In that case, if the American critic

 

thinks that the novel is about a typical Chinese immigrant's thoughts about “letting American in， squeezing China out”, blah blah, then he would be led to the wrong direction by the novel.

Nan Wu is a very anti-typical Chinese immigrant, in my opinion.

Regarding to who to identify, I think you raised a very good point.

It seems to me that we Chinese want to identify with a race group a lot!

Just like Gary Locke, he is not a Chinese any more, but we tend to identify with him markishly simply because of his ethinic race.

As for Nan Wu, because he could not identity with his old classmate, who must have become "rich and corrupted" after returning to China with a PHD, he concluded that he would identify more with American than Chinese? He might jump to conclusion a little too fast :-). The reason that he and his American painter friend think alike could well be that they are both artists. 

When I am in China, I can't identity myself with farmers. When I am in America, I can't identity myself with farmers either. That doesn't mean that I am not a typical Chinese. haha. 这纯属抬杠哈.

To some extent, we do have to "squeeze China out, and let America in." But just as you said, I don't think it would affect our own identities. 

As you siad, we are proud Chinese immigrants! We can't write poems in English, but we are living happily with our American dream， and missing China at the same time. 哈哈。

 

所有跟帖： 

• 放倒娃，来抬扛，哈哈，说明我的essay 很thought-provoking哈 -非文学青年- ♀ (2415 bytes) () 09/26/2011 postreply 23:39:57

• Yes, your essay is very thought-provoking!!!! -jennea- ♀ (1554 bytes) () 09/27/2011 postreply 00:02:40

• your answer is equally thought-provoking. You made me think and -非文学青年- ♀ (2031 bytes) () 09/27/2011 postreply 10:47:37

• True。It is so difficult to let your children follow their heart -jennea- ♀ (385 bytes) () 09/27/2011 postreply 19:14:52