---

This book bridges comparative literature and American studies by using an intercultural and bilingual approach to Chinese American literature. King-Kok Cheung launches a new transnational exchange by examining both Chinese and Chinese American writers. Part 1 presents alternative forms of masculinity that transcend conventional associations of valor with aggression. It examines gender refashioning in light of the Chinese dyadic ideal of wen-wu (verbal arts and martial arts), while redefining both in the process. Part 2 highlights the writers´ formal innovations by presenting alternative autobiography, theory, metafiction, and translation. In doing so, Cheung puts in relief the literary experiments of the writers, who interweave hybrid poetics with two-pronged geopolitical critiques. The writers examined provide a reflexive lens through which transpacific audiences are beckoned to view the "other" country and to look homeward without blinders.

---

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments



Introduction

Part I Gender

1. (S)wordswoman versus (S)wordsman: Maxine Hong Kingston and Frank Chin

2. Manhood Besieged: Gus Lee and David Wong Louie

3. Masculine Mystique: Xu Zhimo , Younghill Kang, Pang-Mei Natasha Chang, and Anchee Min

4. Art, Spirituality, and Ren or the Ethic of Care: Shawn Wong, Li-young Lee, and Russell C. Leong
Part II Genre and Form

5. In(ter)dependence in Chinese / American Life-Writing: Liang Qichao , Hu Shi , Shen Congwen , Maxine Hong Kingston, William Poy Lee, and Ruthanne Lum McCunn

6."Theorizing in Narrative Form" : Bing Xin

7. (Im)migrant Writing, Moving Homelands: Ha Jin

8. Slanted Allusions: Marilyn Chin and Russell C. Leong

Coda

Selected Bibliography

Index

---

King-Kok Cheung is Professor of English and Asian American Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, USA. She is author of Articulate Silences and editor of Words Matter; An Interethnic Companion to Asian American Literature; "Seventeen Syllables"; Asian American Literature: An Annotated Bibliography; and coeditor of The Heath Anthology of American Literature.

---