Chinese American literature includes works written in English and Chinese. Although most critical studies, for various reasons, tend to cover only works written in English, it is time to direct attention toward the creative expertise, aesthetics, and enduring, multifaceted themes of works written by Chinese immigrants and their descendants in their native language. While remaining largely unknown to the general public, the impact of Chinese-language literature on Chinese Americans cannot be underestimated. As a cultural enclave, Chinese-language literature provides social stability for immigrants and enjoys enormous popularity among Chinese readers. The many volumes of Chinese-language literature on display in Chinatown bookstores throughout North America are clear evidence of their powerful influence in Chinese communities.

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The birth of Chinese-language literature in America traces to the mid-nineteenth century. On April 22, 1854, San Francisco saw the publication of《金山日新录》(Golden Hills News) -- the first Chinese newspaper to appear in America. During the following decades, Chinese newspapers sprang up in major Chinatowns throughout the United States. As early as in 1902, the prosperity of Chinese publications impressed a mainstream reporter so much that she wrote: “The land of liberty and free speech seemed to offer advantages to the Chinese who would be journalist, and who would say what he would say. In San Francisco, there are four Chinese dailies, besides several weeklies...” Although they varied in quality and scope, most of the Chinese newspapers contained some form of literary work as a means of promoting circulation. A few of them, such as 《中西日报》(China-West Daily, 1900-1951), founded by Dr. Ng Poon Chew (伍盘照), an eminent Chinese journalist, and 《民言日报》(Chinese World, 1891-1969), favored by Sui Sin Far (Edith Maude Eaton, 水仙花), the first Chinese American woman writer, were especially known for their dedication to literary endeavors and had significant influence on the Chinese American community.

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The efflorescence of Chinese-language literature in America is a combination of many factors. Throughout the history of Chinese settlement in America, Chinese literature functioned as a bridge between the Chinese community and the larger society, serving as the interpretive prism through which most immigrants received information and shared their experiences of their adopted country. Average Chinese immigrants had to rely on it for knowledge about American society because of their inability to understand English. But even those who were highly proficient in English still needed it. They found Chinese-language literature a significant and convenient vehicle to exchange impressions of and communicate feelings about their American life.

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There is another crucial element that leads to the prominence and popularity of Chinese-language literature in America: it provides Chinese immigrants with a sense of community and ethnic unity. Chinese in America are a diverse population, made up of Cantonese from different districts of the Pearl River Delta as well as Hakka, Fujianese, Northerners, and immigrants from other parts of the Chinese world. While spoken Chinese is composed of a variety of mutually incomprehensible dialects, written Chinese is read across linguistic lines, and is recognized as a common heritage by all Chinese. Thus, Chinese-language publications in America reinforce the ethnic consciousness and solidarity of Chinese immigrants, functioning as an identity tool that unites them in a strange land.

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A careful examination reveals that early Chinese-language literature was characterized by two interrelated trends in terms of themes and subject matter: the teaching of traditional Chinese values and a strong sense of sentimental nostalgia for the homeland, which can be summarized in a dictum: “Falling leaves settle on their roots” (叶落归根) -- a man who resides elsewhere should eventually return to his ancestral land. Even stories that seem to be irrelevant to these subjects were penetrated by such these messages.

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For example, in his study of early Chinese-language literature in America, Hsiao-ming Han (韩小明) discusses a fascinating story published in a Chinese newspaper in San Francisco in 1874. The story centers on a Chinese scholar’s dramatic encounter in a brothel. Having failed to make any professional achievement in the “Gold Mountain,” the man goes to a Chinatown brothel to release his frustrations. Unfortunately, here he fails again -- being turned away by a prostitute. She thinks scholars “earn very little” and are not valuable in the “Gold Mountain.” Disappointed that even a “street woman” would not welcome scholars, the man laments that America is not the right place for literary men because “the value of literature turns out to be insultingly cheap here.”

