My thesis is a creative writing doctorate which focuses on one Chinese family's
adaptation to living in Australia in the mid-twentieth century. The thesis is in two
parts. Part I is an examination of Chineseness and identity within the context of the
short stories that make up Part I1 of the thesis.
In Part I, I have looked at the place of the Chinese within the larger, dominant cultures
of America and Australia. In particular, I have discussed the way in which the
discourses of the dominant culture have framed Chineseness; and also what it might
mean to describe authentic and essential qualities in Chineseness. The question I ask
is whether the concept of Chineseness shifts according to time, location, history, and
intercultural encounters. This leads me to try to "place" my family and myself. I
provide some background on my family and on specific incidents that have served as
springboards for the fiction. Part I also discusses some aspects of narrative theory in
relation to the stories and considers the stories within the context of other Chinese-
Australian fiction and performance.
Ln Part 11, I have written a collection of nine short stories about the lives of a fictitious
family called the Tangs. The stories can be described as a cycle that is unified and
linked by characters who are protagonists in one story but appear in a minor or
supporting role in other stories. Composing a linked cycle of stories has given me the
opportunity to extend the short story form, especially by giving me scope to expand
the lives of the characters beyond a single story. The lives of the characters can take
on greater complexity since they confront challenges at different stages of their lives
from different perspectives.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/219228 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Chan, Kenneth, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Creative Communication |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Kenneth Chan |
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