上海外国语大学
硕士学位论文
斯坦贝克小说中华人形象的变迁
院系：英语学院
学科专业：英语语言文学
姓名：姚亚茹
指导教师：王欣
2016 年 5 月
Shanghai International Studies University
THE EVOLUTION OF THE CHINESE IMAGES IN
STEINBECK’S NOVELS
A Thesis Submitted to School of English Studies
In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements for
Degree of Master of Arts
By
Yao Yaru
Under Supervision of Professor Wang Xin
May 2016
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Acknowledgments
After about one year this thesis has finally been finished even though there is still
a lot to be improved. During this time, I changed my research topic from comparative
literature to third space theory and back to comparative theory again. This process has
deepened my understanding of my research. However, without the help of my
supervisor Professor Wang, I would never have made it.
I’m truly grateful to my supervisor professor Wang for her help and care. She
advises me to keep the habit of taking notes of every book I have read and give a
profound thought about them. She lets me send my reading list to her and helps me
with my research topic. When I meets trouble in my writing, she takes me to attend
international literature seminars so that I can be inspired. After I finishes my first
edition, she revised it for me again and again and gives me useful advise.
I also want to thank those professors who have taught me during the past three
years, Professor Zha, Professor Chen, Professor Gu and Professor Gao and all the
others. Their love for literature research and attitude towards study encourage and
inspire me a lot.
Finally, great appreciation to SISU for providing such a good study and research
environment for me!
I
摘要
斯坦贝克小说中有四类华人形象，分别是写于 1934 年的短篇小说《约翰尼
大熊》里的华人佃户，1945 年中篇小说《罐头场街》中的华人杂货店主李中和
一位无名中国老人，和 1952 年长篇小说《伊甸园之东》里的华裔仆人老李。这
四类华人都是加州华人劳工及其后代，但四个人物在小说中的形象却不尽相同。
华人佃农被极度边缘化且被歧视，无名中国老人只在夜晚出现，李中能与白人交
往却不被人所理解且没有话语权，老李则与小说中主要人物结下深厚感情，勇于
表达自己并被称为哲学家。可见这三部小说中的华人形象是不断变迁的。本文旨
在详细分析这四类华人形象如何变迁以及为何变迁。
根据比较文学形象学的观点，他者形象反映的是自我形象。斯坦贝克作品中
华人形象的改变其实是源自美国社会的变化及作者自身思想的变化。这三部小说
所反映的是二十世纪上半叶的美国社会。《约翰尼大熊》中白人村民对道德模范
艾米的“堕落”感到恐慌并将这种“堕落”同华人联系起来，反映了美国 1920
年代末 1930 年代初经济动荡引起的传统道德的解体及这种解体带来的不安。
《罐
头场街》中无名中国老人和杂货店主李中沉默，不争，无为。文中其他人物也部
分践行了这种生活方式，反映了斯坦贝克对 1940 年代二战带来的暴力和争斗氛
围的不满。《伊甸园之东》中仆人老李具有哲学家的内心和道家不争，无为，顺
势而为的处事方式。老李的观点代表了斯坦贝克自己的善恶观，即人类或许可以
战胜恶，而不是应该或者必须战胜恶。
由此可见斯坦贝克三部小说中华人形象由被边缘歧视逐渐变为精神导师，是
斯坦贝克对美国二十世纪上半叶社会道德变迁关注反思的结果。道家的无为，不
争思想引起了作家的关注。
关键词：斯坦贝克; 中国形象; 变化; 比较文学形象学
II
Abstract
There are four kinds of Chinese images in Steinbeck’s novels, the Chinese
sharecroppers in Johnny Bear written in 1934, the unnamed old Chinaman and
Chinese grocer Lee Chong in Cannery Row written in 1945 and the Chinese servant
Lee in East of Eden written in 1952. All of them are Chinese laborers and their
descendants living in California, but they have quite different characteristics in the
novels. The Chinese sharecroppers are extremely marginalized and faced with
hostility. The unnamed old Chinaman only appears at night. Lee Chong can socialize
with the whitemen but he cannot be understood and owns no power of voice. The
servant Lee not only builds deep relationships with the main characters but also
bravely expresses himself and makes himself a philosopher in others’ eyes. Therefore,
the Chinese images evolve in the three novels. This thesis aims to analyze how and
why there Chinese images evolve.