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The story is significant in that the author suggests America is a land for tough muscle and practical knowledge rather than scholarship and literary delicacy. The message appears frequently in works by early Chinese immigrants, and still prevails in contemporary Chinese-language literature in America. That the creative writing of early Chinese immigrants was dominated by didacticism and nostalgic sentiments is not surprising. Throughout the history of the Chinese diaspora, immigrant literati assumed the responsibility of interpreting and mediating Chinese culture, particularly ethical doctrines, for their countrymen abroad. Elaborations of traditional Chinese values such as filial piety, faithfulness, and righteousness made up a large part of the literary production of Chinese immigrant communities throughout the world.

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However, this trend gradually fell out of favor, and Chinese writers in America turned increasingly to the sensations and conditions of Chinese Americans for ideas in their writing. The change was inevitable. As a prominent Chinese writer points out, immigrants cannot “live forever on the memory of the old country, writers especially so.” Yu Lihua (於梨华), another noted Chinese writer, admits that she has become increasingly interested in Chinese American life because she understands Chinese in the United States better and more profoundly than their counterparts in China or Taiwan.

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In other words, for most Chinese-language writers, although they may remain emotionally associated with China, their identification with America has been enhanced as they gradually settle down in the United States. Their works, albeit written in Chinese and remained largely unknown to mainstream readers, bear clearly the influence of American social, cultural, and political thought, and are unmistakably American in style and content. While the authors’ ties to Chinese literature and society have continued, it is the context of Chinese American life that plays the dominant role in shaping the themes and subject matter of Chinese-language literature; this combination has transformed the literature into a unique “Chinese American product.” In this sense, contemporary Chinese-language literature is not really an extension of Chinese literature to America, but represents an integrated part of the Chinese experience overseas and a gratifying expression of the problems and progress found in Chinese American life.

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Transformations in Chinese-language Literature since the 1950s
Chinese-language literature in America begins to enter a distinctively new phase in the post-World War II era. A series of new immigration laws passed by Congress has led to an escalation of Chinese immigration. The impact is two-fold: while the Chinese population in the United States grew from about 120,000 in 1950 to more than four million by 2017, the percentage of the American-born dropped from around sixty percent to thirty percent.

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For Chinese-language literature in America, the numbers are only the tip of an iceberg. The immense demographic change within the Chinese American communities, especially the growing presence of highly educated immigrants, has helped Chinese literature develop at an unprecedented rate because the new immigrants have displayed strong interest in and sustaining enthusiasm for works written in their mother tongue. Consequently, there has been a "renaissance" of Chinese publications in America. Chinese-language journalism demonstrates this trend. By the 1940s, many Chinese newspapers had been forced to close down because of shrinking subscription rates -- a result of the decline of immigration. With the influx of new immigrants, however, readership of Chinese newspapers witnessed quantitative and qualitative changes, and Chinese-language journalism has grown rapidly. The numbers of Chinese newspapers and magazines in America today are exceeded only by those in the Chinese world.

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The trend of globalization is another crucial factor that has promoted the rise of Chinese-language literature in America. With the emergence of the trans-Pacific economic and social network, Asia has turned to the “Far West” and works by Chinese immigrant writers in America have filled local bookstores in their old countries, making their mark on the literary scene throughout the Chinese world. In fact, because most Chinese newspapers in America are subsidiaries of China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong news networks, publication in these newspapers means that Chinese writers have gained broad access to markets in Asia. The trans-Pacific migration has also made writings by Chinese immigrants about their American experience appealing to audiences in their native land. Thus, the rise of transnationalism has served the interests of Chinese-language literature in America by helping the authors win a growing readership, which in turn means more profits for publishers.

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Characteristics of Chinese-language Literature in America
As a product of the Chinese experience in America, Chinese-language literature understandably shares many qualities in common with its counterpart in English. Despite these similarities, Chinese-language literature, with its own sensibility and perspective, differs profoundly and poignantly from those in English.

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In general, three points stand out to offer useful glosses to understand the significance and characteristics of Chinese-language literature in America. First and foremost, Chinese authors, writing in their mother tongue and read mainly by members of their own community, enjoy a high degree of freedom that their counterparts writing in English may not have. The fact that their readers are predominantly Chinese frees the writers from feeling restrained by the social codes of mainstream American society. As a result, their discussions of controversial issues, such as the relations of Chinese with other ethnic groups, the divided interests of the “uptown” and “downtown” Chinese, the mutual-exclusiveness of immigrants and the native-born, and the implications of interracial love affairs, appear different from that of Chinese American literature in English.

