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Academic Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences, 2024, 7(3); doi: 10.25236/AJHSS.2024.070303.

Returning Home for Reunion: Mother-Daughter Reunion in Post-1990s Chinese American Fiction

Author(s)

Tongtong Zhang

Corresponding Author:
Tongtong Zhang
Affiliation(s)

School of Foreign Languages and International Trade, Guangdong Teachers College of Foreign Languages and Arts, Guangzhou, China

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the trope of “home” and the depictions of mother-daughter reunion in post-1990s Chinese American fiction. Mei Ng’s Eating Chinese Food Naked (1998), Amy Tan’s The Valley of Amazement (2013) and Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere (2017) are selected in the case study. In comparison with The Woman Warrior and The Joy Luck Club, the two acclaimed mother-daughter narrative texts, the research lays emphasis on excavating the new characteristics of mother-daughter reunion and the changing connotations of “home” in post-1990s Chinese American fiction.

Keywords

Chinese American fiction, mother-daughter reunion, home, post-1990s

Cite This Paper

Tongtong Zhang. Returning Home for Reunion: Mother-Daughter Reunion in Post-1990s Chinese American Fiction. Academic Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences (2024) Vol. 7, Issue 3: 13-18. https://doi.org/10.25236/AJHSS.2024.070303.

References

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