According to the ideas of comparative imagologie, the image of “the Other”
reflects the images of “the Self”. The evolution of these Chinese images shows the
change of Steinbeck’s care and definition of his own society. In Johnny Bear, the
white men feel frightened and unsecured about the degradation of the moral model
Amy and connect the degradation with Chinese sharecroppers, which reflects the
challenge the traditional moral system faced with and the sense of insecurity it brings.
The unnamed old Chinaman and Lee Chong in Cannery Row live in a way of
do-nothingness and non-contention as well as others in the novel, which expresses
Steinbeck’s sick of wars and violence in the 1940s. Lee in East of Eden is a
philosopher and also a practicer of do-nothingness, non-contention. Lee’s ideas
represents Steinbeck’s values about the good and evil, namely,human beings may
conquer evilness, but not should or must. It could be concluded that the evolution of
the Chinese images from being marginalized to being a spiritual mentor in Steinbeck’s
novels is the result of the writer’s reflection on the moral evolution of American
society in the first half of the 20th century. The ideas of do-nothingness and
non-contention attract Steinbeck’s attention.
Key Words: Steinbeck; Chinese Images; Evolution; Comparative Imagologie
III
Contents
Acknowledgments...........................................................................................................I
Abstract(Chinese)……………………………………………………………………..II
Abstract(English)………………………………………………………………….....III
Chapter One Literature Review……......................……………………....................…1
1.1Literature Review of Steinbeck and His Novels………………………...........1
1.2Literature Review of Chinese Images in Steinbeck’s Novels…………...........5
1.3Thesis Ideas and Significance………………………………………………...6
1.4Thesis Theory-Comparative Imagologie……………………………………...8
Chapter Two The Evolution of the Chinese Images in Steinbeck’s Novels as
“the Other”..............................................................................................11
2.1 Chinese Images in American Literature in the First Half of the 20th
Century…………………………………………………………........……11
2.2 A Detailed Analysis of the Chinese Images in Steinbeck’s Novels… .......…15
2.2.1 Marginalized and Discriminated Chinese Sharecroppers………..…….15
2.2.2 The Lonely and Unnamed Old Chinaman………………………..……18
2.2.3 The Good and Evil Grocer-Lee Chong…………………………..….....21
2.2.4The Servant and Philosopher-Lee…………………………………..… .23
2.3 The Evolution in Narration and Characterization…………………………..27
2.3.1 Closer in Narrative Perspective and Tone…………………………..….27
2.3.2 More Well-rounded Portray in Characterization…………………...…..28
Chapter Three The Corresponding Evolution of American Society as “the Self”…...30
3.1 The Reasons for Choosing Chinese as “the Other”……………………..…..30
3.1.1 The Popularity of Yellow Peril…………………………………...…….31
3.1.2 Chinese Taoism-Do-nothingness and Non-contention……………...….33
3.2 The Evolution of American Society in Steinbeck’s Novels……….......………33
3.2.1 The Fear for Morality Degradation in the Jazz Age and the Great
Depression in Johnny Bear……………………………………...….....…33
3.2.2 The Sick of Wars and Money Values during the Second World War in
Cannery Row…………………………………………………...….....…..34
3.2.3 The Re-construction of the good and evil value in Post-war America in East
of Eden………………………………………...........................................……35
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………37
Bibliography.................................................................................................................39
Chapter One Literature Review
1.1 Literature Review of Steinbeck and His Novels
The world-famous American writer John Steinbeck(1902-1968) wrote 16 novels
and many plays and essays in his whole life, most of which are about the lower class
Americans. In 1929, he published his first novel Cup of Gold, then The Pasture of
Heaven, The Red Pony, Torbilla Flat. His first most famous novel that made him
well-known by the whole country was, OF Mice and Men, released in 1937, which
narrated the story of two homeless framer workers and its play adaption was given
The New York Drama Critics Award. Then, it was his another masterpiece Grapes of
Wrath that brought him worldwide fame. This novel was full of anger and sadness of
the impoverished farmers who trudged from sandy and windy Oklahoma to the rich
valley in California and won The Pulitzer Prize in 1940. After World II, he published
Cannery Row, The Pearl, and in 1951, East of Eden, claimed by himself his best
novel and The One that he has prepared for his whole life. In 1961, his The Winter of
Our Discontent won him lots of reputation. In 1962, he was awarded the Nobel Prize
for his realistic and imaginative writing, combining as it does sympathetic humor and
keen social perception.
