chapter is the conclusion, which summarizes the contents of the above argument and points out that the writer has completed his pursuit of Canadian Chinese identity in the novel by reshaping the image of Canadian Chinese in the novel. In the process of pursuing identity, he transcends his own race and shows universal concern for human nature.