《水仙花的文化身份.doc》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《水仙花的文化身份.doc（7页珍藏版）》请在金锄头文库上搜索。
1、 Sui Xin Fars Cultural Identity Formation in Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of a EurasianIntroductionSui Xin Far (1865-1914), originally named Edith Maud Eaton, is the first woman writer of Chinese descent in North America. She is celebrated as the “spiritual foremother of contemporary Eurasian wr
2、iter” and the “ancestor of Chinese American literature”. Born to a Chinese mother and an English father, Edith Maud Eaton embraced her mothers nationality at a time when it was not advantageous to be Chinese and wrote under the pseudonym Sui Sin Far, which means narcissus flower in Chinese. Sui Xin
3、Fars writing, which is widely read and favorably received, is mostly about Chinese people in the North America and their experiences. Many of her stories are collected in Mrs. Spring Fragrance and others published in a variety of popular newspapers. Through describing Chinese peoples experiences of
4、struggling to live in a Sinophobe environment, Sui Xin Far explored the complex issues of racism, ethnocentrism, and biculturalism, identity and individuality. Most of her works reflect her devotion to the cause of counteracting the hatred and prejudice against Chinese people and her effort to make
5、a change by means of her pen, to be the pioneer in bridging the Occident and the Orient (Parks: 1995).In Sui Xin Fars moving autobiographical essay written in her later years, Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of a Eurasian, Far probed troubling questions about her hybrid identity and told the evolut
6、ion of her own understanding of her cultural identity. The essay reveals the process of her cultural identity formation-from identifying herself as a half Chinese, half English woman- Edith Maud Eaton, to claiming her Chinese nationality as Sui Xin Far, and accepts her hybrid identity as a Eurasian
7、at last. The process is a testimony to Stuart Halls theory about cultural identity, which claims that “cultural identity is a never complete and an ongoing process, and its a matter of becoming as well as being” (Stall Hall, 1994). This paper uses Stuart Halls theory about cultural identity to analy
8、ze Sui Xin Fars cultural identity formation in Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of a Eurasian, hoping to offer an alternative perspective to understand the construction of cultural identity and its relation to her works. Stuart Halls Theory of Cultural Identity According to Stuart Hall, There are tw
9、o distinguished types of cultural identities, one is essentialist, narrow and closed; while the other is historical, encompassing and open. Therefore, cultural identity can be viewed in two ways- cultural identity as being and cultural identity as becoming. The former way thinks of cultural identity
10、 as an already accomplished fact, as a constituted essence, a collective true self with a shared history and ancestry held in common. The latter way thinks of cultural identity as being produced, always in process and never completed (Stall Hall, 1994: 393).Stuart Hall states in his essay Cultural I
11、dentity and Diaspora that, “cultural identity is a matter of becoming as well as being.” “It is not something which already exists, transcending place, time, history and culture. Cultural identity is not a fixed essence at all, lying unchanged outside history and culture. It is not once-and-for-all.
12、” “Cultural identities have histories and undergo constant transformation. Cultural identities are the points of identification, the unstable points of identification or suture, which are made, within the discourses of history and culture. It is not an essence but a positioning” (Stall Hall, 1994: 3
13、93-395).In understanding cultural identity, we should reject the traditional model of viewing it as an already accomplished fact, a fixed essence. Instead, we should think of it as a production which is always in an ongoing process of being produced and influenced by historical, cultural and social
14、factors. Analysis of Cultural Identity Formation of Sui Xin Far in Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of a EurasianLeaves from the Mental Portfolio of a Eurasian reveals Sui Xin Fars growing awareness of her cultural identity. Sui Xin Fars cultural identity is not predesigned, fixed, but a product bei
15、ng produced and subject to changes. Sui Xin Far is a mixed-race with both Chinese and English cultural origin. Living at a time when the Chinese race and the European race had prejudice against each other and the Sinophobe atmosphere pervaded the North America Continent, she has difficulty in choosi
16、ng her identity. Her cultural identity formation goes through three phases and gradually formed through her conscious choices and is subject to historical, cultural and social changes. At first, she has confusion about her cultural identity and later she identifies with Chinese culture by claiming her Chinese nationality and at last embraces her hybrid identity as a Eurasian-a connecting link of both Chinese and European cultures.