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For example, relationships between “men of color” and white women have long been a sensitive subject in American literature. A “nightmare” for many in mainstream society, it was a major source of public anxiety which led to the development of laws against interracial marriage in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Underlying the discourse on miscegenation is the mounting fear of and preoccupation with the rape of white women. Against such a background, interracial love stories in Chinese American literature in English usually take place between white men and Chinese women. If the romance happens in the “wrong” way, that is, between a white woman and a Chinese man, it is presented mostly in the context of a “lower class” white woman who has fallen for an “upper class” Chinese.” This fits the notion that the Chinese are an inferior people, and a better class of white women would prefer their men white. Such an attitude, however, is noticeably absent from works by Chinese-language writers. On the contrary, it is common to find in Chinese-language literature descriptions of sex between Chinese men and white women that are sensational. The following juicy account of a Chinese student having sex with a white girl is an example: “It’s terrific last night! Sue (a white coed) went to bed with me. Gosh, she is really tender and tasty. The white flesh of her body is so white and the red so red… What a pity she has such strong body odor. But, without that smell, her flesh might not be so juicy!”

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Stories like this may well be seen as an exercise to attract readers, but they have a social component as well -- they represent the authors’ conscious efforts to reverse the stereotyped image created by popular American culture. Historically, Chinese prostitution is a favorite topic in American media, creating a scar in the layers of the collective Chinese American psyche. By writing explicitly of sexual affairs between Chinese men and white women, these writers break down a taboo and offer readers a psychological comfort that soothes their wounded feelings. For this reason, although they may fail to disentangle fantasy from reality, they illustrate a point of contrast between works in Chinese and in English.

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It is noteworthy that with a few exceptions, Chinese-language writers rarely publish in English. This is not because writing in English is the province of the American-born. Many Chinese immigrant writers are well versed in English, as attested to by their translations of Chinese literature, research publications, and occasional creative writing in English. Rather, they argue that until recently, for Chinese immigrant writers, creative writing in English has often demanded the suppression and distortion of the Chinese sensibility which does not fit into the stereotyped portrayal of “Orientals” in popular American culture.

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Such a critical opinion in part comes from their personal experiences. Many of them have encountered difficulty or subtle bias when trying to place work that does not address the popular Chinese stereotypes accepted by mainstream publishers. What happened to Yu Lihua is an illustrative example. A prolific writer, she has published more than twenty volumes of novels and collections of short stories in Chinese since her arrival in America in 1953. Regarded as precursor to the “literature of student immigrants,” her works employ a wide range of narrative strategies and techniques to trace the lives of Chinese students and faculty on campuses across America and offer us a glimpse into the world of Chinese immigrant intellectuals that is little known to the public.

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Ironically, Yu Lihua’s career as a Chinese writer in America began with the publication of a prize-winning story in English. It is a romance about a young girl’s journey to find her “lost” father along the Yangtze River. Shortly after her mother’s death, the girl sets out to look for her father who left home many years ago; but when she finally finds him, he does not recognize her. The girl then plays a heart-touching piano tune she learned from him in her childhood. The familiar and moving tune awakens her father’s memory and conscience, and the father and daughter are finally reconciled. This Hollywood-style sentimental story helped Yu win the prestigious Samuel Goldwyn Creative Writing Award and raised her confidence about pursuing a career as a professional writer of English.

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However, Yu’s subsequent writings in English, three novels and several short stories about the lives of Chinese in America, were all rejected by various publishers. “They (mainstream publishers) were only interested in stories that fit the pattern of Oriental exoticism: the feet-binding of women and the addiction of opium-smoking men,” Yu concluded. “I didn’t want to write that stuff. I wanted to write about the struggle of Chinese immigrants in American society.” Convinced that only by conforming to these low expectations, would she fit the “ethnic niche” of the mainstream publishing market, Yu decided to engage primarily in Chinese writing. To her and her peers, writing in Chinese thus represents a vindication of their artistic integrity.