Johnny Bear is one of the short stories from Steinbeck’s The Long Valley. It was
written in 1934. The story happened in a small village Loma in Salinas valley in
California. “I” was a labor contracted to put a ditch through a swamp near the village
and slept in one house of this village. There was only one Buffalo Bar in the village
and I often went there to have a drink at night. There was a man Johnny Bear who
could photograph any words and voices he heard. He often came to the Bar and
reproduced some dialogue that had happened so that someone would buy him a drink
to hear something fun. There were two Hawkins sisters Emalin and Amy living in this
village. They were the moral model of this village and everybody treated them as
symbols of good people. However, through Johnny Bear’s imitation, people in the Bar
heard that Amy had committed suicide twice and she was pregnant. In the end, they
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found the father of this baby maybe some Chinese. There were Chinese sharecroppers
in this village.
Cannery Row was published in 1945. Steinbeck completed Cannery Row in six
weeks, with central character modeled on Rickets, his best friend and spiritual mentor,
a marine biologist. When he wrote to Sheffield about this book:”one thing-it never
mentions the war-not once...The carp I wrote over seas had a profoundly nauseating
effect on me. Among other unpleasant things modern war is the most dishonest thing
imaginable.”(Steinbeck,2001:961) It described a street Cannery Row in Monterey and
the story of people living there. Cannery Row provided livelihoods for many people
here. Besides, there were Lee Chong’s grocery, Dora’s whorehouse, Mack and his
friends living in the Palace Flophouse, and Doc owning the Western Biological. Doc
was a marine biologist. He was a very nice man and every one respected and loved
him. Mac and his friends decided to have a party for him in order to thank him.
However, the first try failed. With the help of Lee Chong, Dora and other citizens of
the town, they had a successful party with everyone joining happily the second time.
On February 12, 1952, Steinbeck began East of Eden after three year’s research
and finished it in seven months. He intended to tell the story of his country and
himself to his two young sons in order to demonstrate “the greatest story of all-the
story of good and evil, of strength and weakness, of love and hate, of beauty and
ugliness...how these doublesare inseparable...”.(Steinbeck,2001:963). It tells the story
of two family living in the Salinas Valley in California before the second world war,
the Hamiltons and the Adams. In fact, Sam Hamilton is the grandfather of Steinbeck
and the prototype of Hamilton family was Steinbeck’s own family. There was a
Chinese Lee in this novel. His parents came to America as contracted railway
construction laborers from Canton in China in the 1860s. He was born and grew up in
America. Lee was the cook and servant of Adam’s family. Adam and his wife Cathy
moved to Salinas Valley to begin a new life. Cathy shot and left Adam after giving
birth to the twin boys, Cal and Aron. Cathy then run a whorehouse after that and
never came back. Adam’s twin sons Cal and Aron, named after the figures in the
Bible, had the similar fate like Cal and Aron in the Bible. Aron was kind and innocent,
2
while Cal was sensitive and clever and their father Adam seemed to like Aron more
than Cal. Cal was so jealous that he told his brother that their mother wasn’t dead as
their father had told them but had abandoned them since they were born and went to
run a whorehouse. Aron cannot accept the truth and went off to the war and died.
In the west
The Criticism towards Steinbeck has gone through a dramatic change from
“belittled” to “be elevated”in his own country. When he was alive, the common
readers loved him while the mainstream critics refused to praise him. After he won
the Nobel Prize in 1962, Arthur Mezener questioned in his essay whether a 30s
moralist deserves the Nobel Prize. Most critics chose to ignore or find faults about his
works. Nevertheless, with the emergence of a series of problems at the end of his
century, such as the deterioration of human ecology, the decay of moral and persistent
ills of politics, western critics began to find the meaning of Steinbeck’s works. In
1972, James Gray published The Biography of John. Steinbeck, in which he acclaimed
Steinbeck focused more and wider than any writer of his time and believed his works
possessed universal value. Japanese American scholar Hayashi, Tetsumaro
contributed a lot to recognizing Steinbeck’s significance among western critics. He
established “The John Steinbeck Society” and Steinbeck Quarterly, which regularly
published articles on Steinbeck research from all over the world. In the 21st century,
western critics’ research of Steinbeck mainly focused on thought dimensions about
ethics, politics, ecology, religion, globalization and comparison with other
writers.
