Academic Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences, 2025, 8(4); doi: 10.25236/AJHSS.2025.080404.
Lixun Kang
Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
Chinese American writer C Pam Zhang has caught the public’s attention with her debut novel, How Much of These Hills is Gold. Employing Judith Butler’s gender theory, this paper explores Sam’s ambivalent gender identity. It reveals gender identity discrimination that both immigrant Chinese women and American-born Chinese women endure dual patriarchal discipline imposed by Chinese male immigrants and white settlers in the American West during the post-Gold Rush period. By denouncing the historical malady that gender identity is constructed by dual-patriarchal oppression, this paper accentuates Zhang’s deconstruction of categorical and rigid gender identities, thereby advocating for the construction of a fluid gender identity.
C Pam Zhang; How Much of These Hills is Gold; Judith Butler; Gender identity
Lixun Kang. A Study of Sam’s Gender Identity in How Much of These Hills is Gold from the Perspective of Judith Butler’s Gender Theory. Academic Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences (2025), Vol. 8, Issue 4: 21-25. https://doi.org/10.25236/AJHSS.2025.080404.
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