Chinese American Literature without Borders [electronic resource] : Gender, Genre, and Form / by King-Kok Cheung.

Introduction -- Part I Gender -- (S)wordswoman versus (S)wordsman: Maxine Hong Kingston and Frank Chin -- Manhood Besieged: Gus Lee and David Wong Louie -- Masculine Mystique: Xu Zhimo徐志摩, Younghill Kang, Pang-Mei Natasha Chang, and Anchee Min -- Art, Spirituality, and Ren or the Ethic of Care: Shawn Wong, Li-young Lee, and Russell C. Leong -- Part II Genre and Form -- In(ter)dependence in Chinese / American Life-Writing: Liang Qichao 梁启超, Hu Shi胡适, Shen Congwen沈从文, Maxine Hong Kingston, William Poy Lee, and Ruthanne Lum McCunn -- "Theorizing in Narrative Form": Bing Xin冰心 -- (Im)migrant Writing, Moving Homelands: Ha Jin 哈金 -- Slanted Allusions: Marilyn Chin and Russell C. Leong -- Coda -- Selected Bibliography -- Index.

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. .