The topic of 2012 International Steinbeck Congress is Steinbeck and
politics, ethnics, society and ecology in crisis and accepted articles about Steinbeck
and politics, ethnics, international relations, animals and females.
According to the research methods, criticism about Steinbeck can be divided into
three kinds.
First: case study(chronological study) with representatives as follows: The
Novels of John Steinbeck by Harry. S. More, The Wide World of John Steinbeck by
Peter Lisca, John steinbeck’s Fiction Revisited, John Steinbeck: An Introduction and
Interpretation, Steinbeck and Film, John Steinbeck’s Revision of America and John
3
Steinbeck: A Study of the Short Fiction. These books made quite thorough research on
Steinbeck’s novels one by one about their plot, characters and themes. However, they
don’t gave readers much thought.
Second: social criticism represented by The Biological Naturalism by Horace P.
Talor, John Steinbeck’s Concept of Man by Saunita Goel Jain, John Steinbeck: Love,
Work and the Politics pf Collectivity by Jerry Wayne Wilson, and Social Criticism in
the fiction of John Steinbeck by Raymond Mattews Sargent. Some scholars criticized
them only focused on society but not writing techniques and aesthestics.
Third: biographical criticism with books like, John Steinbeck and Edward F.
Ricketts written by Richard Astro, The Intricate Music: A Biography of John
Steinbeck by Thomas Kienam, Steinbeck and Covici: The story of a Friendship by
Thomas Fench, and The True Adventure of John Steinbeck and Looking for
Steinbeck’s Ghost by Jackson J. Benson
Another popular research method is comparative study. Some scholars tried to
compare Steinbeck’s works with other writers, philosophers and aestheticians on
philosophy and aesthetic level. For instance, Donal Stone has written “Steinbeck,
Jung and The Winter of Our Discontent”
In China
Steinbeck in China stepped into an opposite road to the west. From 1950s to
1980s, Steinbeck was highly praised as a proletarian writer at first because of his
“trilogy of migrant farmer workers” and then be criticized for his betrayal of the
proletariat at his later period. After 1980s, having suffered a lot from political
ideology and realistic literary theories, Chinese scholars chose to abandon Steinbeck
and embraced modernist writers like Elliot, Hemingway and Joyce. That is why
Steinbeck is not as famous as Hemingway in China.
There is only one book on Steinbeck in recent years. It is Zhang Changsong’s
Research on Steinbeck’s Writing published in 2011. According to the statistics of
CNKI, from 2000-2015, there are 108 master’s theses on Steinbeck and no doctoral
dissertations have been found. According to the research topic, these theses are as
follows: 19 on ecology, 19 on themes of Utopian and Good and Evil, 19 on writing
4
techniques and aesthetics, 14 on archetypal criticism especially The Bible type, 13 on
feminism, 12 on naturalism 、transcendentalism and existentialism, 2 on Steinbeck’s
philosophical value and 5 on cultural criticism and 5 on Chinese images in his work.
About 440 articles on Steinbeck have been found on journals and periodicals on
CNKI for the past 10 years. Most of them are about ecology, feminism, writing
techniques, archetypal criticism, theme and culture. Only 5 of these articles try to
research into Chinese images in Steinbeck’s works.
1.2Literature Review of Chinese Images in Steinbeck’s Novels
There are five master’s theses researching on the Chinese Americans in
Steinbeck’s novels in the past ten years according to CNKI. These theses focus on two
topics: First: The images of Chinese in Steinbeck’s works are distorted and degraded
because Steinbeck’s is an American writer deeply influenced by orientalism. Second:
Steinbeck has vision and courage to recognize the status of Chinese in America and
support their seeking for self-identity in order to fulfill the aim of multi-culture fusion
in America and questions the rationality and correctness of orientalism. Orientaliam is
the main theory and perspective these authors pay attention to when they try to
analyze the images of Chinese American in Steinbeck’s works. Besides, self-identity
of Chinese American like Lee was also discussed.
