从游朝凯的《唐人街内部》看亚裔美国人的“夹层”困境

The Asian American Dilemma: Being “in-between” in Charles Yu’s Interior Chinatown

长久以来,以黑白二分法定义的美国种族结构使“非黑非白”的亚裔处在种族问题讨论的盲区。然而,亚裔无论在历史还是当下时常遭受来自黑白种族的双重排挤,在不同维度充当着美国的“局外人”。2020年美国国家图书奖获奖小说、华裔美国作家游朝凯的《唐人街内部》通过讲述第二代亚裔主人公在好莱坞跑龙套和在唐人街生活的故事,演绎的正是亚裔游离于黑白种族之间/之外的“夹层”困境。小说虚实杂糅的“剧中剧”叙事结构为虚构人物和故事赋予了现实隐喻色彩。因此,小说与真实历史的互读互证将有助于阐释亚裔在好莱坞和美国社会中的“配角”身份,进而解析美国种族结构的漏洞,这对破解亚裔美国人的当下困境亦具有一定启示意义。

The racial constitution of American society has long been def ined by a simplistic black-white dichotomy, which deprives Asian Americans of adequate attention in discussions of American racism. Whether in the past or present, Asian Americans are “outsiders” to many aspects of American society, encountering double marginalization by both black and white people. Interior Chinatown, written by Chinese American writer Charles Yu and awarded the 2020 National Book Award for F iction, narrates the story of a second-generation Asian American working as a bit player in Hollywood and his life in Chinatown, dramatizing Asian America’s “in-between” position within the American racial hierarchy. Blending actuality with the imaginary, the novel adopts a “show-withinthe-show” narrative structure, which endows the f ictional story with a certain historical signif icance. An intertextual reading between the novel and history illustrates the “perpetual minor role” played by Asians in both Hollywood and American society, and investigates the weakness of the American racial structure, which could work towards remedying the current diff icult position of Asian Americans.