Illegal Immigrants/Model Minorities: The Cold War of Chinese American Narrative

Kim (Invisible Subjects), associate professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, examines how Chinese American authors responded to the “Cold War-driven official narrative of the pervasiveness of illegal immigration” in this insightful study. The “same social formations and negative stereotypes” that created the idea of the untrustworthy illegal immigrant, Kim writes, led to the creation of the “model minority,” which assumes “diligence, thrift, quiet behavior, and reliability.” Kim surveys the work of Jade Snow Wong, who wrote her popular memoir Fifth Chinese Daughter in 1950 about a happy Chinese family, consciously excising facts about her mother’s immigration experience to create a more acceptable family image. Kim also analyzes the work of Maxine Hong Kingston, who, in her 1976 book The Woman Warrior, rebelled against “the need to conceal and the need for exemplary appearances.” As she details the “government crackdown on Chinese immigration in the 1950s” and beyond, Kim places these works in the context of mid-20th-century U.S. immigration laws, shining a valuable new light on the history of Chinese American literature. The result is an accessible, timely work of literary criticism. (Mar.)