Zhang Yan’s A Comment on Steinbeck s Reflection of Orientalism in East of
Eden aims to praise Steinbeck’s unique and advanced reflection on orientalism and
great contribution on promoting the fusion of multi-culture in America by create the
character Lee, who actively and successfully found his place and identity in American
society.
Gao Yuan’s The Images of the Chinese in John Steinbeck’s Works finds Steinbeck
cannot get rid of the influence of orientalism that almost prevailed the whole western
world at his time because the Chinamen in his novels, Johnny Bear，Cannery Row,
and East of Eden were still like the common distorted Chinese image in American
literary works, nameless, marginalized, submissive, timid and degraded.
Zhang Ruijuan’s A Study of Lee’s Image in East of Eden from the Perspective of
5
Orientalism tries to point out a feasible way for immigrants to find their identity and
showing Steinbeck’s positive attitude towards the integration of multi-culture by
analyzing the process and method of Lee’s seeking for his identity in American
society. Lee, as the “other” who had lost his right to speak in the context of
orientalism that was popular among American, got an independent identity as a
Chinese-American by melting Chinese and American culture together.
Chen Ni’s John Steinbeck’s Way of Reconstructing the Image of the Chinese
American-to Cannery Row and East of Eden combines Lee in East of Eden and Li
Chong in Cannery Row together and recognizes Steinbeck’s endeavour for
reconstructing the images of Chinese in America. Under the influence of Taoism,
non-teleological philosophy, biblical and utopia thought, Steinbeck reconstructed the
image of Chinese in America by characterizing Lee in East of Eden and Lee Chong in
Cannery Row as friend, merciful father and spiritual friend of American people so that
constitute a friendly and equal relationship among American racial relations.
Wang Jun’s A Study on the Others and Their Quest for Self-identity in East of
Eden researches on the process of women and Chinese American, as “the Other” in
the men-dominated American society seeking hard for their self-identity. Foucalt’s
some relative theories, feminism theory and Said’s orientalism were adopted by this
thesis.
As for journal articles on Chinese American in Steinbeck’s novels, almost all of
them based on the theories and perspectives like before.
1.3Thesis Ideas and Significance
Many researches had taken all the Chinese Images in Steinbeck’s novels as a
whole and neglected the difference and evolution of these images. They either
recognized these images as positive or negative. No theses or articles have analyzed
the changes of these Chinese images-The Chinese Sharecroppers in Johnny Bear, the
old Chinese man and Lee Chong in Cannery Row. Lee in East of Eden. The nameless
Chinese sharecroppers in Johnny Bear were in the most marginal position. “I”in the
novel was indifferent and antipathic to them. The unnamed old Chinaman in Cannery
6
Row aroused the author’s attention. Lee Chong the grocer was a necessary member of
Cannery row. He was balanced between good and evil. Lee in East of Eden was a
significant family member of Adam’s family and had very good and deep
relationships with the main characters in this novel. He also bore the thought of the
author about the choice of good and evil. To some degree, he was the spokesman for
the author. According to Samuel, he was probably the best man one have ever
dreamed of becoming. It could be concluded that there is a great evolution in
csharacterization, narrative perspective, tone and theme in these four kinds of Chinese
images. Therefore, this thesis intends to give a detailed analysis of these four kinds of
Chinese images, find their similarities and differences and make out the reasons
underlying the evolution of the Chinese images. The research of foreign images in
literature works was called comparative imagology. The foreign images are regarded
as “the Other” and the image of oneself is “the self”. Many scholars have found that
how you look at others is in fact what do you think of yourself. The image of “the
other” reflects the self definition of yourself. The ideas of comparative imagology is
quite reasonable on Steinbeck’s description of Chinese. As a great writer who gave
most of his attention to those living at the bottom of society and tried to depict the
most real living condition of these people, Steinbeck set many of his novels in the
background of California, especially in his hometown Salinas Valley and Monterey
where he had lived for a long time. California was the first place that attracted many
Chinese laborers because of the gold rush and railroad construction. Therefore, there
were lots of Chinese in California working as farm workers, laundry and grocery
owners and servants. What Steinbeck included in his novels were these people.
