关键词: 汤亭亭, 《中国佬》, 法律, 印章, 叙事策略

Abstract: China Men, a novel written by the Chinese American writer, Maxine Hong Kingston, has attracted a lot of attention from critics due to its superb narrative skill and innovative storytelling strategy. The legal documents inserted in the novel, the title page, and the ideogrammatic designs or seals at the beginning of main chapters offer ample examples for the study of its cross-boundary narrative. The legal documents and the traditional Chinese seals are merely two of the multi-dimensional narrative strategies employed in China Men, they reveal the central theme of the novel. To be specific, the seal works as part of the visual narrative since it functions through its image, and affirms Chinese Americans’ major contributions to the construction of America. The legal documents serve as the textual narrative, revealing how the national narrative discriminates against Chinese Americans and denies their outstanding contributions. The novel relies on the legal documents and seals as cross-boundary narrative strategies. The position of the legal documents and the seals in the novel shows the echo between textuality and visuality, and presents a challenge and defiance to the authority of Chinese Exclusion Act. Moreover, the content of the two not only sets up an opposing contrast between the politicalization of the legal documents and the historicity of the seals, but also connotes a negotiation between the national narrative and ethnical writings.

Key words: Maxine Hong Kingston, China Men, the laws, the seal, narrative strategy