西洋镜:中国元素在美国青少年文学中的投射

Reflection of Chinese Elements in American Young Adult Literature

美国作为推崇多元文化的移民国家，青少年文学作品中存在相当数量的中国元素。三类中国元素的描写在作品中大量出现：神话传说，包括中国历史上的传说故事和美国作家在此基础上的改写；美国的中国移民和美籍华裔；中国人的衣食住行，节日习俗等常见文化点。但中肯而平实的作品不多：很多作品存在中国元素明显与现实不符的问题，对中国文化的细节描述个体性、地域性太强；对当代中国和第三波移民的描写太少，而对这个关键历史时刻的沉默和话语权的缺失，从客观上也给那些描写回忆与想象改革开放之前的中国的作品让了路。中国元素对美国作家而言，写起来要么非常沉重，要么就流于浅薄浮泛。

The celebrated cultural diversity and immigration history of the United State of America predicate its young a dult literature to contain a considerable number of Chinese elements. To study how these elements are projected into the young adult literature as literary images will provide a glimpse of the involved transformation and representation mechanism, namely, the American values and the knowledge of China. To this end, this article recounts three narratives in which Chinese elements are commonly and repetitively observed： （i） Chinese myths and legends, including legends in the Chinese history and mythology and their following recasts by American writers; （ii） Chinese immigrants in the United States and Chinese Americans; and （iii） Chinese food, clothing, holidays, and common rituals.