《混血女孩回忆录》中的美国混血家庭书写与华裔身份重塑

A Mixed-Race Family’s Life in America and the Reconfiguration of Chinese American Identity in Hapa Girl:A Memoir

出生于1967年的翟梅莉是美国第一代合法混血儿。有着一半华裔血统一半爱尔兰裔血统的翟梅莉于2007年出版了《混血女孩回忆录》,以第一人称视角向读者展示了一个混血家庭在美国不同地区的经历。尽管异族通婚在美国早已合法化,但翟梅莉一家仍然在不同地区受到了当地人的区别对待。特别是在南达科他州,翟家人遭遇了前所未有的歧视、边缘化甚至暴力,这一切均归咎于翟家父母的异族婚姻,特别是翟父的华裔身份。作为混血一代,翟梅莉和她弟弟很难融入南达科他州的学校和社会生活,也主要是因为他们身上一半的华裔血统。尽管如此,翟梅莉在中美两国的跨国经历中最终学会了接纳她的华裔身份。与传统美国华裔生命写作不同的是,翟梅莉的回忆录突破华裔、美国的界限,重塑了美国华裔身份的含义。

May Lee Chai,bom in 1967,is a first-generation American of biracial or mixed-racial ancestry.Chai’s Hapa Girl:A Memoir(2007)provides readers with insights into a mixed-race family’s encounters in different regions of America through the perspective of a“hapa”—half Chinese,half Irish.The book highlights significant differences between the local populations’acceptance and treatment of the mixed-race family,even though interracial marriage has long been legalized in America.Particularly,when Chai’s family moving to South Dakota,they faced with discrimination,marginalization,and violence due to her parents’interracial marriage and especially her father’s Chinese ethnicity.As hapas,Chai and her brother find it extremely difficult to fit in school and social life,particularly because of their half Chinese ethnicity.Nevertheless,Chai eventually learned to embrace her Chinese identity from her transnational life experience between America and China.Different from the traditional Chinese American life writing,Chai’s memoir reshapes the meaning of Chinese American identity both within and beyond the spectrum of Chinese America.