Book contents
- The Cambridge History ofAsian American Literature
- The Cambridge History of Asian American Literature
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Notes on Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Early Forms of Expression to the Start of the Twentieth Century
- Part II The Exclusion Era, World War II, and the Immediate Postwar Era
- 5 Indian Diasporic Autobiography: New Nations and New Selves
- 6 Koreans in Exile: Younghill Kang and Richard E. Kim
- 7 Filipino and Filipina Voices
- 8 Chinatown Life as Contested Terrain: H. T. Tsiang, Jade Snow Wong, and C. Y. Lee
- 9 Coded Critiques: Japanese American Incarceration Literature
- 10 Asian American Short Fiction and the Contingencies of Form, 1930s–1960s
- 11 The Chicago School and the Sociological Imagination
- Part III The Asian American Movement
- Part IV Canons
- Part V Post-1965 and the Twenty-First Century
- Part VI Twenty-First Century: 9/11, Empire, and Other Challenges to Literature
- Bibliography
- Index
8 - Chinatown Life as Contested Terrain: H. T. Tsiang, Jade Snow Wong, and C. Y. Lee
from Part II - The Exclusion Era, World War II, and the Immediate Postwar Era
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 December 2015
Book contents
- The Cambridge History ofAsian American Literature
- The Cambridge History of Asian American Literature
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Notes on Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Early Forms of Expression to the Start of the Twentieth Century
- Part II The Exclusion Era, World War II, and the Immediate Postwar Era
- 5 Indian Diasporic Autobiography: New Nations and New Selves
- 6 Koreans in Exile: Younghill Kang and Richard E. Kim
- 7 Filipino and Filipina Voices
- 8 Chinatown Life as Contested Terrain: H. T. Tsiang, Jade Snow Wong, and C. Y. Lee
- 9 Coded Critiques: Japanese American Incarceration Literature
- 10 Asian American Short Fiction and the Contingencies of Form, 1930s–1960s
- 11 The Chicago School and the Sociological Imagination
- Part III The Asian American Movement
- Part IV Canons
- Part V Post-1965 and the Twenty-First Century
- Part VI Twenty-First Century: 9/11, Empire, and Other Challenges to Literature
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This chapter talks about three texts which establish the social and literary heterogeneity within the contested terrains of Chinatown and its literature. The two best-known Chinese American depictions of San Francisco's Chinatown from the 1950s are Jade Snow Wong's memoir Fifth Chinese Daughter and C. Y. Lee's novel The Flower Drum Song. Along with C. Y. Lee, Wong was one of a group of ethnic writers and artists whose efforts to promote America's influence abroad were valued, so long as they asserted and embodied the presence of opportunity for minorities. Lee's nuanced treatment of food, dialects, space and Chinese politics marks Chinatown and its representations as contested terrain. Hsi-Tseng Tsiang is arguably the first Chinese American novelist to publish in English. Poet, novelist, playwright, actor and activist, Tsiang combined formal experimentation and strategic appropriation from both Chinese and English literature with a lifelong commitment to left-wing activism. Tsiang's novel, And China Has Hands, indicates American capitalism and Japanese imperialism.
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- The Cambridge History of Asian American Literature , pp. 155 - 170Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015