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Noticeably, the allegation made by Yu Lihua and her peers that mainstream publishers tend to use their “gatekeeping” power to control and regulate the access of Chinese immigrant writers to readers is widely shared by American-born Chinese and Asian authors who write exclusively in English. For example, Monfoon Leong (梁茂峰, 1916-1964) recalled that his works were repeatedly rejected by publishers because they thought his stories had “no readership” and that “they’re not marketable.” The collection of Liang’s short stories in English, Number One Son, written in the 1950s, was published posthumously in 1975 by an Asian American publisher at the Leong family’s own expense. Toshio Mori (1910-1980), a pioneering nisei writer, produced four novels about Japanese Americans between the 1930s and 1960s; but despite his repeated efforts, he could not find any publishers who might be interested in the manuscripts. Of course, with social progress and growing interest in multiculturalism, Chinese American writers today have won more recognition in the mainstream market. Some of Chinese and Asian American writers, however, still feel that when writing in English about Asia and Asian America, the expression and effects of their work are restricted to ideas sanctioned by mainstream society. David Mura, a sansei author, finds that writing about Japan illustrates a familiar contradiction: “The more people you want to communicate to, the more your descriptions must be ideologically palatable and conform to your reader's expectations of what Japan should be.”

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Indeed, evidence shows that Chinese immigrant authors who write in English are often affected by mainstream publishers or agents in their choice of themes and subject matter. Zhang Ailing (Eileen Chang, 张爱玲, 1920-1995), an eminent Chinese writer, actually received a plot and outlines from an agent for a novel she wrote in English, The Rice-sprout Song (秧歌, 1956). Anchee Min (闵安琪), author of a bestseller Red Azalea (红杜鹃, 1994), was reportedly given the suggestion by her agent to add a story of a lesbian affair, as a means of making her memoir of life in China more captivating. C. Y. Lee (黎锦杨), author of Flower Drum Song (花鼓歌, 1957), admits that his success as a bestselling writer in English depends on “exposing mysterious elements in Chinatown life because it can satisfy the curiosity of American readers.” The difference between works written in Chinese and in English by Lin Yutang (林语堂) further proves that because of a desire to win popularity in mainstream society, Chinese immigrant writers are indeed more likely to give up certain principles when they write in English.

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The author of more than thirty books in English, Lin Yutang (1895-1976) is perhaps the most widely read Chinese writer and one of the best-known Asian immigrants in America. His fame in the English-speaking world was first established with the publication of the bestseller My Country and My People (吾国与吾民, 1935). Apparently, Lin’s portrayal of the Chinese in the book as loyal, reserved, modest, obedient to elders, and respectful of authorities, and his interpretation of Taoism as a philosophy of patience and maintaining a low profile are in perfect keeping with the Western view of “Orientals.” For this reason, he was recognized as an exponent of China and Chinese civilization in the West, and My Country and My People became a record-breaking success for a Chinese writer in America -- eleven reprintings within two years.

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Lin Yutang’s subsequent writing in English further reinforced Western stereotypes of China and the Chinese. For example, elaborating on “the Chinese way of life” in his novel Chinatown Family (唐人街家庭. 1948), Lin asserts that the Chinese can succeed and get along with people everywhere largely because they know how to follow Taoist teaching to avoid confrontations: “He (Tom Fong, Sr.) had been pushed about in this country and he had made his way like water, that symbol of Taoist wisdom, seeking the low places and penetrating everywhere... Laotse was right; those who occupy the lowly places can never be overthrown.”

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While Lin Yutang’s English writing seems “whitewashed” to collaborate in rather than challenge the stereotyping of the Chinese in the West, his works written in Chinese assume a surprisingly opposite role. In contrast to the polite and self-mocking tone, light-hearted jokes, and apolitical attitude that characterized his English writing, his writing in Chinese published during the same period was often highly political, angry, impassioned, and even rebellious. In an essay “国事危矣” (“China in Crisis”), written after the publication of My Country and My People, Lin argued emotionally that the only way to save China was to stand up rather than to bow to foreign pressures and that the government must stop the practice of “spineless diplomacy.” Lin’s bitter criticism of government policies and passionate defense of the rights of the people in his works in Chinese differed dramatically from his humble tone and the doctrine of “endurance and passivity” he preached in My Country and My People.

