This paper examines how the contemporary Chinese-American author Minfong Ho (b. 1951) portrays Dara, the female protagonist of The Clay Marble (1991), in her practice of culture in Cambodian society in order to explore the Western perspective of the East Asian female identity as voiceless, submissive and hypersexual. Using the concepts of identity fluidity as proposed by the sociologist and cultural theorist Stuart Hall (2011) and his views on the decentring of the individual, the paper aims to investigate how the three concepts of the enlightenment subject, the sociological subject and the postmodern subject interact with Arianna Dagnino's (2015) concept of transculture/ality, or intermingling of cultures, in The Clay Marble through Dara's practice of culture in Cambodian society and how she is decentred as her identity evolves. Ho's portrayal of Dara reveals an East Asian female who experiences identity fluidity in her thinking, attitude and behaviour while her stable, regular and fixed self in the enlightenment subject phase becomes decentred through transculture/ality at the sociological subject phase. Here, through transculture/ality, or her interaction or communication within her culture, she links herself to society and transforms as she finds her voice and manifests individual agency. By doing so, Dara enters the third phase, the postmodern subject, where her thinking, attitude and behaviour are constantly changing as are the ways in which she is defined and addressed in her Cambodian culture.
Rice without Rain (1986), written by the Chinese American writer, Minfong Ho (b. 1951), has been recognised internationally and awarded with numerous awards including Best Books for Young Adults (1991). Set in Thailand, the text is believed to have been overlooked in regards to works by Ho as scholarships on the issue of the Asian female identity through the lens of transculturalism are scarce. Previous scholarship on Rice without Rain, for example, focused more on the general identity of the female characters through the concepts of a “whole” self and female “space” for Thai and American-born Thai young women (Thongthiraj, 2006). We hypothesise here, however, that the true identity of the Asian female is reflected through the depiction of Jinda in Rice without Rain which is believed to contain the concepts of transculture/ality and identity fluidity. Here, we explore the concept of transculture/ality by the transcultural scholar, Arianna Dagnino (2015), as a platform to contest the current understanding of the Asian female identity by the scholar of English and Comparative Literature, Lalaine Yanilla Aquino (2011) who states that the Asian female identity is recognized culturally as powerless, voiceless and submissive. We examine how transculturalism forms the identity of the protagonist using the concept of transculture/ality by Dagnino and identity fluidity by the cultural theorist Stuart Hall (2011). Findings of this paper demonstrate the application of transculture/ality and identity fluidity in a work of literature revealing that Jinda contests the stereotypical understanding of the Asian Female identity reflecting transculture/ality and identity fluidity.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.