“沉默”的持家:论《喜福会》中美国华裔母亲的族裔文化身份重构实践

Silent Housekeeping: Reconstruction of Ethical Cultural Identity by the Chinese American Mothers in Joy Luck Club

该文将20世纪50、60年代美国华裔女性移民置于当时的社会语境中进行考察,认为既有研究将之定义为传统中国母亲,固守中国传统文化,是忽略了“持家”在华裔族裔文化身份重构中的影响。该文以《喜福会》中的母亲为研究对象,从文化融合角度辨析母亲在华裔族裔文化身份重构实践中何以被定义成社会的“理性”因素,指出她们利用沉默持家参与到族裔文化身份重构进程之中,成功地将“偏执专制”的母亲负面形象转化成正面的“族裔母亲”形象,从这个意义上讲,她们非但不是消极保守派,反而是重构华裔族裔文化身份的积极力量,有助于延续和发展华人族裔文化、重构族裔文化身份。

The Chinese American women immigrants in the 1950s and 60s are mistaken as the traditional Chinese mothers in the existing research because of the neglect of the influence of their housekeeping in the reconstruction of ethical cultural identity of the Chinese American.Taking mothers in the Joy Luck Club as the research object,this paper analyzes why mothers are defined as the"rational"factor of society in the reconstruction of ethnic cultural identity of Chinese Americans from the perspective of cultural integration,and points out that they use silence to manage their families and participate in the reconstruction process of ethnic cultural identity,successfully transforming the negative image of"paranoid and autocratic"mothers into a positive image of"ethnic mothers".In this sense,they are not only negative conservatives.On the contrary,it is a positive force to reconstruct the cultural identity of Chinese Americans,which is conducive to the continuation and development of Chinese ethnic culture and the reconstruction of ethnic cultural identity.