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Lin became mainly a writer of English after he moved to the United States in 1936. But his occasional writing in Chinese still contained criticism and thorny remarks that were not seen in his works in English. In an essay for the Chinese press in 1943, Lin commented sarcastically on presidential elections in the United States: “In not too long I will see a presidential election... I want to see who tell more lies to the people, the Republicans or the Democrats. If the Republicans are able to tell more lies, a Republican president will be elected; if the Democrats are able to tell more lies, a Democratic president will be elected.” These biting remarks certainly presented a sharp contrast to Lin’s amiable words and songs of praise for America commonly found in his English writing.

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There are various explanations for why Lin Yutang became so “whitewashed” in his English writing, and Lin himself admits that he is “a person full of contradictions.” But two factors are particularly worth mentioning. One is that Lin was thrilled by the fame and fortune bestowed on him by his role as “an interpreter of China to the West.” Until the 1960s, Lin Yutang was the only Asian in America included in The Picture Book of Famous Immigrants, where his name was listed together with that of Eleutherie Irenee Dupont and Andrew Carnegie. Money also meant a great deal to Lin because he had been born and grown up in an impoverished family. According to his daughter, Lin Yutang enjoyed enormous financial rewards for his publications in English: he made $36,000 in 1938; $42,000 in 1939; and $46,800 in 1940 -- extraordinary sums in those days.

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In his writing in English, Lin Yutang was also influenced by his editors and agents, especially Pearl S. Buck, the foremost missionary writer on China, and her husband, Richard J. Walsh, publisher of the John Day Company, who brought out most of Lin’s writings in English. Lin’s daughter recalls that Buck and Walsh played an extensive role in her father’s choice of subject matter and themes for his works published in English. Lin himself acknowledged this point in his preface to My Country and My People: “My thanks are due to Pearl S. Buck who, from the beginning to the end, gave me kind encouragement and who personally read through the entire manuscript before it was sent to the press and edited it, to Mr. Richard J. Walsh who offered valuable criticism while the book was in progress...” Helen Foster Snow (ex-wife of Edgar Snow), who befriended Lin Yutang when she worked as a free-lance reporter in China during the 1920s and ‘30s, also recalls in her memoir that Buck and Walsh “tailor-made Lin’s books.”

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If the gap between Lin Yutang’s writing in Chinese and English presents a fascinating example of how a Chinese writer may not always speak the same thing in each language, the fate of 骆驼祥子 (Rickshaw Boy, 1936), a modern Chinese classic, in America reveals how a Chinese text can be altered to satisfy readers’ sentiments when it is translated into English.

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The most successful work of Lao She (老舍/舒庆春, 1900-1966), the novel was first published in serial form in 1936 in the periodical Yuzhoufeng (宇宙风) founded by Lin Yutang in Shanghai. A tragedy and social expose, it is based on a rather pessimistic and fatalistic view of life: the inevitable downfall and destruction of individuals, honest and hardworking though they may be, in an oppressed and “diseased society.” At the end of the story, Xiangzi (the hero) dies in poverty and his lover commits suicide after being trapped in a brothel.

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The novel was translated into English by Evan King and published in 1945 under the title Rickshaw Boy by Reynal & Hitchcock. Interestingly, in this translation, the last two chapters of the novel were completely rewritten; and the story ends with a happy reunion of the two young lovers. Well reviewed in mainstream magazines such as the New Yorker and Saturday Review of Literature, the novel won critical acclaim and was celebrated as “the first modern novel about China written for the Chinese, of the Chinese and by a Chinese.” Reviewers also highly praised King’s translation. One wrote: “There remains to say that the translation, sufficiently colloquial to give us the color of pungent Chinese phrases, is simple and pleasant to read.” Chosen by the Book-of-the-Month Club, the novel became a runaway bestseller. Ironically, the sweet and triumphant ending of the English version was particularly favored by the general reading public as well as critics. Unaware of its obvious clash with Lao She’s original theme, reviewers all thought the hero’s acting to rescue his lover from the brothel was “the climax of the story.”

