Celeste Ng's novel Everything I never Told You tells a story of a Chinese American man James Lee's inner conflicts in constructing his masculinity between American hegemonic masculinity and Chinese ethnicity in 1970s.In order to be assimilated into the mainstream American society,James Lee attempts to construct a"white"hegemonic masculinity,yet he is marginalized due to his Chinese ethnicity.With his failure in constructing the white hegemonic masculinity and reflections on Chinese ethnicity,he gradually develops a new type of masculinity:"The intellectual scholar".Such a new masculinity centers on intelligence,demonstrating a legacy of"the fragile scholar"tradition in Chinese culture.This paper argues that Celeste Ng's portrayal of James Lee as such a"intellectual scholar"dismantles the gender and masculine norm imposed from the mainstream American society upon the marginalized male group,demonstrating an alternative script to construct Chinese American masculinities.Chinese American men do not necessarily to internalize racial stereotypes as lacking in masculinity or act pugnaciously to prove their manliness.This novel thus participates in the process of rethinking masculinity and reevaluation of Chinese tradition in constructing masculinities.
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