According to the ideas of comparative imagologie, the image of “the Other”
reflects the images of “the Self”. The evolution of these Chinese images shows the
changes of Steinbeck’s care and definition of his own society. In Johnny Bear, the
white men felt frightened and unsecured about the degradation of the moral model
Amy and connected the degradation with Chinese sharecroppers, which reflected the
challenge the traditional moral system faced with and the sense of insecurity it
brought. The unnamed old Chinaman and Lee Chong in Cannery Row lived in a way
7
of do-nothingness and non-contention as well as others in the novel, which expressed
Steinbeck’s sick of wars and violence in the 1940s. Lee in East of Eden was a
philosopher and also a practicer of do-nothingness, non-contention. Lee’s ideas
represented Steinbeck’s values about the good and evil, namely,human beings may
conquer evilness, but not should or must. It could be concluded that the evolution of
Chinese images from being marginalized to being a spiritual mentor in Steinbeck’s
novels was the result of the writer’s reflection on the moral evolution of American
society in the first half of the 20th century. The ideas of do-nothingness and
non-contention attracted Steinbeck’s attention.
By analyzing the evolution of the Chinese images in Steinbeck’s novels, this
thesis intends to help understand the living and spiritual condition of ordinary Chinese
immigrants living in America in the first half of the 20th century. Besides, it could be
found that the creation of “The Other” is the result of changes of both the self and the
other. The spread of Chinese classics abroad can help foreigners have a better
understand of Chinese. The aim of this thesis is to make a contribution to the research
of Chinese images in American writers’ works by making a detailed analysis of the
Chinese images in Steinbeck’s novels. Even though the evolution is mainly from the
changing recognition of American society itself, the wide spread of Chinese classics
and thoughts played a significant role in making Chinese known and understood
profoundly by others. Therefore, the translation of excellent classics is very important
in the building of Objective and Positive Chinese images.
1.4 Thesis Theory-Comparative Imagologie
The term “imagologie” comes from Meng Hua’s book Comprative Imagologie,
which is a translation of several significant papers about comparative imagologie.
Imagologie, as a filed of Comparative literature, started in the 1880s and became
popular in France and Germany in the very beginning. It is the research into the
representation of the foreign images in works. French scholar Carre is the first one to
make imagologie an independent study and define the image research as the mutual
interpretation of the travel notes and imagination between different countries.
8
According to Professor Barrow, the core of modern imagologie research is to define
“the other”. He points out that all the images come from the self-awareness of the
recognition of “the self” and “the other”, or the home and exotic land even though it’s
a weak awareness. Therefore, the image is in fact all the literature and non-literature
representation of the realistic difference between two cultures. Meng Hua lists four
key points of modern imagologie research :
(1) emphasizing the interactivity between “the self” and “the other”
When “The self” watches “the other”, the image of “the other” reflects the image
of “the self”-the watcher, the speaker and the writer-at the same time. The research
into foreign images is in fact the research on the relationship between “ the self” and
“the other” and its changes.
(2) the subject is the keystone of research
Even though modern imagologie emphasizes on the relation between “the
self”and “the other”, “the self” or the subject is the key. Focusing on “the subject”
means the fundamental change on the research direction, from the one who are
watched to the watcher. Hume believed that image comes from perception while Sarte
thought image was created by “the self”. Modern imagologie research tends to Sarte’s
theory. Since the foreign image is not perceived but created by the watcher. The
difference between the real foreign image and the image created will not need to be
researched. Because when the writer creates a foreign image in his work, he is often
influenced by the collective imagination of the foreign by the whole society but not
the real image. Thus come to the third key point of modern imagologie research.
(3) emphasizing on the overall analysis
Most people know about the foreign by reading literature works or other medias.
Actually, many writers have never gone abroad but they may create some foreign
images in their works. Their attitudes towards the foreign is inevitably affected by
“imaginaire social”-the collective interpretation of the society into the foreign image.
When a writer creates a foreign image in his work, he is in fact thinking about “the
self”, but not “the other”. What his foreign image reflects is the culture and society of
his own. When we research into a foreign image, “the self”’s own society should be
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