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The happy ending clearly undermined the novel’s powerful message as a criticism of social injustice and contradicted in every way Lao She’s intent in writing the book. Those who read the concluding chapters of King’s translation and that of Lao She’s original would wonder if the two are the same book. The Chinese text ends in this way:

Handsome, ambitious, dreamer of fine dreams, selfish, individualistic, sturdy, great Hsiang Tzu (Xiangzi). No one knows how many funerals he marched in, and no one knows when or where he was able to get himself buried, that degenerate, selfish, unlucky offspring of society’s diseased womb, a ghost caught in Individualism’s blind alley.

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But King’s translation ends in a dramatic and happy reunion of the hero and his lover:

With quick movements he (Xiangzi) lifted the frail body up, folding the sheet about it, and, crouching to get through the door, he sped as fast as he could across the clearing into the woods. In the mild coolness of summer evening the burden in his arm stirred slightly, nestling closer to his body as he ran. She was alive. He was alive. They were free.

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The gap between the novel’s English version and its Chinese text raises an interesting question: How could there be two entirely different endings for the same work? Most critics suspect King rewrote the last two chapters without consulting Lao She. However, Lao She himself did not leave any written record nor make any public statement on this critical issue. This is quite strange because Lao She lived in New York at that time, and during his stay in America (1946-1949), King’s translation went through at least five editions in New York and London. Furthermore, it is doubtful whether King, a career foreign service officer, was able to make such a profound change entirely on his own. A former American diplomat to China, King had never engaged in creative writing and did not seem to possess much literary talent. Therefore, it is difficult to believe that King himself was capable of rewriting the last two chapters of a modern Chinese classic and of making the change so artistically. The fact no reviewers discovered any flaws or inconsistency in those chapters of King’s version attests to the quality of the work. Even Chinese critics agree that the rewriting was done “masterfully.”

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More significantly, Rickshaw Boy is not Lao She’s only work of which the English version differs substantially from its Chinese text. During his stay in New York, Lao She collaborated with Ida Pruitt to translate into English his novel 四世同堂 (Four Generations under One Roof). In rewriting the novel based on suggestions from the publisher, Lao She added thirteen episodes, nearly twenty percent of the manuscript, he had dropped in the Chinese text. The English version, published under the title The Yellow Storm, was again chosen by the Book-of-the-Month Club and became a bestseller. Similar to the case of Rickshaw Boy, critics and readers at that time had no way of knowing The Yellow Storm differed significantly from its Chinese text.

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Based on these facts, we may speculate that Lao She might have given some advice to King, or whoever worked with King, on how to rewrite the concluding part of Rickshaw Boy in English. The sweet ending, especially the rescue scene in which the hero carries his lover in his arms and rushes into the woods, would surely satisfy American readers whose literary taste was heavily influenced by Hollywood-style dramatics. Moreover, the happy ending, with two lovers being freed at last, may also have the aim of arousing pro-China sentiments among readers at the time. The novel came out on the eve of the victory in the Pacific War. This was a time when there were warm feelings among the American public toward China and the Chinese. Considering the timing of the publication, Lao She might have agreed that a triumphant ending of Rickshaw Boy could help improve the Chinese image and would imply that, like the hero of the novel, China faced bright prospects and was entering a new phase of hope and prosperity after the War.

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The fate of Rickshaw Boy in America and the discrepancy between writing in Chinese and English by Lin Yutang and others again shows how Chinese authors in America may assume a different identity when they write in English. Overcome by an intention to present a world in the best possible light, they may make “conscious choices” to say in English what they believe mainstream audiences want to hear. In this sense, a comment by Paul Celan, a noted German Jewish poet, can help us understand the significance and characteristics of Chinese-language literature in America. Asked why he still wrote in German after he had left Germany, Celan replied: “Only in the mother tongue can one speak one’s own truth. In a foreign tongue the poet lies.”